NETGEAR Wireless Access Point (WAX214) - WiFi 6 Dual-Band AX1800 Speed | 1 x 1G Ethernet PoE Port | 802.11ax | WPA3 Security | Create up to 4 Separate Wireless Networks

It was particularly easy to proceed with the first connection using my phone then fine-tune the setting via IP address using my computer.

Love Netgear access points. I install them professionally for small businesses and schools all the time. Was able to get these quickly and good price, but be aware that if you plan to get two or more of these to mesh and manage with a cloud license, this is not the product for you. That said, I installed 5 of these at a small business and manually configured each one in less than 30 minutes. While there is no cloud-centric means of management, they do perform exceptionally well in SMB environments and have automatic channel switching as well as automatic 5GHz routing if you configure the both SSIDs with the same password.

Very unreliable product. Has to be power cycled daily to keep working. The range is abysmal. 5GHz connection is only 50% 10 feet away. 2.4 GHz extremely slow - can't even stream Prime or Netflix. Limited to 4 SSID.

I needed to install a couple wireless access points in my retail storefront. The purpose was pretty simple... the AT&T combo router/WAP was sitting at front door, but it didn't have the reach to get to the back stockroom. The plan was to move the router to the back, where it would be local to the fiber-to-copper media converter, and re-use the CAT5 drop to the front for one of the NETGEAR WAX214 Wireless Access Points. Then, I'd put another near the stockroom, and then disable the wifi capability on the router. Easy, right?Normally, I'd go with Ubiquiti WAPs, since that's what I've used in my last couple homes, but I don't have a PC that I'd install the management utility on at the shop. So between that, and saving a few bucks, I opted for two WAX214s. You get a basic box, containing the WAX214, a mounting plate, and a small bag of hardware. Unfortunately the mounting plate wasn't suitable for drop ceiling tiles (another item in favor of Ubiquiti), so I put both of mine on the wall, just below the ceiling level. I used a couple keyhole slots (set in metal) in the back of the WAP for wall mounting. The unit is not bad looking.I used a cheap Cisco PoE switch, though you can pretty much use any active PoE switch or injector with these units. Initial negotiation takes about 3 or 4 seconds - full boot takes about 20 seconds. Throughput, connection stability, and device reliability seem ok, though it's not like I ran Chariot tests on the devices. It should also be noted that my devices came with the 1.0.1.0 firmware. I hear that's garbage, and upgraded mine to 2.0.1.3 (so that's what my observations are based on).As you'd expect with devices that allow for non-centralized configuration, the WAX214 is pretty much like any consumer WAP. You can connect to a configuration SSID, or you can just put it on your network, see what DHCP lease it got, and then connect to that IP from any machine on the LAN. Either way, you're prompted to set an admin password (there are strength rules you can't disable) and a wifi passphrase. That's all the configuration it MAKES you do. I updated the firmware. That process is terrible, as the device can't interrogate if newer firmware is available - and it certainly doesn't download it and apply it. Instead, you download it to your phone/computer/whatever, and then upload it to the WAP. I expected that with my old WRT54G... I don't understand why the process isn't better over a decade later. After that, I edited my WLANs, creating one for business use, and one for customer use. I marked the customer WLAN as a "Guest Network", with enables a DHCP server, NAT, and keeps the routes out of your "regular" LAN. Nothing real special here, but it IS easy to set up. The other thing I did was to set the customer WLAN to have a schedule of availability. That's a good feature that not all vendors have.Oh, and any time you change virtually ANY setting? Reboot. Ugh. At least it reboots pretty quickly.As for the rest of the capabilities, the device is pretty basic. It's mostly just a plug-and-play affair, without the detailed settings and flexibility of more serious solutions. And that's really what the Netgear WAX214 is... a cheap business WAP. If you need to set up more than a couple WAPs, I'd definitely suggest Ubiquiti instead, if even just for the ease of management. However, if you just need one or two access points, the WAX214 is not bad, and the price seems fair for what you get - just make sure you update the firmware. Conditionally Recommended

UPDATE: 4 months later and I've never rebooted these devices, nor have they rebooted on their own. They work great without a hitch, and the range is far better than I was expecting. Only needed 2 AP's to cover the 3 previous Asus AP's I was using.Original review: I bought two WAX214's for my house to replace three Asus Wireless AC routers that I was using in AP mode. The two netgear AP's offer the same or better coverage as the three Asus units, but the ability to use POE is a very welcome addition. Getting wifi6 for this price seems crazy, and these AP's seem to go on sale pretty often. All the professional features are very useful, and having 4 different SSID's is a lifesaver if you want to step up your home's network security. I have two SSID's hidden that are used for mobile phones, PC's, and family data-heavy devices, another SSID for IoT, and another configured as a guest network.On the topic of guest networks, the guest configuration on these AP's works great. They have built in router functionality for the guest network so you can put devices on an entirely isolated subnet strictly for internet access, without having to dive into subnetting on your router. It's quick and easy for now, but eventually I'll get around to doing it the proper way.I recommend upgrading the firmware right off the bat since it seems folks have issues with the devices rebooting randomly until you upgrade it. The only reason I really give it four stars is that there's not a central management application to control multiple AP's. These are great if you have a small office and don't intend to use any more than 3 or 4 AP's tops, but it would be a pain to manage them individually for any more than that.For my use, they are great so long as you don't mind individually managing them. If you need central management, you'll have to up your budget.