NETGEAR WBC502-100NAS - Discontinued by Manufacturer

Installed over the weekend. I was amazed with the speed delivered.Certainly wort the money.The distance between my 2 building was approximately 75 yards. The signal strength was excellent.Setup was not cumbersome, but it certainly helps if you have some networking knowledge. These are not plug and play devices, However if installed correctly they do rock!

Great access point once you have it installed, but this is intended to be installed by a professional WiFi technician. It took me approximately three hours to get it running. Once running it is the most powerful 5 gHz AP that I have used. We have good signal throughout the property, but of course being 5 gHz, it doesn't go through walls very well (a frequency thing, nothing to do with the equipment).It was worth the effort to get running. I would have preferred a Hawkin Tech AP, but they seem to be moving away from this business or maybe just the COVID problems. If you have the time to invest in getting it running, the Netgear is a great AP.

Initial set up was pretty easy using the Insight app, paring the units in the house and then installing them outside as recommended in the instructions. Speed is passable but not great. At the time of purchase my Cable TV plan provided up to 200 mbps download. But I was only getting about 55 mbps at the remote location. Occasionally it would go offline and the app would let me know, and again via email when it came back online. Recently I decided to switch to a business internet plan with a faster speed, and bought my own Motorola modem and separate router. I thought I could just plug the ethernet cable from the AirBridge into the new router and it would connect and just work. But after 4 days of power cycling, checking cables and even resetting to factory defaults and re-configuring the master and satellite units, I still can't get it to be recognized by the router (MR2600). I'm not using the Insight app this time, opting to switch to Standalone mode. It seems like the DHCP is not working, or that the AirBridge is not compatible with the MR2600 router. Still working on a finding a solution, but considering other bridges. Hope it's just a setting I'm needing to enable in the router. Other devices talk to the router fine in the Lan ports. I can connect to each AirBridge directly via ethernet cables so they're fine. I think I'll reset the AirBridges, reconfigure using the Day Zero first time start up feature, see if that works since it scans the IPs for you, and then switch to Standalone mode. Knock wood. Pretty frustrated so far. Can't work in my remote office. Note that Netgear business support plan is $79.

I have been pleased with all my Netgear purchases until now. Netgear is usually easy to install, but this was way too complicated. Every other step asked for a password or IP address that I had to create or find. It was like jumping through hoops all day long. I finally gave up and I am returning it. This was nothing like installing my Orbi. It practcally installed itself for me. I believe you have to be a NASA Rocket Scientist to install this bridge. I cannot rate the features or if it was easy to use because I never got to use it to know. I feel so dumb, but I know my limitations.I am just going to piggy back another Orbi to close up the weak spot in my chain and I will be up and running in minutes.

Will not connect to wireless network. Horrible user interface. I am returning this.

Distance advertised is false, 40 feet and the signal drops dead. Tried MULTIPLE times to call teach support, each time with more than an hour and a half waiting when I finally hung up.

i’ve always loved netgear products (especially the orbi line) but BOY have they dropped the ball with insight! i drank the Koolaid and bought enough of the WBC502s to cover all the buildings and common areas at my 900acre retreat facility. there is no question that they will cover long range LAN applications, where netgear failed is in creating a stable system. any one (or all) of my 8 wbc502 will go offline throughout the day and then stay in a “device disconnected” status until you physically disconnect the power to that device and it reboots. this is not acceptable as i manage my site from my home 100s of miles away and it’s an ordeal to get back to site and disconnect power. i’m sorry netgear, you failed. how could you release a product that is this unreliable. i have a video surveillance system that goes down EVERY DAY!! oh yes, thud problem only started 3 months after it was installed. (it’s a point to multi point configuration) netgear tech support is useless, level 1 is just someone reading off a screen and has no actual knowledge of anything IT including the use of their phone system. level 2 isn’t much better and seem to have decent knowledge, but anyone who is setting up this type of network is going to know more than the level 2 techs. level 3 is the insight team and man was i disappointed, it’s bad when you know more about the product than the team that created it. my recommendation is to stay far away from the insight line of products, they are not reliable and the support is awful.

Trendnet makes this device. Just search for it on Amazon and you will find it. It is awful. It has nothing to do with Netgear.