Cisco Business 140AC Starter Kit | Mesh Wi-Fi System | 1 Access Point + 2 Mesh Extenders + 1 PoE Injector | Coverage up to 3000 Square feet | Limited Lifetime Protection (CBW140MXS-B-NA)

We moved to a new house, built in the 1960’s, with a detached garage/loft, 30ft/10m from the back door, that was not connected to the main house’s internet service. My existing Peplink Mini AC AP’s were unable to mesh, but my old Apple AirPort Extreme bases stations could train up and stay connected. I currently use a Peplink Balance One router that provides fail-over and prioritization for our traffic (WFH, online school/kids, entertainment, and guest access for a short-term-rental), which has been reliable otherwise. Regretfully, most Mesh products seem to be designed for residential drop-in installs, where all the bells and whistles (guest networks, QOS, etc) are neutered when the device is placed in bridge mode or just don’t have any support at all (VLAN to SSID mapping for guest and IoT networks). so an all-in-one residential mesh product wasn’t going to work for our use-case. The Airport’s, while stable, were insecure due to their unmapped Ethernet ports, and didnt support the additional VLAN’s for kids and partitioning our IoT devices.Needing better control over our wireless for the STR and other demands, this product seemed to provide what we were looking for and had the brand to back up its credentials. The built in controller was a big plus (I was looking at the TP-Link Omadas also but didnt want to run a VM 24x7 or another RPi). Regretfully it fell far short of expectations. First off, the app is brain-dead. Yes, for setting it up, it did what was expected but for any management functions I had to go to the (thankfully it existed) built-in web GUI. I went looking at the support website and everything is written in a jockular, familiar sense. It was patronizing, but I could live with it as I was hoping to not need to after my initial configuration. I got the devices linked, deployed, and an initial configuration loaded. Regretfully, I could not get the extender in the garage loft to stay connected, it wouldn’t stay connected long enough to push a name change to it, or moving it to an AP group. I even leaned the base station on the horizontal axis (similar to UniFi base stations) in hopes of a directional beam towards the loft node. The help ‘?’ hovers never sprung up, and the manual was difficult to locate online, but once found, it was thorough. Overall, it just wasn’t what I had been expecting. The software feels amateurish, and unfinished. The physical hardware was sorely lacking when a six year old consumer base station running WDS outperforms it, both in ability to link, and throughput.After four days with it, I was called at 0530 by our guest saying they could not get online and I could not see our network at all. This was the final nail in its coffin. I told our guest to get the Apple AP out of a closet and plug it in. I restored our old configuration, hit factory reset in the Cisco App, and put everything back in the box. Hopefully this will mature into a better product, but for now its not ready for prime time, network TV. Meanwhile, I’m still looking for a better solution, but will likely be stringing some CAT-6 this summer, or setting up a simulated VDSL2 back-haul over the Cat-1 copper that’s already strung.

*Common solutions to problems many run into*- Powered via Ethernet to existing switch- Network connect via wireless connection initially until new network is set-up and your into the wizard and dashboard.- look for Cisco Business Set-up and use password123 or cisco123 for the initial password. It's always one or the other.- Be sure to immediately update the firmware.The above should square you away with common issues. However, a few other reviewers have went into more depth with regard to a few other less likely issues you may run into. So, if the above doesn't help, do take the time to read some of the other reviews.Set-up:If you're experienced in networking/IT/installation of routers/access points/etc., it's highly unlikely that this kit will give you any trouble.If you're reasonably tech savvy, you may struggle a bit, but if you take your time and really follow set-up directions to the letter, you'll be fine.If you're not tech savvy/have never installed any kit like this, I'd recommend you have someone with networking and IT experience install this kit for you.Directions/Wizard:I didn't find the directions or wizard hard to use. I also didn't find initial network set-up to be difficult. With that said, I work in IT and have installed numerous kits similar to this access point.Powered by:POESignal strength:VERY reliable in the 2800 square space I installed this in. Signal strength is very well distributed and consistent throughout the space.Downtime:So far, less than 15 minutes in over 6 weeks of use.Overall:Unless you install kits like this regularly and have good understanding of the steps needed, it's absolutely crucial you follow directions to the letter, and use the wizard properly.Once installed:Recommended4 stars

I work with cisco business products over 10 years, besides meraki I did not think they would come up with another level of products. Meraki class has no limits as it got firewall appliances to variety of switches, cloud based management and their high quality wireless access points are one of a kind.Their tech support used to be much better, on a large business level is not the best but for small business and home users can benefit from high quality products and tech support for these products.Besides all that, this kit is very easy to setup, a lot of flexible settings and tweaks are available, their cloud solution for management is known to be one of the best. It comes with free license for their cloud setup. Great range with extenders to get your mesh setup. Can be powered with PoE switch and its sleek design with smooth and round edges doesn't look tacky at all.High speeds, long range signal strength adjustable signal power levels and usability highly satisfactory.If you know how to handle professional networks, you will rock this kit, if you are a basic home user, I suggest watching some videos or calling tech support to get help on best practices for your specific needs to set this up right.

We needed a better WiFi system to replace our Google setup that died after a year, so after reading the reviews, we decided on this one. My husband is a cybersecurity expert (it's what pays the bills) and always liked Cisco products. With that being said, it took over 3 days to set this up and daily "fine-tuning" to keep it going. We have fiber optic internet and this killed our internet speeds and kept dropping a wifi signal. We'd have to reset it at least twice a day and wait almost 10 minutes for it to start back up. With the pandemic, working from home, a college student, and an elementary student both attending online school, this daily showdown was NOT an option. Sent it back and went with something cheaper that has been infinitely better.