EXPIRED Ruckus R710 Ebay $29.99
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802.11ac only, though, so not super fast by today's standard. I had a pile of extreme WS-AP3825i that I was selling for 10 bucks each and you can flash OpenWRT on them and they appear comparable to the R710.
I just setup 10x of the R610s (very similar) plus 3x T610 (outdoor) donated to a non-profit. The R710 is the last gen before WiFi6, considered wifi5 though there wasn't any spec back then. The Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD "High-Density" is a direct 1:1 comparison, right down to the bonding.
You want to cross-flash the device to their Unleashed firmware. This is the free stand-alone version with all the bells and whistles, but without any of the licensing nor controller no support contract stuff. The UNLEASHED firmware uses the first AP you setup as the Master; once you setup 2 or more APs, then you can designate any AP as the Master and another as a Backup - all within the meshed APs. Not as pretty as UniFi, and some advance things require ssh like setting up bonding.
- no more firmware updates. use an enormous password. who knows if an exploit is found on the old APs in the future, home to a significant portion of botnets for DDoS and data proxies.
- 4x4 MIMO, basically full bandwidth to up 3-ish clients instead of normally 1 (~790 Mbps, ~85 MBps tested).
- supports bonding/LAG over the 2x 1Gbps ports.
- supports bridging, but I think only in Mesh
- supports Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) handoff. start an LTE-carrier wifi call on your mobile, and it doesn't drop when you drive off and switch to LTE.
You want these to run in Mesh even if they are all hardwired as they are enterprise grade seamless hand-offs. Mesh auto-adjusts their coverage.
Setup is super-insane easy:
1. Reset and access whatever IP is on the back, default u/p.
2. Cross-flash firmware to UNLEASHED for the R710 with a simple upload.
3. Wait long time...
Do this for all 3, 4, or 6 APs you bought. You want them flashed to Unleashed first before continuing, and confirmed in the new Sign In page they are ready. Then disconnect them, and only plug in 1 AP, the one that you want to be the master AP (can change later).
4. Log into UNLEASHED console. Setup your wifi, bonding, VLANs, etc. There are some excellent security guides for these Ruckus out there.
5. One you are dead set, backup your config by downloading, and THEN turn on Mesh. Some Ruckus firmware seem picky to network changes after mesh is enabled (never syncs configs eventually). Reset, upload your config backup, and make your changes... Then Mesh, etc.
You're done. Connecting the other 9 APs to the same switch they will get auto-adopted fully configured directly into the Mesh - as long as they are running the same UNLEASHED firmware from step 2. can take 30m to an hour to stabilize all APs, then disconnect and move to the garage or treehouse, etc.
Overall, they are high density APs and very reliable with the free Unleashed firmware. It's just without firmware updates for security patches, you'll be on your own.
You want to cross-flash the device to their Unleashed firmware. This is the free stand-alone version with all the bells and whistles, but without any of the licensing nor controller no support contract stuff. The UNLEASHED firmware uses the first AP you setup as the Master; once you setup 2 or more APs, then you can designate any AP as the Master and another as a Backup - all within the meshed APs. Not as pretty as UniFi, and some advance things require ssh like setting up bonding.
- no more firmware updates. use an enormous password. who knows if an exploit is found on the old APs in the future, home to a significant portion of botnets for DDoS and data proxies.
- 4x4 MIMO, basically full bandwidth to up 3-ish clients instead of normally 1 (~790 Mbps, ~85 MBps tested).
- supports bonding/LAG over the 2x 1Gbps ports.
- supports bridging, but I think only in Mesh
- supports Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) handoff. start an LTE-carrier wifi call on your mobile, and it doesn't drop when you drive off and switch to LTE.
You want these to run in Mesh even if they are all hardwired as they are enterprise grade seamless hand-offs. Mesh auto-adjusts their coverage.
Setup is super-insane easy:
1. Reset and access whatever IP is on the back, default u/p.
2. Cross-flash firmware to UNLEASHED for the R710 with a simple upload.
3. Wait long time...
Do this for all 3, 4, or 6 APs you bought. You want them flashed to Unleashed first before continuing, and confirmed in the new Sign In page they are ready. Then disconnect them, and only plug in 1 AP, the one that you want to be the master AP (can change later).
4. Log into UNLEASHED console. Setup your wifi, bonding, VLANs, etc. There are some excellent security guides for these Ruckus out there.
5. One you are dead set, backup your config by downloading, and THEN turn on Mesh. Some Ruckus firmware seem picky to network changes after mesh is enabled (never syncs configs eventually). Reset, upload your config backup, and make your changes... Then Mesh, etc.
You're done. Connecting the other 9 APs to the same switch they will get auto-adopted fully configured directly into the Mesh - as long as they are running the same UNLEASHED firmware from step 2. can take 30m to an hour to stabilize all APs, then disconnect and move to the garage or treehouse, etc.
Overall, they are high density APs and very reliable with the free Unleashed firmware. It's just without firmware updates for security patches, you'll be on your own.
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I just received a Pile of 20 x WS-AP3825i and flashed OpenWRT on it.
It took a while to do so though (also because I was backing up everything first)
.Thankfully you can Script quite a bit of the Stuff and customize OpenWRT Image using OpenWRT Firmware Selector, so that it has some extra Packages & Network Configuration pre-applied
.I have one covering my 1000 sq ft house and get 400/400Mbps reliably anywhere (mostly Apple devices). Definitely fast for my standards.
Yes, a Ruckus UNLEASHED access point designated as a controller functions normally as an access point without any performance hit (or you can disable the AP if you want, it's optional).
So you would only need 3.
For multiple access points in your house, you can set up anything as stand-alone, by ensuring you do not have any overlapping radio channels.
But that's a major point of mesh systems: to automatically adjust the radios for no overlap, as well as seamless handoffs between access points during roaming.
Mesh systems create a hidden network for backhaul/sync purposes.
Ruckus and Cisco devices pretty much have the best meshing on the market.
Besides being a bit old, a group of 3, 4, 5, or 10 of these is really the best experience you'll have. Super easy setup too (following my instructions above).
The WiFi Calling hand-off to LTE is really a highlight of Ruckus and Cisco mesh setups.
Yes, they need the higher-power PoE+. Best I gathered was the "beamflex" antennas increase from 500 to 4000 for the stronger signals.
It's partly why we went with R610s at the non-profit, since they had an old PoE switch.
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This is not true, or at least what unleashed says in my r610 " If the Unleashed Network contains 3 or more connected APs, the Master AP will not provide Wi-Fi service "
I ordered one of these r710s last night. Didn't even need it. Just figured I can move the 610 to some other location and install the 710 where the current one is.
@eduncan911 you mention turning on mesh, I had no plan on using wireless as a back haul and will obviosly use eth/poe. So I should still turn on Mesh for better handoff? I figured the two units talking over eth would allow seamless handoff.
@eduncan911 you mention turning on mesh, I had no plan on using wireless as a back haul and will obviosly use eth/poe. So I should still turn on Mesh for better handoff? I figured the two units talking over eth would allow seamless handoff.
They're much more expensive of course, I think there are much better deals these days for the Wifi 6 generation.
I've been very patient, so I was able to grab R650s for $120, R750 for $220
I've been very patient, so I was able to grab R650s for $120, R750 for $220
I think you're looking at the text for the "dedicated master" setting. This is optional, not required AFAIK.
You're misreading this. It's telling you that it won't let you disable the master's WiFi until you have 3 or more APs.
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You only need to enable mesh if you need wireless backhaul. Once enabled, you can't disable it again. It's optional because it creates an extra backhaul SSID, which you might want to avoid if everything is wired.
It has no effect on seamless handoff.
It looks like the R610/R710 should be supportable by OpenWrt, since it's just the ipq806x target. That being said, my backlog of "I should port OpenWrt to this" devices is too long, so I'll pass.
You'll lose beamflex, which is the main point of a ruckus AP. And at least on the existing openwrt ports, throughput is significantly lower.
The Unleashed version supported by the R710 is still receiving security updates, so there's no real reason to avoid it.
For the same price or less, you can get an Aerohive AP650, which will get you 802.11ax with dual 4x4 MIMO radios, 2.5GbE, etc.