Best POE Wireless AC Access Point

Overview

There are bunch of wireless ac access point products available in the market today you can find to support your business wifi network. In business class wifi network you have to choose the best wireless access point product that can support large number of wifi clients connect to business network solidly, easy to install and scalable to large numbers of APs to deploy.

 

POE

In corporate network, deploying wireless access point is easier when your AP supports POE that allows you install the AP by running a single UTP Cat 5e or Cat 6e category cable to the POE switch to eliminate power cable to the AP. Most business class wireless AC access point products support POE, so assure that your choose POE wifi access point model for your businesses.

Various models

It depends on how large is your network scale, you can choose business class wireless AP products – the best wireless access point that meets your business need including budget, scale and IT support you have. Knowing that the emerging of Smartphone devices that come with high end wifi ac adapter, deploying wireless ac access point for your businesses is a must to accommodate all of those IoT devices to connect to the network.

The following lists top POE wifi access point, best wireless access point products for businesses ranging from small to large scale multi sites wifi network.

1. TP-link EAP-245

The first affordable business class wireless ac access point product is TP-link EAP-245 POE wifi access point. This model is based on standard wireless dual band AC1750 delivering dual band speeds of up to 1300Mbps @5Ghz band and up to 450Mbps @2.4Ghz band. EAP245 doesn’t feature Beamforming and Airtime fairness like the EAP320 and EAP330 series, thus this model is cheaper than the other two EAP series. See also comparison between Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO and TP-link EAP320.

TP-link EAP-245 AC1750 AP

TP-link EAP245 is an affordable business class POE wifi access point compared with products from other vendors such as Netgear and Linksys. See also Linksys LAPAC2600 vs Netgear WAC740.  For small business you can start from couple of this models and grow easily with free EAP controller software.

Highlights

• Based on wireless AC1750 delivering speeds of up to 450Mbps on 2.4GHz and 1300Mbps on 5GHz totals 1750Mbps
• Internal Omni antennas, 2.4GHz: 3* 4dBi, 5GHz: 3*4dBi
• 1x Gigabit Ethernet Port with POE support
• Band steering to force 5Ghz based devices to connect to 5Ghz band for faster connection
• Load balance ensures large numbers of users have smooth network experiences in high density business networks
• Free EAP controller software for central network administration either local or remote sites

Cons

• Doesn’t support beamforming technology
• Doesn’t support MU-MIMO

The best thing with affordable business class POE wireless access point is that you can manage your large network, hundreds of AP devices  using free EAP controller software either AP devices in your local site or remote sites centrally. This is one of best wireless access point for small businesses.

With this software you can view real-time monitoring of traffic status of each AP, analyze network traffic statistic and as well as user activity and still more as to enhance network efficiency. See also comparison Ubiquiti Pro vs TP-link EAP220 AP.

Click here to learn more detail TP-link EAP245

2. Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD

For larger scale wifi network with higher clients density, you may consider Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD wireless ac access point. Each AP can support up to 500 wifi clients, and you can expand to unlimited numbers of POE Ubiquiti POE wifi access point products spread across the sites or remote sites.

Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD is high performance wave 2 wireless ac technology that supports Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology to allow the system to send data streams to multiple client devices simultaneously as opposed with non MU-MIMO devices that send data one device to another device. It delivers speed dual band simultaneously with total bandwidth of up to 2600Mbps, speeds of up to 1733Mbps @5Ghz and up to 800Mbps @2.4Ghz band.

Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD

Like TP-link EAP series, Ubiquiti offers similar free controller software – Ubiquiti Unifi controller software to allow you manage the network locally or remotely via the cloud.

Highlights

• Based on four streams of 802.11 ac wave-2 technology
• Speeds of up to 1733Mbps @5Ghz and up to 800Mbps @2.4Ghz
• Simultaneous Dual-Band 4×4 Multi-User MIMO
• Dual port dual polarity antennas, 3 dBi @2.4Ghz and 4dBi @5Ghz
• Business class wireless ac access point, ceiling mount and scale up unlimitedly with enterprise performance
• Central Unifi controller software for easy management either local or remotely from a single AP and can be controlled remotely via the cloud
• Two Gigabit Ethernet Ports with POE 802.3at support

Not just hundreds of AP you can deploy, even you can deploy unlimited scalable AP products easily and you can manage those Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD series spread all over the sites both local and remotely using central Unifi controller software. This product is one of best wireless access point for large businesses with multi-sites network.

Click  here to learn more details Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD

For small business that require unlimited scalable POE wifi access point devices with affordable budget, you may consider best seller Ubiquiti UAP-AC-PRO wireless ac access point with 3×3 MIMO technology.

3. Netgear ProSafe WAC740

Both the above two wireless ac access point products come with 10/100/1,000Mbps Ethernet ports with POE supports. This port is a gateway to deliver wifi traffic from all the connected wifi clients to the wired network. For higher clients density, 10/100/1,000Mbps could not be fast enough for higher traffic. It is therefore Netgear introduces new high speed wave 2 ProSafe WAC740 wireless AC2300 business class access point with 10/100/1,000/2,500Mbps ideal for fast lane of higher density wifi clients traffic. That’s what wave 2 technology is used for to handle multi-gig traffic.

Netgear WAC-740 Wave 2 AP

Netgear WAC740 is based on wave 2 wifi technology with Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology similar as Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD and other wave 2 products with 4 data streams delivering aggregated data throughput of up to 2.3Gbps. it is dual band router with speeds of up to 1733Mbps @5Ghz band and up to 600Mbps @2.4Ghz band.

Highlights

• Based on wave 2 wifi technology with 4×4 data streams
• Dual band speeds of up to 1733Mbps @5Ghz band and up to 600Mbps @2.4Ghz band
• MU-MIMO ready for delivering data streams to multiple clients concurrently
• Wireless Controller managed with WC7500 for scale network, or WC7600 for medium scale and WC9500 for large scale deployment.
• 1x Multi-gigabit Ethernet port (2.5Gbps) with POE support and 1x 1Gbps Ethernet port
• Enterprise security protection
• Lifetime warranty

Cons

• More expensive
• Requires separate hardware based wifi controller
• Requires Multi gig POE Switch for optimum data throughput

Unlike the other two POE wifi access points TP-link EAP245 and Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD which are managed easily with software controller, with WAC740 you require hardware based wireless controller instead of software based controller. This will add another budget for your business, more over the price of Netgear WAC740 is more expensive than the other two products.

Summary

For small businesses, start with couple of TP-link EAP245 wireless ac access point, it is best wireless access point appropriate for starting businesses. For larger multi-site businesses, Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD POE wifi access point is ideal solution with central management software. For larger scale and higher density clients, WAC740 with multi-gig Ethernet port is appropriate.

Click the following links to learn more details about each of the products, current price and rating or purchase in Amazon:

• Click here for TP-link EAP-245
• Click here for Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD
• Click here for Netgear WAC740

For homes, when your current router is aging and would like to taste how good the mesh home wifi system is, you may consider Linksys Velop three band system for large home or you may consider Amplifi HD wifi system.
Ads: