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For a long time, I used three access points at home. A few months ago, I decided to downsize and see if, with technological advances, I could reduce the number of APs. Obviously, the more remote areas would be penalized, but at the moment I don't need a lot of bandwidth, just stability. So I kept only the Omada 670 - hung from the ceiling, roughly in the center of the house. The coverage was fairly complete, except for a few unimportant corners. It was ok-ish.

I had the opportunity to get a Ruckus R550 at an interesting price (for a Ruckus, of course) and, despite having lower speed performance than the Omada, I wanted to try it. Initially I was disappointed. The coverage was almost the same (but the Ruckus is in a slightly worse position, about a meter from the Omada but resting on a wooden piece of furniture), so I didn't see the advantages. However, I left it running, since I had it. The network remained stable for months.

A few days ago I needed the poe injector I use for the Ruckus (while the Omada is powered by its own power supply) so I reconnected the Omada and turned off the Ruckus. Same channels, same configuration.

Suddenly, I realized the difference. Even seeing (almost) the same signal levels from the monitoring apps, the actual performance is very different. Even in a distant room with many walls (of brick and concrete) in between, the 5Ghz signal of the Ruckus remains stable and reliable, while with the Omada it was much less stable. As "bars", almost the same. But with the Omada it is a continuous packet loss and switching to 2.4 GHz. Moreover, the most distant device (a Raspberry PI A+ with FreeBSD) with the Omada loses signal several times a day, with the Ruckus no problem and despite having a minimum bandwidth, it does not lose packets.

Going back to the Omada for a few days showed me that yes, there are differences. Yesterday I reconnected the Ruckus. Gone, again, all the problems. Of course, with the cost of a Ruckus (on offer) I get 3 "superior" Omadas, but the difference is there.

#WiFI #Omada #Ruckus #Networking #Wireless #AccessPoint