AX6000 router and outdoor AP WAX610Y address advice

[Honeymonkeyj]

I have the AX6000 Nighthawk wifi6 model and purchased a WAX610Y outdoor AP I am going to install on a tower. I have 2 questions 

I want to have both router and ap on the same SSID so a user will seamlessly connect when in range (not mesh) The Access Point will be plugged into the router lan port.

The router IP is 10.0.1.11

question 1- what IP do I need to give the WAX610Y Access Point? 

question 2- i want to be able to cover both the front and back yard greenbelt. How high up on the 60 ft tower should I place it. I assume higher is not better since the internal omni antenna pattern angle might overshoot the yard if too high and too low wont clear the roof shadow

i am replacing an 802.11n engenius outdoor around 40ft level and I get about 800ft distance.

[Christian_R]

Hello Honeymonkeyj,

If you recently purchased the device I would recommend contacting our support team as newly purchased devices are provided with 90 days of complimentary support. You may open a ticket by registering your device using the link below. 

https://www.netgear.com/support/contact.aspx

Christian 

[Honeymonkeyj]

Been trying to call Chris for weeks now off and on at different times, but the line is always busy. My free 90 days will be up before I get an answer.

[Razor512]

With your current hardware, the AP will largely be transparent with the exception of wireless clients will be seen a wired while they are connected to the AP.

For the IP of the AP, it can be any IP address within the subnet of the router, e.g. if the router has an IP of 10.0.1.11, then the AP could hve an IP of 10.0.1.250 or really any unused IP within the 10.0.1.1 - 10.0.1.254 range.

Beyond that, just give it the same SSID, password, and WPA setting as the main WiFi router, and clients will freely roam between both APs.

[Razor512]

For placement height, there are many variables that can make it hard to give an exact response. Usually you can get a ballpark rage by looking up the FCC ID of the AP (the FCC ID is usually printed somewhere on the device). After, that you can figure out the gain of the antennas, as well as the antenna types, which will make it possible to find general beam pattern data for the type of antenna.

Another method is a less planning focused method and more of a repeated fine-tuning method. The method I use is to determine the key areas where the user wants the best possible coverage given the hardware and its limitations. Then placing a device such as a smartphone or laptop in as many of those locations as possible (depending on the number of devices you have on hand. After that, do a throughput test to each device using any paid or free benchmarking utility that you have (ideally simultaneously testing one near and one far client at once). While benchmarking if the benchmark utility gives results in real-time, or if using the network monitor in task manager, move the AP while the test is going, and see which position gives the best speeds overall for the different locations. 

[Honeymonkeyj]

Thanks so much for your detailed response. I ended up for simplicity make the router 10.0.1.1 and the AP 10.0.1.11.

I appreciate the tip on the fcc lookup. I could not find any documentation if the antennas were omni or directional. I assumed they were directional as they recommended wall mounting and it would not make sense to mount it on a wall if the radiation pattern was  360 deg, but you can't always trust pictures in manuals I guess.

fyi, there is a handy little free android app called "wifi analyzer" that shows you the signal strength in dBm of all 2.4 and 5Ghz transmitters in the area and what channel they are on, so this can help initially,  then I can do throughput tests. I would however like to get a ballpark height to mount the wax610y as climbing a 68ft tower is no fun at my age. I hope the metal tower does not effect the vswr too much. I will probably make a standoff to side mount off the tower if the antennas turn out to be omni.

My fault on the busy phone number. A while after I registered the unit they emailled me with a toll free number for support and was taken care of quite quickly. The support person also had no data available for the radiation pattern, or height recomendations but said he would turn the question over to the engeneer. This is the first time I ever used netgear tech support and was plesently surprised. I guess I will see if they can give me an idea of the vertical radiation pattern before I start climbing.