So, in the past I used a QNAP AC1200 card and hostapd to make my own AP.
Since AX/E came out the pickings have been slim and finally with BE things seem to be back on track. Though the plastic boxes are over priced to say the least. Starting prices $300+ and typically above $500 and AP only options are very slim with 2-3 devices being available.
I started hunting down the usual suspects QCA / MTK / etc. and having tried MTK in the past w/ dismal results waited for QCA. The problem with bleeding edge though is usually it's hard to find inventory and this even shows with the Intel BE200 gong in and out of stock depending on when you look. Intel by far for clients is the cheapest though at under $20/client and the QCA is about double but, there are some perks. QCA is not hobbled to AX speeds like Intel. For some reason (most likely regulatory) has hobbled their adapters to 160mhz and not allowing the new 320mhz 6ghz spectrum to be used which defeats the purpose of even considering upgrading.
I've had this debate on other forums when discussing APs and figure the STH audience might be more apt to consider this solution than the off the shelf diehards on other forums.
The only downfall of this setup is only having 2 antennas vs AP/router options that have 4. Back when I was using the AC1200 card though it had 2 controllers one for 2.4/5 and required 2 instances of hostapd to bring up both radios. I'm hoping to only have to run a single instance with this card though. The unknown though is how hostapd will control it. I can stack configs for the radios in the config file though. I might have to change the SSID I'm using on a couple of devices to aggregate things instead of keeping them segregated 2.4 / 5 with the low speed / legacy devices on 2.4 and only faster devices on 5.
AX led me to use a traditional AP in the meantime to get 1.7gbps from a client back to my server setup as a router. The idea though is go back to a minimalist setup w/o the need for the POE injector / AP hanging off the side. I have a couple of RP-SMA antennas from before to make sure LOS is optimal and not hidden behind the server itself to get better results. I'm thinking I should be able to max the link out though with an adapter on both sides (server/laptop) and additional testing with my phone that also does BE.
Taking the cabling out of the equation eliminates any bottlenecks that could be introduced. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds once configured.
Since AX/E came out the pickings have been slim and finally with BE things seem to be back on track. Though the plastic boxes are over priced to say the least. Starting prices $300+ and typically above $500 and AP only options are very slim with 2-3 devices being available.
I started hunting down the usual suspects QCA / MTK / etc. and having tried MTK in the past w/ dismal results waited for QCA. The problem with bleeding edge though is usually it's hard to find inventory and this even shows with the Intel BE200 gong in and out of stock depending on when you look. Intel by far for clients is the cheapest though at under $20/client and the QCA is about double but, there are some perks. QCA is not hobbled to AX speeds like Intel. For some reason (most likely regulatory) has hobbled their adapters to 160mhz and not allowing the new 320mhz 6ghz spectrum to be used which defeats the purpose of even considering upgrading.
I've had this debate on other forums when discussing APs and figure the STH audience might be more apt to consider this solution than the off the shelf diehards on other forums.
The only downfall of this setup is only having 2 antennas vs AP/router options that have 4. Back when I was using the AC1200 card though it had 2 controllers one for 2.4/5 and required 2 instances of hostapd to bring up both radios. I'm hoping to only have to run a single instance with this card though. The unknown though is how hostapd will control it. I can stack configs for the radios in the config file though. I might have to change the SSID I'm using on a couple of devices to aggregate things instead of keeping them segregated 2.4 / 5 with the low speed / legacy devices on 2.4 and only faster devices on 5.
AX led me to use a traditional AP in the meantime to get 1.7gbps from a client back to my server setup as a router. The idea though is go back to a minimalist setup w/o the need for the POE injector / AP hanging off the side. I have a couple of RP-SMA antennas from before to make sure LOS is optimal and not hidden behind the server itself to get better results. I'm thinking I should be able to max the link out though with an adapter on both sides (server/laptop) and additional testing with my phone that also does BE.
Taking the cabling out of the equation eliminates any bottlenecks that could be introduced. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds once configured.
