Grandstream WLAN

My Aerohive WLAN access points were getting a little along in age and I decided it was time to replace them. They were of the 802.11n variety, which in parlance speak is Wifi4, almost 2 generations old and a dinosaur as far as technology is concerned.

The AP330 and AP350 have served me well, and I was looking for a better feature set than what they offered. I found Aerohive’s DPSK offering to be solid and easy enough to administer and manage. It was crucial that I had this feature as it allowed me to steer different DPSKs into different VLANs for security.

I chanced on the Grandstream Wifi6 access points by accident - one forum member on Geekzone had high praise for the devices and so I found myself researching on the various offerings. The Wifi6 APs had a datasheet from which I could compare features. I decided on the GWN-7660 model; as much as the GWN-7662 was tempting me, the GWN-7660 feature set sufficed.

I ordered it from PBTech and a fast delivery time meant that I received it the following day. Unpacking was pleasant and I didn’t have to go through too much packaging. Nowadays, powering up APs through PoE is trivial and I highly recommend everyone to get at least 1 POE switch in their house to power not just APs but security cameras too.

To my delight, the GWN-7660 also supports roaming (802.11k/v/r) and airtime fairness which I regard as essential to multi-AP deployments. This will be handy when I deploy a second AP in the near future.

The GWN Cloud can be used to manage the AP but I elected to just configure it onboard and to use the first AP to control the second when I deploy it. This way, I don’t have to deploy a controller to control both APs.

I really enjoyed the whole process of installation, configuration and integration into my home environment; this is an access point that punches far above its weight and I highly recommend it to everyone looking for alternatives to Unifi or Cambium.