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Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?

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Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
2020-10-28 11:03:12 - last edited 2020-10-29 08:11:58

Hi all,

I'm currently building a house of ~230m² and interested in using two of either the EAP230-Wall or EAP235-Wall for wifi at home. For that, I already have two mounting-places specified that are directly connected to gigabit-switches in the electrical distribution box.

 

My question is, since I'm not really familiar with all the technical details, which of both would better be suitable for a private home of 4 people + sometimes guests to be future-proof for the next couple of years. Here the link to the datasheet: https://static.tp-link.com/2020/202010/20201019/EAP%20Datasheet.pdf

 

Additional question: I saw, that both of them are currently not able the mesh. Since I want to have two in my home, is that a negative aspect or is meshing not really necessary? Will that feature be delivered via software-update later on since both EAPs are pretty new?

 

Best regards

Martin

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?-Solution
2020-10-28 15:33:36 - last edited 2020-10-29 08:11:58

 

Martin4H wrote

Wallmount is fixed already due to the position of the flush boxes and the poe-cables. If the EAP-models are not the best choice, would the Decos be an option then?

 

Sorry, I'm not familiar with Deco product line, but you can ask other users in the appropriate group here in the SOHO community.

 

I thought "Mesh" means being able to be logged in in one Wlan with a device and it always changes to the AP with the best connectivity automatically.

 

This is called »roaming« and it has been defined in the very first 802.11 standard (»basic roaming«). You do not need a mesh to enable roaming. Just set the same SSID and WiFi modes on all APs (even on those APs from different vendors) and your client devices will roam automatically.

 

I don't know why people think they would need a mesh for roaming. Some wrong blog posts, maybe? I really would like to know this.

 

EAP225, 245 and a few others support an additional »fast roaming« function (which requires the client device to support this way of roaming, too), but EAP-Walls do not support fast roaming. As I wrote, EAP-Walls are for buildings with many separate rooms such as hotels and usually you don't roam from one hotel room to another room.

 

However, you can use EAP-Walls in a residential building, you can even use basic roaming, but you should not be surprised when an EAP-Wall in your living room does not cover the kitchen or another separate room due to a limited WiFi coverage. Their limited coverage is intentional, not a weakness.

 

If you want to cover the whole house, use an EAP225/245. Depending on your building's indoor structure you probably wouldn't need roaming at all.

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
2020-10-28 11:21:12 - last edited 2020-10-28 11:22:00

@Martin4H, EAP-Wall models are designed for hotels with many rooms where each room will have its own EAP with optional Ethernet port(s) for wired devices. They do not support mesh since it is not very useful to mesh up EAP-Wall models.

 

For a residential building I would recommend one or two EAP225 or EAP245. You won't need meshing function for this use case either, better connect the EAPs by cable.

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
2020-10-28 11:32:27

@R1D2 Thanks, but I want an optical decent device, and the EAPs 230 and 235 are perfect for that. From the technical site, on first glance it looks that they have all I want to have, despite the meshing functionallity.

 

Since both EAPs will be connected via cable to the router, why do you think meshing is not needed?


Best regards

Martin

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
2020-10-28 11:54:03 - last edited 2020-10-28 11:58:41

 

Martin4H wrote

Thanks, but I want an optical decent device, and the EAPs 230 and 235 are perfect for that.

 

Your choice, but compared to ceiling-mounted EAPs the EAP-Wall models have much lower EIRP in the 5 GHz band suitable for the use case they have been designed for.

 

Since both EAPs will be connected via cable to the router, why do you think meshing is not needed?

 

Because a mesh is useful only to connect EAPs wirelessly at locations where running a cable isn't possible.

If the EAPs are connected by cable, a mesh makes no sense at all.

 

See the FAQ about an EAP mesh network.

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
2020-10-28 13:07:53

@R1D2 Wallmount is fixed already due to the position of the flush boxes and the poe-cables. If the EAP-models are not the best choice, would the Decos be an option then?

 

Regarding Mesh: I thought "Mesh" means being able to be logged in in one Wlan with a device and it always changes to the AP with the best connectivity automatically. So in case I would install two EAP235-Wall, both connected via cable, would I need to set up two different wifi-networks then or is it one network that can be used as described before?

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?-Solution
2020-10-28 15:33:36 - last edited 2020-10-29 08:11:58

 

Martin4H wrote

Wallmount is fixed already due to the position of the flush boxes and the poe-cables. If the EAP-models are not the best choice, would the Decos be an option then?

 

Sorry, I'm not familiar with Deco product line, but you can ask other users in the appropriate group here in the SOHO community.

 

I thought "Mesh" means being able to be logged in in one Wlan with a device and it always changes to the AP with the best connectivity automatically.

 

This is called »roaming« and it has been defined in the very first 802.11 standard (»basic roaming«). You do not need a mesh to enable roaming. Just set the same SSID and WiFi modes on all APs (even on those APs from different vendors) and your client devices will roam automatically.

 

I don't know why people think they would need a mesh for roaming. Some wrong blog posts, maybe? I really would like to know this.

 

EAP225, 245 and a few others support an additional »fast roaming« function (which requires the client device to support this way of roaming, too), but EAP-Walls do not support fast roaming. As I wrote, EAP-Walls are for buildings with many separate rooms such as hotels and usually you don't roam from one hotel room to another room.

 

However, you can use EAP-Walls in a residential building, you can even use basic roaming, but you should not be surprised when an EAP-Wall in your living room does not cover the kitchen or another separate room due to a limited WiFi coverage. Their limited coverage is intentional, not a weakness.

 

If you want to cover the whole house, use an EAP225/245. Depending on your building's indoor structure you probably wouldn't need roaming at all.

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
2020-10-28 15:55:30

 

R1D2 wrote

 I don't know why people think they would need a mesh for roaming. Some wrong blog posts, maybe? I really would like to know this.

 

@R1D2 Oh that I can tell you :D I heard about this first on the following page: https://www.tp-link.com/en/home-networking/deco/deco-m9-plus/ (scroll to the video in the middle of the page). Here, it looks (at least for me) like "Mesh" is responsible for having the same wifi through the whole house. The headline is indeed "Whole Home Seamless Roaming", but after you explanation I think the video is misleading and the wifi in the example on the right just not set up correctly?

 

So if I understand you correctly, with "roaming" I can also set up my FritzBox and an tp-link AP and others with the same Wifi-options to use the same wifi? That would be awesome! :)

 

Thank you for the explanation!

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
2020-10-28 16:46:55 - last edited 2020-10-28 16:50:29

@Martin4H,

 

maybe, Deco provides seamless roaming, which is an extension to basic roaming. I read there: »Seamless Coverage: Achieve seamless whole-home coverage with a mesh Wi-Fi system and eliminate weak signal areas once and for all.«

 

That's what their mesh does: extending the coverage and probably synchronize the APs to offer seamless roaming. It's not wrong to speak about seamless roaming in this context, but it does not concern basic roaming. It's typical marketing speak.

 

So if I understand you correctly, with "roaming" I can also set up my FritzBox and an tp-link AP and others with the same Wifi-options to use the same wifi?

 

Yes.

 

802.11 defines a »Basic Service Set (BSS)« and »Extended Service Set (ESS)«. A BSS is an AP in infrastructure mode, while an ESS can contain several BSSes. Every AP always has two IDs: the BSSID and the ESSID (the latter most often just called SSID). The BSSID identifies the BSS, the ESSID identifies the ESS. To combine several BSSes into one ESS, you just set the same ESSID and the same WiFi parameters (encryption mode, encryption key).

 

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Re:Which is better: EAP230-Wall vs. EAP235-Wall for Home use? Mesh?
2020-10-29 08:12:43

@R1D2 Thanks for the detailed explanation, that helps me a lot!

 

Best regards

Martin

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