Sophos Wi-Fi 6 access points – New AP6 series coming soon!

In August, the time has come and the Sophos Wi-Fi 6 Access Points will be delivered to the first customers. We have already had a test device since January and show what the new AP6 series can do.

Difference Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E

Wi-Fi 6 Standard and Wi-Fi 6E are different things and critical when choosing an Access Points.

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E are two modern wireless networking standards known by the technical name IEEE 802.11ax. Although they are similar in many ways, there are some important differences between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E.

Wi-Fi 6 was introduced to address the growing number of devices on home and business networks. It offers a number of improvements over older Wi-Fi standards, including higher data rates, more capacity, better performance in high-traffic environments, and lower latency. Wi-Fi 6 operates in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands.

Wi-Fi 6E, on the other hand, is an extension of the Wi-Fi 6 standard that uses an additional 6 GHz frequency band for Wi-Fi networks. This 6 GHz bandwidth has not been used for Wi-Fi networks before, which means Wi-Fi 6E devices have access to a higher number of channels that are less likely to be congested. This results in higher speeds and less disruption, especially in densely populated areas.

The introduction of Wi-Fi 6E also means that more bandwidth is available for each channel. While Wi-Fi 6 has channels with a width of up to 80 MHz (and optionally 160 MHz), Wi-Fi 6E offers channels with a width of up to 160 MHz as standard. This enables even faster data transfer and can be particularly beneficial for bandwidth-intensive applications such as 4K and 8K streaming, virtual reality (VR), and online gaming.

In summary, both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E offer significant improvements in speed, capacity and performance. The main difference is that Wi-Fi 6E uses additional frequencies in the 6 GHz band for less interference and better performance, while Wi-Fi 6 is limited to the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. However, to take advantage of Wi-Fi 6E, you need devices that support Wi-Fi 6E, which is currently still very few at least.

Sophos AP6 models

Sophos brings a total of five Wi-Fi 6 Access Points.

There are only two Sophos Access Points (indoor) with Wi-Fi 6.

• Sophos AP6 420 Access Point
• Sophos AP6 840 Access Point

There are also only two models with the Wi-Fi 6E standard, i.e. 6 GHz.

• Sophos AP6 420E Access Point
• Sophos AP6 840E Access Point

As with every access point series from Sophos, there is also an outdoor device, but a Wi-Fi 6E variant was omitted here, which was certainly not a bad decision.

• Sophos AP6 420X Outdoor Access Point

For me personally, a small model is missing as a successor to the APX 120, but you can see that later in Sophos’ migration chart.

Sophos AP6 Access Points comparison chart

Model	AP6 420	AP6 420E	AP6 840	AP6 840E	AP6 420X
Radios	2×2:2 dual radio 1x 2.4 GHz 1x 5 GHz	2×2:2 tri-radio 1x 2.4 GHz 1x 5 GHz 1x 6 GHz	4×4:4 dual radio 1x 2.4 GHz 1x 5 GHz	4×4:4 tri radio 1x 2.4 GHz 1x 5 GHz 1x 6 GHz	2×2:2 dual radio 1x 2.4 GHz 1x 5 GHz
Power over Ethernet	PoE+ 802.3at	PoE+ 802.3at	PoE+ 802.3at	PoE++ 802.3bt	PoE+ 802.3at
Interfaces	1x 1G	1x 2.5G	1x 2.5G	2x 2.5G	1x 2.5G
Management	Sophos Central Local User Interface	Sophos Central Local User Interface	Sophos Central Local User Interface	Sophos Central Local User Interface	Sophos Central Local User Interface
Warranty	Limited Lifetime Warranty	Limited Lifetime Warranty	Limited Lifetime Warranty	Limited Lifetime Warranty	Limited Lifetime Warranty

Management

The Sophos AP6 Access Points can be managed via Sophos Central, via web interface directly on the access point or via app, which will be delivered later.

⚠️ It is no longer possible to manage Sophos AP6 access Access Points through Sophos Firewall.

Sophos Central Access Point Management

The Central platform is Sophos’s replacement for legacy products in many areas. Now it’s time to start with the firewall services and wireless management.

Email Protection and Webserver Protection also have no future in the long term, as Central Email and ZTNA are the better solutions, but that’s just by the way.

Sophos AP6 Wireless Management via Central is no longer free of charge, unlike the AP seriesEnd of Life 2023) and APX series. As with the switches, there is a support and service subscription here.

Management via web interface

Individual standalone Access Points can also be configured via the Local UI.

Availability

As mentioned earlier, the Access Points will be available in August. We are already accepting advance orders and also making special offers for larger quantities.

Functions like mesh and synchronized security will be delivered with firmware updates and are not yet available at the market launch of the devices.

Change from APX to AP6

Sophos has provided this graphic here, which shows the migration path from the APX series to the AP6 series.

Probably only a few will switch from the APX series to the AP6 series. The APXs are not yet at the End of Life and are sufficient for most requirements. The AP series is a different story. These models are End of Life at the end of the year and many here are waiting for current devices, which have now finally been unveiled.

The recommendation at that time was as follows:

• Sophos AP15 and AP15C > Sophos APX 120
• Sophos AP55 and AP55C > Sophos APX 320
• Sophos AP100 and AP100C > Sophos APX 530 or Sophos APX 740

APX on AP6 would now be as follows:

Our AP6 420 test device

We received a test device from Sophos at the beginning of the year (many thanks at this point) and of course immediately used it productively in the office, which has now been doing an excellent job for 6 months. Unfortunately, we only received one device and could not test features like 802.11r BSS Fast Transition. Everything else worked flawlessly, even though the software was still in beta. Only the local UI is still a bit slow for my liking. However, I only used this at the beginning, as my preferred management method is Sophos Central.

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