Using EAP610 in my Home Network. Is using Software Controller Overkill?
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I'm using two EAP610's in my home. I know maybe a bit overkill but my new home was wired for overhead Access Points. Working overall pretty good. Have just been managing with the app or directly to each AP. I'm running checkmk and seeing some flapping occuring. Looking at fine tuning my wireless network. Wondering if utilzing the Omada controller would make managing the two access points easier and better? Appreciate any insight anyone might have. I'm an IT consultant, so don't mind learning new areas.
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@bh56 Yeah using a controller will help and is not overkill. Controller management provides a few extra features, the most useful one is seamless roaming (802.11k/v). A RaspPi running the software controller is a common setup for low cost, and provides the always on controller needed for roaming.
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Thanks for the confirmation on this. Will give it a try. I've got a VM environment that I can also spin up a Debian install.
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Very good question! I’ve been asking myself this question for some time, too.
I have run my two APs standalone for a couple of months. It worked fine for me, but some family members had connection problems when they moved for one room to another. Moreover, I had issues with my portable devices hanging to the 5 GHz band when it did not make sense at all. Also, some of my WiFi devices could not handle duplicate SSIDs, but that’s not a big deal since there’s an easy workaround for it.
So, I did add Omada Controller to my network. The results of it are somewhat mixed. Complains of my family members stopped. Those devices that had trouble with duplicate SSIDs are happy now. However, it did not help with the issue of switching between the bands despite of engaging the Omada optimalizations. Moreover, I have discovered some settings in my WiFi adapters that make the controller less appealing, if not obsolete, so I can probably fine tune my family member devices, too.
I have no need for all those shiny bells and whistles of the controller and I suspect they slow down my network. I’m not a fan of the Omada concept at all, but I guess it is, or it will be, good enough and convenient for some people. However, I do not think it will ever reach the level to fulfill my networking requirements.
If a controller is really needed for multiple APs, I wish TP-Link would come up with some AP dedicated, lite version of it.
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Thanks for your insight and journey. Yes, I've had some issues with some devices. Part of it was I didn't set my channels manually and they ended up overlapping. Resolved this for now. Will look at installing the software controller. I see Omada does have hardware controllers; OC200/OC300. But don't want to spend more money. Agree, rather keep this simpler. Looks like the cloud platform, they will be charging a fee.
Other than setting up a specific SSID for 2.5 devices, was there another solution for devices that cannot handle multiple SSID"S
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No, the WiFi band was not the issue. It looks like I've use a wrong term. It should be double, not multiple. The issue was that there were two identical SSIDs and those devices were not able to tell them apart during the handshake process. That resulted in handshake failures. The solution was to create a separate, single SSID for them in the closest to them AP.
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