Review on Cisco WAP581 Wireless AC Wave 2 Access Point, Dual Radio, 2.5GbE LAN, Lifetime Protection (WAP581-A-K9) by Scot Hughes

A little more difficult to set up than our old Cisco AP541N-K9, I don't like the new menus. It does not make sense to place some setting functions in the menu. However, they like that 2.4 and 5G work together. We require 2.4G for all our Canon inkjet printers. 5G accelerates mobile working in our studios enormously. Range is a bit limited, but that's to be expected from a dual-mode transmitter. It also has the ability to run IPv4 separately from IPv6, which is good for our old router. It's great for keeping an eye on everyone connected to the device, and the bandwidth usage monitor is really useful for troubleshooting a wireless device. Once all the bumps are ironed out, network integration becomes really easy. I really wish they would have provided a power injector, but we bought a Trendnet Gigabit POE injector and it works great. I chose Trendnet because the current power supply was better than the equivalent Cisco injector. PSUs are pretty crappy these days, so I wanted to make sure the PSU had enough room without spending a fortune on it. This should contribute to a longer battery life. It comes with a short Ethernet cable to at least connect it to a router. Our Cisco WiFi module sits directly above our Linksys RV016 router in the rack, near the top of the rack. There are no antennas protruding through the top of the rack, but I removed the top to allow WiFi transmission to come out without being in a Faraday cage. The antenna is hidden in the body of the device. It includes a building approximately 80 feet long and a small portion of the parking lot adjacent to the building. So far it has been performing well for 6 months.