APEX Classic owners!!

[Mr.Shrimps]

I do not have a direct eithernet connection in my room. My router is upstairs. Can I still use the Apex?

 

[thewbell]

For normal operation you can use a wireless adapter but you will want to hard wire for any firmware updates. I run a long Ethernet cable for mine but I have also heard of people bringing the apex brain to the router.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PhillyGeeks]

I have my apex hardwired to the NETGEAR WN3000RP wireless extender. Works well. If you unplug it for any reason you may have to re-establish the connection between the wireless extender and your router, but its pretty easy to do. For updates I download to my notebook computer and then update with a direct connection from the notebook to the apex.

Just make sure your computer has an ethernet adapter. My new one doesn't so I have to knock the dust of my old one to do updates

 

[Sapelo]

The short answer is no. You have to be able to hard wire it for setup and then you will need an extender. We also use one from Netgear.
Honestly this is one of the real shortfalls of Apex - it should be wireless.

 

[Raul-7]

The short answer is no. You have to be able to hard wire it for setup and then you will need an extender. We also use one from Netgear.
Honestly this is one of the real shortfalls of Apex - it should be wireless.

WLAN is not as stable; dropped packets can cause firmware corruption.

 

[lafanblue]

I have run this with mine... If you have a spare outlet near your router and tank you will be golden. Has to be plugged directly into an outlet. I have them throughout my house. They work great. I have a small 4 port hub plugged into it so I can also connect my web cam.

 

[fcmatt]

WLAN is not as stable; dropped packets can cause firmware corruption.

That is why any device designed properly, when updating firmware, has the ability to check the firmware by doing a check on it. I think it is called doing a firmware hash verification. Even if a single 1 changes to a 0 in the binary file the hash result will be different then the original hash sent with the firmware. The chances of the hash and the firmware being corrupted to the point they actually match is probably astronomical.

Wireless was not included for a different reason. I would guess they wanted people to have less possible packet loss during actual operation which means less support tickets. Also a reason to upgrade once they sold a ton of units. Thus a business decision as well. Those who figured out how to make it wireless are on their own. Support can just say it is an unsupported configuration. Ticket closed.

 

[PhillyGeeks]

The short answer is no. You have to be able to hard wire it for setup and then you will need an extender. We also use one from Netgear.
Honestly this is one of the real shortfalls of Apex - it should be wireless.

I don't understand why you say no, when you can successfully use a wireless extender if it is within range of your wireless network. Yes the initial setup I did with the apex nowhere near the tank and hardwired to my router. However, further updates you can still do without the gamble of doing it wireless. The method below is what I use for firmware updates:

https://forum.neptunesystems.com/sh...Mac-directly-to-controller-to-update-firmware

 

[homer1475]

While my apex is hardwired to my router, my laptop is not. I download the update from neptune, then upload to my apex from my wireless laptop. Even did it that way for the initial setup. I've never had an issue.