Suitable repeaters for Nebula FWA510

Hille

A new question about suitable repeaters. According to the manual and what I've read here at Community, the Nebula FWA510 lacks support for Easymesh. I need a repeater with two Ethernet ports for connecting devices and another to amplify my wifi outdoors. I can't find anything on the Swedish market that I can see obviously working with the Nebula FWA510. What should I choose?

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @Hille ,

The Nebula FWA510 doesn't support Easymesh, but we can recommend the best suitable network topology with Zyxel device as below:

• Connect either the WAC500H or WAX300H to your Nebula FWA510 using an Ethernet cable. Both these models feature multiple LAN ports for your wired connections.
  
• For outdoor coverage, the NWA55AXE can wirelessly connect to either the WAC500H or WAX300H using the smart mesh technology, eliminating the need for additional cabling to your outdoor areas.

Zyxel_Tina

Hi @Pulla,

Sorry for the late reply!

Since the FWA510 does not support the mesh feature, a wired connection to the downlink AP is required, as illustrated in the topology shown in Judy’s previous reply. In other words, the FWA510 cannot connect wirelessly to any repeater or extender devices.

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @Hille ,

The Nebula FWA510 doesn't support Easymesh, but we can recommend the best suitable network topology with Zyxel device as below:

• Connect either the WAC500H or WAX300H to your Nebula FWA510 using an Ethernet cable. Both these models feature multiple LAN ports for your wired connections.
  
• For outdoor coverage, the NWA55AXE can wirelessly connect to either the WAC500H or WAX300H using the smart mesh technology, eliminating the need for additional cabling to your outdoor areas.

Pulla

Is there repeater/extender that works wirelessly with FWE510. Ethernet ports are not must in thia case.

WX3100-T0 perhaps?

Zyxel_Tina

Hi @Pulla,

Sorry for the late reply!

Since the FWA510 does not support the mesh feature, a wired connection to the downlink AP is required, as illustrated in the topology shown in Judy’s previous reply. In other words, the FWA510 cannot connect wirelessly to any repeater or extender devices.

PeterUK

I think this would work

WX3100-T0 | Dual-Band Wireless AX1800 Gigabit Access Point/Extender | Zyxel Networks

WDS is not supported on FWA510 but a AP that can connect as a client to FWA510 should work

Markluk

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/77231#Comment_77231

Hello. Isnt the wax300h PoE only? Meaning i would need a poe-switch? Or will the wax300h power from fwa510?

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @Markluk ,

The WAX300H supports PoE only. Since the FWA510 does not supply power, you will need to connect the WAX300H to a PoE switch or PoE injector.

Markluk

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/84457#Comment_84457

Thank you for the quick answer!

Im planning to put 1x nwa55axe on my house's outside-backwall, and 1x on the outside-frontwall. And its about 5-8meters to them from the wax300h, with only 1 wood-wall in between.

Would the wax300h succesfully reach the outdoor-nwa55axe's via wifi with good wifi-strength&speed? (I have 1gbit fiber on the fwa510)

And are there any estimates on how much square meters of wifi the outside-ap's will give to my garden?

Edit: would nwa30be be a better choice instead of wax300h? (Im still gonna use a switch because i need the extra ports)

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @Markluk ,

While the highlight of the WAX300H is its 3 LAN ports for connecting wired devices, the NWA30BE supports the Wi-Fi 7 standard for better performance. You may choose the most suitable one based on your requirements.

The NWA55AXE can provide Wi-Fi coverage of up to 55 meters outdoors; however, the actual range may vary depending on environmental factors such as water, metal objects, and physical obstructions.

To ensure the Repeater AP (NWA55AXE) can connect to the Root AP wirelessly, please deploy the NWA55AXE in a location where the signal strength is approximately -65 dBm or better. You can use a network scanning tool on your phone or laptop to verify the signal strength at the intended location.

Markluk

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/comment/84488#Comment_84488

Thank you. I went for the nwa30BE, and everything else i wrote. And so far everything works as i hoped. :)

Will do more testing on thursday.

But one thing thats bothering me. I have my Outside-ap's right next to my 2 outside-cameras of different brand. In the beginning they picked the outside-APs and got full wifi-strengh. But now when i look they have picked the nwa30be with much worse wifi-strengh. Why is that? And how can i make them pick the outside-APs? I mean, they should pick the one with best dBm-signal-strengh automatically right?

I must be doing something wrong. I just tested walking outside where my outside-ap is. And my phone wont connect to it. I drop wifi and cant connect almost as soon as i walk outside. What am i missing? (According to the logs i have connected to the outside-APs. But some setting or something must be wrong anyway, because if i walk away from the house/outside-AP only about 4meters, my wifi quits, and i cant reconnect, even though i find it in wifi-list. I think it said something about my phone couldnt recieve an IP)

Zyxel_Judy

Hi @Markluk ,

We recommend following the steps in this article and testing again with your phone.

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/19901/nebula-how-to-deal-with-wi-fi-disconnections-or-intermittent-connectivity

Regarding your two outdoor cameras:

When multiple APs share the same SSID name and security type with overlapping signals, client devices may roam between APs — this is expected client behavior.

If you would like both outdoor cameras to connect specifically to the outdoor AP (NWA55AXE), you can assign a tag to both the SSID and the NWA55AXE. Please refer to this article for the steps.

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/20201/how-to-configure-unique-ssid-on-specific-access-points-on-nebula