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Matthew Dieckman
Introducing the Sophos AP6 Series (Wi-Fi 6/6E) Access Points

Publish Date: August 17, 2023

About Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 6 is the latest generation of Wireless LAN and includes enhanced throughput-per-area and lower latency which particularly benefits high-density wireless environments. Security enhancements include WPA3, which is a requirement for Wi-Fi 6E for the 6 GHz band but is also available on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. The industry name that identifies access points that operate within the 6 GHz band is Wi-Fi 6E (Wi-Fi 6 Extended). Wi-Fi 6 access points do not support Wi-Fi 6E and only offer wireless connectivity on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.

Sophos AP6 Series Access Points

The AP6 Series offers a range of models to suit many different environments. With four indoor models and one IP67-rated outdoor model, they are ideal for both new and existing customers to refresh their Wi-Fi infrastructure as part of a network upgrade or vendor consolidation project. Managed through Sophos Central, you have a single point of management and monitoring for all AP6 access points.

All AP6 models (except the AP6 420) have at least one 2.5G interface for faster LAN connectivity. When combined with our range of 2.5G switches, you can unlock faster speeds across your entire network. This helps to prevent performance bottlenecks and gives your wireless users an overall better Wi-Fi experience.

AP6 Model AP6 420 AP6 420E AP6 840 AP6 840E AP6 420X
Indoor/Outdoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Indoor Outdoor
WLAN Standard Bands

Wi-Fi 6

2.4 GHz, 5 GHz

Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi 6E

2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz

Wi-Fi 6

2.4 GHz, 5 GHz

Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi 6E

2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz

Wi-Fi 6

2.4 GHz, 5 GHz
Management

Sophos Central: Provides a single point of management and monitoring for all AP6 access points.

Local Management: Offers a local administrator interface available for individual access point management. 
Power over Ethernet

802.3at (PoE+)

Suitable PoE+ injector or switch available for separate purchase

802.3at (PoE+)

Suitable PoE+ injector or switch available for separate purchase

802.3at (PoE+)

Suitable PoE+ injector or switch available for separate purchase

802.3bt (PoE++)

CS210-8FP switch available for separate purchase, PoE++ injector planned

802.3at (PoE+)

Suitable PoE+ injector or switch available for separate purchase
Antennas internal omnidirectional internal omnidirectional internal omnidirectional internal omnidirectional external omnidirectional

Note: The 6 GHz band is not yet available in all regions

Additional information about AP6 Series access points:

Knowledgeable Articles

For a list of Known Issues for the AP6 Series access points:

  • in reply to Saif khan
    1. Management / Support and services Why do we have a support and services subscription?
      • As with our other networking products, we are harmonising our support model to also cover Central Management, 24x7 phone support, firmware upgrades and Advance RMA. We have also introduced a limited lifetime warranty for AP6, which is new to the wireless product line. This is consistent with the approach we have for Sophos Switch. With unified support and service subscriptions for our network hardware products, this paves the way for us to consider interesting packaging models in the future, such as an enterprise licensing agreement.
      • We have many large deployments running on Sophos Central that would not have been possible on a firewall. Some of our largest customers manage thousands of APXs from Central, a testament to the scalability and manageability of our cloud platform. Sophos Central Wi-Fi is inherently more scalable than on-premise Wi-Fi, which eats up expensive hardware resources that could be better used for other critical firewall functions.
      • The previous Central Management licensing model was waived for all AP and APX Series Access Points and has now been discontinued. The 'free' Central Management was used as a strategic incentive to get people to use Sophos Central Wireless and was very successful in getting people to switch and experience the benefits of our cloud-managed Wi-Fi

    1. if you have a few aps then use the new gui,  apx didnt have a gui. gui on ap would prefer not...

    2. the above talks only about enterprise customers  , "thousands of ap"

    3. what about small to medium business,  our sg firewalls still happily running everything we need including 10 access points

    4.  just had a quote for an apx and the ap6 ,  the ap6 is a little more expensive for the hw,  but 25 % more expensive overall when including a 36 month central sub......

  • in reply to rfcat_vk

    Both the local GUI and CLI are available today. The AP6 was designed to primarily be managed by Central, but in the cases where that may not be an option there is local management available. The user manual provides the local management details. Management interface - Sophos AP6 access points

  • in reply to Matthew Dieckman

    According to the release a GUI is being developed to enable local management without requiring a CM account.

    Ian

  • in reply to rfcat_vk

    The AP6 access points support local management either using the local GUI or CLI. For a single AP you could use that as an alternative to Central Wireless. 

  • in reply to SGICT

    Hi,

    I think you will find that the user traffic through the AP6 is not treated any differently to users traffic from your LANs. The AP6 configuration is managed by CM in a similar manner to the APX series.

    Though it is disappointing that you require a CM account to manage a single AP6.

    Ian

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