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Anyone brave enough to try out the new AP906 WiFi AP?

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12 May 2023 16:33 #13 by piste basher
Against my better judgement I've decided to throw caution to the wind and try 3 AP906's (two wired and one wireless) with my 2927ax as mesh root.

Early days yet but initial observations :-

1. Simply because I was using Channel 100 on 5GHz in my previous set up I set these new ones up on Channel 100. All seemed fine but the wirelessly connected AP would not connect to the "preferred" uplink - it would only connect to the mesh root, the connection (being the one with the greatest distance!) having an RSSI of 0%.
2. I noticed that very few of my devices were connecting on 5GHz. As a test I turned on band steering (I haven't used band steering or any of Draytek's roaming options for some time). This resulted in several more devices switching to 5GHz; however, an Amazon Echo Show 8 streaming Radio 4 Extra would cut out every 20-30 seconds, as though it was continually connecting and disconnecting.
3. Both of these issues appear to have been resolved by changing to Channel 36 on 5Ghz. The wireless AP now connects to the preferred uplink with an RSSI of 60%. Although there were no more issues with the Echo I've turned band steering off anyway.
4. I have 6 Apple devices and haven't noticed any particular problems as yet, although as I say it's early days.
5. It feels as though some configuration changes take quite a time to actually happen; sometimes a reboot is required to get them to "stick".

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  • oviano
  • User
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13 May 2023 12:41 #14 by oviano

Technical wrote:

oviano wrote:
Installed five yesterday.

So far no issues, and we’re predominantly Apple devices.

Devices are in AP mode, wired back to the router so no mesh.

They’re certainly chunky - bigger than I thought. From the images on the website I for some reason imagined they were smaller than the AP903s that I have replaced, but they’re actually bigger.

Good speeds so far, faster than I could ever get with the 903s. Speed test showing in the higher hundreds of mb/s (internet is 1gbps).



Do all functions in firmware work? 1060C and 908 I found some functions just don't do anything. Also does roaming work well do you get sticky clients? Do you use one SSID per all five ap's ? Could you share rough guide/setting how you set them up. What wifi channels you use?
I am getting continuous disconnects on mobile devices or no internet on 60db+ for some reason even if all settings standard etc.. Did not have such issues on older draytek ap's. So considering AP906 but worried it will be same.



Sorry, I've only just seen this, and I can see you've taken the plunge anyway!

Everything was initially as default and then I set them as AP mode, enabled both 2.4GHz and 5GHz modes using the same SSID, security WPA3/WPA2 mode, and then I arranged the channels over five floors from bottom to top as follows (2.4Ghz channel/5Ghz channel)

1,36
6,40
11,44
1,48
6,36

All devices are wired back to the router.

All seems solid, I've not had to reboot anything, I've just left it all alone without changing any other settings.

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14 May 2023 11:19 #15 by piste basher
A further observation on my part (but I don't think this is specific to the AP906, I've noted it before with Draytek):

Setting wifi security to WPA3/WPA2 seems to result in some devices not being able to connect, even though they are perfectly happy to connect when it's set to WPA2.

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14 May 2023 19:43 #16 by edinburgh
A well known problem with Apple devices. However, a mixed WPA2/3 should be ok, unlike WPA3 on its own. I have the same problem with my Devolo adapters in that if the security is set to WPA3 only, Apple devices don't connect.

I find it extraordinary actually that even though WPA3 has been in use for some time now, Apple devices seem to have a problem with connecting.

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29 Jun 2023 11:30 #17 by piste basher
Interesting that the "Live Demo" mesh status page for the AP906 http://eu.draytek.com:50906/home_frame.asp shows the AP906 acting as mesh root (although its "Operation Mode" page indicates that it's a node??) with AP920's and AP903's as nodes, when the AP906 "Support List" shows that it is only compatible with other AP906's......... :roll:

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17 Aug 2023 10:59 #18 by pharcyder

Piste Basher wrote:
Against my better judgement I've decided to throw caution to the wind and try 3 AP906's (two wired and one wireless) with my 2927ax as mesh root.

Early days yet but initial observations :-

1. Simply because I was using Channel 100 on 5GHz in my previous set up I set these new ones up on Channel 100. All seemed fine but the wirelessly connected AP would not connect to the "preferred" uplink - it would only connect to the mesh root, the connection (being the one with the greatest distance!) having an RSSI of 0%.
2. I noticed that very few of my devices were connecting on 5GHz. As a test I turned on band steering (I haven't used band steering or any of Draytek's roaming options for some time). This resulted in several more devices switching to 5GHz; however, an Amazon Echo Show 8 streaming Radio 4 Extra would cut out every 20-30 seconds, as though it was continually connecting and disconnecting.
3. Both of these issues appear to have been resolved by changing to Channel 36 on 5Ghz. The wireless AP now connects to the preferred uplink with an RSSI of 60%. Although there were no more issues with the Echo I've turned band steering off anyway.
4. I have 6 Apple devices and haven't noticed any particular problems as yet, although as I say it's early days.
5. It feels as though some configuration changes take quite a time to actually happen; sometimes a reboot is required to get them to "stick".




Do you have time to share your longer term experience? I ended up switching to a TPLink Deco Mesh using their S7 nodes which has worked flawlessly and is very affordable.....but I'd like 1 Draytek AP as a Mesh node using my 2865ac as wireless Mesh root to extend out my IoTs VLAN to the perimeter of my house.

Got stung with the 903 which did not work as a wireless Mesh node at all despite being on the Supported list and 3 hours working with Support who couldn't get it working either. Don't have time to make the same mistake.

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