Finally upgraded my home wifi to something that works - managed wifi review

[94CoRd]

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I’m not a fan of inconsistency with a mixed 2/5 network. I have 5 ssids at the house, 5 and 2 primary separate, 5 and 2 guest separate, and a combined 5 and 2 for the users with Apple Watch which shares your WiFi settings from your phone and is 2.4 only which doesn’t work on a 5 only ssid.

How do you find managing the separate networks, or at least managing the appropriate devices to the appropriate spectrum?

On another note. Anyone have experience with the FlexHD model? Appearance and specs seem to fit my needs.

[rage2]

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How do you find managing the separate networks, or at least managing the appropriate devices to the appropriate spectrum?

On another note. Anyone have experience with the FlexHD model? Appearance and specs seem to fit my needs.

It’s fine. Connect once and you’re done. The transition from open mesh to unifi is a pain in the ass with how unifi only lets you set unique names with a suffix for 2.4, and buried in AP settings for unique names which also uses the suffix system. I might just rename all my ssid and start from scratch because it’s that stupid.

To explain it better, let’s say my current setup has 2 named as Edmonton and 5 as Calgary. In Unifi you can’t do that. You setup 5 as Calgary and can only enter a suffix for 2, so if I chose a suffix of slow the 2 ssid would be Calgaryslow. You can override that in AP settings, but it also follows the suffix system so I have to use Edmon as the name and ton as the suffix. Repeat for each AP. Then repeat for guest network.

Alternately I could create a unique 2 and 5 network but now I bump into the max 4 network limitation. And I need a 5th for the Apple Watch haha.

Good times.

[killramos]

And you are wanting to run all 5networks on each AP?

That seems less than ideal, no way performance doesn’t suffer.

At that point don’t bother with the guest networks and just use one vlan for guests and another for specific macs you trust?

I almost guarantee you could change the SSID differentiation to be whatever you want via CLI, which wouldn’t be a big deal for a one time setup.

[Buster]

I have a 2.4 ssid, a "2.4 only" ssid, and a 5 ssid running across both of my APs.

[ExtraSlow]

And here I am running one SSID and one router like a damned caveman.

[killramos]

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And here I am running one SSID and one router like a damned caveman.

I mean. I didn’t want to say anything but...

[ExtraSlow]

I'm the forest gump of beyond. Minus the cardio.

[The_Rural_Juror]

I am Bubba.

[rage2]

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And you are wanting to run all 5networks on each AP?

That seems less than ideal, no way performance doesn’t suffer.

At that point don’t bother with the guest networks and just use one vlan for guests and another for specific macs you trust?

I almost guarantee you could change the SSID differentiation to be whatever you want via CLI, which wouldn’t be a big deal for a one time setup.

I have a test network with the 5 ssid setup on an AC Lite. Have 2 indoor nest cams on it, one outdoor and the iPad still pulls over 300mbps no problems.

[killramos]

I would look into SSID setting via CLI then. Lots of stuff you can configure outside of the GUI.

Also that upload hurts my soul

[revelations]

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To those who have multiple Unifi APs, do you have guys have it set up as a mesh or separate SSIDs?
Currently have an AC-LR on the north side of my main floor but signal on the south side of the 2nd floor is poor.
Thinking of adding a second AP, either a Pro or another LR just not sure what the best setup would be.

Note than the ORIENTATION of the WAP units make a big difference as well. You wont, for eg. get as much RF on the backside of a WAP unit as the front. I added an AC LITE unit downstairs as my LR unit didnt quite reach the farthest corners of my basement where the media room is.

Here is my list of UNIFI WAP best practices based on trial and error (and reading the ubiquity forums)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- use channels 1,6,11 - NO OVERLAP
- 18 dB (custom power)
- RSSI to -75 or -70 (test to see which is best)
- disable things like band steering and air time fairness for small setups
- DTIM, 3 recommended for most modern mobile devices
- disable ALL optimization/auto setups where possible
- disable ALL back end testing (eg. speed test)

I based these from the internal forums as well as from:

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/artic...ctivity-Issues

[rage2]

Power settings are site specific. What works for you won’t work for others. For example, I can get away with a much lower power setting because I have 5 APs and rely on clients hopping as they traverse the house. A high power setting would have clients sticking on farther APs. Same with channel settings, I have a lot of interference at the back of the house than the front, so I have to be more aware of what channels to use for APs positioned back there.

The advantage of high number of APs is that clients will also transmit lower power, extending battery life, minimizing clients per AP, minimize interference, and overall better performance.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

I installed a couple of TP-Link EAP245 mesh APs on wired backhaul this week as the ol' router was really struggling with the WiFi load. Have to say they're really slick, seamless transition to the AP in the garage and excellent signal everywhere. Haven't really dug into the features yet, but for basic use they seem very effective with good coverage and low price.

[chongkee_]

My current setup is 2 and 5 on same SSID and a 2 and 5 guest network on the same SSID.
I'll try to maintain the same and just add another AP on the 2nd floor and lower the power settings based on what Rage said.

Thanks @revelations , I'll try those other settings.
Been playing around with the channel and power settings as well.

[rage2]

If you really want to get things tweaked perfectly for each AP, download a wifi signal strength app. On iOS, the only one available is Airport Utility which you need to enable wifi scan under your Settings. iOS devices begin a scan to find a stronger AP on the same SSID when your connected AP drops below -70dbm so you want the overlap between APs to be at that point so the next AP needs to be 8db stronger (iOS specific behaviour). On Android I *think* you have to edit a system conf file for it to scan at a certain level. There are apps that tweak that for you quickly. At my house, I have a transition point on the stairs between top and main floor, as well as main to basement. There's a transition point between the living room and hallway to the garage, and a transition point in the hallway between master bedroom and the 3rd bedroom. This is done by individually tweaking each AP's power profile to overlap at the correct point in the house. Once this is done I can maintain an IP phone call with zero drops as I walk through the entire house, with no dead zones anywhere. Quick transition with 802.11r means handoffs are near instantaneous so something as sensitive as voice calls to latency and jitter isn't even detectable on either end.

I think UniFi forcibly kicks clients off APs which then transitions to neighbouring APs. Still haven't played with that yet since my additional APs haven't arrived yet. I think this behaviour was introduced to force Android to roam properly because it doesn't do it by default. Laptops doesn't roam by default either (Windows or Mac) but is less susceptible to roaming issues as it has way more transmit strength. You can tweak laptop settings on both OS's to force roaming behaviour just like Android.

[Buster]

I'm going to invest in a POE switch, and at this point it makes sense to get a Unifi one. I'm also up to about 18 of my current 24 port switch being utilized. I think I might almost be able to add my new security cams and a couple of optik boxes and still have maybe 1 or 2 ports leftover. But it seems kinda dumb to spend money on a switch and risk it being full.

So now I'm looking at 48 port unifi POE switches, and the most modern model is $1500 cdn. Ugh.

https://ca.store.ui.com/collections/...usw-pro-48-poe

[killramos]

That’s gross. Cheaper to put 2-3 smaller rack mouth switches in?

At least the new one you can use that augmented reality app lol

[ExtraSlow]

Why not just get 2x24 then? Am I missing something?

[Buster]

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Why not just get 2x24 then? Am I missing something?

You mean use a non unifi switch? I could I guess? But that might tweak me.

[ExtraSlow]

I think Unifi makes a variety of sizes. Mix and match baby, live wild.

Or run part of your network on a ***gasp*** non Unifi non-poe white-trash crackhead switch.