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Forum Discussion
WAC564 Mesh without Insight
I purchased a few WAC564 a couple months ago for my church, and everything I've seen says that using Insight is required for mesh mode. Shortly after I purchased and sucessfully setup mesh (using In...
You save more time monitoring and keeping up your system or applying the smallest changes than the ~10 USD p.a. and device Insight Premium subscription. Adding more access points or Mesh hops is a snap. It's a very small part of the TCO for such a network.
Doug_Ho wrote:All my other Netgear devices allow standalone web management mode which works great, but the standalone mode of WAC564 only works for non-mesh purposes.
This is not fully appropriate - full 802.11 k/v/r seamless roaming support for example is available with Insight only.
schumaku wrote:
You save more time monitoring and keeping up your system or applying the smallest changes than the ~10 USD p.a. and device
Insight Premium subscription.
This is not fully appropriate - full 802.11 k/v/r seamless roaming support for example is available with Insight only.
For me it is sort of the opposite. Insight seems "slow" to me both starting up and when making changes, and it often seems difficult to find detailed settings which I know exactly where they are in the web interface. It also doesn't fit with the way I maintain pre-configured spare/backup devices which can be quickly/easily plugged in if main device is damaged by lightning/thunderstorm.
Regarding k/v/r being Insight only, the portion about APs sharing the information with each other artifically requires Insight (like Insight is artifically required to setup Mesh). But enabling parts of k/v standard is an option in the local web interface which I believe helps clients (just not as much as if the APs were sharing their information over the LAN).
Regardless, my point is that Netgear marketed/sold WAC564 saying that two of them could work in Mesh mode forever free, and less than two months later is warning me that such Basic mode is being discontinued (meaning that I'll have to start paying $20/year in November when all I want to do is have Mesh mode enabled at setup and never use Insight for anything else).
Doug_Ho wrote:Regarding k/v/r being Insight only, the portion about APs sharing the information with each other artifically requires Insight (like Insight is artifically required to setup Mesh). But enabling parts of k/v standard is an option in the local web interface which I believe helps clients (just not as much as if the APs were sharing their information over the LAN).
Not for 802.11r - this is done by setting the mobility ID in the background (silently), and there is no Web UI control. A political decision one might guess...
Doug_Ho wrote:Regardless, my point is that Netgear marketed/sold WAC564 saying that two of them could work in Mesh mode forever free, and less than two months later is warning me that such Basic mode is being discontinued (meaning that I'll have to start paying $20/year in November when all I want to do is have Mesh mode enabled at setup and never use Insight for anything else).
In my understanding, Netgear offers one year Insight Premium for every NETGEAR Insight Managed switch and Insight wireless access point (including yours WAC564) that registers on or after April 27, 2020 experiences Insight Remote Cloud management solution for their device for free for one year. (-> 1-YEAR INSIGHT SUBSCRIPTION INCLUDED). Considering the Insight Basic will last longer, the early warning message might be appropriate.
Don't blame the messenger ...
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