kcato wrote

What puzzles me is that EAP225-Outdoor offers more but costs a lot less. Are there any benefits to installing Deco M9 Plus over EAP225-Outdoor?

kcato, the Deco is a SOHO system for indoor-only use while the EAP225-Outdoor is a SMB/enterprise device for outdoor/indoor use. In my country the Deco system with 3 APs costs 219€ at Amazon, while 3 EAP225-Outdoor cost 223€. You can also buy only one Deco AP for 75€.

I see no difference in prices.

Powerauditor wrote

500sqm on 3 floors is not small and if the house is built of solid bricks and armored concrete ceilings then I have my doubts that an EP (even if its as good as the EAP225 outdoor) mounted outside on one side of the building will provide a decent signal strength at the other end inside the house. 

Powerauditor, that's absolutely right.

Let's get practical. My house is ~12.5m × 7m × 2 floors (~170m²). To entertain my neighbors :-) there is an EAP225-Outdoor mounted on the terrace directly in front of a large window with (uncoated, thus microwave-friendly) glass. There is only a steel beam in the way depending on my position indoors:

I did a quick measurement with NetSpot analyzer for the ground floor and the basement. Since on the ground floor is another AP and on the basement there are even two more which I can't turn off at the moment, measurement will show somewhat worser results as if only the EAP225-Outdoor would be active, but the measurements show a pretty good coverage of the Outdoor AP's signal on both floors.

Thick black lines in the layout below are walls, material is either concrete or plastered bricks depending on which wall it is. Red lines are wooden doors, green lines are windows.

In the ground floor I get a pretty good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR):

Signal level is very good, too (else the SNR would be worser) except in the upper left room where the signal is somewhat weaker (-70dBm @2.4 GHz) meaning only slower WiFi speeds can be achieved. This is the result for the ground floor (minimum signal level for heatmap coloring is set to -80dBm, maximum level to -40dBm):

BTW: from the last measuring point in the upper right room you can see very well what difference a free line of sight to the EAP (on the lower right) makes even if there is a window in-between. Signal levels at this last measuring point are -38dBm @2.4 GHz and -60dBm @5 GHz.

Now, on the basement (not measuring machine and boiler rooms) I get this SNR:

The signal level on the basement is still acceptable, albeit probably with reduced WiFi speeds in the leftmost rooms (-75dBm @2.4 GHz, none at all @5 GHz):

Actually, when deploying the EAP225-Outdoor I was expecting a weak signal in my office on the basement, because there are two strong obstacles – a wall and the terrace floor – in-between the line from the office to the EAP and the desk in the office is located directly underneath the EAP. But I still get a good connection there.

Without knowing kcato 's house it's not possible to predict what signal level and SNR will be achieved, but one should always be prepared to deploy further EAPs to eliminate blind spots, especially if there are walls made out of material such as ferroconcrete. I guess that's why the Deco system includes 3 or 5 APs in a set.

The efficiency and coverage of an EAP225-Outdoor also depends on the signal power allowed in your regulatory domain/region and on several environmental parameters. You can find out real-world values only by setting up an installation for testing and by doing measurements. If you want to find the best mounting position you even have to change the mount location and repeat measurements until you get a good coverage.

@kcato, you're welcome. How did your project worked out? Did you set up EAPs and do they cover your area?

@kcato, that's indeed strange.