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by Normal_gaussian 38 days ago
Today I set up a NWA210BE (Zyxel) to replace a unifi 6+ AP; I bought it second hand and my key metrics were: 4x4 MIMO, available used/discounted, current gen, fully functional standalone mode.

The 4x4 makes all the difference. Sitting in my car the 6+ would fight with my 4G for internet and cause maps to be super slow; now I'm off the property before its unusable.

I had intended to put APs in multiple rooms, but there doesn't seem like much point now.
4 comments
bjoli 38 days ago
Inwas about to buy a pair of those, but then I saw the new mikrotik wifi 7 router (and probably upcoming access point) with thread radio.

Now every other brand is dead to me.

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Normal_gaussian 37 days ago
That is really interesting! (https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_be3_media for others). Its coming in at a decent price as well.
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ece 38 days ago
What are the chances of a 3x3 or 4x4 router from them I wonder.
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bjoli 36 days ago
Slim to none, I would guess.
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Marsymars 37 days ago
> The 4x4 makes all the difference.

I've stuck with my Eero Pro 6 because it has 4x4 at 5GHz and the Pro 6E and 7 trade that for 2x2 at both 5GHz and 6GHz. The Max 7 has 4x4 on both 5Ghz and 6Ghz, but for a 3-pack for my house, the current pricing on amazon.ca is $2300, compared to the $650 I paid for the Pro 6 3-pack. (And the Pro 6 seems to have notably lower power draw than the Max 7.)

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bityard 38 days ago
Interesting...

I have a Netgear WAX218, one of the last cheap business-class APs I could find that don't require a cloud service to manage. WAY better than the pro-sumer wifi routers I was running before in access point mode. I'll have to look into Zyxel offerings a bit more when I'm ready to replace my Netgear.

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izacus 38 days ago
What benefit does 4x4 give you? I haven't seen a single client station with more than 1x1 or 2x2. Do you have so many clients that transmit concurrently?
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Normal_gaussian 37 days ago
From the article (which is long):

> But as a very significant bonus, the 'extra' antennas if there is a mismatch in MIMO levels between the client and router do not go unused, but are used for 'diversity' and 'beamforming', which extends range, and improves speed at range.

You don't get higher max speed, but you do get better performance in general. I hadn't expected it to be drastic - I had thought it would be more theoretical than practical - so I had been planning on adding some 2x2 APs in a few months; but I don't think I need to now.

The original drive was because I have 4x4 on my desktop which won't get wired in for at least a year now; and my homelab is wired in.

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