Zyxel NWA1123-ACv2

At a glance
Product	Zyxel 802.11ac Dual-Radio Ceiling Mount PoE Access Point (NWA1123-ACv2)   [Website]
Summary	Qualcomm-based AC1200 2x2 PoE-powered access point.
Pros	• Very small footprint • Decent performance
Cons	• No band steering • Setup much more difficult than it should be • Poor performance in multi-client load test

Typical Price: $0  Buy From Amazon

Last, but not least, in our alphabetic procession is Zyxel's NWA1123-ACv2. It's the most compact AP in the roundup at just over 5" in diameter, but also the tallest at a bit over 2". Its single gigabit Ethernet port supports 802.3af for power or you can use an included 12 VDC adapter.

Despite the small size, the Qualcomm-based design has the QCA9882 5 GHz radio on a mini PCIe board. This plugs into the main board that holds what appears to be an Atheros AR9344 2x2 abgn wireless SoC that serves as the main processor and 2.4 GHz radio.

Zyxel NWA1123-ACv2 board (5 GHz modeule removed)

There are a pair of bent-metal antennas for each band, mounted to an aluminum plate that sits at the top of the AP.

Zyxel NWA1123-ACv2 antennas

The whole assembly was too daunting to take apart for complete component identification, so you'll note there are guesses and missing information in the table below.

The NWA1123-ACv2 is primarily managed by a web GUI that has a fresh, modern design. There is also a command line interface that can be accessed via SSH and Telnet or by opening a window in the web GUI. While the look is fresh, the object-based design may take some getting used to for non-professionals.

Zyxel NWA1123-ACv2 web GUI

The current feature set doesn't include roaming support via 802.11k,v or r, but does offer RSSI-based assistence. Client association limits are supported to control AP load, but band steering isn't supported. Per-station up and downlink bandwidth limits can be set for each SSID. Dig into the over 250 page User Guide to further explore the feature set.

Zyxel NWA1123-ACv2 SSID bandwidth limiting

Zyxel plans to allow the AP to be managed by its Nebula Cloud Networking Solution in Q1 2018, with a free limited-feature version that can be upgraded to full-feature version with a license purchase. Right now, if you want to manage a group of NWA1123-ACv2's, you can use two free Windows-based applications, the Zyxel AC Configurator (ZAC) and Zyxel ONE Network Utility (ZON).

This is far from an integrated, easy-to-use system like UniFi or Open Mesh, so let's hope Zyxel follows through on Nebula support. I'm told Nebula will also add 802.11k,v,r, band steering and captive portal features, but it's not clear whether they will be in the free version.

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

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