Firewalla AP7 Ceiling Version (Status and Updates)
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The Firewalla AP7 Ceiling Version
Sale begins 4/15/2025, 9 AM PDT via https://firewalla.com/products/firewalla-ap7-ceiling
Guides:
Shipping:
- Everything shipped as of 5/2/2025
If you are not in the USA, please see this survey https://forms.gle/FeVYUSQXJksSEuUCA
Shipping Update 5/5
- All AP7C units shipped
- All new orders will be shipped 24 hours from payment
- All units should be shipped today. (including the t-bar brackets)
- On 5/5, we will be going to our standard shipping cycle. (shipping one day after order)
- We will be able to send out all AP7C orders on May 2nd
- 25% more units will be send out today
- next batch likely next week ... (hopefully)
Shipping Update 4/18
- Around 20% units will be send out 4/18 or 4/21 (pacific time)
- next batch time is unknown.
(shipping is not deterministic at the moment, so please be patient, we will do our best to update everyone as we have something)
FAQ:
What is the main difference between this ceiling unit and the desktop unit?
The ceiling unit antenna is optimized in one direction (downwards from the ceiling), while the desktop version has an antenna radiating in all directions. By having the AP mounted on the ceiling, you are going to get less interference and more focused power.
The ceiling unit is also powered by PoE+ via the 10Gbit interface, so you do not need to run another power line.
- Ceiling-mounted APs often avoid furniture and human body absorption, leading to cleaner signal propagation.
- Desktop APs may be affected by desks, walls, and objects, leading to signal obstructions and multipath interference.
- There is no power adapter included in the AP7C
Can I use the ceiling unit on the desktop?
It is fully possible, but we do not recommend it. You may get blind spots behind the unit.
Can I use the ceiling unit on the wall?
Yes, but behind the wall, signals may not be that good.
Can this unit be mounted over a 1 gang power box?
Yes, you have two screw holes that line up just for that. It also works nicely with a 2 gang power box with 4 holes.
Can I use these with WiFi backhaul?
Yes. You can power the unit either with a injector (with no ethernet) or a 12V barrel power cord. You can configure it work with WiFi backhaul from another AP7 ceiling or desktop unit.
Can I use this with the AP7 Desktop?
Yes.
What PoE Injector should I get?
PoE+ Injectors that can perform the speed you want. (2.5Gbit or 10Gbit)
Why is the AP7 Ceiling hot?
Wi-Fi 7 has many radios and it is very hot to operate. The AP7C is compact and the back side is a heatsink. A temperature of about 140F is normal for this unit.
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@Firewalla: the interest in the AP7 Ceiling mounted unit is through the roof. I'm looking at purchasing 6, but would like some additional details about the unit.
1. What is the min - max transmit power setting for each band (2.4GHz, 5 GHz, and 6GHz)?
2. What is the the antenna gain (dB) for each band? This will help everyone understand the strength of the antennas.
3. Can you provide, for each band, the signal propagation map (2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz)? These maps will show the signal pattern on each band and will show signal propagation along each azimuth...will help us all understand how to orient the APs.
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Welp, unfortunately you just lost out on the sale of 3 ceiling AP7's for myself, and 5+ for my family.
2x2x2 is a no-go for me based on the increased throughput potential/bandwidth concerns. I recently swapped my EnGenius ECW526's out for EnGenius 536's and I'm loving every moment of it.
I cancelled my order for the desktop AP7's because I had FOMO of 4x4x4, and unfortunately I won't be placing an order for these as they are 2x2x2.
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@Ryan Nacker: what's the issue with 2x2x2? All that follows is to ensure that I'm not missing something, so please don't take any of this to be a challenge to your assessment. The wireless backhaul will be 6GHz. The 2x2x2 initially bothered me until I analyzed my network and realized that, out of 127 wifi devices, that only 2 could communicate on 6GHz, so that band would work well for wireless backhaul. A 2x2 antenna can easily support up to 30-50 devices. For my network of 127 devices, 116 of them are on 2.4GHz, 9 on 5GHz, and 2 on 6GHz. My primary concern with 2x2 is the 2.4GHz band, but I'm able to distribute each of my 2.4GHz across different channels, so, at most, I'll have ~30 devices on an AP, which 2x2 is more than capable of supporting. On the high end, 3 of my 2.4GHz devices are security cameras streaming to a NAS, which will require ~5mbps per camera per channel, and the rest are light switches, plugs, a sprinkler controller, weather station, hot tub monitor,...etc...all very low bandwidth requirements.
For my network, I'm thinking that a 4x4x4 provides very little performance increase, based on the throughput needs of my devices, so gaining the security provided by extending Firewalla into my wifi environment offsets the gains that I'd experience from 4x4x4 antenna.
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@Eibensl
I think that I attend to agree with you as I am moving from two Asus AXE11000 that are wired backhauls but do not support vlans and the segmentation that I am looking forward to the the integration into Firewalla eco-system. Trying to chase the latest device that is on the market and get speeds that are over 1GB is hard to justify the price point that Firewalla has landed on. If the concern is the 2x2x2, then I would suggest pivoting over to the 2x2x4 desktop model.
Additionally am I missing something, if the ceiling mount version is POE only, most likely the backhaul will be wired and not wireless. Are there individuals going to use a wireless backhaul on the ceiling mounted version?
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4x4x4 supports higher data rates (bandwidth/transmission) which benefits if you have a lot of devices active at once on the network (Plex servers, cameras, streaming boxes). So yes, for a high density environment, 4x4x4 can help benefit greatly.
It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me why Firewalla would go 2x2x2 when they're entering the market on this 2 years late? The EnGenius ECW536 Tri-Band Wifi7 4x4x4 are available, and have been for over a year now. If I was going to switch from them, I'm about 80% confident I would only switch to another 4x4x4 unless Firewalla can make some magic.
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Count me in. With 128 devices on my network, I put off getting the AP7 because my house really needs 3 PoE mounted APs to function optimally. Signed up to keep in the loop, sadly I’ll probably on vacation out of the country the week anything happens to signup to order hardware to test with. Excited to see something like this.
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The size of a 4x4x4 is going to be huge, unless you have a very high ceiling, it will look ugly. 4x4x4 also requires PoE++ and is likely 2x more expensive. Having 4x antennas is going to improve the signal a bit, but it is definitely not 2 times as fast as 2x2. (Almost all the devices are 2x2 or 1x1, including Phones/Pads.)
So unless the ASICs cool down a bit (including antenna drivers), reduce power usage to PoE+, and, of course, pricing ...
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I also was skeptical of the 2x2 vs 4x4 issue on the AP7 desktop.
I am very glad I tried them out. We have only gained functionality and performance over our Omada system, even though we lost some 5GHz spatial streams.
I was looking for a reason to save almost a grand and return the system. Couldn't let it go, though.
I think there's more to these devices than what's necessarily on the spec sheet.
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I currently have two ceiling mount APs, one ceiling mounted and one wall mounted.
I’m assuming it makes more sense to buy one ceiling mount in my case and one desktop version to replace the wall mounted?
If that’s the case, will we be able to preorder a desktop one when we order a ceiling one, I specifically didn’t get a desktop one to test because I need both, and assumed it made sense to mix them.
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@Firewalla:
1. Can clients be locked to a specific AP?
2. When connecting an AP7 ceiling AP via mesh, will we have the ability to specify which upstream AP7 will be used, if multiple other AP7's are in range? Asking this as I've found with other manufacturers' APs, that whatever algorithm is used to automatically select the upstream AP doesn't always make the best choice (will either select an upstream AP that has a weaker connection or, if 2 upstream APs have near same signal strength, that it'll select the upstream AP that has a much higher client load); so being able to manually designate which upstream AP to use helps.
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