Review on 📶 NETGEAR ProSAFE WAC720-100NAS: High-performance 2x2 Dual Band 802.11ac PoE Wireless Access Point by Dan West

We are a managed services provider (IT support company) for small businesses and small businesses medical institutions. (5-50 employees). Most of our customers are fine with standalone wireless access points like the NETGEAR R6300. For more complex/rugged installations we used SonicWall SonicPoints. Unfortunately, SonicPoints leave a lot to be desired, particularly when it comes to range, speed, and handover, which eventually ended up in the market for a business-class, centrally managed wireless solution. I bought 2 WAC720s for a small doctor's office and was able to try the Encore feature, unlike most Revain reviewers who only received and tested standalone units. The GUI looks dated but is fast and responsive. I made the mistake of setting everything up before updating the firmware. My train of thought was that I could push the firmware update to both devices from a central panel instead of doing it manually/individually. Unfortunately, updating the firmware will reset the device to factory settings, which will also wipe Encore's central control. Be sure to update the firmware before doing anything else on these access points. This is where the madness started. After a firmware update, I suddenly lost local WAP management and was automatically signed up for a 90-day trial of Netgear's central cloud/SaaS/Web subscription service called Business Central 2.0 Wireless Manager. The user interface is absolutely gorgeous, especially when compared to Encore, and it's one of the most polished websites I've seen. My RMM doesn't even look that good. I knew right away that something this good couldn't come cheap and it wasn't $70 a year for WAP. I wasn't willing to pay $140 for a yearly subscription to central management when I bought these access points specifically for their free central management. I disabled the cloud management option in every WAP and was immediately disappointed when I resorted to Encore's poor/outdated/archaic/clunky centralized management interface. The cloud management is infinitely better, and I have a feeling that Netgear is aware of that and is betting on what you pay for a subscription. All in all, these WAPs met our needs: good range, good speed, basic centralized management, no additional management hardware, no mandatory subscription fees, and "good enough" handovers from one access point to another.