EAP245 for home use / no ceiling mount? (what antenna pattern)
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This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
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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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R1D2 wrote
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).
That’s interesting! My EAP245 sits tabletop on top of my tv stand, about 2.5 ft from the floor. My couch is about 13ft in front of it, if I sit on the couch with my samsung s8, which is on the same horizontal line-ish (sideways) of the AP, I get RSSI (using the Omada app) ranging between -50 dBm to -58 dBm (most sits at around -53 dBm). If I raise my hand with my my cellphone above the horizontal line, I get between -45 dBm to -50 dBm.
Yet, my amazon fire stick hooked up to my receiver, under the horizontal line, gets full signal at -44 dBm, but it is about 1-2 ft away.
Overall, I am happy with how this unit is placed, I get good signal everywhere, but just want to improve the signal strength on my 2nd floor.
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.
Once I hook up my 2nd EAP unit, I will analyze the signal strength with my downstairs unit off and see how it is. I think it’ll be fine overall since I am overthinking it, but I will consider the EAP225-outdoor as a last resort.
Thanks again for your replies!
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Jmusic88 wrote
That’s interesting! My EAP245 sits tabletop on top of my tv stand, about 2.5 ft from the floor. My couch is about 13ft in front of it, if I sit on the couch with my samsung s8, which is on the same horizontal line-ish (sideways) of the AP, I get RSSI (using the Omada app) ranging between -50 dBm to -58 dBm (most sits at around -53 dBm). If I raise my hand with my my cellphone above the horizontal line, I get between -45 dBm to -50 dBm.
No wonder you get better RSSI (-45 dBm) above and below the horizontal line. Omnidirectional antenna patterns are often shown as a sphere, but in reality they are much like a donut, in case of EAPs a dount rotated by 90º.
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