ᐅ Wi-Fi Access Points – Which Ones to Choose?

I have a Lite running. It’s okay but nothing more. Today, I would choose a Pro or better. It’s not a big issue, though, since everything that requires high data transfer speeds is connected to my LAN.

You can tell that the Unifi software isn’t designed for the average (I have no idea what I’m doing) end user, but rather for the semi-professional sector. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed, but if you invest some time, you can set everything up really nicely. Once it’s running, it just works and doesn’t require constant monitoring.

truce schrieb:

Using an access point instead of a repeater makes sense – but what is worse about an "access point with mesh" compared to an "access point with a separate network"?

You can distinguish between 4 operating modes:

**Repeater:**
- Receives Wi-Fi from the router and extends it.
- Disadvantage: each repeater halves the usable Wi-Fi bandwidth. For example, from 400 Mbit raw throughput, you get 200 Mbit, and so on.
- The device (laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.) has to switch connections by itself (works sometimes well, sometimes not).

**Repeater with Mesh (Mesh is not a standard, so basically every manufacturer can implement it differently):**
- Receives Wi-Fi from the router and extends it.
- Disadvantage: each repeater halves the usable Wi-Fi bandwidth. For example, from 400 Mbit raw throughput, you get 200 Mbit, and so on.
- (In the case of AVM/FritzBox) The FritzBox manages devices that fail to switch themselves to the repeater or another band (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz) by simply disconnecting them, forcing them to reconnect (ideally to a better signal).

**Access Point:**
- Connected via LAN cable and creates its own network (which can have the same password and SSID). This avoids bandwidth halving because all devices connected to the access point transmit data over LAN to the router.
- The device (laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.) has to switch connections by itself (works sometimes well, sometimes not).

**Access Point with Mesh:**
- Has the advantages of a LAN connection as described above.
- (In the case of AVM/FritzBox) The FritzBox manages devices that fail to switch themselves to the repeater or another band (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz) by disconnecting them, forcing reconnection to a stronger signal.

AVM repeaters have the advantage of being able to operate either in repeater mode or access point mode (I’m not certain how it is with other manufacturers).
The ideal mode with AVM hardware would be the access point with mesh... the "worst" is the pure repeater mode.

I hope this is somewhat clearly explained.

@guckuck2 not entirely correct regarding mesh.
Of course, mesh is not a standard, but normally mesh (unlike simple repeaters) does not cut the bandwidth in half completely.
Some manufacturers even have dedicated antennas for mesh. The loss is then less than 50%.
Do AVM devices really disconnect devices when the connection is poor? What does AVM call this feature? That would be a cool function since normally the clients control network selection. Is there something extra you have to configure? I’m more familiar with Unifi...

These are the "new" features intended for devices that do not support 802.11v and 802.11k... but I believe they are only being tested in the current beta version...

Found it. Mesh steering. Hopefully, it works more reliably than zero handoff with Unifi.

The best approach is to manage and adjust the frequencies and transmit power of the individual bands and networks in a sensible way. The client will then automatically connect to the right one.

rick2018 schrieb:

@guckuck2 that’s not entirely correct regarding mesh. Of course, mesh is not the standard, but normally mesh does not cut the bandwidth in half like a “dumb” repeater does.

Incorrect highlight?

But thanks for that, I’ll add that mesh does not affect the bandwidth at all. That is actually the point. What an access point does via cable, mesh achieves through its own dedicated wireless backhaul network, so the “main” Wi-Fi remains uninterrupted. This eliminates the disadvantage of a repeater.