Engenius 800mW 802.11bgn EAP300 Review

Click here for more information on the EAP300

EAP300 is a powerful and multi-functioned 11n Access Point .  The EAP300 is the first high power 802.11N AP with 800mW of transmit power.  The EAP300 also support 802.11B and G and will transmit at the full 800mW in the 11b mode from 1-11Mbps and the 11g mode from 6-9Mbps.
 

The EAP300 has 3 operation modes AP, WDS bridge and Universal repeater.  With Universal repeater the EAP300 can repeat the SSID of any AP in range we tested with BG and N access points and all work.

The EAP300 has distinct blue LED's they can be disabled via the web interface to not attract attention.

The EAP300 has a internal 2 element MIMO smart antenna by MasterWave By using the 5dBi smart antenna design the EAP300 has very long range and high throughput.  The smart antenna provides a optimal signal for indoor coverage.

Smart antennas will determine the location of the client and direct the transmission toward them.   This is done is software on a packet by packet basis so multiple clients can be supported.  By sending the transmission only where it needs to go range and throughput will be increased.

I tested range and throughput with the built in intel5100 wireless chipset.

With the high transmit power of 800mW the EAP300 has very long range and was I was able to maintain a connection with 5 bars of signal 50 feet away through multiple walls.

The 600mW EAP-3660 had 5 bars of signal in the same location. 

The EAP300 would be ideal for a business that has 802.11n clients deployed and needs to either stream video or move large files around.  The above graph show a average of 88Mbps raw throughput in 40Mhz 11n mode.

Click here for more information on the EAP300