Wireless routers and other tech things

[Vegas]

Awesome stuff, thanks. I'm comfortable having no support and can usually figure stuff out with some help from forums etc. My house is a bit bigger and my current TPLink does ok but I'd like better coverage in the yard.

[Clint]

The unifi stuff is great.

It is commercial grade vs typical consumer grade combo WiFi routers.

Having a separate access point(s) allows for better antenna positioning, as the router and switch usually need to be in a different place.

[Jer]

For a residential network my demands are... above average... shall we say? I generally have nearly 50 clients and that's after putting some effort into pairing some down a bit. One of the largest bandwidth offenders on my network is probably a tie between my security cameras & the fact that we use the main server as a media hub for all locations within as well as outside the LAN. I've got around 50 Z-Wave devices as well but that doesn't even factor in since my hub is seen as a single device. That bandwidth really isn't that much anyway.

For quite some time I had a Cisco/Linksys E3000 running DD-WRT/Tomato and that sucker was rock solid. Uptime measured in months and even then the only time I took it down wasn't due to stability so it could have been measured in years. Unfortunately the hardware became dated and I needed new hardware to meet the needs of my advancing demands even though it handled the current needs like a champion. I decide to go with a Dark Knight n66u because all the reviews said it was the best consumer grade router on the market. They said the firmware was finally up to standards that most who hacked 3rd party firmware were used to. Wrong! I've had to reboot this router every few days and even then it struggles at times. It's been a source of frustration for years now.

I couple of months ago I finally acquired the final piece in my new network which was a UniFi PoE switch to go with the USG and UAP-AC-PRO access points. I had been waiting for the best pricing I could get on each one for some time so I was happy to finally get the final piece I needed to make the swap. The problem is that since making that final purchase I just didn't have time to deploy it. It's going to be a PITA that I'm not looking forward to but I know that, once done, it will virtually eliminate the source of my LAN headaches while bringing some much needed functionality and features.

After doing my research, I highly recommend the Ubiquiti UniFi line-up. It costs a little more than their non-UniFi devices but the integration and simplicity of the UniFi ecosystem appears to be well worth the money spent moving forward in terms of monitoring and management from everything I've read. I'm as cheap as they come but the price difference between say the Edge router and the USG for instance is like $50 or so. $50 on a device that's going to be the brain of your entire network for years to come seems like a modest investment especially when you see what the UniFi dashboard does for you in conjunction with the past ways of managing network devices. Having everything in a single dashboard that you can get analytics on and manage easily whether at home or away on consumer-priced equipment was a dream only a few years ago. Today it's a $50 premium. Yes please.

[Whiskey_Bravo]

I use Ubiquiti UniFi also. Best Tech decision I have made in a long time. I currently have 2 AP, one upstairs doing 2.4/5ghz and one in our master that I have set just for 5ghz. Everything works great.

I also have 4 ubiquiti security cameras which I love.

[pinzgauer]

Unifi access points, Mikrotik routers.

Though I'd love to have the unifi software tool light up the network diagram with their switches and router, I need more flexibility than the unifi routers offer.

Unifi router configurability has opened up some, but it's still hard to beat the Mikrotik in terms of function/options/power/price.

Rack mount router with integrated POE switch, way more HP, for less than the unifi routers were. Important things are gigabit Ethernet. Totally segregated guest and IOT networks, etc. So printers, rokus, etc are essentially sandboxed. Secure net can get to them, but they can't get to the secure net.

If you don't expect to be doing custom firewall rules, etc (or don't have the knowledge to do so) the unifi solution is a great pick. I think of their switches & routers as "prosumer".

I've been on Linux based routers in some form for over 15-20 years. PC based, then WRT GS types with DDWRT, then tomato. Then more powerful HW, still with tomato (Netgear 3000?)

Once I made the move to separate routers/access points I never looked back. Just updated my router firmware, it had been up since early January. And even that reboot was to do a firmware update.

Have a friend who has a very successful ISP (really MSP) that put me onto the unifi/Mikrotik combo. 30-40 sites, hundreds of APs and links, dozens of routers.

[Wake27]

I got a few PMs so I appreciate those and the posts here. I have maybe three devices on the internet at once and our biggest data suck is Netflix on the PS4. I did some digging and found that the recommended speed to watch HD movies without buffering really isn't all that much so I decided to keep my current modem/router and rework some stuff. I moved the modem about 20 feet to get a wired connection to the PS4 and it jumped from around 30mbps to around 130. I knew wired was better but didn't know it was that much better. Also bought an Actiontec WCB3000N for all of $13.94 on Amazon to run upstairs. Significant speed gains with that so I'm very surprised that I'd never heard about MOCA before, it seems legit and I would've expected to pay at least $60 for that performance.

I think the whole reason it got slow in the first place is because we got new neighbors that have the same cabe company, the last guys used dish. Its the only thing that seems to make sense.

[Adrenaline_6]

I got a few PMs so I appreciate those and the posts here. I have maybe three devices on the internet at once and our biggest data suck is Netflix on the PS4. I did some digging and found that the recommended speed to watch HD movies without buffering really isn't all that much so I decided to keep my current modem/router and rework some stuff. I moved the modem about 20 feet to get a wired connection to the PS4 and it jumped from around 30mbps to around 130. I knew wired was better but didn't know it was that much better. Also bought an Actiontec WCB3000N for all of $13.94 on Amazon to run upstairs. Significant speed gains with that so I'm very surprised that I'd never heard about MOCA before, it seems legit and I would've expected to pay at least $60 for that performance.

I think the whole reason it got slow in the first place is because we got new neighbors that have the same cabe company, the last guys used dish. Its the only thing that seems to make sense.

Well then you might want to check to see if you are on the same wireless channel as your neighbor's. The cable tech setting everything up, might not pay attention, or care about that detail. Finding a unused portion of the spectrum might help a lot.

[Vegas]

The Ubiquiti website has a wiki forum that you can search and you will probably find what you need just searching. If not, the moderators on the forum are glad to help you out with any questions you might have.

I have just the Router X and one Unifi AC access point. I ran the Cat5e in the attic to a central location near my kitchen and mounted horizontally. I get good signal 100' away in the corner of the farthest point in my backyard. You will need to program the AP with a PC using their Unifi controller software, but it isn't hard if you know the basics.

Attachment 52213

The Router X has never needed to be rebooted once. It can do a lot more than the consumer routers can as far as advanced features, but I really don't use them. If you have a big house or non friendly wireless construction, you can have more than one AP and use the Unifi controller software to control them and manage the handoffs.

Unifi AP's : https://www.ubnt.com/products/#unifi

Routers: https://www.ubnt.com/products/#edgemax

Unifi help: https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/categ...UniFi-Wireless

Forum: https://community.ubnt.com/t5/custom...page-id/Forums

Coming back to this thread as the construction I'm doing where I need more coverage outside of the main house is closer to be done. I just watched a set up video on youtube and it seems pretty simple but I'm wondering what are the differences on the Unifi AP's? I'm looking at this one specifically Ubiquiti Unifi Ap AC Long-Range

Cheers.

[Whiskey_Bravo]

I don't buy the consumer stuff anymore. For the price, a Ubiquiti Router X and one of their Unifi AC access points comes in cheaper and better performance and range than your combo wireless routers that are usually stuck in a corner somewhere.

Pretty much same thing here. Ubiquiti router, switch, and two access points(PRO AND LITE) , plus a controller. I also use their security cameras and have a server set up for the recordings.

For the price they are the best j have found and are true enterprise quality. You will need some basic it knowledge and the willingness to Google to get them set up though.


Edit: I now remember I have already commented on this thread but I'll leave this one as well.

[Whiskey_Bravo]

The long range just puts more power to the signal. It all depends on your needs. They have the pro, lite, long range, outdoor models , etc.