Key Specs
Herre are the key specs for the ECW230:
Technical Specifications
Standards
IEEE 802.11ax on 2.4 GHz
IEEE 802.11ax on 5 GHz
Backward compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Processor
Qualcomm® Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53s @ 2.0GHz CPU
Antenna
4 x 2.4 GHz: 3 dBi
4 x 5 GHz: 3 dBi
Integrated Omni-Directional Antenna
Physical Interface
1 x 10/100/1000/2500 N-BASE-T, RJ-45 Ethernet Port
1x DC Jack
1 x Reset Button
LED Indicators
1 x Power
1 x LAN
1 x 2.4 GHz
1 x 5 GHz
Power Source
Power-over-Ethernet: 802.3at Input
12VDC /2A
Maximum Power Consumption
19.5W
Wireless & Radio Specifications
Operating Frequency
Dual-Radio Concurrent 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz
Operation Modes
AP, Mesh
Frequency Radio
2.4 GHz: 2400 MHz ~ 2482 MHz
5 GHz: 5150 MHz ~ 5250 MHz, 5250 MHz ~ 5350 MHz, 5470 MHz ~ 5725 MHz, 5725 MHz ~ 5850 MHz
Transmit Power
Up to 23 dBm on 2.4 GHz
Up to 23 dBm on 5 GHz
(Maximum power is limited by regulatory domain)
Tx Beamforming (TxBF)
Radio Chains/Spatial Stream
4×4:4
SU-MIMO
Four (4) spatial stream SU-MIMO for 2.4GHz and four spatial stream SU-MIMO for 5GHz up to 3,548 Mbps wireless data rate to a single wireless client device under the both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz radio.
MU-MIMO
Four (4) spatial streams Multiple (MU)-MIMO for up to 2400 Mbps wireless data rate to transmit to two (2) two streams MU-MIMO 11ax capable wireless client devices under 5GHz simultaneously.
Four (4) Multiple (MU)-MIMO for up to 1,148 Mbps wireless data rate to transmit to two streams MUMIMO 11ax capable wireless client devices under 2.4GHz simultaneously.
Supported Data Rates (Mbps):
802.11ax:
2.4 GHz: 9 to 1148 (MCS0 to MCS11, NSS = 1 to 4)
5 GHz: 18 to 2400 (MCS0 to MSC11, NSS = 1 to 4)
802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11
802.11a/g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 36, 48, 54
802.11n: 6.5 to 600 Mbps (MCS0 to MCS31)
802.11ac: 6.5 to 1733 Mbps (MCS0 to MCS9, NSS = 1 to 4)
Supported Radio Technologies
802.11ax: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)
802.11b: Direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS)
802.11ac/a/g/n: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM)
Channelization
802.11ax supports very high throughput (VHT) —VHT 20/40/80 MHz
802.11ac supports very high throughput (VHT) —VHT 20/40/80 MHz
802.11n supports high throughput (HT) —HT 20/40 MHz
802.11n supports very high throughput under the 2.4GHz radio –VHT40 MHz (256-QAM)
802.11n/ac/ax packet aggregation: A-MPDU, A-SPDU
Supported Modulation
802.11ax: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, 1024-QAM
802.11ac: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM
802.11a/g/n: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM
802.11b: BPSK, QPSK, CCK
Management
Multiple BSSID
8 SSIDs for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios.
VLAN Tagging
Supports 802.1q SSID-to-VLAN Tagging
Cross-Band VLAN Pass-Through
Management VLAN
Spanning Tree
Supports 802.1d Spanning Tree Protocol
QoS (Quality of Service)
Compliant with IEEE 802.11e Standard
WMM
SNMP
v1, v2c, v3
MIB
I/II, Private MIB
Wireless Security
WPA3
WPA2 Enterprise (AES)
WPA2 AES-PSK
Hide SSID in Beacons
MAC Address Filtering, Up to 32 MACs per SSID
Wireless STA (Client) Connected List
SSH Tunnel
Client Isolation
Warranty
2 Year
Something we will note is missing here is a 160Hz channel. Ideally, we would want this for more performance, but that is missing. In a $200-250 AP, we would be more forgiving, but in this price range, we expect a fully-featured AP.
 AP with 2.5GbE backhaul performs and the cloud-managed features of the AP){kind=link}
Are you working on testing Ruckus AP’s as well? The R720 and R750 are 2.5 GbE enabled APs with 802.11ac and 802.11ax. And they’re a favorite of the STH readers :-)
Would be curious to see how horrendous the performance is on 802.11ax wireless APs with Intel’s previous generation of 802.11ac wireless client cards as they are ubiquitous and probably in some of the mini PCs.
My Ubiquiti U6-Lite + Intel 9260 was barely usable for video conferencing and significantly slower the my cell phone. Upgrading to AX200 of course fixed this, but shouldn’t have been necessary.
Details: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000054799/network-and-i-o/wireless.html
Ditto on the recommendation on rview of Ruckus RR720 & R610 APs. These seem to be the top recommendatons on the forums for top tier APs.
I like the Ruckus APs too and would like to see them reviewed.
I’ve tried the TP-Link EAP245 too and found that it worked quite well and was very inexpensive.
It’s a shame that so many devices like this Engenius AP are coming out that depend upon some cloud service or other. I don’t mind having the option of using a cloud service for something like an AP, but I want to be able to choose whether or not it’s worthwhile for me and my specific uses.
If you don’t want cloud management why wouldn’t you look at the EWS377AP (engenius’ on-prem AX3550 AP which also hits a lower price point)? I’d expect cloud management to cost more if they do it right (it’s not free to run) so if you don’t need it, don’t buy it.
I bought two EWS377APv3 for $200 each, which is basically the same HW, but locally managed.
I also bought one EWS357APv3 for $100, for my parents place.
Best bang for the $ IMHO