Advantages and Disadvantages of Wireless Access Points

With more and more wireless Internet users, wireless Internet access has become a trend. A wireless access point (AP) is ubiquitous no matter in a family or a large department store. However, everything is imperfect, since advantages are always followed by disadvantages. This post will interpret the advantages & advantages of wireless access points respectively.

Advantages:
1. More users access

An ordinary wireless router can only support 10-20 users access, while AP is able to allow over 50 or even hundreds of users access, and what’s more, it has stronger ability to send and receive signals. Especially in a large area needing wireless coverage, an AP has more advantages than a wireless router.

2. Broader range of transmission

Generally, the range of signal transmission that a wireless router can cover is just dozens of meters, and if beyond this range, signal will be lost. Nevertheless, an AP can cover further distances, up to 100-300 meters, and the increase of wireless access point will extend signal coverage proportionally, which enables users to roam freely in the network. Especially for enterprises, their office space is usually larger, and even some need to communicate across the buildings, and the number of users accessing the network is so large that they need a larger wireless network coverage, thus avoiding management of cabling.

3. Flexible networking

It is known that except home networking, wireless networking in commercial locations often involves the use of many wireless devices, and different networking patterns should be adopted based on the environment and requirements. The networking mode of the wireless router is relatively single with low flexibility. On the contrary, an AP has a variety of modes for you to choose, which meant to be very flexible, such as Simplex AP, Wireless Client, Wireless Bridge, Multi-point Bridge, etc. and it can be managed in a centralized way with the cooperation of wireless AP controller.

4. Multi-AP interconnection

The enterprise can design the wireless program flexibly according to its actual situation. Multi-AP interconnection can give full play to its advantages. Multi-AP applications are typically found in businesses but rarely exposed at home. In the business, the coverage of single AP is limited, so in order to extend the coverage of wireless networks and allow clients to roam seamlessly in the network, multi-AP interconnection will be a favorite for an enterprise.

multi-APs interconnection

Disadvantages:
1. High cost

Some people think that wireless AP is a little bit expensive, because for enterprises, when the scale of enterprise wireless network is larger, the more wireless APs are needed, thus the higher cost that enterprises will undertake. So the priority for an enterprise is to control cost, which leads many people to be reluctant to use wireless AP, instead, they prefer using home wireless routers with lower performance.

2. Inability to be used alone

Now, many people would firstly think of wireless routers instead of wireless AP at the mention of building wireless networks, unless it’s a large hotel, or public places. The main reason is that a wireless AP can’t be used alone, can’t be directly connected to ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Loop) modem and it needs to be used in conjunction with other equipment like switches, controllers, ethernet hubs, etc. Therefore, many people would find it very troublesome and less convenient as a wireless router.

WiFi-AP can't be used alone

3. Poor stability

Poor stability is aiming at cable networks. Wireless networks take air as transmission medium while cable networks take cables as transmission medium. It’s not difficult to know that the cable network is faster and more stable than wireless network. Wireless AP only functions well when failing to build a cable network.

Conclusion

Wireless AP and wireless router are facing different targeted groups, a wireless router is aimed mainly at home users and students with low cost and good performance, and it’s able to meet the basic needs of the general family users. Wireless AP is mainly for business users, and its transmission range is wider and broader, it supports more users access, and has stronger signal sending and receiving capability. At the same time, it also has better safety performance, of course, the price will be far more expensive accordingly.

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