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QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 6:46 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
Just received it, and promptly installed.
Image

Will do a review about it as time permits :)

i'll rate it from 1 lowest to 10 highest.

Key specifications

QWA-AC2600: PCIe 2.0 x1 interface, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4/5 GHz DBDC, 4 x 4 MU-MIMO, max. 2533 Mbps, antennas detachable, with magnetic stand base and full-height & specialized (for selected QNAP NAS) brackets included

packaging (8/10)
- aesthetically it's a nicely marketed box with graphics and details. easy to know what it is and does. colors are white text, with dark blue and light blue background. as for durability, it's a solid card board box, with foam compartments for the parts. Seems sturdy enough for shipping, but i'd still not try to toss it onto the floor needlessly.


installation (8/10)
- i did read the manual, but in the end it was pretty obvious to me what to do. i simply remove the casing for my ts-877 (had to unscrew before can remove. I was worried about what if i already had a graphics installed, but this part used the other slot which is in the other segmented part of the internal which has the smaller pcie slots separate from the other one used for the graphics. so no problem.

had to remove the default slot cover, then insert the wireless adapter module, and screw it back.

and lastly, you have to screw on the wires to adapter, and also add the antennas, very simple.

just need a screw driver, and to ground yourself before handling electronics.



wireless adapter hardware 8/10
- yes the wireless plate is plastic most part but it has a small weight to it due to the magnet inside. the magnet is quite strong to stick very well to metallic surfaces (i tested ontop of my qnap case). So even if it was upside down, i doubt it would fall down, put it that way.



wireless app (in qts appcenter) 8/10

okay the app software tested is wireless ap station and the virtual network (PCIE wireless). it works well.

the wireless app configurations work quite solidly without issue (wonkyness during setup to get the wireless working properly could be something non qnap specific related to either my router or pc that went awry. but got fixed as soon i rebooted the qnap, router and pc. anyway works fine now.)

i'm actually going to be testing over a month usage using pure wireless to connect to the QNAP. so i will update wireless app/performance when i sufficiently tested this to have a better idea how i feel about using wireless to the QNAP instead of wired.

previously i said that vpn gateway does not work when using wireless. that is incorrect. the only reason it didn't work was due to a misconfiguration on my part. i was supposed to separate the wireless adapter to a different ethernet port from the vpn. so no, the setup is not merely plug and play. you need to also carefully configure the virtual network and pair the wireless adapter to a different unused port to prevent conflicts like the one i discovered.




Summary
it's a quality hardware wireless adapter that does what it's meant for. If you want good wireless direct to the qnap, or either to offload workload from your existing wireless router, or you don't have existing wireless ap to use already, or you want to relocate your NAS to an area where a wired connection may not be possible. Then yes this is a good item to get.

performance can vary depending on your client devices wireless capability, like my own tests demonstrates. but on the qnap side, seems decent enough.

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 6:57 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
some pics i took

had to go appcenter to install wireless ap station (pre-requisite is container station)

see it detects it just fine. there is 2.4ghz or 5ghz
wireless ap 1.png

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:04 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
hm i get this weird error

QWA-AC2600-5G could not find the default gateway or the default gateway is WLAN.

QWA-AC2600-5G enters start flow.
any ideas?


*update

okay i figured it out. I had to disable VPN as gateway and set that back to default. Apparently wireless ap station will not work if the VPN is set as gateway :'

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 7:14 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
if you go to virtual network, it also detects PCIE wireless there as well. but if you use that, you cannot use the wireless ap station unless you disable virtual network wireless setting first.

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 8:07 pm
by spikemixture
What are your plans for using this card?

Mine is on it's way!

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 8:12 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
spikemixture wrote:What are your plans for using this card?

Mine is on it's way!
i won it from the contest.

i think its useful for people who can't connect the qnap to a wired setup.....

but since i am able to connect to a wired ethernet.... that is obviously better....

so.... this wireless access point then is being used instead as a means for devices to connect wirelessly direct to the QNAP (as a secondary method if those devices aren't able to connect via ethernet to the network)

for example.... i have an android smartphone which connects to my network via my router normally (wirelessly). but since i got this new wireless adapter, i can instead just connect direct to the qnap for streaming media. why not :)

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 8:23 pm
by spikemixture
Moogle Stiltzkin wrote:
spikemixture wrote:What are your plans for using this card?

Mine is on it's way!
i won it from the contest.

i think its useful for people who can't connect the qnap to a wired setup.....

but since i am able to connect to a wired ethernet.... that is obviously better....

so.... this wireless access point then is being used instead as a means for devices to connect wirelessly direct to the QNAP (as a secondary method if those devices aren't able to connect via ethernet to the network)

for example.... i have an android smartphone which connects to my network via my router normally (wirelessly). but since i got this new wireless adapter, i can instead just connect direct to the qnap for streaming media. why not :)
I won one also and I have similar plans as you.
I have about 50 things connected to my 2x Asus routers and mesh setup.
I was thinking of making the qnap AP my exclusive IOT and smart things hub

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:27 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
wow... sounds like you need it much more than i do.

with that many devices, yes the wireless ap will definitely help offload the burden on your wireless router. in the youtube i saw it talks about that.


hm..... from my testing


- wireless ap station (makes your wireless adapter an access point)
- setting up in virtual network (connects to another wireless AP via your PCIE wireless adapter)


i tested both things.

if i were to use ap station, then i'd have to connect to the wireless ap (qnap) to access. how to connect to wireless from windows 10? :'

the other method, i connected to my router wireless (but when i tried accessing from pc to the device, i could not access. maybe i missed a step? :' )

// just an update. i forgot i had disabled the wireless on the desktop pc for starters (since i wasn't using it). You can then right click the internet connectivity icon and it will show the list of available wireless networks there. so fixed that. i'll try setup wireless ap station much later and see if i can directly connect to the qnap without having to go through the router. that would be ideal.


i'm checking for guides for how people are using this :)


for my own testing purposes, i want to unplug the ethernet cable from the qnap, then access it from desktop pc to access via samba the media folder so i can watch my videos :'

also curious what kind of speeds i can get with it.

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 9:52 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
ugh confused how to get this to work.

using virtual network, i manage to connect the QNAP to the router via the wireless PCIE adapter. It says it's connect on qnap side. i also check router, it also says it's connected.

So.... my desktop pc which is connected to the same router, is also on the same network. So how do i connect it to the qnap via the wireless?


so to get the wireless adapter to work, i had to

1. install wireless adapter (duh)
2. go to virtual network and connect to the router via the wireless PCIE adapter. If it works, it should have a green sign (you can also confirm in your router that it's connected there as well. I recommend setting up a DHCP/fixed lan ip for the wireless adapter)
3. in browser just enter https://your wireless device lan ip and thats it (my ethernet cable is unplugged fyi, so it's definitely working. or just use qfinder to confirm)
4. next step is to setup the samba shortcut using the wireless lan ip e.g.

Code: Select all

\\the lan ip
5. cannot use VPN as gateway in QNAP. This totally kills the wireless from working at all :S so disable that and restore it back to the default first. on a side note, i could still use my PIA desktop APP, and the wireless access still works (only qfinder does not work, unless i disable kill switch. but this is same as my wired situation)



anyway with my current setup it's

QNAP > wireless > router > desktop pc.


This is not as beneficial as QNAP > desktop pc (which would require setting the qnap up using the wireless ap station).


the only reason i did it the former method is because that just simply worked as it detects the qnap device on the same network and can connect.

but if i setup ap station, all devices that want to connect to the qnap have to login direct to it, rather than through the router network. it would seem to me, using the qnap itself as the access point is the optimal solution?

further testing, it's better to set the wireless to connect automatically enabled. (helps a lot during reboots). You can disable the connect auto, only if you plan to go wired permanently thereafter.



tested on wireless n, now testing on wireless ac. but my ac is configured using a guest account with restrictions against intranet. so i disable that to test it working. couldn't get the guest account to work even after enabling intra, probably cause i needed to reboot? or the router firmware for that is not working as it should (i saw an older version had this issue reported by others, hence my suspicion). either way i disabled guest mode :roll:


qfinder works for wireless. it even tags it as (wireless) to indicate that is how it is connected to the network.

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:46 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
ok after more troubleshooting, i managed to resolve some of my technical troubles by rebooting the qnap, my desktop pc and router.

everything seems to work fine at this point.

i check qnap log and it showed ip for desktop pc got permanently banned (although it doesn't get added since it has allow all ips set). anyway that is probably why the networking was acting up a bit. anyway got that sorted.

added a windows credential for the wireless adapter ip (already set a dhcp for it, so it doesn't randomly change each time).


i can connect to it like i normally do on wired.


i then ran a performance test for wireless AC (using qnapclub's speed test app https://qnapclub.eu/en/qpkg/releasenotes/499 )

upload
---------------
346.06 Mbps = 43.2575 MB/s

download
--------------
944.26 Mbps = 118.0325 MB/s

// keep in mind that the network setup is QNAP > wireless to Asus AC68U > wired to desktop pc. If i tried using ap station instead for directly connecting QNAP straight to the desktop PC, maybe performance would be much better? i'll test that later




on wired i can get max 110-120 for both ul and dl, so..... wireless is not as good as wired in that sense.

i'll just stay using wireless for a month or so and see how it goes.

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:59 pm
by Moogle Stiltzkin
there is no option for WPA3. although to be fair, that is barely out the door yet. even my existing router does not have this option either.
https://www.howtogeek.com/339765/what-i ... -my-wi-fi/


but hopefully in future, WPA3 support is added at some point.

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:17 am
by dolbyman
Moogle Stiltzkin wrote:

but hopefully in future, WPA3 support is added at some point.
doubt it

WPA3 is a hardware feature/certification
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/QNAP_QWA-AC2600
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/qca9984

and that qualcom hardware solution does not support wpa3

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:20 am
by Moogle Stiltzkin
spikemixture wrote:What are your plans for using this card?

Mine is on it's way!
well i could relocate my NAS away from my router and switch, and put it next to my HDTV and plug in the HDMI. Then can actively use the hdstation to use kodi.

trade off being, can't used wired. Will have to resort to wireless instead, hm....
dolbyman wrote: doubt it
:(

[youtube=]aPoe4WtX2mU[/youtube]

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:44 am
by Moogle Stiltzkin
the wireless adapter also says it can be installed on your desktop pc.
Turn Your Ubuntu/Linux System or QNAP NAS Into a Wireless Access Point/Base Station
but the caveat is, you need either ubuntu/linux system. but... i use windows 10..... so.... >_>: hm.... any possibility for usage in a win10 system?

Re: QWA-AC2600 review by Moogle

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:52 am
by dolbyman
Moogle Stiltzkin wrote: any possibility for usage in a win10 system?
monitor this website if they ever release drivers for that chip set (QCA9984)

https://www.ath-drivers.eu/