@BD1 I am 30 year IT network person and I always advise all users....WIRE everything that does not move including AP's.  Meshing is a joke to say the least.... many disconnects, over 50% data throughout loss, reliablity, etc.    All my networks I maintain for all clients are all wired everything....and it all works 99% of the time with very very little issues.

Hi @BD1,

While Doc2485 is generally correct, I have a similar setup to you (2x EAP225V3 -- hardwired) and one, soon to be two, EAP225-OD via MESH.

My experience has been generally positive.  Though put is slow/slower but the reliability of my MESH connected Outdoor AP has been very good.  In fact, I've not had a single issue with it in terms of reliability.

Could you provide some additional details in terms of:

1) Country

2) 5.8GHz settings (Channel, BW, etc.) -- Power, etc.

3) General Wifi settings (e.g. re: band steering (preferrably off), fast roaming (good), AirTime fairness (Off). 

4) describe the setting -- residential, commercial, how are things mounted, how far away, antenna details.

In my case, my OD unit is in a residential setting, I use it to extend my Wifi to my back yard.  I have two indoor EAP's of my two story bi-level /raised ranch home.  The EAP on the second floor is ceiling mounted and facing down.  The EAP on the first floor sits on my coffee table facining up.  One EAP is at one end of my home, the other at the Other.

The OD unit is roughly centered (length wise) between these indoor units, and about 30 feet from the exterior of my home (mounted on my perimeter fence).  Making the linear distance from EAP to EAP roughly 50-70 feet.

The Outdoor unit is mounted 6 feet high.  And I find the "v-configuration" of the antennas gives a slightly faster and more reliable signal -- albeit with reduced outdoor range,

I've used these devices both before and after the SDN rollout.  And they have worked equally well both before and after.

Seems like something is amiss in your config or the EAP-OD is defective.

-Jonathan

@Doc2485 Agree 100%. I use wired wherever possible but the outdoor eap is in a detached building so I'm not digging a trench to get cable there when I can buy a product that is supposed to solve the problem.

The system I bought should be ideal according to the sales blurb.

@BD1 I use the Airmax or UBB radios for 2nd option if running a cable or fiber is impossible.  They are not what a cable will give you but they have been solid for my clients for years for an invisible ethernet cable.  Note: they have to have a clear line of site to work properly and enough for freznol zone.

Hi @BD1,

How far away is the building?  If not too far (less then 200 meters) then mounting an Ethernet connected Outdoor EAP on the outside of each building would be best.  But if the distance is too far (e.g. >100 to 200 meters), then longer distance air link gear would be needed.

-Jonathan

JSchnee21 wrote

Hi @BD1,

 

While Doc2485 is generally correct, I have a similar setup to you (2x EAP225V3 -- hardwired) and one, soon to be two, EAP225-OD via MESH.

 

My experience has been generally positive.  Though put is slow/slower but the reliability of my MESH connected Outdoor AP has been very good.  In fact, I've not had a single issue with it in terms of reliability.

 

Could you provide some additional details in terms of:

1) Country

2) 5.8GHz settings (Channel, BW, etc.) -- Power, etc.

3) General Wifi settings (e.g. re: band steering (preferrably off), fast roaming (good), AirTime fairness (Off). 

4) describe the setting -- residential, commercial, how are things mounted, how far away, antenna details.

 

In my case, my OD unit is in a residential setting, I use it to extend my Wifi to my back yard.  I have two indoor EAP's of my two story bi-level /raised ranch home.  The EAP on the second floor is ceiling mounted and facing down.  The EAP on the first floor sits on my coffee table facining up.  One EAP is at one end of my home, the other at the Other.

 

The OD unit is roughly centered (length wise) between these indoor units, and about 30 feet from the exterior of my home (mounted on my perimeter fence).  Making the linear distance from EAP to EAP roughly 50-70 feet.

 

The Outdoor unit is mounted 6 feet high.  And I find the "v-configuration" of the antennas gives a slightly faster and more reliable signal -- albeit with reduced outdoor range,

 

I've used these devices both before and after the SDN rollout.  And they have worked equally well both before and after.

 

Seems like something is amiss in your config or the EAP-OD is defective.

 

-Jonathan

 

@JSchnee21 

Answers to the questions:

1) UK

2) 5GHz: Channel Auto. Width and channel are greyed out. Channel limit is on because there is a limit on the channels we can use outside in the EU. Power is High

3) Band steering is on. Should only affect client connections as mesh is 5GHz anyway? Fast roaming is on but again that is a client setting. Auto failover is on so the mesh uplink can roam between the wired APs.

4) same as you: 3 indoor units, one on each of 3 floors.

Outdoor unit is inside the garage roof space about half way between the ground (1st) floor and the 1st (2nd) floor. Outdoor unit extends coverage to the garden when it works.

Antennas in the V configuration. Indoor units are wall mounted but 90 degrees apart. The top floor unit is ceiling mounted hanging down but is on teh far side of the house so isn't in very good range.

Today when I reconfigured it, I kept it inside the house and it still went disconnected.

Basically, as far as I can see, there's no excuse for it working fine and then stopping and being unable to recover.

JSchnee21 wrote

Hi @BD1,

 

How far away is the building?  If not too far (less then 200 meters) then mounting an Ethernet connected Outdoor EAP on the outside of each building would be best.  But if the distance is too far (e.g. >100 to 200 meters), then longer distance air link gear would be needed.

 

-Jonathan

@JSchnee21 

That would work. I would just bin the unit in the garage and cover the garden from a wired unit on the side of the house but three things:

• I don't want to pull up floorboards across the house to get a wired connection to the right wall.
• I don't want a wifi access point on the outside wall because they aren't exactly attractive.
• I wouldn't mind betting that the service life will be less than half if the unit is outside in the rain and direct sunlight.

Luckily I don't have to make these compromises because I bought a system that said it could handle my situation!

@BD1 Be very very careful believing these big marketing schemes..... that sell you hardware that say it will do all of this......BUT in the real world....it might do 1/2 of what they say it will and some sell features on hardware that do NOT work at all.  I have learned that many times and its got really bad in the last 5 years..........

Hi @BD1,

Hmmm, some general comments, and a question:

1) How far away is the garage?

2) What is the garage building made of (Masonry)?  What are the garage doors made of (Metal)?

3) What are your exterior home walls made of (Masonry?)

I ask, because you sais you are in the UK.  My sister-in-law lives in Britain, and she said that all "permanent" construction is masonry -- concrete, brick, etc.  Then materials very strongly attentuate Wifi signals -- especially 5GHz which is used for the MESH.

Additionally, since in the UK, only one 5GHz channel is permitted outdoors, it's liable to be subject to a lot of neighbor interference.

4) Does the performance of the EAP vary depending on whether your garage doors are open or closed?  Car parked inside?

5) You should disable band steering, and configure wireless clients using the Outdoor EAP to only use 2.4GHz and save the 5GHz link for the MESH.

6) You mentioned that 2 of your 3 Indoor EAP's are wall mounted.  The emitted RF signal from the EAP is rather conical in nature.  So, unless you have one  mounted on a wall facing your outdoor garage, the signal from other wall mounted EAP's may be rather low.

7) in Omada you can manually (temporarily at least) tell the MESH'ed EAP to "prefer" a certain root node.  I would tell it to prefer the EAP on the 3rd floor that is ceiling mounted.  Or one which is wall mounted, facing the Garage

8) I've not used the 5GHz channel restriction feature before.  Is it possible that some/all of your indoor EAP's are getting set (Auto channel?) to a 5GHz channel that the Outdoor EAP is not allowed to talk on?

-Jonathan 

@JSchnee21 

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. The garage is masonary (single skin brick) so that might be an issue, although it is only 3m from the house and the nearest AP is about another 5m inside. You can use any for the channels >100 outside so there is some flexibility, plus most routers and APs here default to the lower (~40) channel numbers so the higher ones are pretty clear. A quick inssider survey shows it isn't interference, or at least not from other wifi devices..

I have set the indoor APs to use the >100 channel numbers but they are ignoring that configuration so I can't make one of them sit on the same channel as the Outdoor in case that is the problem.

I've brought the outdoor AP inside the house and after a factory reset and adopting it again, it goes disconnected after about 5 mintues so it looks like it might be faulty.

I'm going to return it for a replacement so fingers crossed. I'll post how that works out in case anyone has a similar problem.