A powerful and flexible Wi-Fi access point with hidden antennas
Wireless access points in public places are not always easy to position discreetly, owing to the need to keep the antennas free from obstructions. Often this means that the antennas are not optimally deployed, leading to poor performance.
Germany-based vendor Lancom’s L-320agn 802.11n access point neatly sidesteps this issue by mounting its twin antennas for multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) operation internally, giving the device an unobtrusive footprint and eliminating the possibility of antennas being stolen or broken.
The plastic chassis can be wall-mounted, and there’s a special anti-theft wall mount available for £39.50 + VAT. Power-over-Ethernet (802.3af) capability liberates it from the need for power sockets.
Although there is just a single Gigabit Ethernet port at the rear, the L320agn has a neat trick up its sleeve. Using what Lancom terms DSLoL (DSL over LAN), the device can be connected either to a LAN via an Ethernet hub or switch, as you would expect of an access point, or else directly to a DSL modem to send packets across the internet.
With full routing capabilities and a policy-based stateful inspection firewall built in, it can thus be used as an internet gateway for smaller installations.
An optional adapter also allows the serial configuration port to be used to connect a landline or cellular modem as a backup connection.
The dual-band (2.4/5GHz) radio supports up to eight independent SSIDs, each of which can use different security settings.
The access point can be used in standalone client mode as a DHCP client or server, in wireless bridge mode, or else managed centrally by a Lancom wireless controller. This is the default configuration, which threw us for a while during initial setup.
The web-based configuration interface is very complex once you venture outsi de the basic wizards, but fortunately the free LANTools software makes advanced configuration fairly painless.
