3Gigabit Wi- Fi access points for SMBs compared

Last year we reviewed five of the first Gigabit Wi-Fi access points to hit the market. This time around, we’re testing three new entrants: the Cisco WAP371, D-Link’s DAP-2695, and the Edimax WAP-1750.

Each product is a three-stream (3×3) 802.11ac access point designed for small and midsized business (SMB) environments and up. Each includes a built-in controller to centrally manage multiple access points.

The Cisco unit cost the most and was the slowest in our throughput tests, but it was also the easiest to set up and came packed with useful features. The WAP371 offers a setup wizard, built-in controller for up to eight access points, great captive portal functionality, band steering, and packet capture. (Captive portal functionality is used to set up guest users, band steering helps with performance and packet capture is useful for troubleshooting.)

Priced $10 less than the Cisco access point, the D-Link access point offered good throughput results, a built-in controller supporting up to 32 access points, band steering, and advanced security functionality. However, the product lacked a setup wizard. (Watch the slideshow version of this review.)

We found the Edimax unit to be the least expensive and fastest and had a built-in controller supporting up to eight access points, plus it had an internal RADIUS server. While including some relatively unique features, such as Power Over Ethernet (PoE) and a built-in beeper to help locate the access point, it lacked two fairly common features: band steering and captive portal. However, Edimax says both are coming in the next update.

Here are the individual reviews:

Cisco WAP371

The Cisco WAP371 is targeted for small-to-midsize business (SMB) environments and is priced at $399. It contains one three-stream (3×3) 5GHz radio, supporting theoretical data rates up to 1,300Mbps for 802.11ac and 450Mbps for 802.11n, and one two-stream (2×2) radio for 2.4GHz. The recommended number of active users is 64 per access point or up to 40 users per band/radio.

This Cisco unit has a white plastic body, which is square shaped with curved corners, measuring about 9 inches long and wide and about 1.7 inches tall. At just under 2 lbs, it’s lighter than the metal D-Link unit, but heavier than the Edimax unit. Unlike the other two APs, there are no visible antennas, but there’s two 2dBi antennas inside the unit. On the top/front there are three basic LED status lights.

The ceiling/wall mounting kit, Ethernet cable, Quick Start Guide, and Product CD are included with the unit. The AC adapter and a PoE injector are sold separately.

The default IP configuration for this unit is DHCP, so after plugging it in for the first time you must find the assigned IP address. Other than looking at your router or switch status, you can download their FindIT tool or use some other discovery tool. Once you access the web-based configuration screen you’re presented with a setup wizard that helps you quickly configure the main settings: IP details, Single Point Setup, time, password, wireless radios, and captive portal for guest authentication.

We found the setup wizard, installation, and configuration processes to be straightforward. Single Point Setup is Cisco’s name for their central controller-less access point management solution. You can create a cluster on one access point and then join up to seven more access points to that cluster and they’ll inherit the same configuration settings, with a few exceptions, such as manually selected channels. Though you must bring up the web-based configuration screen for each access point, it’s a very quick process to join them to an existing cluster.

No matter which access point you make configuration changes on when using Single Point Setup, the settings will automatically be propagated to all other access points in that same cluster. Of course, some settings are excluded from the synchronizing, such as IP and bridging settings. However, you cannot selectively disable the synchronization of certain settings like you can with the two other access points.

When navigating through the unit’s web-based GUI, we found it supports wireless bridging and client bridge mode in addition to the traditional access point mode. It supports one management VLAN and up to 16 additional VLANs for use on up to 16 virtual SSIDs.

We also found some advanced features, such as band steering to help ensure capable clients connect to the typically less congested 5GHz band instead of 2.4GHz, load balancing to ensure access points aren’t overloaded, and rogue access point detection to stay alert of any unauthorized access points in the area.

The unit also has captive portal functionality for authenticating guests via a local database or external RADIUS and/or requiring acceptance of the usage agreement. The access point also has a packet capture feature that you can use to remotely collect 802.11 packets received by the access point, useful for advanced troubleshooting.

On top of each page of the web-based GUI you can hit the Help link, which brings up the help documentation to that specific topic. We found each feature and setting to be fairly well described.

D-Link DAP-2695

The D-Link DAP-2695 is designed for small to midsized businesses, as well as enterprise environments. Priced at $389.99, it’s loaded with a three-stream (3×3) 5GHz radio, supporting theoretical data rates up to 1,300Mbps for 802.11ac and 450Mbps for 802.11n, and a separate radio for 2.4GHz. Their recommended user limit is 100 users per access point with 50 users per radio/band.

This D-Link unit has a gray and black plenum-rated metal chassis, which makes it the heaviest at about 2.5 pounds. However, its size is more comparable to the other two access points, measuring approximately 7.5 x 7.8 inches in length and width, and about 1.5 inches high. It sports six detachable dual-band antennas: three 4dBi antennas for 2.4 GHz and three 6dBi antennas for 5 GHz. On the top/front you have the normal LED status lights.

Being pretty generous, D-Link includes both the AC power adapter and PoE injector along with a console cable. Like most other access points, it also comes with a mounting plate and hardware designed for wall mounting.

This D-Link unit comes from the factory set to a static IP, which requires you to temporary setup a computer with a static IP during the initial configuration. Additionally, once you log into the web-based configuration GUI, you won’t find any wizard to help with the setup.

If you prefer, you can centrally manage up to 32 access points with D-Link’s controller-less access point management solution, called AP Array. Set one access point to be the Master, one to be the Backup Master, and all others to Slave. The Backup Master and Slaves will inherent the settings of the Master. Like the Edimax unit, D-Link allows you to choose specific groups of settings to exclude from the synchronization. D-Link also provides the AP Manager II software that you can alternatively use to centrally manage this and other compatible access points.

After navigating the configuration screens, we found that the access point supports a few different modes in addition to the traditional access point: Wireless Distribution System (WDS) with Access Point, WDS/Bridge (No AP Broadcasting), and Wireless Client. It supports up to eight VLANs per band for implementing multiple SSIDs.

We also found some advanced features, such as band steering with configurable settings to help ensure capable clients connect to the typically less congested 5GHz band instead of 2.4GHz and load balancing to ensure access points aren’t overloaded. Its web redirection features provides simple captive portal functionality. In addition to rogue access point detection, this unit provides ARP Spoofing Prevention to help protect against advanced hacking attempts and supports Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP) feature so network access can be stipulated upon client security and health requirements.

Like the Edimax access point, this unit has a built-in RADIUS server so you can easily utilize enterprise-class Wi-Fi security, but D-Link recommends a maximum of just 30 users.

Edimax WAP-1750

The Edimax WAP-1750 is designed for small to midsized businesses (SMB) and priced at $279.99. It’s loaded with a three-stream (3×3) 5GHz radio, supporting theoretical data rates up to 1,300Mbps for 802.11ac and 450Mbps for 802.11n, and another three-stream (3×3) radio for 2.4GHz. Edimax says it’s designed for high-density usage, supporting 100 simultaneous clients with 50 per band/radio.

This Edimax unit has a white plastic housing and is the smallest and lightest at just over 7 inches square, less than 1.5 inches tall, and just over 1.2 pounds. The top/front has just a single LED light, showing the status of power to the unit. On one of the sides, it has three detachable external dual-band antennas, each with 2dBi of gain.

On an adjacent side from the antennas, you find all the ports and buttons: optional AC power input, two Gigabit LAN ports (one supporting PoE input and other with PoE output), USB port for system logs and saving/restoring settings, console port, reset button, WPS button, and a power switch. The Ethernet port with PoE output can be used to power other devices, like another access point or security camera.

Along with the usual Quick Install Guide, CD, and Ethernet cable, the unit comes with an AC adapter. It also includes a magnetic wall mount set.

When setting up the Edimax access point, you can either connect it to the network and it will get an IP via DHCP or you can configure via it’s default static IP using a computer. When you bring up the web-based configuration screen, you won’t find a setup wizard. Despite having no on-screen help either, the GUI is relatively attractive and user-friendly.

Edimax’s built-in access point controller functionally is called the Network Management Suite (NMS), which allows you to centrally manage up to eight access points. Once NMS is enabled, you’re presented with a modified web-based GUI on the access point that’s set as the controller. By default, any new additional access points you plug into the network will automatically join the NMS as a slave and inherit the settings defined by the controller. Like the D-Link access point, you can optionally override select settings of certain access points.

In addition to the regular access point mode, this Edimax unit supports WDS with or without the access point functionality running concurrently. It supports up to 32 SSIDs, 16 for each band. The access point also offers a simple load balancing feature and rogue access point detection. Like the D-Link access point, this unit has a built-in RADIUS server so you can easily utilize enterprise-class Wi-Fi security. However, the Edimax unit supports up to 256 user accounts. Another simple yet potentially very useful feature is its built-in beeper so you can make access points sound from the web GUI and physically locate them in the building.

Unlike the two other units, this access point does not support any band steering functionality, but Edimax says that’s coming in the next firmware update. Though there’s a guest network feature, the access point doesn’t do any captive portal or web redirection, but Edimax says that’s in the next update as well.

How we tested 802.11ac Access Point performance

For the performance part of the testing, we used IxChariot to run throughput tests on the access points with three different clients:

• ASUS PCE-AC66 Dual-band Wireless PCI-E Adapter (three stream 802.11ac) connected inside the Windows 7 PC, using the provided antennas attached directly to the adapter on the back of the PC tower rather than using their base extender.
• Netgear A6200 (two stream 802.11ac) plugged into a USB 2.0 port on the back of the same Windows 7 PC.
• Samsung Galaxy S5 (two stream 802.11ac) Android phone sat on top of the same PC during testing.

On the access points, we enabled WPA2/AES security and 80 MHz channel-width support, and set the 5Ghz channel to 153. All wired connections between the access points, wireless controllers, and testing endpoints were made via Gigabit Ethernet ports with CAT-6 cables. These connections were all tested and confirmed to be running near Gigabit speeds. During the testing, the distance between the access points and clients was about 25 feet with one wall and a closet partially blocking the line of sight (both made of drywall material).

We ran the tests with the IxChariot High_Performance_Throughput.scr script for one minute with each client individually in the 5GHz band. It simultaneously tested both the TCP uplink (client to access point) and downlink (access point to client), which I add to show the total simultaneous throughput. We ran each access point/client test three times and recorded the average and maximum throughput for each.

The Edimax unit came out on top with an average throughput rate of 242.8 Mbps, D-Link came in second with 235.4 Mbps, and Cisco last at 173.6 Mbps. If you compare these results with those from our previous two other round-up access point reviews, the Edimax unit places second out of the total nine access points, the D-Link unit third, and the Cisco unit seventh. Keep in mind, each review used similar testing procedures but the test clients varied.