EnGenius Technologies Wi-Fi 5 Outdoor AC867 5Ghz Wireless Access Point/Client Bridge, Long Range, PTP/PTMP, IP55, 26dBm Transmit Power with 19dBi Directional Antennas, GigE Port (EnStation5-AC)

There are a lot of negative customer reviews complaining about how hard these are to set up and how useless the company’s tech support is. Well, the tech support may be useless, I don’t know, but the fact is you don’t need any tech support because the units are VERY easy to get working. It actually only takes a few minutes. I suggest doing it in your living room first, before deploying them in the field. The only tech skill you need is to be able to log into your router. If you can do that, then the rest is easy. You will need four CAT5e/6 patch cables to do the initial setup. The units come with no data cables.I configured mine in WDS Bridge Mode. I installed one unit on my house, and the other on an outbuilding 500 feet away. In the outbuilding, I installed a DVR home security system directly to the LAN port on the EnStation5-AC PoE injector. Nothing else was needed. No second router, no switch, no nothin'. This DVR system has 4 analog cameras. Everything works great. I can now view all the cameras on my phone app. When I can afford it, I’ll switch it to a better NVR system, but for now, the DVR system works fine.First, I assume most people installing these will be making their own CAT5e/6 cables. If so, make sure you have a good cable tester. Otherwise, how would you know if the problems you’re having aren’t just from a bad cable? I really like this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RT1J9MB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 because you don’t have to see both ends of the cable at the same time. I’d stay away from the cheaper ones where you do have to see both ends at once.All of the instruction needed is included in the YouTube video “EnStation5 AC KIT FULL VIDEO,” dated May 18, 2020, starting at 3:50, but note that much of the information in that video is NOT NEEDED, at least not for my units which I purchased in May, 2021.All of the necessary information stats at 3:50 on the video. All of the preceding information on the video is confusing and unnecessary if you need to convert to WDS Bridge Mode.Be advised though, you do NOT need to change any settings on your computer. You do not need to change any network settings. You don’t have to change any TCP/IP settings. You certainly do NOT need a static IP address from your ISP like one reviewer thought! Wow.The video talks about one unit being labeled 192.168.1.1 and the other being labeled 192.168.1.2. This was NOT the case with my units. There were no IP address on the labels of the units I received. You do NOT need to worry about this. That part of the video does NOT apply. You simply let your router assign the IP addresses after they are connected.Note: There are two RJ45 ports on the EnStation5-AC dish unit, but you only use one of them, the one marked PoE. If you end up with two cables coming out of the EnStation5 dish, you’ve done something very wrong!These are the instructions that worked for me:Purchase two EnStation5-AC units.Arbitrarily write “Unit 1” on one, and “Unit 2” on the other.Take “Unit 1” dish unit and connect the PoE port to the PoE LAN port on the PoE injector.Connect the port marked “LAN” on the PoE injector to your router.Plug the power cord of the PoE injector into the wall outlet.Give the EnStation unit time to boot up, like 2 minutes.Log into your router.Go to “Connected Ethernet Devices,” note, NOT wifi connected devices!Look for the one marked EnStation5 and write down the IP address.I set mine as a static address so I would always know which one is which when they are both connected, but I don’t think it’s necessary.Open a new tab on your browser and type that IP into the address bar.You should now see the EnStation5-AC login page.The user is “admin” and the password is “admin”.Login to the EnStation5Once inside the EnStation5, go to the “Network” tab on the left and click “wireless.”On that page, where it says “EnJet” status, click “disable.”Note: If you don’t do that, you will not be given the option to switch to WDS Bridge Mode.Next, on the same page, on the next line down, go to “Operation Mode” and choose “WDS Bridge.”All the settings should be for 5GHz.Set the “Channel HT Mode”. I chose 40 Mhz.Set the “Channel” number. I chose channel 40. You MUST set both units to the same channel.On that same page, scroll down to “WDS Link Settings.”This is where you put the MAC address of the SECOND EnStation5.Remove the cover on the UNIT2 EnStation and find the “5GHz MAC.”Scroll down to “WDS Link Settings – 5GHz” and change the Mode to “Enable.”Now you can type in the UNIT2 5GHz MAC address.Scroll to the very bottom of the page and click “SAVE.”YOU ALSO HAVE TO CLICK THE “APPLY” BUTTON!!! If you don't ALSO click "apply" it won't work.After you click “APPLY” you have to wait quite a LONG time for the changes to complete, like around 3 minutes maybe. Once done you will be put back on the main page. Scroll all the way down to “Wireless LAN Information – 5 GHz” and verify the “Operation Mode” says “WDS Bridge.” If it says WDS Bridge, then you are done with the first EnStation5 unit.Disconnect the Unit1 EnStation5, put it aside, and plug in the second EnStation5, Unit2.Perform exactly the same steps.Find the Unit2 IP address from your router’s list of connected devices.Log into Unit2 using “admin” “admin.”Repeat all the steps, except put in the Unit1 MAC address in the “WDS Link Settings – 5GHz” area.Make sure you pick the same channel number and channel HT mode as Unit1.To test, plug in both units on opposite sides of your living room to power.Connect the “LAN” port on the Unit1 PoE injector into your router.Do not connect Unit2 yet.DISABLE WIFI ON YOUR COMPUTER! Try to access the internet. You should NOT be able to access the Internet at this point!Now connect the Unit2 PoE injector’s “LAN” port to the RJ45 port on the computer. If you have a Macbook, you will have to get an RJ45 adapter. Make sure the computer’s wifi is turned off. If you can now access the Internet, and before you couldn’t, your setup is successful and you can deploy both units wherever you need to an be assured it will work, assuming you don’t have too many obstructions in the line-of-sight path.After it’s all up and running, don’t forget to go back and configure all the security passwords and such if you didn’t bother with it initially.

We recently had a custom project relaying a multi-VLAN network from one facility to another.. thru some trees.. and across a lake. We decided to get a pair of the 5AC dish units to create a bridge.The two stations are located about 550 yards apart, through a sparsely coverage group of pine trees. This setup was to bridge the main network to a remote facility, delivering multiple VLANs and reliable throughput.Having a bit of experience with Engenius, we were familiar with the configuration aspect, so we set up the bridge configuration of the two units in our lab prior to deployment. This I think is key - removing as many 'variables' as possible prior to installation. Configuration took about an hour (for each pair of units- a master and a slave (or sender/receiver))..Upon installation, it just worked. splendidly. The installation was essentially line-of-sight (albeit thru some trees), and it was far enough apart that we could only make out the side of the building on the other side of the lake. There was no exact 'aiming' - we simply visually aligned the dishes in the general area, locked down the ball joint mounts and then powered on.After a few seconds of booting, the network lights all came on, data was flowing, and we were in business.The only bandwidth test we have is the fiber internet (100Mbx100Mb)... using a typical ping and speedtest, the hardwired test (at the router, upstream from the Engenius bridge) was ~2ms ping, and 100x100.. At the other end (downstream of the bridge), ping was 2-3ms (usually 2ms but occasionally 3ms), and ..... 100Mb x 100Mb...In other words, virtually instant.We also coupled this with the Engenius ECB1750 (3x3 MIMO high speed access point), which was actually the 'slowest' part of the network.. the ECB1750 added about 10ms to ping times, but throughput remained very high - about 100Mbs..In real-world, the performance is excellent. as a fun test, we hooked up a few laptops, some cell phones, and a smart TV, streamed (simultaneously movies to all devices). not a single glitch. Virtually instant feed, and not a single glitch or hiccup. Numerous screen streaming devices, across a lake and thru some woods. this appears to be an extremely robust device with quite reliable performance.Caveats:• This is a rather remote location and had essentially no other 5ghz networks in the area, thus allowing us to run full width with little/no 'trash' signal.• the devices are mounted on building exteriors, directed at each other, line-of-sight.• we have more than passing wifi knowledge and decent experience with Engenius.Takeaways• yes, it works..• it's not 'stupid easy' to setup. But we're talking about something which is a rather complex technology product.. if you're expecting 'plug and play' with any bridge setup, YOU are the problem. hire someone if you don't know what you're doing, because otherwise you're going to be buying a project instead of a solution.

I have a horse boarding business and reached out to Engenius for a WIFI system and was contacted within 24 hours by a business account executive. After a couple emails and phone calls, John recommended the two pack Enstation AC bridge. I bought a camera elsewhere and set out to hook it all up. I placed the camera in a horse stall to monitor a pregnant horse and used the two ACs as a bridge back to my cable router. Unless you have a junior IT badge, this is not a project for entry level type setup and I ran into a bunch of problems. The camera is a GW Security 5 MP POE and I found I needed to call tech support for both devices. Both companies are located in CA and I pretty quickly got human beings on the phone that spoke with a US accent. The GW tech logged into my computer remotely and hooked me up real quick. The Engenius tech spent well over 2 hours with me walking through all the necessary tweaks. He even did his best to ensure the camera and the Engenius were talking to each other even though he knew nothing about the camera. A common complaint I read about in my research of cameras was the instructions were vague. That is true here, but with both companies, tech support was readily available. If I had anything negative to say about Engenius it would be that policy prohibits techs from logging in remotely. I understand the logic, but if he could have logged in, we would have been done in about 15 minutes. They need to weight the security concerns versus the efficient use of phone time . When I expand my system, I will be going back to these companies to buy their products. I love these products so far and the companies seem to be outstanding examples of good product and good customer support in the USA....