NETGEAR WAC505

At a glance
Product	NETGEAR Insight Managed Smart Cloud Wireless Access Point (WAC505)   [Website]
Summary	AC1200 class dual-stream PoE-powered access point with MU-MIMO support
Pros	• Supports AP load balancing and band steering
Cons	• All settings not available via app • Smartphone app is not suitable for managing multiple APs • No MU-MIMO disable

Typical Price: $0  Buy From Amazon

The WAC505 is NETGEAR's entry-level access point in its Insight Cloud-managed small business product line. In addition to access points, the Insight app can also manage smart switches and most ReadyNAS NASes.

The WAC505 is a two-stream 802.11ac design based on Qualcomm's IPQ4019 SoC. So it most closely resembles D-Link's DAP-2610 that uses the IPQ4018. It can be wall or ceiling mounted with included hardware and powered with 802.3af PoE via its single gigabit Ethernet port or an AC adapter that must be ordered separately.

The board photo below shows the IPQ4019 and its RF power amplifiers / front-ends. The 2.4 GHz devices are from Qorvo and the 5 GHz are from RFMD (now owned by Qorvo). But the markings on the devices didn't match up to anything in the Qorvo catalog.

NETGEAR WAC505 board

Other key components are shown in the table.

The WAC505's management is a work in progress. The AP has many desirable features, including band steering, ability to limit the number of clients allowed to attach to each AP, RSSI-based client connection control and wireless backhaul via WDS. There's even the ability to filter URLs. But none of these features can be accessed via the Insight app. Instead, you need to set them via each AP's web GUI.

But each AP can be managed only via Insight or the web interface. According to the user manual:

When you change the management mode, the configuration of the access point is reset (cleared) with the exception of the IP address, access point name, and password for the local browser interface.

NETGEAR Insight app

I experienced this first hand when switching to web management (standalone) mode to set a static IP in preparation for testing. When switching back to Insight mode, I switched mode first, which left the WAC505 with a static IP, which couldn't communicate with its cloud host. Long story short, I ended up resetting the AP to default so it get a proper IP and phone home.

I liked the web GUI a lot more than Insight. But as noted above, it's not a system console and manages only one AP at a time. Although the concept of managing a wireless LAN from your smartphone may be appealing, it's not really practical for managing multiple APs.

NETGEAR WAC505 Web GUI

Introduction D-Link DAP2610 Edimax CAP1200 Linksys LAPAC1200 NETGEAR WAC-505 Open Mesh A40 TP-Link EAP225 Ubiquiti UAP-AC-Lite ZyXEL NWA1123-ACv2 Performance Performance-more, Closing

• Start
• Prev
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9
• 10
• Next
• End

Buy This Product From Amazon

Buy This Product From Amazon

Buy This Product From Amazon

Buy This Product From Amazon

Buy This Product From Amazon

Buy This Product From Amazon

Buy This Product From Amazon

Buy This Product From Amazon

Related Articles

• Open Mesh A40 & A60 Access Points Reviewed
• TP-Link EAP225v3 AC1350 Wireless MU-MIMO Gigabit Ceiling Mount Access Point Reviewed
• Open Mesh OM5P-AC Dual Band 1.17 Gbps Access Point Reviewed
• Edimax WAP1750 & CAP1200 Pro APs Reviewed
• Ubiquiti AC Pro and AC Lite Access Points Reviewed