great ap test part4 aruba instant on

Next part of our grand Access Point test. We have already had a chance to get acquainted with the products from Ubiquiti and Cambium, while this time our "test-lab" received Aruba's indoor access point called Instant On AP12.. The test procedure is analogous to Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of our test series. And this time the technical side of the test and the analysis of the results is handled by Wojtek Repiński.

Aruba Instant On is a wide range of wireless solutions for small and growing businesses which have little technical support. They offer products for both indoor and outdoor use.

The Aruba Instant On product range is distinguished by its very modern technology, best-in-class service and advanced security features.

With the mobile application, setting up, monitoring and managing your wireless network is trivially simple. To configure Aruba Instant On you only need a device with iOS or Android. In short, the installation process also requires downloading a mobile application for smartphones. Thanks to this, the installation is very simplified and does not require any technical knowledge.

You have to admit that the Aruba Instant On AP12 access point is visually nice and the quality of its construction is at the highest level. The set includes two mounting brackets, one for mounting on wall/ceiling using wall plugs, and the other for mounting under suspended ceilings (directly to the structural beam). And in general, everything would be very beautiful visually, if it wasn't for the fact that the manufacturer probably skimmed a little bit on plastic and the access point visually stands out by approx. 27mm from the wall or ceiling surface, which makes the device look rather poor.

In measurement point No.5 , connection to AP-2 was not possible. The AP-1 and AP-2 devices did not establish a connection in MESH wireless mode at the tested distance. Therefore, for speed tests, the AP-2 was disabled.

I'm sure you'll be curious to know what innovations new firmware updates bring. The most important changes are listed in a few points below:

• Application and portal support for new 1930 switches, which will appear at the end of May.
• Service and configuration of shared services (wired and wireless) like chromecast or airplay.
• support and support VPN via NordVPN
• Shared ACL services - both in Access Points and switches
• Additional native support for 3rd party captive portals

Also important is the option to increase the range (wireless coverage) with 2.4GHz, which has a much greater range compared to the 5GHz band. "Range increase" is only possible in firmware from 1.4 version.

Aruba instant On Ap12 is a very aesthetic, extremely easy to configure Access Point from Aruba. However, there are a few details that may not necessarily influence our assessment of this access point well. First of all, quite a big surprise is the fact that the packaging Aruba Instant On Ap12 (RW version) lacks a PoE power supply and we have to buy it separately. The next issue is the necessity to use the mobile application during the installation of the device (no typical WEB GUI). The lack of security of changing the network connection method (DHCP/PPPoE client) and limited number of radio and network parameters, which we can set by ourselves, also gives a lot to think about. Very poor wireless coverage and therefore poor speeds obtained during our tests. We also noticed that the AP stubbornly holds client devices at 5GHz, even if the device is far away from our access point. Of course you can also notice the advantages of using Aruba Instant On Ap12. Ease of configuration! We have to admit that Aruba Instant On access point is an extremely easy device to configure. There is no need to have technical knowledge to configure the AP quickly and efficiently. Also noteworthy is the fact that the back of the case, which is made of aluminum. Thanks to that, Aruba Instant On AP12 very well isolates noise of the devices that are perfectly behind it. In general, Aruba Instant On is quite an interesting device, considering all the products we have managed to test so far. Particularly noteworthy is the free management from the cloud with a mobile application. However, it is quite difficult to draw any constructive conclusions from our tests, so we leave the summary for you...

Authors:
Wojciech Repiński
Leszek Błaszczyk