Hospitality APs for WiFi 6 home wireless? Ruckus H350, Aruba 500H, Extreme AP302W

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Xoid

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Nov 14, 2018
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Soon I will be moving into a new townhouse and I am looking for solutions for a new WiFi 6 setup. The developer has run CAT5e to most of the rooms, but only a single drop to each room.

Before you ask, no it was not possible to get them to add drops for ceiling mounted APs. I had to pull their teeth to get them to add a single drop for me in one of the closets to put a rack into. Addendum to the purchase contract, permit with the city, dealing with the contractors, etc. - They weren't too happy to do that for me. And they couldn't do CAT6 either.

Anyway, I have been looking into the Ruckus H350 & H550, Aruba 500H, and Extreme Networks AP302W. They seem very tempting. POE powered so no extra power brick (like most APs) but they also include a built-in 2 or 4 port switch which could eliminate an extra box. All mounted to the same plate that would normally have just the RJ45 keystone.

My concern is the range. For example, the townhouse is 3 storeys tall, but on the middle floor there is only one CAT5e drop. Would one of these APs be able to cover a roughly 800sq/ft area? They market them in a way to suggest that there should be one per hotel/dorm room, so not sure if they have the range I need. I'm not a big wireless guy either so not sure how to read their documentation properly. Of course the range will be affected by obstacles, but this is a pretty standard build with just wooden studs and drywall.

If anyone has experience with them, please let me know. They seem like a great all-in-one solution for WiFi AP and small switching but maybe it's too good to be true. I can share a rough floorplan of my new place if that would help too.
 

ms264556

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Sep 13, 2021
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The Ruckus H series APs (which I've got experience with) have lower tx power, and lower antenna gain than the R series.
It is handy to have some extra ports at the wall (and 1 of them is PoE passthrough) but they're definitely not designed to cover an entire house. Also, they're pretty chunky, so you're definitely going to notice them vs a normal RJ45 plate.

I've got an H510 in my home office (so a previous generation to the H550) and I get usable connection in my lounge 2 rooms away (i.e. through 2 drywall walls). But 3 rooms away, no good. And Ruckus seem to have balanced the 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz tx power so that they both crap out at the same distance. When I had an R610 in my lounge, it actually gave me better connection in my office than the H510 I was sitting beside.

Keep in mind that Ruckus Rxxx APs don't need to be ceiling/wall mounted: they have rubber feet and an attractive enough design so you can just sit them on a low-down shelf somewhere central. I've got family who've stuck an R600 in a drawer under their TV, and still have good signal everywhere in a 4000sq ft house.

I have an old 2-story, 6 bedroom wooden house with no chance of getting ceiling mount cabling. But I did get one ethernet cable running up into my ceiling cavity. A single R600/R610/R650 centrally located in the ceiling cavity (just resting upside down on top of the insulation) has always been sufficient to cover every room in the house + way up the street.
 
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ccie4526

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Jan 25, 2021
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I'm doing something similar using Cisco AP702W units. Single feed PoE with 4-port switch to connect out to stuff. If you feed the AP with 802.3at power, it'll give 802.3af output on one of the switchports.
 
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zunder1990

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Nov 15, 2012
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At work we use a TON of the h550 for our MDU sites, We will put one h550 in a 1/2 bedroom single level unit. We have some townhouse sites that are 2 bedroom 2 level and we will put one h550 on each level.
 
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Xoid

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Nov 14, 2018
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Thanks for all the feedback guys

Keep in mind that Ruckus Rxxx APs don't need to be ceiling/wall mounted: they have rubber feet and an attractive enough design so you can just sit them on a low-down shelf somewhere central
This is my backup plan and what I do currently at my condo. I could probably just toss one regular AP in the TV stand in the living room and call it a day. The wall plate APs just seemed like an interesting alternative since I'd need switches in the bedrooms anyway

We will put one h550 in a 1/2 bedroom single level unit. We have some townhouse sites that are 2 bedroom 2 level and we will put one h550 on each level
Oh interesting. Are those APs mounted on the outside walls of the unit facing in? Or are they on an inside wall? I guess one of my concerns is that the wall it's mounted to will affect signal going backwards from the AP, if that makes any sense.

For reference, here's the floorplan of the new place. I believe there's one drop in each of the bedrooms, one on the main floor in the living area, and one in the den on the ground floor. Where specifically they are though, I don't have a clue yet

IMG_20210808_121816.jpg
 

zunder1990

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Nov 15, 2012
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Thanks for all the feedback guys



This is my backup plan and what I do currently at my condo. I could probably just toss one regular AP in the TV stand in the living room and call it a day. The wall plate APs just seemed like an interesting alternative since I'd need switches in the bedrooms anyway



Oh interesting. Are those APs mounted on the outside walls of the unit facing in? Or are they on an inside wall? I guess one of my concerns is that the wall it's mounted to will affect signal going backwards from the AP, if that makes any sense.

For reference, here's the floorplan of the new place. I believe there's one drop in each of the bedrooms, one on the main floor in the living area, and one in the den on the ground floor. Where specifically they are though, I don't have a clue yet

View attachment 22188
In our face we always mount the h550 on the wall inside the unit. The wifi signal will not have a problem with drywall and will not reflect back into the AP. If it was my place then I would mount h550 on every floor. Turn down 2.4ghz levels
 

adman_c

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Feb 14, 2016
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I have a 4 floor townhome with a r610 on the first floor and an H510 on the second and 4th floors, respectively. No problems with coverage anywhere, but each floor is only around 600 ft^2. Love Ruckus stuff and appreciate the flexibility of the H5XX models. Like you, I have a single drop per room in my place, and they're all at floor/counter level.
 

TLN

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Feb 26, 2016
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I got Arubas at my past job and in my apartment. Works great for me. 505HR wall-mounted access points provide 3(or 4) ports for downlinks, 1 port is PoE. 535 and 555 are basically the same, except dual 5ghz radios on 555. Both support link aggregation, so you can get 2, 5 or 10gbps link to ap.
I'd go for multiple drops in a room, but that's just me.