Last Fall, I got it into my head that I needed to upgrade my home network’s wireless access point (WAP). I’d been using an old, but trustworthy, Netgear WG602V2 since around 2001-2002, and while it worked, I was hoping to get something with a bit more range, that supported 802.11N and various newer features. I decided to try out the ZyXEL WAP3205.
The ZyXEL started out OK, although it did not seem like much of an upgrade over the Netgear. The range and data throughput weren’t noticeably better. The problems started after a few months, when I upgraded my Macbook Pro to Mountain Lion. When I woke my laptop from sleep mode, the wi-fi would no longer automatically re-connect. I had to manually re-join the network every time. A pain, but not a show stopper.
The next problem started when I began playing around with AirPlay/AirPrint, both of which use Apple’s Bonjour service, which uses multicasting. With the ZyXEL, Bonjour was flaky at best: sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. I couldn’t figure out any rhyme or reason to it, other than that the WAP was definitely the culprit, as Bonjour services worked fine over wired connections.
I read on a web site somewhere that the latest firmware on the WAP3205 addressed some issues with Bonjour. I was skeptical, because the firmware release notes didn’t mention anything about Bonjour, but I went ahead and updated anyway. This turned out to be a disaster. Not only did the new firmware not fix the Bonjour issues, it also messed up the networking on the WAP somehow. After upgrading, the wired ethernet interface on the WAP started randomly freezing up. The wireless was still active, but the WAP stopped responding to pings. This happened a couple of times. Another time, the interface stayed up for several hours, then froze up my entire LAN. None of my wired devices could connect to anything else on the LAN. When I unplugged the WAP3205, LAN connectivity instantly came back. Word of warning to WAP3025 owners: don’t install firmware version 1.00(BFR.7)C0 (released November 2012). This is the version that caused the instability with the LAN interface. I’d recommend waiting until a newer firmware revision is released before updating. Caveat Emptor.
After the LAN freeze-up, I ditched the WAP3205 and went back to my old Netgear. With the Netgear, Bonjour works great, I’m able to use AirPlay/AirPrint without any issues, and when my laptop wakes from sleep, the wi-fi reconnects without any problems. The Netgear isn’t perfect, though. I’m not able to get AirPlay mirroring working. The mirroring starts up and works for a few seconds, but then it shuts itself off. I had the same issue with the ZyXEL, so I’m not sure if the WAP is to blame for this or not. Searching the net hasn’t turned up a good explanation for this behavior so far, but I’m going to keep looking for a fix.
In short: If you need a reliable wi-fi access point that works with Bonjour, stay away from the ZyXEL WAP3205!
Same issues here with the WAP3205 and BFR.7 firmware. Have 3 access points at 3 different sites, upgraded same, within 4 hours the 3 networks all went down. Seems to be that the firmware caused contention over the gateway IP address on each network. Not sure how or why but Zyxel needs to improve their coding skills. A botched firmware like this should never, ever be released. Rolled back to BFR.6 and all has been well again.
Bill,
I read your comment regarding issues with the ZyXEL WAP3205 firmware. You mentioned rolling back. Can I ask, how did you roll back, was it difficult?
Thanks!
Hi Randal,
I downloaded the BFR.6 firmware from http://www.zyxel.com/osearch/dl-search.aspx?mci_country=us&mci_lang=en&product_status=all&product=ALL&mtype=ALL&keyword=wap3205&submit=Submit and manually flashed it from the firmware upgrade screen on the WAP3205 web interface. Once I did that it’s back to a well behaved access point. 76 days, 10 hours, 25 mins, 41 secs since last reboot.
I have had the same problem we need to let Zyxel know this is a problem and get it fixed
For future reference… Had issues with a Zyxel MWR-222 not supporting Bonjour and had an extended exchange with tech support during the July 2012 timeframe. The end result is that Zyxel had heard from a lot of people about not supporting Bonjour in some of their products, and while the MWR-222 had reached it’s end-of-life and there were no plans to update the firmware, their current products were going to be Apple friendly.
I recently purchased a WAP3205 expecting that it would support Bonjour, since it is a new product, and was very disappointed to find that it didn’t…which is how I found this post. However…
I can happily report that as of firmware version 1.00(AAEX.1) released on Jan 8th, Bonjour is working. It seems that they finally fixed the issue.
That’s good news. My WAP3205 has been sitting collecting dust since I wrote this article. I’ll try upgrading it and see if it fixes any of the other issues I had with the BFR.7 firmware. Thanks for the info.
I too updated WAP6205 (Very reliable Access Point) to firmware 1.00(BFR.7)C0, and after using it, it brought down my whole LAN. After disconnecting Patch Connection to WAP3205 the network began to function. I originally installed WAP3205 for our iPhones, and have deployed them in about 10 other client sites. Historically WAP3205 has worked well with Apple’s iDevices (I have MAC OS-X issues), but this firmware update hosed my whole LAN (not sure how it corrupted the wired network). I just rolled back to 1.00(BFR.6)C0, since I have used it for about 1 Year. During my tests yesterday I noticed there are no settings just for 802.11n (you have to use b/g/n mix). I discovered not only is it best to disable QOS., but set WAP to 80211.g protocol only. My router is a ZyXEL NBG5715 which has poor WiFi distance, hence the WAP is used as an Access Point. There is a known bug for 1.00(BFR.7)C0 (see release notes):
When user change to AP mode, the LAN will change to “User Defined LAN IP Address”
Well I used a fixed IP address in a different subnet, that sits outside the DHCP pool. I will not be updating any of my customers to firmware 1.00(BFR.7)C0 after this fiasco (and precious loss of time). I hope this is resolved soon, looks like ZyXEL is updating to WAP3205v2 in some countries, but I need the original unit to work with Bonjour services for my Apple Clients.
I think we can all concur that firmware BFR.7 is… well… crap. There I said it. Hopefully BFR.8 will fix these issues.