Recommended WiFi 6 hotspot to put behind the Firewalla Gold?

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Charles Kelsoe

• November 18, 2020 21:29

Is there recommendations for WiFi 6 hotspots pair up with the Firewalla Gold?

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  Firewalla

  • November 18, 2020 22:42

  If you plan to run the Gold in Router mode

  • Any router that does Access Point or Bridge Mode will work perfectly with the Firewalla Router Mode.  (Mesh or no Mesh, doesn't matter wifi 6 or no wifi 6).  Avoid Google Wifi, it doesn't have AP mode when hookup in mesh mode.
  • In general, you do not need a really powerful wifi 6 router;  The gold does have a pretty powerful CPU + 4GB of RAM, which is likely far more powerful than your wifi router.  By offloading the routing/switching function to it, your wifi router will likely perform better.

  Now, all of us here at firewalla like mesh routers, and recently we tested two of these.

  TPlink Wifi 6 X60 (around $200 if you get it from Costco)

  This unit here performs really well, when paired with the Gold Router Mode in Access Point / Bridge mode.  The coverage is decent, speed is also faster than the none wifi 6 routers.  The price point is perfect ...  (This router doesn't work in Simple or DHCP mode)

  Eero Pro Wifi 6 ($500 to $600 Amazon)

  This is a fancier unit, the coverage is a little bit better than the TPLink, Signal is a bit stronger than the TPLink.   And when run in Bridge mode + Firewalla Gold in Router Mode... it is really fast.    (we are still testing this unit in simple mode, and DHCP mode does work)

  So, it depends on your taste.  we think the TPLink is enough (at least for our setting), and the price point is good.  Will it work at your place or not ... it is your call. :)

   

   

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  IHaveABigNetwork

  • November 18, 2020 23:15

  eero 6 or eero 6 pro's... expandable, stable and fast.

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  Charles Kelsoe

  • December 29, 2020 23:46

  Costco only had the TP-Link Deco M9 Plus Tri-Band Wi-Fi System with Built-In Smart Hub. It was on sale for Black Friday. It works very well with the Gold. The one thing I wish it would do is pass the devices attached to the M9 to the Gold instead of it always showing up as the M9.

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  Firewalla

  • December 30, 2020 00:01

  You need to change the M9 to bridge mode, then you should see everything on Firewalla.

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  Charles Kelsoe

  • December 30, 2020 00:40

  That did it. Thanks!

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  Scott Chapman

  • January 03, 2021 18:52

  considering swapping out my Eero pro 6 ($$$) for TP-link X60 from costco ($). SHould be about half as much.

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  Sukumar Patel

  • January 09, 2021 16:45

  Are there any WiFi 6 AP's with VLAN tagging?

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  Firewalla

  • January 09, 2021 18:10
  • Edited

  There is a newer Netgear Wifi 6 AP, that may work https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wireless-Access-Point-WAX610/dp/B08D3693SV  according to the Q&A, it should have VLAN to SSID mapping.  The price is pretty decent.  (<== we have not tested this)

  We have the none wifi 6 version, which can do the mapping. 

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