TP link business solution

[elvintay07]

Guys

As i was doing some research about wifi 7, i realised that TP link has some sleek solutions. I am wondering why not many use their system

For example for new BTO/ condos

(1) Put 1 of this router in DB box
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/business-networking/omada-router-integrated-router/er7212pc/

(2) Replace 2-3 of your existing lan point with these w
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/business-networking/omada-wifi-wall-plate/eap650-wall/

Everything will look super nice woh…How all the IT expert lip lai explain

 

[Mach3.2]

why not many use their system

simply put it's not marketed as aggressively as wifi mesh, if at all. Everyone heard about mesh, but they go ??? when you mention access points.

You also need to properly tune all your AP's radio transmit power to make them work properly together, and this requires some domain knowledge.

The whole process have so much friction most just buy mesh and cross their fingers.

 

[007Mi6]

Can they work as mesh?

 

[xiaofan]

Guys

As i was doing some research about wifi 7, i realised that TP link has some sleek solutions. I am wondering why not many use their system

For example for new BTO/ condos

(1) Put 1 of this router in DB box
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/business-networking/omada-router-integrated-router/er7212pc/

(2) Replace 2-3 of your existing lan point with these w
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/business-networking/omada-wifi-wall-plate/eap650-wall/

Everything will look super nice woh…How all the IT expert lip lai explain

Not an IT expert but this type of solutions (Ubiquiti Unifi, TP-Link Omada, Aruba Instant ON, etc) are not targeting at home users but towards small business. So there are some difficulties to set them up properly. They also tend to have more features.

For typical users, consumer mesh system is much easier.

 

[xiaofan]

TP-Link China, H3C China and Huawei China have consumer oriented solution which may be easier to set up but not for Singapore market.

Reference: they call this AC+AP in China, for big flats.
https://www.zhihu.com/tardis/zm/art/441799468?source_id=1003

Example: Huawei H6/Q6 Mesh Ethernet version
https://consumer.huawei.com/cn/support/routers-h6-buy-guide/
https://consumer.huawei.com/cn/routers/q6-ethernet-cable/specs/

Example: H3C H9
https://www.h3c.com/cn/Products_And_Solution/IntelligentTerminalProducts/Star_Products/Magic/H/H9/

 

[xiaofan]

Can they work as mesh?

Yes, and usually better than consumer mesh if set up properly.

 

[elvintay07]

I like it for the ceiling and wall option.

 

[elvintay07]

TP-Link China, H3C China and Huawei China have consumer oriented solution which may be easier to set up but not for Singapore market.

Reference: they call this AC+AP in China, for big flats.
https://www.zhihu.com/tardis/zm/art/441799468?source_id=1003

Example: Huawei H6/Q6 Mesh Ethernet version
https://consumer.huawei.com/cn/support/routers-h6-buy-guide/
https://consumer.huawei.com/cn/routers/q6-ethernet-cable/specs/

Example: H3C H9
https://www.h3c.com/cn/Products_And...ducts/Star_Products/Mini_Network/H_Series/H9/

Cannot use?

 

[XiaoFu99]

Guys
As i was doing some research about wifi 7, i realised that TP link has some sleek solutions. I am wondering why not many use their system
For example for new BTO/ condos
(1) Put 1 of this router in DB box
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/business-networking/omada-router-integrated-router/er7212pc/
(2) Replace 2-3 of your existing lan point with these w
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/business-networking/omada-wifi-wall-plate/eap650-wall/
Everything will look super nice woh…How all the IT expert lip lai explain

you got to be very patience with ER7212PC. boot up time is like 10mins or so and you can't perform a schedule reboot. rather slow Web GUI access as well.

strange switch/EAP ACL that doesn't seems to take effect. has to rely on gateway ACL. by default, newly created VLAN can talk to other LAN.


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[xiaofan]

Cannot use?

You can use them.

Be careful if you are using SingTel ONT (SingTel VLAN required). They may or may not Support SingTel VLAN.

Be careful if you use ONR as well. You may have to live with Double NAT since the main router of such solutions may not support bridge mode.

Avoid ONR in general if you are a power user.

 

[xiaofan]

you got to be very patience with ER7212PC. boot up time is like 10mins or so and you can't perform a schedule reboot. rather slow Web GUI access as well.
strange switch/EAP ACL that doesn't seems to take effect. has to rely on gateway ACL. by default, newly created VLAN can talk to other LAN.

Good point about lower end TP-Link Omada enabled VPN router.

I was looking briefly at the spec of ER7212PC and thought it was not too bad. But just took a look again and saw the following spec. It seems to me they are using a pretty low end CPU.

OpenVPN
34 Mbps

3-in-1 Router: Integrates router, PoE+ output, and Omada centralized management ability altogether. Up to 10 EAPs can be centrally managed.

Professional Hardware: Dual-Core CPU with 1GB DDR3 memory provides stellar performance for up to 12× Gigabit ports.

There is a very low cost ER605 (below S$100) and the performance is even lower.

 

[elvintay07]

You can use them.

Be careful if you are using SingTel ONT (SingTel VLAN required). They may or may not Support SingTel VLAN.

Be careful if you use ONR as well. You may have to live with Double NAT since the main router of such solutions may not support bridge mode.

Avoid ONR in general if you are a power user.

M1 and StarHub got no issue right? I love the sleek feel but still prefer plug and play

 

[xiaofan]

M1 and StarHub got no issue right? I love the sleek feel but still prefer plug and play

No issues with M1/Starhub as they use ONT.

 

[firesong]

Guys

As i was doing some research about wifi 7, i realised that TP link has some sleek solutions. I am wondering why not many use their system

For example for new BTO/ condos

(1) Put 1 of this router in DB box
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/business-networking/omada-router-integrated-router/er7212pc/

(2) Replace 2-3 of your existing lan point with these w
https://www.tp-link.com/sg/business-networking/omada-wifi-wall-plate/eap650-wall/

Everything will look super nice woh…How all the IT expert lip lai explain

I started with Omada some years ago, and moved onto Ruckus when I had a good deal during the pandemic period (snagged some company clearance stuff). Sis and I have two wall mount APs in our rooms, the rest of flat is served by a single ceiling mount. This ensures that, even if we were to close our rooms to work, wifi coverage is still great. Old flat, so the ceiling beams are great at blocking signals.

Once you have used proper wifi hardware, it's hard to go back to low-end consumer stuff. The higher end models are generally okay, but may also require more work.

Also, personally, "mesh" with a wireless backhaul is a no-go unless absolutely no choice (to cover dead zones). Where possible, leverage on cabled connections for maximum coverage. Deploy additional cabling as needed for the most optimum setup. Even for consumer hardware, I tell my friends who ask to use wired backhauls. All of them who eventually decide to plug in their mesh nodes, always thank me for the much improved performance - it's actually noticeable.

Personally, TP Link's routers are not great. Go with pfSense/OpnSense, or Mikrotik - the routing performance is better. Stick to using Omada APs and maybe their switch if you want management convenience.

 

[elvintay07]

I started with Omada some years ago, and moved onto Ruckus when I had a good deal during the pandemic period (snagged some company clearance stuff). Sis and I have two wall mount APs in our rooms, the rest of flat is served by a single ceiling mount. This ensures that, even if we were to close our rooms to work, wifi coverage is still great. Old flat, so the ceiling beams are great at blocking signals.

Once you have used proper wifi hardware, it's hard to go back to low-end consumer stuff. The higher end models are generally okay, but may also require more work.

Also, personally, "mesh" with a wireless backhaul is a no-go unless absolutely no choice (to cover dead zones). Where possible, leverage on cabled connections for maximum coverage. Deploy additional cabling as needed for the most optimum setup. Even for consumer hardware, I tell my friends who ask to use wired backhauls. All of them who eventually decide to plug in their mesh nodes, always thank me for the much improved performance - it's actually noticeable.

My plan is to use ER7212 PC and wired 2 AP EAP650 Wall AP. I understand wall AP is easy to configure using the Omada app. How easy is it to configure ER7212PC?

 

[firesong]

My plan is to use ER7212 PC and wired 2 AP EAP650 Wall AP. I understand wall AP is easy to configure using the Omada app. How easy is it to configure ER7212PC?

I haven't used TP-Links routers in over 6 years. It was such a pain to use and routing performance was so poor (unstable and inconsistent) that I switched to using the ERL-3 back then.

Even ageing parents could tell the network performance had changed. My mum asked if we upgraded internet.

 

[rosschang]

Hmm... interesting...

I'm using ER605 >> TL-SG1008P >> 2x Aruba InstantOn Ap22 Ceiling mounted.

Was looking at ER7212PC and wandered if it's overkill, plus of cos, i'll need the extra port from the switch too anyway (need approx 12 ethernet port cos I double wired all my LAN point)

Is it a day n night different upgrading the ER605? ER7212PC perform better?

Was considering Microtik, but got overwhelmed reading about configuring it. (and no Mac support?...)

FYI, the 2 nos Aruba AP22 configuration is one of the kind, need internet access then can configure cos it's all via phone app / arube cloud. Good thing is, config is relatively easy, and when two nos is group together, it auto mesh. handover pretty ok.

 

[XiaoFu99]

My plan is to use ER7212 PC and wired 2 AP EAP650 Wall AP. I understand wall AP is easy to configure using the Omada app. How easy is it to configure ER7212PC?

depend how complex you want to be.

for simple setup, don't change default gateway @ 192.168.0.1, no VLAN, set wireless SSID/PW, adopt the wireless AP units and you are good to go.



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[XiaoFu99]

Good point about lower end TP-Link Omada enabled VPN router.
I was looking briefly at the spec of ER7212PC and thought it was not too bad. But just took a look again and saw the following spec. It seems to me they are using a pretty low end CPU.
OpenVPN
34 Mbps
3-in-1 Router: Integrates router, PoE+ output, and Omada centralized management ability altogether. Up to 10 EAPs can be centrally managed.
Professional Hardware: Dual-Core CPU with 1GB DDR3 memory provides stellar performance for up to 12× Gigabit ports.
There is a very low cost ER605 (below S$100) and the performance is even lower.

I think more popular option will be do it separately rather 3-in-1.

ER605 v2 comes with an upgrade in CPU and memory. together with an OC200/300, is another option with faster boot up time.

ER7212PC doesn't support wireguard and IKEv2 doesn't support proxy mode.



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[elvintay07]

I think more popular option will be do it separately rather 3-in-1.

ER605 v2 comes with an upgrade in CPU and memory. together with an OC200/300, is another option with faster boot up time.

ER7212PC doesn't support wireguard and IKEv2 doesn't support proxy mode.



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If I use separate item. I presume it is ONT to router to Controller to Switch to AP?