Ubiquity gear is overkill for most people. But, if you’re willing to take the time you’ll be handsomely rewarded. Just don’t overdo it. Elevation and centrally located APs are your friend. Overcrowding the RF space by deploying too many APs is not. This will present a learning curve and you should understand basic networking concepts. There is a “consumer” Ubiquity line called Amplifi. I’ve not used it but the install, apps, etc. are a lot more straightforward (closer to Google Mesh as example) if this is your first time diving into and managing a “real” network.
If you want the “big boy” stuff then the easy way is the UDM. One of the concepts that is difficult to understand in any enterprise grade system is the “controller”. UDM runs the controller and eliminates having to find and design deploying the controller on-prem, cloud, CloudKey, etc. etc.
@Khang_Nguyen1 has it right. Spend some money on running cable in your walls (or stapled to the wall for that “loft look”. You’ll be amazed at how much better this stuff works when you no longer have to think about the network.
This forum needs an “off-topic” networking section. While the Ubiquity community / forums are very good it can be intimidating if you’re dipping your toes in the water for the first time.
EDIT: My home UBNT system is: EdgeRouter 6P -> 24 PoE / 8 PoE / 8-port Unify switches -> Various APs. Controller runs on CloudKey. NMS runs in VM.
Why not powerline networking (assuming that’s what you mean)? I don’t have Ethernet cabling throughout the house but use powerline to connect the NAS with my Roon Core and it works just great.
Agreed, I would recommend running as few AP’s as you can, at as low of power as you can. Cables in the walls are another excellent thing. All my rooms are hard wired because of that and it’s wonderful.
Here in US, you live in 3 level house 2, 3 or 4000 square feet, no matter what I try. 2 tech a bout 3 hours cost me $700, A lot cheaper for me the last 25 years I have to upgrade new router for new speed and more stream, youtube tv now too. I have 400 mbps, we have 2 youtube tv and netflix 4k run the same time no problem.
I have our cable modem and Airport Extreme base station in a utility space in the house. From there, I do have four separate Airport Express AP’s (access points, right?) ethernet-wired in. (Cables in the walls!) Those four wired base stations provide the wi-fi signals. Three of them in the house, and one in a workshop in the yard that I ran an ethernet cable to.)
But my roon core and bridges (mac minis) are hard-wired. There are separate switches to all the hard-wired stuff. The AP’s simply provide signals to the laptops, phones and tablets.
To be frank, this apple airport network works fine. But it’s a bit long in the tooth. So I thought it might be a good time to upgrade, and if I do, I’d like to mimic the same setup.
I understand IP addresses, but I don’t need to run exotic networks or anything in the house. No VLANs. I do need to learn what a cloud key is.
The house is a rambler. Only two floors, but it’s kind of long and it seems to need four APs. Two on each end (one upstairs and one down).
Sorry a bit OT, but thought it was an impressive implementation - on a kinda nerdy way
Although the Unifi dream machine looks great - routing, firewall, Unifi controller built in. Just add a quality switch (w/ optical/10GB capable) and you’re set.
That’s what I’m pondering => updating my ubiquity router and switch as well as a new modem (SB8200)
Yeah that’s exactly why I recommend not doing another all in one like that, so you don’t have to replace something that is handling your routing needs just fine. Wireless standards and needs change fairly often. The dream machine is sweet though, it’s on my list of wants for a little while
Correct, access points. Glad to see you got that going for you, will really help make swapping all this out/in trivial then. Have you explored PoE (power over ethernet)? Unifi’s AP’s all run off that, and you can use one of their switches to run power to those AP’s over the same ethernet they’re using. Cleans things up quite a bit!
So UBNT sells the AP-AC lite in packs of 5 IIRC? So it may be more viable for you to get an extra in that case. But I’d really recommend starting with less and only adding more as you see you need it, unless of course it’s the other side of the house. But less is more for wireless, seriously. You don’t want a ton of RF, that will just make you have substandard performance everywhere. You may want to look at their other AP offerings that could bring something else you’re wanting, perhaps more speed or something more suited to outdoors. So many ossibilities!
It’s easier then it seems for a home. Less is more I mean in terms of number of AP’s and their output power. You want them as low as you can do, and you want them on non-competing channels. There is a lot of competition on those channels, so when you have too many AP’s they start to stomp on each other.
My recommendation was simply to start with as few as you need. Start with 2, one on either side of the house and run them with low power and on opposite sides for channels. I use 20mhz wide channels (channel 1 on one AP, channel 11 on the other) on my N/B/G radio’s and a 80mhz wide channel on one N/A/AC radio and a 40mhz wide channel on my second AP’s N/A/AC radio (channels 155 and channels 151 respectively)
My settings won’t exactly help you, as my layout and needs are different. I’m fairly close to my AP’s and wanted higher throughput for accessing my NAS for work and fun and the other is for better throughput around the house and into the basement. I have a large 3 story house, so one AP is on the center floor and the other is on the top. The basement’s coverage is spotty in places, but I don’t have much a need to fix it.
Basically you’re stressing too much on this it’s all very personal to needs and the house itself. Even what’s inside the walls. So start small and simple, low power and keep the channels apart. Wider bands aren’t always better, so experiment with just 20mhz or 40mhz on your AP’s. If 2 doesn’t cut it, add a third around where your dead spot is and try to place it out of competition channel wise with the other two.
That’s the best advice I think I can give. I hope it helps!
interesting on the manual setup for channels. I’ve never bothered to enter values; always been “automatic”… does the auto setting create potential for conflicts, or “stomping on each other”?
With every single “consumer router” I’ve ever used or been near… the automatic setting all seems to drift towards the open channel and roughly all at the same time. Monthly, if I manually set my APs to specific channels, then 30 days later I’ll find all my neighbors have drifted towards my channel of choice. Then I have to go reset my APs away from the “automatics”. I assume this is because every router in the neighborhood says “ohhh… yippee! open spectrum” and decides to shift near the same time and they don’t shift fast enough to get themselves out of sync to each other which would better distribute the available space.
So, automatic should work just fine but not when every “automatic” is doing the same exact thing as every other automatic. It’s like opening a new queue at the supermarket and everyone shifting to the new queue. If some people would just stay where they are we’d be good. But, nope, everyone moves at the same time for some reason.
By same channel, that means same frequency. For instance… If your 2.4GHz channel is 5, it is running between 2421MHz and 2443MHz. If your neighbor is also running their 2.4GHz on channel 5, they are utilizing the same frequencies as you thus creating interference. Interference is what kills WiFi whether it’s other WiFi networks or other electrical devices that happen to emmit RF in the same frequencies.
Ensuring you are running on a channel that your neighbors are not ensures a cleaner channel. Note… cleaner. WiFi is never absolutely clean. Hence why hard wire is the preferred way to go whenever possible.
Radio Frequency (RF) is just light you cannot see. If you’re trying to communicate across the room by blinking flashlights with your friend and someone starts blinking their flashlight at you at the same time then you won’t be able to determine if its your friend doing the blinking or this other person. That’s interference. Now, as long as this other person doesn’t blink when you want to communicate then you can be on the same color (channel) and things will still work. The better thing to do is for you and your friend to use red flashlights and this other person use green. Now you’re using a different channel. It’s a lot more complicated than that and there are methods within Wifi to tell everyone to backoff their blinking when things get congested but that’s my simple way of explaining it.
BTW, SSIDs, or networks names, are nothing more than you and your friend agreeing to blink 3 times before trying to communicate. The other person can decide to blink 10. This way, when you see 3 blinks you know to listen. When you see 10, you know you can ignore it. But, if you’re using the same channel (color) the network can still only support one person blinking at a time.
If you can see your neighbors network names then you can see their flashlights.
I spent almost two years figuring out what the Roon drop outs could cause. A lot of @#¥$×^ and frustration was involved. A router, a mesh network, Ls50 Wireless speakers, a Synology Nas, a Roon Core. The possible settings combined are mind blowing. Most of all frustrating is that you cannot contact any of the manufacturers since they are not responsible for any other part in your system. And that’s the problem. There is no one on earth that grasps your individual setup with all its components and settings.
Scared but very happy now is my current state of mind. Happy, because with the settings I have now, Roon is working like a charm. No hiccups, no drop outs, no lagging. Just a smooth ride for weeks now. Scared, because I still don’t understand why it is working smooth now and I really hope I never have to replace or reset one of the components in the future… One thing is clear: it never was Roon causing the problems!
Glad to see you got that going for you, will really help make swapping all this out/in trivial then. Have you explored PoE (power over ethernet)? Unifi’s AP’s all run off that, and you can use one of their switches to run power to those AP’s over the same ethernet they’re using. Cleans things up quite a bit!
it’s all very personal to needs and the house itself. Even what’s inside the walls. So start small and simple, low power and keep the channels apart. Wider bands aren’t always better, so experiment with just 20mhz or 40mhz on your AP’s. If 2 doesn’t cut it, add a third around where your dead spot is and try to place it out of competition channel wise with the other two.