After updating the firmware to 8.0.0 build 1429 I noticed it will only broadcast a maximum of 7 SSIDs on both frequencies. I would like to be able to broadcast the full 16 SSIDs on both frequencies or at least on 5Ghz. What’s happening?
One other quick question, does the Surf (MK3 HW rev 1) have internal antennas?
Thanks,
happysurfer
ps
I did a factory reset in case something was misconfigured and tried to enable 16 SSIDs and it would not work = 7 SSID max was all that was broadcasting. Saving, rebooting etc = 7 SSIDs max. It looks like it will do 7 SSIDs on 2.4Ghz and 7 SSIDs on 5Ghz - but I did not fully test as I did not have time nor do I want that configuration. I would prefer 16 SSIDs 5Ghz.
I can’t comment on the firmware changing the maximum number of SSIDs, but why would you want 16 SSIDs to be broadcast? I would recommend to consolidate this if you can.
You’d end up with so much airtime being consumed and so much overhead that you’d really be affecting performance. If you want to calculate this there’s a nice spreadsheet and further explanation here: Revolution Wi-Fi: SSID Overhead Calculator
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Thanks for the tip, that website is a great read.
16 WLANs allows me to isolate clients, insecure IoT and manage them separately without interruption to the other clients.
The 2.4Ghz clients are low bandwidth so the surf is a great solution. Even 10% throughput on a congested 2.4Ghz / 150Mbit connection is at parity with the 15Mbit WAN connection most of the time. I only really need 1Mbit per client so if I could set the Surf to 802.11b / 2.5Mbit it would be almost a perfect client match to the total available WAN bandwidth. That’s okay though, the Surf does its thing and has solid uptime. As the client devices age out I am migrating to the more spacious 5Ghz band.
I briefly tried uploading the beta firmware 8.0.1 RC2 and upped a quick test config and got 15 x 5Ghz networks and 7 x 2.4Ghz so it looks like its work in progress and is coming along nicely. It didn’t like uploading configs from the previous FW - not really a big deal as its WIP so I rolled back for now.
I suspect 8.0.0 build 1429 was hammered out ASAP to mitigate VULNS which is why I bought a Pepwave so I can live with it. It’s worth it. 7 secure networks beats 16 vulnerable ones everytime.
I noticed in the notes for 8.0.1 RC2 firmware that 802.11w is going to be supported. That’s really great news. Thanks Pepwave! Now if only all the client devices supported it…
happysurfer
@happysurfer
Thank you for posted your testing results. We will confirm the number of supported 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz SSIDs for different firmware & update again.
Good to heard that you a fine with 8.0.1 RC2 for now 
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