CBW240AC Access Point

Over the last 4 weeks, I have been and testing routers and wifi access point from many top vendors, (Unifi Alien, Orbi RB743, Linksys AX4200, Unifi Dream Machine router, Netgear AX1800 Access Point, Cisco RV260P, Cisco RV340, and Cisco 9117AXI) I have decided to go with the following setup for my site-to-site and client-to-site setup: 1. Cisco RV340 VPN security router (main gateway to the internet service provider, ISP) 2. TD-Link TL-GS1008P 8-port unmanaged GE/PoE switch 3. Cisco Business 240AC Wi-Fi Access Point 4X4 CBW240AC-B (2 pack) 4. Cisco Business 143ACM Wi-Fi Mesh Extender (1 pack) The Cisco RV340 VPN took me about 5 minutes to set up with internet ready, it comes with all the VLAN, VPN, and web security features anyone would want for a home office or small business setup network and protection. Why this RV340 router? a. It is cost-effective, at only $200, It gives me all the features of the professional IT setup such as VLAN, Web Filter/Security, VPN site-to-site, and client-to-site that I need but can't get from consumer home router like Netgear Orbi RB753, or Amplifi Alien or even the Unifi Dream machine router at over $400 that come with software that look, feel and function like they are still in under development. b. All the features are well designed and work flawlessly after configured. c. It allows much flexibility when dealing with any part of the network, for example, if I need to upgrade the WiFi access point for wifi 6 in the future, I don't have to throw out the entire network to upgrade, basically the Ethernet wired network can stay up and running. Replacing just the wifi access point is much less expensive compare to replacing the whole home mesh router set. Why the TD-Link TL-GS1008P 8-port unmanaged GE/PoE switch? a. Cost-effective, at only $59 I can get 4 GE ports for my wired printer, NAS file storage, some desktop computers, and 4 GE/PoE ports for the WiFi Access points. b. The RV340 VPN router comes with all lay 2, and 3 switching/routing features so you don't need to buy the lay 2 or 3 switches. Why the Cisco Business 240AC Wi-Fi Access Point 4X4 CBW240AC-B (2 pack) and the Cisco Business 143ACM Wi-Fi Mesh Extender (1 pack) a. These three access points allow me to cover up to 9000 sqft wifi signal at over 800Mbps - 1770Mbps for all wireless connections for all the IoT and laptop connectivities. b. After testing some Wifi 6 Access point from Netgear, Unifi and Cisco, I found that cisco Wifi Access Point is absolutely feature-rich, well design software UI, hardware built with quality and easy to use, also networking features from layer 2 up are well intergraded and work well together, so for ease of management I think it is best to go with all cisco products. In the process of testing Netgear Wifi 6 AP, I found that the operating temperature was so hot that I am worried that they could cause a fire in my office. Unifi products on the other hand are also good, but their software is also confusing and rust to market. It seems that if you don't mind waiting for features to get into future software releases then Unifi AP or router is ok. Overall, I feel that Cisco's products are normally built with super quality, advanced features, and stability. They are well known in the networking industry and building products for the business environment so their product reliability and scaleability is something I can always trust and it is hard to get the same features and quality from other brands.

My review is going to be on the simpler side for the 240AC units as I am no expert on networking and wifi. I have 5 of these for my home wifi and my home is about a total of 8000 SF, indoor and outdoor. I am able to cover the entire property including the ability to "seamless roam" inside and outside. And I believe my home property configuration is very difficult/messy. I do have a couple areas outside where the roaming will cutout for 1 sec or so (testing via Facetime or MS Teams call) but that is not the fault of this AP. If you have the AP's spaced out as it should, with good overlap, the seamless roaming is flawless. The range on this is very good too. I've had it for a couple months and it's been rock solid stable so far. The speed is dependent on your placement and how far away you are and all the crap that it has to go thru to get to you so of course if i'm in clear sight of the AP, I can get my full bandwidth speed which my ISP plan is 400 up/20 down. I have real basic networking knowledge but the setup was still easy enough to just follow the instructions and get you up and running with all the default settings. But this is a business grade AP (most typically are) so there are tons of features that can get you lost but I was willing to learn so it depends on you for that part. But the key to this and with any AP really, is the placement. If you place them really well, you won't have to tweak any of the wifi settings, it'll work great by the default/auto settings. The software is built into the unit so no extra hardware or software to run with the AP's. I haven't used a lot of other AP's so I can't judge but I do find the reboot a little slow. But reboots SHOULD NOT be a common occurrance so that is not an issue. If you have to reboot often, it means you continually make a big system wide change or something is outright wrong. I like these units, I can't imagine another brand unit, with similar specs being far superior. It still is AC technology but I wasn't willing to pay for AX at the moment and I'm pretty confident I will exhaust the AC technology with these units just fine.

My previous set of Cisco AP's (WAP581's) were big and required POE+ power. Even with all that, they were only reasonably reliable with respect to data stoppages and device resets. These new generation Cisco AP's are slimmed down and work fine on plain POE. The setup is much more automated. The reliability is improved also: my network has three 240AC's and only once or twice a year does one of them spontaneously erase its configuration and require setting up again from scratch. But between such incidents, the data flow seems nearly flawless. The maximum data rate (with 5GHz wireless links for the mesh) actually seems to reach 500 Mbps -- totally amazing and I didn't even know that was possible. As mentioned, the setup is pretty automated but there are a couple key learnings that I came by the hard way: (1) Setup requires totally default device settings to succeed. Any time I messed with something like preferred channel or such, the setup fails with the dreaded blinking red light. (2) To install a wireless-only mesh AP, you MUST set it up initially WIRED to the primary AP. Then, just before disconnecting it to move it to its remote location, go in and manually change its AP role to Mesh. Then, when it powers up again in its final remote location, it will know what to do to join the network. Updated February 2025, with rating downgrade from 5 stars to 4: My mesh network originally required three of these Cisco 240AC's, but last year I replaced one link with wired Ethernet. The third 240AC became a primary-capable backup. Then in January, the primary 240AC went offline. In good form, the backup immediately took up the primary role and the network stayed up. The problem was that the original primary 240AC cannot be revived. It appears to start working, but then retreats to flashing green-yellow-red mode and disconnects. I had a cold backup 240AC stored away just for such an occasion. So I brought that one back out and tried to reset it into the network. No go, same behavior as the failed former primary 240AC. I've since tried all kinds of approaches to get these two 240AC's to operate normally, with no success. I've declared them both busted. One way to look at this is two units failed out of four total purchased: 50% failure rate. Three were purchased June 2022 and one in January 2024. I have just purchased a new 240AC for the hot backup primary-capable role - it configured itself into the network just fine.

Easy setup and worked well in a difficult environment. I used 4 of these in a daycare facility to get the signal across the building. There were a lot of signal obstructions (concrete, brick walls, lots of steel), but these units managed to solve the low Wi-Fi signal issues they were having.

We have reached out to the seller directly and Amazon. After talking with Cisco to get an RMA for a product not working, Cisco advised that this product was not new and that Cisco had these serial numbers in their records as RMA'd units. We are stuck with non-working units. The seller, nor Amazon will not do anything to help!!! DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM THIS SELLER!!!!

This product has a handy setup routine using QR codes and a smart phone app which although I was initially apprehensive about as a very advanced user of Cisco products was pleasantly surprised with. I just unboxed, followed the quick start guide, plugged it into a PoE switch, scanned some codes, created a site, created a simple vlan and ssid, updated the firmware, etc and a couple typical housekeeping reboots later you're up and running. There are a lot of features in there I have not used yet but if you just want to get up and running with low effort this is a solid choice you can scale up later and you don't need to have a CCIE or console cables to do it.

This is a business class WiFi access point. It's designed to provide maximum throughput to a lot of users in a large area. It works exceedingly well and delivers very high bandwidth. It requires that you know something about how to set it up and use it. If you have those skills and need that level of performance this is "the" solution.

Picked this up to replace a 3x3 access point. The coverage is actually better and the Cisco UI is easy to navigate. AC is all you really need and this access point does it well.

Excelente

Very strong WiFi signal for bungalow house covering both 1st and basement area. No more weak signal area.

Easy to setup and use.

Rango pequeño de cobertura WiFi. Tengo una casa que no es muy grande y a pesar de esto la cobertura WiFi que ofrece este AP es casi nula, y abarca un radio demasiado pequeño de cobertura WiFi.

An excellent access point that is perfect for small and medium sized installations. Home or business will both do well with these APs. Would be 5 stars if the AP could be used in mesh mode. Unfortunately, these only work in wired mode. When I contacted Cisco they mentioned there could be an update in the future, but as of now, that is not an option. This may not be an issue for most, as there is another device that is specifically for mesh mode, but where I live the price difference was only a few bucks, so I just bought another master AP.