The Professional Installer’s Guide To Installing Airties wifi

Here we have collected everything you need for professional installation of Airties wifi at a customer home.

What You Need

1 home pack per residence
Additional access points for extra large homes and/or demanding layouts
Wall mounts for access points that need attaching to a wall

Please note that Airties devices do not include router functionality. A router or a router-enabled device must be present in the home.

Optionally Also Bring

A heatmapper app and/or dedicated measurement equipment such as Viavi WiFi Advisor.
Additional ethernet cables If there is a desire for Ethernet mesh (multiple devices with wired network access).

Airties has its own installer app called AirTies Network Visualizer and can be downloaded from both the App Store and Google Play, but you must be registered with AirTies as an installer to use it.

Contents of a Home Pack

3 identical wireless access points in a pre-configured mesh network
3 PSUs for these access points
1 Ethernet cable for connecting the first access point to a router / IAD
Installation guide
Safety instructions

Safety Precautions

Make sure the devices stand upright and do not cover up or otherwise block the holes, as they provide necessary ventilation.
Avoid exposing the devices to heat sources such as stoves and direct sunlight.
The devices should not be used at temperatures below 0°C or above 40°C. Humidity should be between 10 and 90%.

Before Installation

If you want to map the coverage in your home, measure signals before making changes.
For professional installers we recommend the Viavi Wi-Fi Advisor solution with dedicated devices.
Next, remove all wireless equipment that will no longer be in use: Any extenders, additional routers or other Wi-Fi devices

Install the Home Pack

Remove the plastic cover on each device.
Connect one of your devices to a router with an Ethernet cable cable and connect it to power. Note: If using an integrated access device, make sure it is in routing mode, not bridge mode.
Power the access point on (small button on the back of each device), bootup will take a couple of minutes. Both LEDs in the front will then have a green light.
Distribute the other devices in the home and connect them to power. For the best possible coverage and performance, consider the following:
- The coverage area is like a sphere surrounding each access point and stretches equally far in all directions. Place them as high up as possible with an open line of sight.
- Never place an access point behind a TV set or other electronics, they can act as physical obstacles and create interference.
- Technical cabinets create obstacles for Wi-Fi signals and are extremely poor locations for wireless access points.
Verify that the access points are connected to each other and that the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz LEDs have a green light. If you have the Network Visualizer app, use it to check the quality of your network.

After Installation

Optionally, help the customer install the AirTies WiFi app, which helps them control their network and makes it easy to change the SSID and password. The app can also copy over the SSID and password of the “old” wireless network before you turn this off.
To prevent interference and avoid clients connecting to the wrong network, all other wireless networks in the home should then be disabled. Make sure that the customer disables wireless radios in the router/home area, either by using the web interface or by contacting the network provider’s customer center.

Adding More Access Points

To add one or more wireless access points to the mesh network:

Remove the plastic covering the device.
Connect the access point to power and turn it on. Wait until the device is done booting up (showing a green light).
Press the WPS button of one of the already meshed devices for 2 seconds. The LEDs on this device should start blinking.
Press the WPS button on the new device for 2 seconds. The LEDs on this device should start blinking.
When the devices have meshed, both LEDs will have a green light, and the 5 GHz LED will have a short blink.

Installing Ethernet Mesh

You may connect more than one of the AirTies devices to the Internet with an Ethernet cable. This will further increase the stability of the network. To give your devices wired internet access, you can use:

a cable connected directly to the router or IAD
additional network outlets in the residence
The Ethernet port of another AirTies device in the mesh

This can be a particularly helpful solution when obtaining good wireless connectivity between all access points is difficult, for example when placing one device in a garage or gazebo, or between floors if building materials are blocking the signals.

Ethernet mesh requires:

Access to network ports that support 1 Gbps
The locations where wired internet access is possible must also be good locations for distributing wireless coverage in your home; in other words, the AirTies access points must be suitably spread out in your home whether or not they are connected by cable. (You will achieve little by having two access points very close to each other.)

To use Ethernet mesh with devices from the same home pack, simply connect them to a network port with an Ethernet cable. For new single access points, you can do the same–they will automatically add themselves to the existing mesh on the same network.

Cautions

Make sure all access points are standing up or wall mounted, and that the ventilation holes along the sides are not covered up.
Never split a home pack and try to use each access point separately. The base configuration is different.
Do not combine multiple home packs. In very large homes, use one home pack and multiple single access points.

Remember that any access points that you manually add to the mesh, will lose the mesh configuration if reset to factory default and must be meshed again..