Looking at some AX access points and the reasonably priced ones appear to be the Ubititi U6-Lite/LR and the Draytec 960/1060 models.

 

Obviously the U6 models are cheaper, but it appears they need a controller to function fully.

Can anyone confirm this and also what level of functionality is available without the controller?

If the controller is required is it a one off or subscription model from Ubiquiti?

 

Draytek wise, I'm familiar with their equipment, but if anyone uses either of these models a first hand review is always useful.

 

Finally on the Ubiqiti side, I've heard some rumours of poor product/software updated, but hoping an owner can confirm this is marketing from a competitor or fanboi behaviour rather than a potential issue.

 

 

Unifi AP's need a controller for the initial setup and firmware/config updates. You can either:

- run it on one of their 'cloud key' controllers

- run it on a spare computer, Raspberry Pi or VM

- run it as and when required on your normal laptop/desktop

- run it either in AWS or another online hosted provider

 

I used to run the controller on a Raspberry Pi but it's now a VM on my ESXi machine instead. I always have the controller running but that's mainly as I have routers/switches/AP from Unifi plus have similar setups at family members houses to take care of.

 

Ubiquiti can be a bit eager to push software and certainly can treat their customers as testers. If you stick to the main release channel it's normally fine or at least I've not experienced any 'breaking changes' in my environment due to an update.

 

A better question might be do you actually need AX yet? Most devices don't support it and unless you need the bandwidth, AC is probably fine...

2 hours ago, langers2k said:

Unifi AP's need a controller for the initial setup and firmware/config updates. You can either:

- run it on one of their 'cloud key' controllers

- run it on a spare computer, Raspberry Pi or VM

- run it as and when required on your normal laptop/desktop

- run it either in AWS or another online hosted provider

 

I used to run the controller on a Raspberry Pi but it's now a VM on my ESXi machine instead. I always have the controller running but that's mainly as I have routers/switches/AP from Unifi plus have similar setups at family members houses to take care of.

 

Ubiquiti can be a bit eager to push software and certainly can treat their customers as testers. If you stick to the main release channel it's normally fine or at least I've not experienced any 'breaking changes' in my environment due to an update.

 

A better question might be do you actually need AX yet? Most devices don't support it and unless you need the bandwidth, AC is probably fine...

The reason for the AX is the sheer number of users with provider routers that swallow all three main 2.4Ghz channels and randomly grab 5Ghz channels. The user time slot sharing, better beamforming, base colouring and improved encoding are useful.

 

As well as that, the current router WiFi is WPA2 only/being flakey in hot weather and one of the AP is wpa3. So rather than update one AC access point to replace one older one, I was looking at doing 2-3 AP to replace the wireless as a single managed network.

 

It’s more fishing that committed to buy, but I won’t be doing two upgrades.

 

Rather annoyingly, some neighbours (I expect new tenants) keep trying to gain free internet by going after the router keys. Logs are full of various attempts and brute force key attacks. Obviously I block it, but it is easy to mask a Mac.

There are wires and wpa2 enterprise to deal with stuff that supports it, but I’m looking at wpa3 as a route to reduce vulnerability on simpler stuff.

 

It’s got to the point that for a while I have used an old AP with a different key closest to the suspected property that is not connected to anything.

 

 

Well a bit of digging and there are reviews stating the U6 range has wifi-6 (ax) 5GHz, but the 2.4GHz is still wifi 4 (n).

Not sure it's accurate, but if it was it would certainly be a real issue.
Anything from any brand that does that makes the upgrade pointless and a temporary solution more likely.

Edited 6 September, 20214 yr by cheezemonkhai

I'm using a U6-lite upstairs so I can have a poke to see if I can figure that out.

 

TBH, I'd assumed AX was a 5ghz only thing much like AC but it seems you're correct and AX is 2.4ghz compatible.

 

I think the only AX clients I have are Intel AX200 and AX201 as my pixel 5 isn't 😕

 

edit:

I just killed the 5ghz radio to see what happened and it seems your correct, at least according to Windows:

 

Protocol:    Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n)
Security type:    WPA2-Personal
Network band:    2.4 GHz
Network channel:    6
Link speed (Receive/Transmit):    144/144 (Mbps)

 

Protocol:    Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Security type:    WPA2-Personal
Network band:    5 GHz
Network channel:    36
Link speed (Receive/Transmit):    961/245 (Mbps)

 

Manufacturer:    Intel Corporation
Description:    Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz
Driver version:    22.70.0.6

Edited 6 September, 20214 yr by langers2k

Thank, that’s really useful.

 

If that’s the case with all the ax manufacturers then I will probably have to wait until someone starts producing AP on both ranges.

 

I might actually have to crack the old device open and check for fluff/cooling issues, that and rely on wpa2 enterprise for a bit.

 

Will probably also check the reasonable price draytek and zyxel model to see if they do the same.

 

As you suggested not the best time to need to do this..

It seems like the U6-Pro which is in early access supports AX on both bands: https://community.ui.com/questions/Wifi-6-Long-Range-U6-LR-Features-OFDMA-for-2-4-Devices-or-Not/2b7deb77-3653-4645-b136-a732ed3b25b2

 

Guess it'll also depend what clients you're planning on using. It's easy enough to upgrade laptops with a new wifi card but anything else might be trickier...

I think, the U6 pro EA model became the GA U6LR, but I'm happy to be wrong on that.

 

Edit: Hmm on rereading that thread I could well be wrong.

Will keep my ears open.

 

It looks like the draytek devices do support AX on 2.4GHz, although at a higher cost that the u6-lite and similar to the LR.

 

Edited 7 September, 20214 yr by cheezemonkhai

5 hours ago, cheezemonkhai said:

I think, the U6 pro EA model became the GA U6LR, but I'm happy to be wrong on that.

 

U6LR was billed as the Pro in EA, but became the Long Range and the new (EA) Pro is a separate model that (should) have ax on 2.4Ghz when out of EA.

We're moving house shortly and I'm trying to make the decision between NanoHD/U6Lite/U6LR for the new house (while the Mrs is still open to running Cat6 around the place when we move in). The Lites seem best choice for price vs performance, but they're definitely a 'lite' option with no 2.4Ghz (ax) and being only 2x2.

20 minutes ago, Mort said:

U6LR was billed as the Pro in EA, but became the Long Range and the new (EA) Pro is a separate model that (should) have ax on 2.4Ghz when out of EA.

We're moving house shortly and I'm trying to make the decision between NanoHD/U6Lite/U6LR for the new house (while the Mrs is still open to running Cat6 around the place when we move in). The Lites seem best choice for price vs performance, but they're definitely a 'lite' option with no 2.4Ghz (ax) and being only 2x2.

 

Thanks, good to have it confirmed.

I like having the option of 2.4 and 5, so I'm going to look at hardware that's got it on both, be that 2x2 or 4x4. Size plays some baring as many of the 4x4 models are huge.

We have cat5e in the walls and I'm debating taking one of the runs to each of the room with cat6a that I have kicking around from another install.

 

Of course the down side is the rigidity of the 6a, but the up side is no cost

If you've only got 1Gbit, there's no point having a 4x4 IMHO, but as yet I've not seen enough reasonably priced 19" 2.5Gbit switches with a couple of PoE ports.

 

The more I read, the more I'm tempted to try and massage things back to shape and get it through the next 6-12 months for gen2 silicon.