PC Pro - UK 2021-12)

NetgearWAX 620

Ahigh-performingAX 3600

Wi-Fi 6 accesspointwith

classycloudmanagement

servicesandaperfect

SCORE

PRICE£157excVATfrom

broadbandbuyer.com

N

etgearismakinga namefor

itselfintheworldofaffordable

Wi-Fi6 accesspoints(APs).

Backin issue 319 itimpresseduswith

theWAX610,whichofferedmesh

networkingpluscloudmanagement

supportforjust£131; now,the

WAX620offersevenmorewireless

goodnessforonly a fewpoundsmore.

Towit,for£1 57 this AX36 00

dual-band AP offersa speeddoubling

overtheWAX610, promisingup to

2,400Mbits/seconits5GHzradioand

1,200Mbits/seconthe2.4GHzband.

Toget thebestperformance,we

recommendyouusea PoE+power

source;the2.5GbELANportalso

supportsregular PoE,butusingthis

incursa performance penaltyof

around40%.Alternatively,youcan

pay£13fortheofficialNetgearpower

adapterandusethededicatedsocket.

TheWAX620hasalow-keydesign,

witha finnedmetal backplatethat

actsasa heatsink.Youcanmountit

moreor lessanywhere:thebox

includes twobracketstosuitvarious

typesofT-bar,ceilingorwall.

OnceyoupoweruptheAP,the

quickstartwizardpromptsyouto

choosea managementmode.Ifyou

optforstandalone operation,you’ll

cognisedimmediately.

Oncewe’dassigned the

WAX620toour

ganisation, local

configurationwas

disabled(althoughthe

dashboardremained

accessibleformonitoring

andtroubleshooting),

thefirmwarewas

automaticallyupgraded

tothelatestversion,

d – withoutany

herinvolvement on

art– theAPbegan

stingalltheSSIDswe

hadconfiguredpreviously foroursite.

Youcankeeptabsonnetwork

activityfromtheSitepageofthe

portal.Thisshows a summaryofall

cloud-managedNetgear devices and

canbecustomisedto suityour

priorities.Wearrangedittoshow

dailyWi-Fitrafficvolumes, the

numberofAPs, SSIDsand connected

clients andoverallnetworkhealth,

witha topologymapshowingwhich

APsclientswereconnectedto.

TheWirelesspage,meanwhile,

givesanoverviewofallAPs,withmore

detailedtrafficgraphs foreachradio,

plusdetectedOSandtrafficstatistics.

Standardcaptiveportals

canbeassignedtospecific

SSIDs;for£ 62 a year,the

RaGaPa-poweredInstant

CaptivePortaloptionuses

a range ofsocialnetwork

platformstoengageusers

andgatheranalytics.

Totestperformance,weconnected

theWAX620to an EnGenius

ECS2512FPPoE++ multi-Gigswitch,

andtriedcopyinga 25GBtestfile

betweena Windows 1 0 Pro

workstationequippedwitha TP-Link

ArcherTX3000EWi-Fi6 PCI-E

adapteranda serverontheLAN.This

APdoesn’t supportthefast 1 60MHz

channel widthoption,butitstill

delivered excellentspeeds,averaging

106MB/sec at closerangeand

droppingto93MB/secwhenwe

movedtheAP 10 metres away.

ForanAX3600Wi-Fi6 AP,the

WAX620isremarkably good value.

Performanceishard to fault,and

Netgear’sInsightcloudportal

integratesitintoa powerfulall-round

managementplatform,makingthis

a finechoiceforSMBslookingfor

high-speed,easy-to-manageWi-Fi

ata reasonableprice.DAVEMITCHELL

“Theportalshowsa

summaryofallcloud-

managedNetgeardevices

andcanbecustomisedto

suityourpriorities”

SPECIFICATIONS

AX3600dual-band2.4GHz/5GHz802.11ax

4 x 4 MU-MIMOinternalaerials2.5GbE

LAN/802.3atPoE+2 x ceiling/wallmounting

plates 206 x 2 06 x 34mm(WDH)783g

5yrhardwarewarranty

OPTIONSInsightPremium,1yr,£9perdevice

excVAT

firstberequiredtochangetheadmin

password;thentheconsoleopens up

withasmartdashboard showing

detailssuchasconnectionstatus,

clientdistributionbyOSand traffic

trendgraphs.

Youcannowcreateuptoeight

SSIDs,decidewhichradiosareactive

oneachoneandchoosebetween

WPA2andthestrongerWPA3

encryption.Advancedfeatures

includeclientisolation,ratelimits,

URLtrackingand captive portals

usingclick-throughandFacebookor

externalauthentication.

TogetthemostfromtheAP,

however,you’llwanttomanageit

throughNetgear’sInsightProcloud

portal. Thepriceincludesa one-year

subscription,whichopensupmesh

networking – which isn’tavailable

instandalonemode– andpermits

centralmanagement ofallwireless

networks,aswellasotherNetgear

switches,routers andNASappliances.

AddingtheWAX620 to ourInsight

cloudaccountwasa doddle.Youcan

usenetworkdiscovery,scanthe

barcode on theboxormanually enter

thedevice’sserialnumber;weused

theiOSapponaniPadtoscantheQR

codeon itsbaseandtheAP was

BELOWYoucanrun

theAPinstandalone

mode,ormanageit

fromNetgear’s

Insightcloudportal

RECOMMENDED

ABOVETheWAX620

hasasimpledesign

thatcanbemounted

almostanywhere