Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664
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Has anyone used the Grandstream GWN7660 or GWN7664 APs yet?
You have the option of using a built in controller (7660 supports 50 APs, 7664 supports 100+) or using Grandstreams online controller.
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I've used Grandsteam in non-AP contexts a bit. And they aren't "bad", but I wouldn't intentionally buy or deploy them.
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@scottalanmiller said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
I've used Grandsteam in non-AP contexts a bit. And they aren't "bad", but I wouldn't intentionally buy or deploy them.
I have 6+ WP820 WiFi phones and they are great.
Why wouldn't you do GS APs?
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@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
Why wouldn't you do GS APs?
Because they are small market/less used generally, I would not just use them for the hell of it. But if other stock was unavailable, i would look at them.
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@Dashrender We resell the product and as others here have stated they are OK. I'd probably stick with Ubiquiti.
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@jt1001001 said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@Dashrender We resell the product and as others here have stated they are OK. I'd probably stick with Ubiquiti.
Why though?
I watched a walkthrough of the GWN and they support 32 SSIDs. Unifi only support 4. Anymore, 4 is simply not enough in my opinion, 32 is likely overkill.
I also love the fact that one of the units can be the controller, and a second one can be a slave controller/promoted to master if the master dies, AND it supports GS's cloud controller. -
@Dashrender I've only done simple config so far of a couple demo units using the built in controller. Grandstream's interface; while intuitive; is very slow. Firmware updates are known to have issues with Grandstream devices in general; no exceptions with the AP's. Many times you have to do leap frog updates if you don't keep up to date (not to mention Grandstream changes their auto update website occasionally without telling anyone!).
Why so many SSID's? I usually try to keep at as few SSID's as possible to avoid airtime congestion. -
@Dashrender I haven't tried Master/Slave failover on the built in controller yet, I'm supposed to get a new demo unit to play with hopefully in the next week or so; then I will have 3 to test with and can report on what I find.
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@jt1001001 said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@Dashrender I haven't tried Master/Slave failover on the built in controller yet, I'm supposed to get a new demo unit to play with hopefully in the next week or so; then I will have 3 to test with and can report on what I find.
I'm not sure how important this is - as long as all the additional APs will stay running while the master if offline, it's less important - hopefully you've backed up the config from the master - then you just create a new master and restore - again hopefully it's that easy.
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@jt1001001 said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@Dashrender I've only done simple config so far of a couple demo units using the built in controller. Grandstream's interface; while intuitive; is very slow. Firmware updates are known to have issues with Grandstream devices in general; no exceptions with the AP's. Many times you have to do leap frog updates if you don't keep up to date (not to mention Grandstream changes their auto update website occasionally without telling anyone!).
Why so many SSID's? I usually try to keep at as few SSID's as possible to avoid airtime congestion.Interesting you mention changing the GS firmware site. That's just a crazy issue for them to introduce!
Maybe it's a way to get away from older non supported devices - in which case they should just have a different firmware site for each device... -
@Dashrender I cannot get into the demo at the moment (its actually at a customer site I think right now) but as soon as I can I'll review the backup/restore procedure for the on board controller.
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@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@scottalanmiller said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
I've used Grandsteam in non-AP contexts a bit. And they aren't "bad", but I wouldn't intentionally buy or deploy them.
I have 6+ WP820 WiFi phones and they are great.
Why wouldn't you do GS APs?
We have had loads of Grandstream phones over the years and while cheap, they rarely hold up. Their networking gear is similar. It's very "phoned in" dirt cheap aimed at non-IT staff to deploy.
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@JaredBusch said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
Why wouldn't you do GS APs?
Because they are small market/less used generally, I would not just use them for the hell of it. But if other stock was unavailable, i would look at them.
For sure, I would not completely avoid them or anything. But I'd not go out looking for them.
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@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
Unifi only support 4. Anymore, 4 is simply not enough in my opinion, 32 is likely overkill.
4 isn't enough? What the heck are you doing?
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@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
Unifi only support 4. Anymore, 4 is simply not enough in my opinion, 32 is likely overkill.
Since in the modern world you would never use SSIDs as a security barrier in any meaningful way, basically almost everyone limits SSIDs to two... one for corporate and one for guests. Outside of that, having many seems like a really bad thing as it encourages performance issues and makes management start to ignore security because they think that somehow the SSID is protecting them. Making it rather dangerous.
Edge cases exists, sure, but they should be extremely rare. No need for mainline gear to support more SSIDs.
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@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
I also love the fact that one of the units can be the controller, and a second one can be a slave controller/promoted to master if the master dies, AND it supports GS's cloud controller.
That's not a business way to deploy networking gear. Unifi allows really bad things like that, too. But since it's gear for IT pros, we never do that stuff. Using your APs as a controller is just whacky and bad. It's great that they don't force you and it is simply a really bad option, but that doesn't change the fact that you should be ignoring that as it should be seen as totally useless. You don't run in house controllers... just... why?
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@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@jt1001001 said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@Dashrender I haven't tried Master/Slave failover on the built in controller yet, I'm supposed to get a new demo unit to play with hopefully in the next week or so; then I will have 3 to test with and can report on what I find.
I'm not sure how important this is - as long as all the additional APs will stay running while the master if offline, it's less important - hopefully you've backed up the config from the master - then you just create a new master and restore - again hopefully it's that easy.
Every single thing you've mentioned about the Grandstream units feels like a negative that you are stating like a positive. And you have some serious concerns that you don't think this is a serious product line at all.
If I had never heard of Grandstream and only had your description and worries about it, I'd be quite confused as to why you'd be considering it. You are literally telling us in each post how quirky and non-enterprise grade it is.
What I've not heard a single statement of is... what is a single benefit to choosing it? What is driving you to even entertain looking at it? Why avoid known, good products to look at something that apparently has no compelling value other than "well, if we had to, we'd not rule it out." There is something totally missing from the decision process here.
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@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@jt1001001 said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@Dashrender I've only done simple config so far of a couple demo units using the built in controller. Grandstream's interface; while intuitive; is very slow. Firmware updates are known to have issues with Grandstream devices in general; no exceptions with the AP's. Many times you have to do leap frog updates if you don't keep up to date (not to mention Grandstream changes their auto update website occasionally without telling anyone!).
Why so many SSID's? I usually try to keep at as few SSID's as possible to avoid airtime congestion.Interesting you mention changing the GS firmware site. That's just a crazy issue for them to introduce!
Maybe it's a way to get away from older non supported devices - in which case they should just have a different firmware site for each device...Their phones have always had issues bricking as well. We assume we throw them away in vast quantities. Just the price you pay for getting one small step above Fisher Price networking gear.
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@scottalanmiller said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
Unifi only support 4. Anymore, 4 is simply not enough in my opinion, 32 is likely overkill.
Since in the modern world you would never use SSIDs as a security barrier in any meaningful way, basically almost everyone limits SSIDs to two... one for corporate and one for guests. Outside of that, having many seems like a really bad thing as it encourages performance issues and makes management start to ignore security because they think that somehow the SSID is protecting them. Making it rather dangerous.
To me, the magic number is three today. While not a lot of SMB have much in the way of real IoT at the moment, there is a whole slew of shit working its way down to the SMB.
- Corporate/Private LAN
- Public Network
- IoT Network
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@JaredBusch said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@scottalanmiller said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
@Dashrender said in Grandstream GWN7660/GWN7664:
Unifi only support 4. Anymore, 4 is simply not enough in my opinion, 32 is likely overkill.
Since in the modern world you would never use SSIDs as a security barrier in any meaningful way, basically almost everyone limits SSIDs to two... one for corporate and one for guests. Outside of that, having many seems like a really bad thing as it encourages performance issues and makes management start to ignore security because they think that somehow the SSID is protecting them. Making it rather dangerous.
To me, the magic number is three today. While not a lot of SMB have much in the way of real IoT at the moment, there is a whole slew of shit working its way down to the SMB.
- Corporate/Private LAN
- Public Network
- IoT Network
I can see IoT being its own. I don't have many customers deploying wireless IoT yet, for whatever reason. We do that with a physical LAN for certain stuff, but it has been almost always wired.
