WLAN-station-mode internet access

[nikiwaibel]

MV12 gets internet access via WLAN-station-mode in fall 2018. any chance, this wireless feature is also merged into MR / Z1 / Z3 / MX64W / MX65W series?

it would be (VERY!) nice to connect those devices DIRECTLY in wlan-station mode to the internet.

[MerakiDave]

Hi @nikiwaibel, sorry, no, the common use case for wireless capability on the MV12 will be to replace legacy systems where there might only be power and coaxial cabling, an no Cat5/6 to all the cameras.  That way, the power cable could still be used just the same as before to power the camera, but the MV12 can connect to the WLAN as a client and there's no need to run any Cat5/6.  The MV12 can, of course, also run normally on Cat5/6 PoE, which would be the preference (wired when you can, wireless when you must) since it's non-mobile infrastructure equipment.

The MR equipment can auto-mesh, which is perhaps similar in concept, as long as the AP has power, without any wired LAN connectivity, it can auto-mesh to other APs for the backhaul.  I do not see any related functionality coming to any Z/MX series.

Now, if I misunderstood your question, and you're asking if an MV12 can join the WLAN on an MR, Z1, Z3 or MX-W appliance, in that case, yes!  The MV12 can join any of those as a wireless client.

[nikiwaibel]

hi @MerakiDave,

the use case is, that an employee takes a Z1/Z3 with him on a biz-trip. in the hotel-room, there may no wired connection and there is neither a cellular data card (or USB-LTE-stick) available. BUT, the hotel provides free WLAN access → if a Z1, Z3 could directly use the hotel-WiFi in station/client mode (in addition to AP-mode), the employee would be pretty happy.

if the cameras WiFi can connect in station (aka client) mode to access the internet - and a GUI of some sort, to configure that mode, is developed/available - that code should be integrated into the Z1 / Z3 series as well. it would provide a 3rd way to get an internet connection: ethernet, USB and (new) WiFi (client-mode).

IMHO that feature should be merged into MX64W and MX65W as well.

and yes, the MR products have a similar function: automatically switch to repeater-mode within a meraki-WLAN or bridge a meraki-VLAN to ethernet using a meraki-WLAN. this works nice within a fully deployed meraki environment (which i like and prefer very much, of course!). but it may happen, that you want to bridge a non-meraki WLAN, or use that WLAN as internet connection. (again) if you have a way to setup WLAN-client-mode on the cams, then there are use cases for this feature also on Z1, Z3, MX64W, MX65W and also on the MR.

hope i could explain good enough.