Where should I place my MR52? Video included with options

RumorConsumer
Head in the Cloud

Where should I place my MR52? Video included with options

Hello!

 

I have a MR52 Im using to fill a dining room at my retreat center, itll be using an MR74 as a gateway. 

 

Check out this video and weigh in:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fbh8xtk3m9jozya/where_to_put_mr_52.MOV?dl=0

 

 

Right now in its current position the MR52 pulls 107mbit mesh speed. Here's its RF info (courseroom is the MR74):

Screen Shot 2019-07-19 at 2.30.46 PM.png

 

thoughts? I could just try it but its a pain to get up there. what do you all think? 

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.
10 REPLIES 10
PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

The distance is so short I think it will work anywhere in the kitchen area.  🙂

 

I think if it was me I would duct tape it in a couple of trial locations (that you have pointed out) and see which works best for a trial client.  Hard to beat actual measurements for making decisions.

 

I think I would try a location in the actual dining area as well (near the kitchen end) and see what happens there.

 

Hey @PhilipDAth Thanks for the input as always!

 

 

I have tried it at the far end of the dining room and honestly it just looks ugly down there. So I’m trying to keep it out of sight of the guest area. Once you go through those doors into the dining room there really isn’t anywhere convenient or sightly to put the device. The cable and power adapter just look junky on a cabinet or shelf or something.

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.

Have you seen the covers you can get for them to make them blend aesthetically into your environment?

 

I've never personally used this company, but I believe they are quite popular.

https://coverandhyde.com/

 

Another option is to simply get a vinyl print done in any pattern and colour that you like.  Pretty much any sign writing company has a vinyl printer available (so you could take a photo of where it is going, have that vinyl printed, stick the cinyl to your AP and then when you mount it - it will look like it is not even there).  If you want a plain colour you can probabyl get a roll from a stationery store (same stuff as used for wrapping school books).

 Wow those are cool. It’s a maybe. So here is something maybe you could shed some light on which is why the outdoor access points seem to only go up to 30 dB. I’m pretty sure that’s the maximum I’m able to drive them manually. The indoor ones, on the other hand seem to like to go up much higher.  I mention this because the device that I have which seems to do the best job at connecting is my 2019 MacBook Pro 15 inch. Just how much better is the antenna in the MR 52? Like if the MacBook Pro pulls 20 dB in my super clean RF Environment, how much better would the MR 52 be? I realize real world testing is the most powerful thing I totally get it and I agree and I also like knowing what capabilities the hardware actually has at spec,

 

Also... I want some other real world test to check the link between the Gateway and the non-wired access point that does not rely on my Internet connection or on a Meraki dashboard number. Any thoughts?

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.

Different regulartory zones have different limits of EIRP outdoors and indoors.  So you might be facing a regulatory restraint here.

 

The MR52 is a 4x4 AP.  If you were comparing this against a 2x2 AP, and lets pretend the APs had identical antennas on then - then the MR52 gain could be considerably more.  This is because it can use twice as many antennas to receive the signal.  Ditto with transmitting a signal.

 

On top of this beam forming also kicks in more.  A reflected signal (one that bounces off something else) arrives slightly later at the AP than the main signal.  Beam forming allows the signals to be mathematically shifted to arrive at the same time - so the net signal strength is increased.  The MR52 has four streams, so can use beam forming a lot more than a 2x2 AP.

 

You can read more about it here:

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/WiFi_Basics_and_Best_Practices/Meraki_MR_SU-MIMO%2C_MU-MIMO%2C_a...

 

Also the more expensive APs like the MR52's simply have higher quality radios in them.

 

 

And then the antenna comes into play ...

 

I see. So the MR 52 is a 4 x 4 and the 74 and 84 antennas are 2 x 2. That makes sense. When you connect external antennas to both banks of ports on the outdoor stations does the internal built in antenna deactivate?

 

Looking at the radiation pattern shown here

 

https://meraki.cisco.com/lib/pdf/meraki_datasheet_MR52.pdf

 

It’s much more orb shaped than I thought. It makes me think that right now it’s in the best place to reach the far end of the dining room but that I should turn it to face the dining room where it is right now on that metallic conduit. Do you know if you are contending with a wall does it hurt the signal more to be right up against the wall and closer to where you want the signal to go? Or is it better to put some space between your access point and the wall even if it means that you will be a little farther away from the target area?

Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.

The MR74 is 2x2.  The MR84 is 4x4.  Both of these only have external antennas - there are no internal antennas.

 

Note that slightly more signal comes out from the back to the front of the AP - so it is best to mounted it facing downwards from roof height.  It's not a big difference though.

 

A dry wood wall doesn't do much to the signal.  You can put it up against it.

Water hurts the signal a lot.  Fine metal mesh (such as metalic tinted windows) can hurt the signal a lot.  Metal in general can absorb signal.

As far as signal “intake” from the gateway does the same front to back rule apply? I assume it does.
Networking geek since high school where I got half of a CCNA. Played Marathon II and Infinity over localtalk.
Made many a network over the years, now de facto admin of a retreat center with some of this fine Meraki hardware.
Fortune 100 Tech veteran/refugee.

Yes.

>Also... I want some other real world test to check the link between the Gateway and the non-wired access point that does not rely on my Internet connection or on a Meraki dashboard number. Any thoughts?

 

I missed this bit.  I would use iperf3.  You'll need to use two computers.  Once to act as a server and one to act as a client.

You can get iperf3 here:

https://iperf.fr/iperf-download.php

Meraki have a guide on using iperf3 here:

https://documentation.meraki.com/zGeneral_Administration/Tools_and_Troubleshooting/Troubleshooting_C...

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