TP-Link EAP225-Outdoor Access Point, AC1200 Gigabit Wireless Access Points, 802.3af/Passive PoE, Omada Mesh, Seamless Roaming, Weatherrproof, Optimal for Garden Wi-Fi, Free Controller Software

I use two of these to provide WiFi hotspots and outdoor coverage. One is just coming up to 2 years old and the other is 9 months. Both have lived outside and worked pretty flawlessly so far. For someone familiar with home networking, they're fairly easy to set up. You can either login via a browser and set them up via the web interface or use TP-Link's Omada software to provision them. Omada gives them a few extra features and lets you see and log more information than they would do by themselves.For speed and range, I've seen them top out at around 600mbps when within 10m with no real obstacles on 5GHz. Line-of-sight outdoors, the furthest I could test was 100m away where I could still get a decent signal and around 100mbps on my phone. Signal strength and speed drops off very quickly at this distance as soon as there's obstacles which is to be expected really. This is with 5GHz DFS channels which tend to be fairly free from interference. I haven't been able to make fair tests on 2.4GHz as this seems to be very busy in my area. I actually leave it disabled as it's pretty much unusable at any distance due to the amount of interference. I've had this with other routers/APs too here.Good points for me:- Omada is pretty cool (but not necessary for most cases)- Performance is as good as you'd expect from 2x2 WiFi 5- They seem to survive outdoors- Range is good but as usual in WiFi manufacturer doodar land, their claims seem fairly optimistic ("300m+", line of sight at 1mbps while in an RF chamber during a full moon wearing no clothes)- With Omada, they apparently can be used in a mesh sort of configuration but I have yet to try this- Support for DFS channels on 5GHz (usually clearer channels if there's no weather radars)- PoE- Includes mounting bracketBad points:- They're WiFi 5 and a little dated now (there are WiFi 6 models but they're kinda expensive)- If weather radar is detected on a DFS channel, they'll change to another non-DFS channel and remain there. It'd be nice if they returned once the channel was free again. You either have to reboot or change the frequency again.I think they're pretty neat but it would be nice to see the EAP610-Outdoor, the WiFi 6 equivalant drop down in price and replace these (assuming they're just as good but with WiFi 6). They're currently almost twice the price vs these EAP225-Outdoor (£150 vs £80). Booo!

I had been using a booster in an up stairs bedroom and then another 20m down the garden in the shed to reach 45m down to the very bottom with the purpose of getting wifi to a solar powered ip camera, the camera is working better than before probably due to a better signal and less connections.I get full signal on 5g on my phone and the same speed test results 45m down the garden as i get direct from my router in the same room, with the booster setup the speed was poor and the connection was unreliable.The set up is so easy and worked straight away without any issues.

Positives:- Provides decent signal in the garden. Around 500mbps download speeds next to the AP (which is attached to the outside of the house) and around 200mbps (on the 5ghz network) at the very end of the garden (and it’s a very long garden). It would probably improve if I mounted it higher as the garage is blocking the signal slightly.- Does support band steering so you can combine both the 2.4 and 5ghz SSID’s (this does of course require you to know what band steering does, it’s not obvious from the UI).Negatives:- Doesn’t have a repeater function (which would have made installation options much more versatile) so you do need to run a cable back to the router.- It does support Mesh networking but only with other TP-Link EAP devices (won’t mesh with other manufacturers AP’s) and you need a separate controller in order to configure this (either software or hardware).Update:I’ve now mounted the access point higher up and more centrally in the garden. The signal is more stable and has better coverage than when it was near the house but the signal seems to be easily blocked by buildings and trees which isn’t great when it’s meant to be used outside.Another update:I’ve finally relented and purchased another one to use in mesh mode as the signal at the very end of the garden wasn’t good enough with just the one. I’ve installed it on a fence post at the very end of the garden but still in line of sight of the existing one so as to avoid the signal getting blocked by trees. Luckily, the shed has power going to it so I was able to power it from there. So far, I have been impressed by the resulting coverage; I’m now getting a very good signal all over the garden. I was also impressed by the Omada controller software; it was easy and straightforward to configure (I didn’t even need to follow any instructions) and it adopted both the access point without issue and even allowed me to update the firmware. You don’t need to have the software running all the time either (if you don’t want to constantly monitor the network) so you don’t necessarily need a dedicated PC running 24/7 or the hardware controller.

I wanted to fit an external WAP with a good IP rating from a reputable brand.There are a number that would fall into this category, but this seems to be one with very good customer reviews.It was relatively easy to set up and works as advertised.However although it talks about supporting Mesh networking it seems that only applies other TP-Link EAP devices.Also no Ethernet cables are supplied.But solid in performance.