The move to Wi-Fi 6 for businesses is gathering momentum and DrayTek steps into the arena with the VigorAP 1060C – its most powerful wireless access point (AP) to date. It stands out from the crowd as this 11ax AP combines an impressively high performance with three operational modes plus four management methods and delivers it all at a price SMBs will love.
The VigorAP 1060C is an AX3600 dual-band AP delivering speeds of up to 2,400Mbits/sec on its 5GHz radio and 1,200Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz radio. It’s smarter than many other Wi-Fi 6 APs as it has a third radio dedicated to RF analytics and enhanced security as it uses it to detect rogue APs.
As a standalone AP, it has a lot to offer as it’s easily managed from a fully-featured web interface and presents up to eight SSIDs on each radio. It can also function as a simple range extender but DrayTek’s mesh technology makes it even more versatile. Meshing allows you to create self-healing wireless networks using up to eight APs. One functions as a central mesh root while others are added as mesh nodes and take their settings from it to present one set of centrally managed SSIDs.
Management features are unbeatable as the AP can be auto-provisioned using any DrayTek Vigor router that supports the Central AP Management (CAM) feature. DrayTek’s free VigorConnect Windows app provides centralised on-site management facilities while wireless networks in geographically distributed sites can all be managed from one console with the optional VigorACS cloud service.
The AP is easy to install in standalone mode as its web console’s wizard sensibly requires the default admin password to be changed and offers the option to create two secure wireless networks. The console’s dashboard is very informative as it provides a wealth of information on wireless networks including active clients and associations, traffic throughput for each SSID and AP system utilisation.
Wireless security is excellent as each SSID can have their own encryption scheme which includes support for the stronger WPA3. You can enable SSID masking, limit the number of clients per radio or SSID, apply upload and download bandwidth limits to each SSID, and enable LAN and member isolation which stops wireless clients from accessing wired systems and other wireless clients on the same SSID.
Meshing is just as simple to configure as you use the same quick-start wizard to select this mode and set the first AP as the root. Up to seven nodes can connect wirelessly to the mesh root using their 5GHz radio as a backhaul or they can be linked to it over longer wired connections.
Mesh networks can be monitored and extended on-demand from the root AP’s web console or DrayTek’s Wireless mobile apps. You can spread your wireless network over a large area as nodes can connect to other nodes with up to three hops between them and the root AP and if any go down, clients transparently jump over the nearest active node.
The VigorAP 1060C supports all key Wi-Fi 6 technologies and delivered an impressive performance in the lab. Large file copies between a Windows 10 Pro workstation equipped with a Wi-Fi 6 PCI-E adapter card and a Windows server on the LAN averaged a speedy 104MB/sec at close range dropping to 94MB/sec when we moved the AP 10 metres away.
SMBs ready to upgrade to Wi-Fi 6 will find DrayTek’s VigorAP 1060C a great choice that’s very easy to deploy. It provides good Wi-Fi 6 performance, offers a wealth of business-class features including self-healing networks and delivers it all at an appealing price.
Product: VigorAP 1060C Supplier: DrayTek Web site: www.draytek.co.uk Telephone: +44 (0)345 557 0007 Price: £265 exc VAT
