NETGEAR Wireless Desktop Access Point (WAC104) - WiFi 5 Dual-Band AC1200 Speed | 3 x 1G Ethernet Ports | Up to 64 Devices | WPA2 Security | Desktop | 802.11ax

Once you get it set up, it works fantastic. Strong wireless signal on both 2.4 and 5 bands. Super-fast wireless from my 900MB home broadband. Excellent access point.The only thing is, as others have said, is that the instructions for how to "just plug it in to a port on the router, and DHCP will take over, and then set it up" are unproductive. The default setup in the AP is for DHCP, but for the wrong network due to its default IP address of 192,.168.0.100. My router is 192.168.1.1, and the AP doesn't get set up properly by DHCP. I tried to follow these instructions first, and as others have said it just doesn't succeed, for the obvious reasons.But I've had prior experience with an earlier version of the Netgear access points, model WN604. The setup approach in that older model was outright described for manual method, temporarily connecting directly to a laptop or PC via ethernet cable. These are exactly the same manual configuration instructions as are described in the user manual for this new WAC104. Once you take this manual approach, instead of the DHCP approach, it's just a few minutes to complete the setup and get the WAC104 prepared for actually being connected on my 192.168.1.1 network.You first need to get your laptop or PC into the TCP/IPv4 properties, in order to change from "DHCP" to "manual static IP" mode. This is from Network and Sharing Center, and then click on "Change adapter settings", and then select your ethernet connection object, and right-click and select Properties to get the Properties dialog window. Then select the "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)" item, and push the PROPERTIES button. You're probably in "obtain an IP address automatically" mode, which means your PC/laptop is normally handled by DHCP from your router. Temporarily you must instead change this to "Use the following IP address", to assign a static IP (as described in the manual setup instructions of the WAC104 user guide) that will make the WAC104 directly visible to your PC/laptop.Enter an IP address of say 192.168.0.201, and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, and you can leave the "default gateway" blank. Then push OK, and OK your way all the way back out, and shut down. Then disconnect the ethernet cable from your PC/laptop to your LAN, and instead connect it from the PC/laptop directly to one port of the WAC104. Now re-boot the PC/laptop, and ignore any startup errors you might get from any of your software that might complain about not being able to get to the internet.On the computer, open a web browser and enter 192.168.0.100 in the address bar. A login window opens.Enter the access point user name and password.The default user name is admin. The default password is password. The user name and password arecase-sensitive. You can change these default values later as part of your setup, if you want.The Home page displays.Customize the access point settings for your network environment. My approach was to configure the WAC104 for "static IP" (not DHCP), exactly as I did with my previous WN604. I picked a known available and currently unused IP address of 192.168.1.124, with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, and a default gateway of 192.168.1.1, and a primary DNS server of 192.168.1.1. This means in normal operation your WAC104 will always have a static IP address of 192.168.1.124 from your router at 192.168.1.1. And that means you can always subsequently get back into the setup dialog of the WAC104 if you want to, by using a browser and addressing it via 192.168.1.124.I also set my desired new SSID network names for the 2.4 and 5 networks, along with the new passwords (i.e. "passphrase") for those WiFi network signins.I also set wireless security to "WPA2-PSK [AES]", for maximum wireless speed on both 2.4/5 bands. At first I checked "WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]" but when I pushed APPLY I was warned about the full-speed limitation of this option, something I wasn't aware of. So I instead checked the "WPA2-PSK [AES]" option which is perfectly fine with me.If you want you can also change the WAC104 login username and password through the Administration -> Set password dialog.Push the APPLY button, to save all customized settings.After you complete the setup go back into Network and Sharing Center, etc., and change the PC/laptop TCPIPv4 properties back to original IP address or DHCP. Then shut down the computer and power-off the WAC104, and disconnect everything.Now you can reconnect the PC/laptop with ethernet cable back to your router, and reboot. Everything should be back to normal again.And you can connect the WAC104 through its own ethernet cable run to an open port on your router (or remote switch). Power-on the WAC104, and wait for the lights to stabilize. You should now be able to confirm that you see the two new 2.4/5 WiFi networks using your smart phone and a WiFi Analyzer app.You should also confirm from your PC/laptop that you can also get to 192.168.1.124 via a browser.Simple and straightforward. Just manually connect static-IP PC/laptop via ethernet cable directly to the WAC104 for setup.

I saw a lot of reviews saying the setup was a pain because it tells you to go to some url that figures out the right IP to hit for you, because you don't know what IP the WAP has when it is on the network.Well, I plugged it into the net, turned it on, and logged into my router. Under the connected devices, I found it and its IP. I set a reservation for it, logged into that IP in the browser with the default username/password that is repeated about a billion times in the user manual, upgraded the firmware, and setup wireless. It was just as simple as any WRT/WAP I've ever setup. Absolutely no issues if you know how to find a device's IP in your router. You don't have to use whatever weird internet site thing they have setup. You don't need connection to the internet. Heck, you don't even need a DHCP server. Jack into the thing directly and use the default 192.168.0.0/24 address it gets if DHCP fails, as documented in the user manual. Handy for if you're just setting it up to be repeater. I'm sure it works fine for that too, not that it was my use case.It works great. I did notice if you force WPA2 upon one WAP, and not the other, joining the strongest one doesn't seem to work awesome on the mac. But with both the new upstairs WAP and the downstairs WRT forced to only use WPA2, handoffs were working better and always connecting to the strongest WAP as expected.I mean, what more can you say about an inexpensive netgear WAP? It works as a WAP. It was very easy to set up for someone experienced and they clearly have gone extra steps to try to make it even easier for the layman.I did read that this thing is discontinued. That's a bummer. No idea how long it'll be supported, but if it continues to work I'll be happy for years until some of the newer crazier 802.11 stuff comes out with Gb+ speeds. Not like my Internet is faster than 802.11ac anyways, and I don't share stuff just on the internal network much anymore.Anyway. I put 3 stars for tech support just because I have no idea what the tech support is like. I'm sure it is sufferable. So a medium there? But it was precisely what I wanted. I was actually surprised to find a simple no-frills non-router cheap dedicated Wireless Access Point. Precisely what I wanted, expected, and got. A+