EnGenius FIT6 Lite Access Point Test and Review (EWS276-FIT) – MBReviews Leave a comment

A few yr in the past EnGenius made the choice to divide its entry level line, leaving the ECW collection for enterprise-level customers, whereas the FIT line was presupposed to cater to the house or on the very most, the small companies.

Plainly this method paid off, and EnGenius launched a number of fashions, together with the newer FIT6 4×4 Lite, also referred to as the EWS276-FIT which, as its identify suggests, appears to be a stripped model of the FIT6 4×4. However how lite is it truly? Each entry factors are WiFi 6 and there may be assist for OFDMA, and sure, each of them provide 4×4 spatial streams on the 5GHz and the two.4GHz radios.

One notable distinction is the 5dBi antenna of the FIT6 Lite as in comparison with the 6dBi of the FIT6 mannequin, and it additionally appears that the previous doesn’t assist the mesh expertise. It’s a really curious choice, so maybe it’s hardware-related.

Aside from that, there’s a 2.5GbE port, there may be each native and Cloud-based administration utilizing the FitController and the FitXpress which for now are fully free, so let’s first have a more in-depth have a look at the design of this gadget.

The Design and Construct High quality

EnGenius has accomplished a fantastic job at differentiating its entry factors from the opposite manufacturers. While you see that slim rectangular case, you already know it’s from EnGenius, type of just like the flying saucer model of Ubiquiti’s entry factors. And sure, the FIT6 Lite is pretty compact, having the identical measurement as FIT6 4×4, but it surely’s a bit smaller than the WiFi 7 ECW536.

The highest is made from plastic, whereas the underside part is metallic and it does have the identical space for including the mounting bracket or to easily use a few screws to hold the entry level to a wall. We proceed to get a collection of LEDs which does make me joyful and we will see if the FIT6 Lite is powered, when you related an Ethernet cable and if the 2 radios are enabled.

Transferring again to the rear aspect, there may be carved-in space the place you could find a recessed Reset button, a 2.5GbE PoE port and a 12V DC energy port. So, not like Ubiquiti APs, we get the choice to not depend on PoE.

The Thermal Administration

The underside aspect of the entry level is actually one large warmth sink, so sure, it does have the potential to get scorching, however does it occur? It didn’t occur throughout my checks, however then once more, all is ok so long as the warmth is being pushed out and away from the inner parts. And through my checks, the gadget didn’t present any indicators of throttling, in order that’s excellent news.

The EnGenius FIT6 Lite Teardown

EnGenius makes it quite simple to entry the within of their units, which is at all times appreciated. So, to open up the FIT6 Lite, take away the 4 screws from the underside aspect after which use a prying software to take out the plastic prime piece.

Additionally, you will must take away the antennas and by chance none have been soldered to the board and after taking out a few screws, we will lastly get entry to the entire PCB. I already went by way of the teardown course of in the dedicated video, so I’ll merely add the primary parts right here. There may be additionally a comparability desk to get a good suggestion how the ESW276-FIT compares with different entry factors.

EnGenius ECW536 vs EVW336 vs ECW220S vs ECW230S

The WiFi Options

I’ve talked about the assist for OFDMA which is able to assist cut back the latency in a crowded setting and sure, MU-MIMO can be supported though its affect is considerably much less spectacular. However what caught my eye is the dearth of assist for the Mesh expertise. Certain, it’s proprietary to the FIT collection as no model desires to take care of units outdoors their walled backyard, however why hasn’t EnGenius add assist to it?

I truthfully don’t have any clue – most likely as a result of they thought the system would get too sophisticated or perhaps they’re nonetheless engaged on the characteristic, I don’t know. Lastly, I do want to say that the entry level has assist for as much as the 80MHz channel bandwidth, it doesn’t go wider than that. In a crowded setting, it doesn’t want 160MHz.

The Single Consumer Exams (5GHz)

Now let’s take a look on the single-client checks and I used one WiFi 6 pc geared up with an Intel AX200 adapter, one WiFi 5 gadget geared up with an Intel 8265 and lastly, an older Pixel 2 XL.

And we will see that the Fit6 Lite did nicely, particularly regarding the WiFi 6 consumer and that’s each upstream and downstream.

When in comparison with different entry factors, it’s not on the prime, but it surely does solidly keep between the ECW536 and the ECW230S. As for vary, it’s not phenomenal, however when the sign attenuation was near -80dB, we might nonetheless use the Web, though in a restricted trend.

It’s price mentioning that the Pixel 2 XL disconnected at that time, so keep in mind that some older WiFi 5 shoppers might require to be nearer to the entry level.

Lastly, let’s take a look on the long-term efficiency of the FIT6 Lite.

The Single Consumer Exams (2.4GHz)

Afterwards, I checked out the two.4GHz radio band efficiency and, after ensuring that the community was set to the 40MHz channel bandwidth, the outcomes are greater than first rate.

Even when the sign attenuation was about -70dB, which I registered at roughly 70 toes, we nonetheless get usable throughput, in some circumstances near 100Mbps.

When put next with different entry factors, the FIT6 Lite falls in between The ECW336 and the Ubiquiti U6-Professional.

The Multi-Consumer Exams

The only-client checks will virtually at all times present large numbers, however we’re extra serious about how the FIT6 Lite offers with latency when greater than consumer units are related, every demanding a chunk of the bandwidth. I used the identical set of units as earlier than and that is the sign attenuation of every of them.

Moreover, the measuring instruments are the open-source suite from net-hydra developed by Mr Jim Salter. And within the first checks, we examine how the entry level handles 1080p streaming.

We see that one consumer performing up once more, so we’re going to ignore its efficiency – I promise, I’ll change it quickly. However total, the WiFi 6 and 6E shoppers did very well, staying beneath 50ms for a minimum of 95% of the time. The WiFi 5 shoppers had a more durable time, however I suppose staying beneath 80ms for 95% of the time remains to be first rate efficiency.

Transferring ahead, I checked the 4K streaming on 5 shoppers and the WiFi 5 shoppers went above 100ms instantly, so we will discard them. The WiFi 6 and 6E shoppers stayed close to 70ms for 75% of the time after which slowly going shut and above 100ms nearing the 99% mark. Which means you’ll not have a good time when you intend to run the identical sort of visitors, so it’s greatest to restrict the variety of units.

Afterwards, I added intense shopping visitors which simulates a extra frenzied Web search, and I ran it alongside 1080p streaming on all 5 shoppers. There may be undoubtedly an affect, however not as a lot as I anticipated and just about all units stayed beneath 100ms for 95% of the time.

The extreme shopping graph reveals that two shoppers did go close to 1s, whereas all different remained beneath 300ms for the complete length of the checks. Then once more, I feel most individuals will reload the web page after a minimum of 1.5 seconds, so I suppose all is sweet. Subsequent, I ran the extraordinary shopping visitors alongside 4K streaming on all 5 shoppers.

We once more see an affect on the latency, with the 2 WiFi 5 shoppers remaining unreliable, however I suppose the opposite three remained close to or beneath 100ms for 95% of the time. The consumer will see some buffering within the movies. The extreme shopping graph reveals that 4 shoppers did very well, whereas that one gadget which at all times acts up went above 1s.

Now it’s time to alter issues a bit and run a mixture of obtain, 4K streaming and intense shopping on 5 consumer units. The primary checks includes two downloading shoppers and we see that each went above 300ms instantly and at 600ms on the 99% mark.

The extreme shopping shoppers stayed nicely beneath 400ms and the 4K streaming consumer went above 200ms instantly, so I might hardly name this checks profitable. The full throughput that I measured was 448.5Mbps. Transferring ahead, I restricted the downloading visitors to 1 consumer and it did a bit higher, though 200+ms is nothing to brag about.

The 2 intense shopping shoppers remained inside the acceptable boundaries, whereas the 2 4K streaming consumer units struggled fairly a bit, going above 100ms and approach past. The full throughput was 372.7Mbps.

I figured I might restrict the variety of shoppers to a few and the latency was higher, however I’m pretty certain that it’s nonetheless beneath acceptable ranges. The 4K streaming was additionally removed from supreme, whereas the extraordinary shopping did nicely. The full throughput was 186.1Mbps.

I modified issues once more and downloaded a 1MB file this time, whereas one consumer dealt with intense shopping and one other VoIP. We lastly see a good latency on the downloading consumer stage, whereas the VoIP latency was additionally higher than anticipated. Lastly, I ran the downloading visitors on the 5 consumer units and these are the outcomes. The full throughput was 332.9Mbps.

The Standalone Interface

Not like the ECW collection, the FIT line does have a complete native administration platform which doesn’t require entry to the Cloud. You should utilize a Cloud controller if you need, however you don’t must. The native platform has some standing information introduced beneath the OverView, whereas underneath Community, we get to decide on how the entry level will get its IP tackle and also you additionally get some freedom into creating and managing the Wi-fi networks.

Bear in mind that by default, no safety is utilized to the only SSID. So it’s clever to click on on Edit close to the SSID identify and set a powerful passkey beneath the Wi-fi Safety tab. We will see right here that we get a stable quantity of choices to regulate, together with the assist for Quick Roaming which is great. The Administration tab let’s you alter the SNMP settings and the way in which to entry the entry level – make certain to disable the TELNET entry. We additionally get some very good Instruments, however that’s about all, so let’s try the Cloud administration platform.

The Cloud Administration Platform

The EnGenius FIT6 Lite can use the FitXpress platform and after creating an account, a brand new Community and including the gadget, I gained entry to the interface. And it’s a quite simple and straight ahead format, the Dashboard exhibiting some Standing information, whereas underneath Units, we will entry the FIT6 Lite devoted settings. We will see the EnGenius Cloud pedigree right here as nicely when accessing the Instruments part.

Below WiFi, there are two default networks and once more, it’s clever to personalize the settings and add a correct stable passkey. There may be additionally Portal templates, Utility Management, scheduling and all that’s wanted to run a small enterprise community. By small it may well additionally imply easy and never sophisticated, so it’s a scalable answer. I suppose the one inconvenience can be the dearth of meshing, however you do get the Quick Roaming assist, so it might be considerably of a alternative.

You will notice on the backside what is known as the FitController and it does work in a similar way to UniFi and Omada native cases, however there may be one main distinction and it’s you can’t run it by yourself {hardware}, it requires the devoted gadget from EnGenius.

The Conclusion

The FIT line was a dangerous wager from EnGenius and plainly it could have paid off as a result of house customers and SMBs didn’t actually need all these further options which clearly got here at a really elevated value. A tool such because the FIT6 Lite will probably be extra appropriate for them because it’s designed to be consumer pleasant, however whereas nonetheless supporting the means to remotely monitor and configure a number of units on completely different websites. The {hardware} is alright, the software program is sweet and the efficiency is appropriate, simply bear in mind that it does have some quirks.