Why NWA55AXE does not have LED?

Zyxel_Silvia

The NWA55AXE is designed for outdoor use. 

For the AP’s LED indicator to be used in the outdoor settings, it will need extra materials to maintain the IP55 rating and since it is rarely used in outdoor devices and equipment in the real-world; thus, for the resources conservation purpose, the NWA55AXE is designed without a LED. 

During the initial setup of the AP, it will take about 5 minutes to boot up successfully, including a possible auto firmware upgrade from the cloud. After that, users can use Nebula App to register and manage the NWA55AXE. 

Or, if the user chooses to use the standalone mode, they can connect to the SSID Zyxelxxxx (the xxxx is the last 4 digits of its MAC address) and use http://setup.zyxel to access its web GUI.

mMontana

4 years ago, another network equipment producer put on the market an AP IP55 grade within the same price range of NWA55AXE (of course, 802.11ac instead of ax) with five LEDs on the side to state the functioning of the device.

IMVHO resource conservation is an important goal for a company and its customers, but let me say that not having at least one LED for power and/or operational status sounds to me far from ideal to the customer.

Which is not able to know if the device is powered, connected or operative without a phone, a pc or a tablet.In case of deployed APs into a open area, resident operatives without tech access or skills cannot be used as verifier if the devices is powered and working or not.

Moreover, lacking of the led blinking as warning "not unplug, firmware updating" might lead to an increased request of RMA requests due to not completed firmware upgrade.

I hope that for the next generation of outdoor devices, zyxel will consider to integrate at least one LED spot with dual led arrangement (one green, one red, combined orange) at least for allowing the installer and the user to basically understand if the device is working and what it's doing.

It's not important to use a different plastic or create a window, Sitecom showed that a thin layer of plastic and a bright enough led set could allow the vision of the light.

Zyxel_Silvia

Hi @mMontana ,

 

Really thank you for so detailed feedback.

We consider outdoor AP can be installed in some higher position that is hard to reach or check the LED light.

We would suggest customer to use Nebula to manage their AP, and

check APs’ status without reach AP which is more convenient.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and any ideas are welcome.

 

Silvia

 

mMontana

We would suggest customer to use Nebula to manage their AP, and check APs’ status without reach AP which is more convenient.

 

I can understand why. Promoting Nebula and price (value) added licenses on Nebula can be an understandable goal for Zyxel.

On the other hand, some devices might be deployed to sites that are not internet connected yet. Or not internet connected at all, so a cloud-device only might opted-out from the shortlist, nevertheless for the lack of non-cloud mode.

Some customers don't see an advantage the device could be remotely managed by an uncontrolled source of instruction as a company.

Zyxel want to go cloud only? I hope that will meet the success deserved.

Zyxel_Silvia

Hi @mMontana ,

 

Thank you for sharing your concerns.

We can use ZON to scan the Zyxel product in the same subnet include the firewall, switch and AP.

And we can also check device status on ZON.

Please mind to select the correspond network adapter.

You can download our tool: Zyxel ONE Network Utility (ZON).

(ZON download link: https://www.zyxel.com/products_services/Zyxel-ONE-Network-Utility-ZON-Utility/ )

Thank you.

Silvia