EAP245 for home use / no ceiling mount? (what antenna pattern)
EAP245 for home use / no ceiling mount? (what antenna pattern)
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Hi all,
I have a fios internet connection, and simply need a good access point to use in my small apartment.
I'm considering the EAP245 because it's 802.11ac, 3x3, and affordable around $80 or less on sale.
However, my concern is that I don't plan to ceiling mount it, but rather sit it flat / "rightside up" on my TV stand around 2 feet off the ground.
Is the antenna pattern sufficiently spherical that this will work fine in a small 800sq ft apartment, or does it have too much of a downward facing pattern (assuming ceiling mount) that this might cause me issues?
The only 802.11ac 3x3 home access point that I see from TP-link is the AP500, but that is $138, nearly double the price of the EAP245. I could alternatively look into the Archer C7/C8/C9 routers and try to put them in access point mode only, but that seems a little silly.
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Hi all,I have a crappy fios router at home that I plan to add an access point to.I was looking at the EAP245 because it is a rather affordable (
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nquinn wrote
Is the antenna pattern sufficiently spherical that this will work fine in a small 800sq ft apartment, or does it have too much of a downward facing pattern (assuming ceiling mount) that this might cause me issues?
Yes, you could mount it vertically, too.
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@R1D2 excuse me, this is very important to me: how could you tell it can be mounted vertically?
Have you tried it?
Do you have the EAP245's radiation patterns?
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It can be mounted phisically, as it has special mounting kit. There are radiation patterns from my Airmagnet. I had a lot of cases with both mounted on the ceiling and on the wall and it worked well.
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Not trying to bring an old thread back. But based on your pictures did you make the bracket into a right angle bracket somehow? Would be nice if tp link had a right angle bracket to mount on the wall but still had it mounted horizontally. (without doing a diy wooden bracket)
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@Jmusic88, we have plenty of installations where EAPs are mounted vertically on the wall. Just make sure to not mount it too high on the wall. It makes no sense to me to mount it horizontally on a wall.
If you want to get out the max. bandwidth, consider the recommendations from TP-Link (just transform the picture to vertical mounting):
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That guide below is of course more appropriate for ceiling mounting. If I am to transform that to vertical, the H becomes the distance to the edge of the house, and the R would give me an indication on how high or low to mount it. So if I have a wall that is 4 m away from the edge of my house, the the radius is 13.5m. Based on that it means I should really mount it beside the floor to get the advantage of the omni-directional antenna. Or just mount it high up on top of the door frame to just utilize the one half.
Is there some sort of a diagram like that to have an estimation on what's the signal behind the EAP?
That's the reason why I was thinking of still being able to mount it high horizontally just beside the ceiling but not on the ceiling is because anything behind it. So I could take advantage of the signal coming out of the EAP.
Something like this:
https://www.tripplite.com/universal-wall-bracket-for-wireless-access-point-right-angle-steel-white~ENBRKT
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Jmusic88 wrote
Is there some sort of a diagram like that to have an estimation on what's the signal behind the EAP?
The same diagram more or less applies to the back of an EAP, but take into account attenuation of the ceiling (or wall if mounted vertically).
https://www.tripplite.com/universal-wall-bracket-for-wireless-access-point-right-angle-steel-white~ENBRKT
IMO, if used with an EAP, the steel plate would cause more interferences / attenuation than a ceiling made out of plain concrete.
Honestly, I think you worry too much. There are so many influences to EM wave propagation like reflections from walls, metal surfaces and other objects in the room that you can't predict the spread of EM waves. If you want to find the best mounting position vertically, temporarily mount the EAP using cable ties and use a WiFi heat mapper to measure the outcome for various different mounting positions.
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Thanks again for your reply!
Do you know if the sides of the EAP is more or less the same as well?
Yeah maybe I am overthinking things. I like everything centrally located, the AP upstairs that I want to install would be best in the hall horizontally (ceiling) to cover both sides. But because I can't mount it in the ceiling and due to wife not wanting it in the wall infront of her face when we come up the stairs, best case is to mount it vertically towards one side of the house.
My current AP is sitting tabletop beside the TV and I get good signal everywhere in the house including the basement (-40dbm to - 72dbm ish), so maybe I am just worrying too much lol
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Jmusic88 wrote
Do you know if the sides of the EAP is more or less the same as well?
Signal strength sideways is somewhat weaker than downwards and upwards of an EAP225. I did some bandwidth tests with an EAP225 sitting in ~2m distance on the tabletop in the same height as the laptop and got ~25% worser signal than what I get if the EAP stands on its tiny small side on the table (vertical position).
But because I can't mount it in the ceiling and due to wife not wanting it in the wall infront of her face when we come up the stairs, best case is to mount it vertically towards one side of the house.
Marital peace is indeed a valid reason to mount the EAP in a specific way.
BTW: you could also use an EAP225-Outdoor indoors if you like. This allows to mount it elsewhere and align the antennas freely into any direction on the H and V planes.
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