Engenius Outdoor Wireless Access Point N300, 5GHz, Removable Antenna (ENS500EXT)

I was completely surprised with the quality of this piece of hardware. The value is in the details. Including the POE injector? Awesome! So what if it's proprietary. It's included. Second - when you're configuring the IP address and reboot it, the thing actually loads up at the new IP address instead of having to monkey around with re-typing the address for the new IP. Cool. Third - IT DOESN'T HAVE TO REBOOT WITH EVERY CONFIG CHANGE. Why can't all manufacturers do this? It queues up your changes and gives you one reboot cycle. That in itself shows these engineers are thinking. I don't know about the other reviewers that couldn't get this to work. It couldn't be easier. I had it configured in less than ten minutes and I wasn't even at home yet. Yah, I do IT for a living - and I'm good at it. It's not something for the average consumer to take on.My configuration is a bit different from most. I have a very high powered home access point. I setup the EnGenius box to bridge that signal from the house in my garage. Instead of using two EnGenius units, I connected another access point to the LAN port of the EnGenius, creating a second wireless network that is on the same scope as my house. Same SSIDs, etc. Boom. Done. Exactly what I wanted it to be and way cheaper than something designed this well should cost. If I had a need for more, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them.

I found this product impossible to setup, support was difficult to communicate with and I never could communicate to them what I was attempting to accomplish purchasing their product. I made 3 phone calls and sent two emails. I downloaded every manual they had and viewed every video I could find. Nothing worked. This may be a good product but you need to have network training to install it. It is not for the novice. Now I have to pay to return it!!!:(

Initially I installed the Engenius N-EnStation5 Kit EnGenius Technologies N-EnStation5 Kit (N-EnStation5 Kit) to do a wireless bridge to connect two buildings. A year later it was asked that we extend our internet to a third building. Having just bought these a year before, I did not want to buy another set so I looked to see what I could do. I did some research but could not find anything on adding a central hub to the En-Station5 Kit. I set up the three devices as a WDS Bridge, added the MAC addresses, put them on the same channel and they connected just fine. The only limitation that this device has, in comparison to the EnStation, is that it requires a more direct line of sight, that is the only downside to this product. This is a great product and it met every expectation and is performing at a high level. We have a 50mb internet connection and it does not drop anything from one building to the other, works just as fine as if you had ran underground cable. If it's anything like the other Engenius products, it should be reliable and need very little maintenance.

If I wasn't highly knowledgeable about IT and network configuration, setting these up would have been nearly impossible. It works well, but you'll need to adjust the range if you want it to use it's full long-distance capabilities. The admin interface is wonky and not user friendly. I can see why these have mixed reviews -- they shouldn't be so difficult for the average joe to set up, but for some reason, they are. 4/5 starsOCT 2018 UPDATE: Downgrading to 2 starsThis device does not support Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) from a Cisco switch or router - you must use the proprietary PoE injector that comes with the device (per the hard-to-find manual that doesn't come with the device, but is available for download online: "The PoE interface allows the ENS500EXT to be powered using THE SUPPLIED POE INJECTOR. ... ONLY USE THE POWER ADAPTER SUPPLIED WITH THEENS500EXT. USING A DIFFERENT POWER ADAPTER MIGHT DAMAGE THE ENS500EXT.")This is garbage for anyone who is trying to consolidate or reduce the number of devices their network needs to run. Very disappointed, and would not have purchased this particular access point had I known it was not compatible with switches that support IEEE 802.3af devices (the PoE standard, which this device does not comply with). Now I have a PoE switch that I didn't really need...

However once operational it worked well as a range extender. But was unable to get it up and running as a WAP or a bridge. Support was not all that great either. Should consider Linksys or Cisco....a little more pricier but easier to get up and running.

Now THIS router puts out a strong signal. Finally. I found a router that actually can reach from one end of my house to the other. A bit tricky to set up, but well worth the money. Seems Amazon has a lot of returns on these, probably due to the setup issues, so you can probably find one for $50 or so if you look carefully.

Pure junk. First they set it to the same ip that your router normally goes to. 192.168.1.1, so I had to firestick login and change my routers settings just to try to program it. That is when the real problems started. The software seems out of the dark ages. Definitely not plug and play. I checked for software updates but it said I was on the most recent version. When you tried to update settings some settings would update. Some changes you would make then whenever you reboot they would go back to default causing me to have to reprogram parts anytime you rebooted or until I had it on an APC if the power went out for a split second. I was using it as an access point. The software would say I had it in secure connection mode only however I could still easily get around their security and establish a connection. So their software is very unsecure. I've been working with servers and networks since 1995. I was really surprised at how dated and unsecure this was. I felt like I was using a product from 10-15 years ago. I don't leave many bad reviews. This is junk!