Wired access point with built in switch?

cavemanoc

cavemanoc

cavemanoc

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I am trying to set up a garden room and have run into an odd problem. We have wired in a Cat 6 cable to the room, and are looking to plug it into an access point to provide wifi. I also want to have a switch, so we can wire in the TV and possibly another item or 2. Clearly I need an access point, and a switch, and I assumed there would be plenty of cheap ones (TP Link price point) on the market... but I can't find any.

If all else fails, I'll simply run: cable - switch - Access Point / TV etc.

I am not interested in using a router in AP mode (been there - done that - never had success...)
I am not interested in a range extender (we have the cable in place).
I don't want multiple wireless networks - it needs to be seemless for the user.

Help??
 
It's not at the TP-Link price point but the Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD is an option. I've got one in my Study and it's does the job just fine.

It'll be cheaper to buy a seperate switch and AP but depending what AP's you're currently using it may be worth paying the extra for the UAP-IW-HD.
 
Several AP’s have a pass through port, or just use separate devices, the cost to combine them is usually disproportionately higher than individual pieces of equipment.
 
You don't need a router in access mode, you just need a router with Wifi turned on, then you just ignore the WAN port and use only the LAN ports, its what I do in my loft and spare bedroom. Also meant it cost me zero as I could reuse old kit.
 
the-evaluator said:
It's not at the TP-Link price point but the Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD is an option. I've got one in my Study and it's does the job just fine.

It'll be cheaper to buy a seperate switch and AP but depending what AP's you're currently using it may be worth paying the extra for the UAP-IW-HD.
Click to expand...

Did look at some of the newer solutions - simply too expensive for what we are trying to achieve.

Avalon said:
Several AP’s have a pass through port, or just use separate devices, the cost to combine them is usually disproportionately higher than individual pieces of equipment.
Click to expand...

This was my take too. There are cheap options, with just a single pass through port - but one is not enough, and they all seem to be running 10/100 - I guess 1998 was a good year for stockpiling IT equipment :cry:

pepp77 said:
You don't need a router in access mode, you just need a router with Wifi turned on, then you just ignore the WAN port and use only the LAN ports, its what I do in my loft and spare bedroom. Also meant it cost me zero as I could reuse old kit.
Click to expand...

As I said, been there, done that - never had what I would term success (ie. set it up and forget about it) - glad it worked for you, but I (and many others online) have never been so lucky.

Bottom line is I will pick up a £10 switch, and a cheap access point to plug into it - job done - just surprised this isn't a thing, that's all. I guess the margins on mesh networks are more attractive ;)
 
cavemanoc said:
Did look at some of the newer solutions - simply too expensive for what we are trying to achieve.



This was my take too. There are cheap options, with just a single pass through port - but one is not enough, and they all seem to be running 10/100 - I guess 1998 was a good year for stockpiling IT equipment :cry:



As I said, been there, done that - never had what I would term success (ie. set it up and forget about it) - glad it worked for you, but I (and many others online) have never been so lucky.

Bottom line is I will pick up a £10 switch, and a cheap access point to plug into it - job done - just surprised this isn't a thing, that's all. I guess the margins on mesh networks are more attractive ;)
Click to expand...

Moot point, but is your TV capable of gigabit at a port level? Unless it’s recent/high end, the answer is probably not, much less that anything it does will actually use/benefit from that level of bandwidth other than direct playing a 4K REMUX. Also all the Unifi AP’s I have ever used have gigabit passthrough and are generally within a few quid +/- of TPLink, just remember everything is running through that single cable, so it may or may not be a bottleneck at some point. As to why the products don’t exist and aren’t cheap, would you devote costly R&D into making an expensive version of two inexpensive products combined when home users have little or no appetite for a multi port AP passthrough and SMB or greater understand the limitation in deployments anyway as passthrough is not going to have PoE, so is useless for further AP’s/VoIP/CCTV use? I mean you could design and 3D print a combined AP and switch if you want and have access to a 3D printer, but otherwise it’s not happening within budget.
 
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