Home > Consumer Reviews > Engenius Wl Acs Eoc-3220 EXT Outdoor 400Mw 54Mbps Extreme 5Dbi Omni Wall Pole

I have had this unit for about 9 months and it works flawlessly with the other Engenius bridge. However, my POE unit that powers the device just failed and while this is the only way to power the unit and comes with it as part of the package, Engenius considers this an accessory and only warranties the unit for 90 days. I find this unbelievable.

Installed several of these along with its sister models and they work great. No clients have had to restart any of these since installation.

Bought one of these a couple of years ago, and have had spotty success with it. I use it for connecting to a wireless internet service provider along the pacific coast (OUTDOORS, IN THE SUN, RAIN, FOG, ETC.). The unit worked fine for awhile but then started working sporadically. Eventually I am not able to ping the device, nor resetting it through its administrator (hyper terminal session) screen. After sending it back to the company under warranty (no surprise, no problem found), I reinstalled the product (no small task) and it ran for a few hours only to have the problem reoccur. I called the company again, complaining of the problem, but they said it was out of warranty. The unit continues to be spotty, rebooting randomly and sending data sometimes, but then not others. Its a good price for for an outdoor bridge, but the performance sucks. I'm trying an Argtek 2615 product with hopefully more success, else will have to spend the king's ransom that other vendors charge. All firmware has been updated (when its works).

This is a great unit at a reasonable price. The competition is much more expensive.

The down side is that setup is a PITA if you are not a network administrator. Once setup though, the units work great. There is very little latency added (ping time round trip).

EnGenius ships with quite nice mounting hardware and POE adapter. You will also need some electricians tape to seal the RJ45 connection (unless you can attach your own RJ45 connector; the supplied gasket ASM isn't large enough to let the RJ45 through) and possibly a null modem DB9 cable assembly if you do like I did, and set the EnGenius in a mode where it won't talk to you anymore. EnGenius is running Linux under the covers, with the null modem cable you can reset to default using a 2nd PC.

My application is an interbuilding wireless link, LOS 350M (about 1100'), where it was not practical to run a wire for broadband access. The first units installed were the internal antenna 3220, which are still in production use working reliably in all weather conditions-- rain, snow, fog. Downtime is not an option as the broadband is work related.

EnGenius could help themselves a lot by having three or four "standard" setups shown on their web site (BTW, I recommend reading the EnGenius website FAQ). I ended up using the one configuration they listed although that is not ideal for my application-- mostly because I ran out of time to try to get the ideal setup working. In the setup used, the bridge end can't work with a router, only a switch, which is acceptable and certainly better than only 1 PC at the far end [the setup is DSL router, NetGear local AP/router, EnGenius 3220 set up as AP+WDS, EnGenius 3220 set up as bridge, NetGear FS105 switch. The ideal setup would have a router not a switch at the far end to support the 4 PCs there.].

The 3220 is pretty darn sensitive too. I can weakly detect (9DBi antenna) several unprotected APs in the distance through substantial tree interference-- I'm sure the AP owners "think" they are invisible because their laptops can't connect to their AP, well that is not the case and they should use WEP or WPA with SSID suppressed. The 3220 can also detect the head end AP buried inside a house (the NetGear AP/router feeding the 3220 at the head end). In some applications you may not need two 3220s to operate, just one, if the source low cost consumer AP can be placed in a window or other spot that provides a decent signal-- the weaker signal though translates to a higher error rate and slower overall communications (the communications is slower due to retrying when a packet is lost or mangled), there isn't any free lunch!

There isn't much competition at at the EnGenius 3220 price point. The units work reliably in all weather conditions and have a nice collection of mounting hardware and POE adapter. The EnGenius 3220 is an excellent solution to linking points if the alternatives are impractical or simply more expensive.

Hi
I worked with this device for long time it's Really attractive performance and features. I live in Saudi Arabia and they are subjected to everything from 30 degrees to 55 °C degrees.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:
1.Ease of Installation.
2.The units are very watertight and weatherproof.
3.Appearance-wise, the units are architecturally unobtrusive.
4.Impressive range.
5.They are inexpensive, reliable and fast.
6.Power over ethernet capable.
7.Web interface.
8. Mounting hardware included.

Cons:
1.Short lifetime.
2.Reset to factory default is too difficult (You need cable (requires RS-232 null modem) and COM port - most laptop has not this legacy connection- and using telnet )
3. Poor manual.
4. No online forum.

Important advice:
Do not set the power to the 'Extreme' setting for long periods of time.