Wireless Reviews

Open Mesh A40

The Open Mesh A40 has two unique attributes in our roundup group. At around $160, it's the most expensive and it's the only product in the group managed via a cloud service. In fact, the only management option is Open Mesh's free, cloud-based CloudTrax system.

The good news is that, once set up, a network can keep running if its cloud connection goes down. The bad, of course, is that you are left with doorstops if Open Mesh closes its doors. This is less likely than it may have been, however, since Open Mesh was acquired by business continuity solution provider Datto early this year.

The 2x2 A40 could be mistaken for its 3x3 A60 sibling, since both come in the same off-white 6.5" rounded square plastic enclosure. Unlike most other APs in the roundup herd, the A40 has two gigabit Ethernet ports, one of which accepts 802.3af to power the AP. Note the A40's enclosure is water resistant and is ok for indoor or outdoor use.

Open Mesh A40 board

The A40 and A60 are both built on Qualcomm platforms, with the A40 using the QCA/9557/QCA9882 combination that also forms the core of the Linksys LAPAC1200.

	Open Mesh A40
CPU	Qualcomm QCA9557 2x2 11abgn WiFi SoC
Ethernet	?
RAM	128 MB
Flash	16 MB
2.4 GHz Radio	- In QCA9557 - Unidentified front end/power amp (x2)
5 GHz radio	- QCA9882 11abgnac 2x2 radio SoC - Unidentified 5 GHz front end/power amp (x2)
Firmware tested	6.3.14

The full review back in September describes life with Open Mesh's CloudTrax cloud management platform. It has most features you'd want in a multi-AP management system and I found it less confusing to drive than Ubiquiti's UniFi.

CloudTrax Network Overview

Open Mesh did a good job on CloudTrax' feature overview. You'll learn everything you need to know in about 4 minutes. The main weak points of the product are that band steering is supported only from 2.4 to 5 GHz and the only roaming assistance provided is to devices supporting 802.11r.

Features Port Type Gigabit Ethernet Ports 2 PoE 802.3af CPU Qualcomm QCA9557 RAM (MB) 128 Flash (MB) 16 Firmware 6.3.14 Captive Portal Y Cloud Mgmt Y Web Mgmt N S/W Controller Mgmt N AP Controller N VLAN Y Wireless Backhaul Y Client Bridge N Mesh Y	Wireless Class AC1200 # of streams 2 Band Both Band Steering Y AP Load Limiting N Roam Assist 11r Auto Tx Power N Auto Channel Mgmt Y DFS N MU-MIMO N Client Isolation Y Radio 1 2.4 GHz: In QCA9557 Radio 2 5 GHz: QCA9882 FCC ID WT8OMA40 Antenna Internal dual-band bent metal (x2) Antenna Upgradeable N Connector N/A RADIUS Y Schedule Y SSID # 4 Notes Band steering is 2.4 -> 5 GHz only
QoS Type B/W Direction Both Auto N