? So the question for becomes: is there just not a good enthusiast market for this stuff? I have met a number of people who are "network nerds", so I'm inclined to think the market does exist.
my experience as a professional "network nerd" is that most other people in the networking field run cheap/second hand enterprise gear fetched from their employer at a major discount and simply seem to care less about wifi in general.
A lot of that changed with my peer group either due to caring about managing from a phone or caring about power/noise. The latter are especially not things real enterprise gear tends to optimize for.
The wireless is something for guests, and is hacked together with something you know works with an open router OS, or something off-the-shelf on an isolated VLAN.
That kinda thing yeah, at least myself and other engineers I’ve compared notes with.
I picked up a pair of Aruba 3200 controllers and a bucket full of APs on a local auction site for a song years back, still does me fine. Then again, not caring about the fastest latest standards is key, if you’re chasing current gen the enterprise stuff is unaffordable. You do need the appetite for a bigger power bill, mind.
my experience as a professional "network nerd" is that most other people in the networking field run cheap/second hand enterprise gear fetched from their employer at a major discount and simply seem to care less about wifi in general.