Ubiquity Setup for Whole-Home Wi-FI

Blackjack

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 29, 2007
Messages
1,352
So I have a 3 floor home (2 above ground and a finished basement) that i'm looking to upgrade the network on. Currently the setup is as follows:

Comcast Modem >>> Asus RT-AC87U >>> Several random switches for LAN devices and built-in WAP for wireless

We are having signal issues, especially in the basement as the only place we can realistically put the router for now is in the corner of the attic.

I am moving out soon and since only my devices are hard-wired anyway, I want to leave my parents with a more robust and reliable wifi system. I was thinking of moving to a UniFi setup and place one WAP on each floor of the house. My proposed setup would look something like this:

Comcast Modem >>> UniFi Security Gateway >>> UniFi 150W 8 port POE Switch >>> 3x UniFi APs.

I would also likely have at least 1 or 2 ethernet drops which the 8 port switch should be able to handle fine. My questions are as follows:

1. Does the proposed setup make sense?
2. Am I missing anything? I think the Security gateway performs the roll of a Router, Firewall, and UniFi controller all in one but i'm not at all familiar with their products.
3. Is there a better way to do this with COTS hardware? I don't want to be building a server which my parents may have issues with (and then call me).

Security gateway: UniFi Security Gateway - Ubiquiti Networks Store
8 Port POE Switch: UniFi Switch 8 (150W) - Ubiquiti Networks Store
3 pack UniFi AP: UniFi AP (3-Pack) - Ubiquiti Networks Store
 
I don't see anything wrong with that setup. That's nice and clean and should be relatively robust. The only other thing you might want to consider is going with LR's, but it depends on how big the floors are and where you need coverage.
 
The gateway is not a controller. You will either need to setup the controller on a machine or get a unifi cloud key as well.
 
How large is your home that you feel the need for 3 waps? For 3000' sq ft or less I would say 1 wap would cover just fine, 2 if you're anal.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ruoh
like this
The gateway is not a controller. You will either need to setup the controller on a machine or get a unifi cloud key as well.

Good catch. I must have misread something. I'll be sure to add in the cloud key, I don't want to have a WS dedicated to just running the controller.

Those AP's are AC wireless, if you care about that.

So i'm way behind on modern technology. I was under the impression that AC is just the new "N" spec. Is there some idiosyncrasy with AC vs N that I should understand?

How large is your home that you feel the need for 3 waps? For 3000' sq ft or less I would say 1 wap would cover just fine, 2 if you're anal.

I'm generally of a belief that overkill is better than underkill, and they sell the AP's in a 3 pack so i figured I just put one on each floor. The entire property is on a 1/8th acre lot so it really isn't a huge house.
 
More waps isn't always better especially for such a small area. Those waps in your OP are really old, like the very first unifi waps. I'd advocate taking that money and instead sink it into 1 or 2 (since you want overkill) into a better unit. While those WAPS state "speeds up to 300 Mbps", realize the lan port is only 10/100.

Take a look at the AC lite or AC pro. The WAPs do come with a POE injector. For 1 or 2 waps I am not sure I'd eat the cost for a POE switch. The real advantage is being able to remotely power cycle a wap via the web UI and cleanre cable management, for me not worth the additional cost.
 
More waps isn't always better especially for such a small area. Those waps in your OP are really old, like the very first unifi waps. I'd advocate taking that money and instead sink it into 1 or 2 (since you want overkill) into a better unit. While those WAPS state "speeds up to 300 Mbps", realize the lan port is only 10/100.

Take a look at the AC lite or AC pro. The WAPs do come with a POE injector. For 1 or 2 waps I am not sure I'd eat the cost for a POE switch. The real advantage is being able to remotely power cycle a wap via the web UI and cleanre cable management, for me not worth the additional cost.

Good call. I'd like to stick with POE for expansion/reuse purposes but my plan has changed use a single AP-AC LR. I'll mount it to the attic or near the second floor and if the signal isn't great in the basement i'll put a lite down there.

Crap, meant NOT AC.

Gotcha, thats what I figured. Thanks!
 
Just remember with the long range they are designed to cover a very large area. You'll "see" wireless coverage in a larger area but some(most) devices won't have the power to transmit back. I had setup one once at my old job, 3 blocks away at the bar having lunch and I could see the SSID, it was stronger than the one in the bar:geek: You may need to back tx/rx power down.

The AC AP will benefit best if it is LOS with the devices which use AC/5ghz. 2.4 is better for an attic mount but 2.4 is over populated. Try to plumb it to a common area. Mine is in the living room in the basement, I have just a reg unifi pro.
 
The LR units have better receive sensitivity as well, so they do get better range. But they are more horizontal vs vertical than the normal units. Means they are great on a single floor, not as good for going vertically for other floors.

Some overlap is fine. I actually like the redundancy. I have 3 AC Pros in my house that slightly overlap so for updates, etc one AP can be down and the house is still covered decently.
 
We've got a three floor 4800 sq ft house I'm planning on putting 3 AC AP Pros into. seems to be the right amount. I have two routers and a range extender now, and we have full coverage, but I need seamless roaming. And an outdoor unit to cover the backyard.
 
I'm generally of a belief that overkill is better than underkill, and they sell the AP's in a 3 pack so i figured I just put one on each floor. The entire property is on a 1/8th acre lot so it really isn't a huge house.

There's over kill, and then there's overkill. At MOST I'd say two is sufficient. One in the attic, one in the basement. I use four to overlap coverage in a two story 120K SQ ft office building/warehouse. Works perfectly, even with 35ft (?) steel girder warehouse racks.

Edit: I plan on using a single pro to cover my ~1250sqft two story townhouse.
 
So now I need help deciding between the Pro and the LR. The extended range of the LR is very appealing. My new plan is to just put one LR in the attic and hopefully that should cover the whole house. If needed, I'll drop ethernet down to the basement and put a Lite down there but i'm banking on the LR being enough. Looking at the differences between the PRO and the LR, the Pro appears to have more throughput and the ability to daisy-chain WAPs. Is there anything i'm missing?
 
Those are the very old UAP APs.



You want a single UAP-AC-LR with the power turned down. Drop a cable into the basement, but only buy the UAP-AC-Lite if you need it.
 
The LR units have better receive sensitivity as well, so they do get better range. But they are more horizontal vs vertical than the normal units. Means they are great on a single floor, not as good for going vertically for other floors.

Some overlap is fine. I actually like the redundancy. I have 3 AC Pros in my house that slightly overlap so for updates, etc one AP can be down and the house is still covered decently.
crap... I just ordered an LR witht he plan to put it in the space between the basement and the main floor. SHould I cancel and order the lite? cause I can't really go pro...
 
crap... I just ordered an LR witht he plan to put it in the space between the basement and the main floor. SHould I cancel and order the lite? cause I can't really go pro...

I would go with a couple AC-lites, but if you already ordered give the LR a try. Its not that it does not work at all in the vertical plane, it just is not as optimized for it. Think of a donut then think of squishing it where it gets a larger diameter but thinner profile. That is the difference between the lite and LR.

That said, there are a lot of variables in wireless and the unifi APs have phenomenal range/performance compared to most other APs. I replaced a high end ASUS router at a 3 story 1500sqft cabin and the single AC-LR on the mainfloor completely covers the place and yard where the ASUS was spotty in the basement and loft, while non-existant outside.
 
I would go with a couple AC-lites, but if you already ordered give the LR a try. Its not that it does not work at all in the vertical plane, it just is not as optimized for it. Think of a donut then think of squishing it where it gets a larger diameter but thinner profile. That is the difference between the lite and LR.

That said, there are a lot of variables in wireless and the unifi APs have phenomenal range/performance compared to most other APs. I replaced a high end ASUS router at a 3 story 1500sqft cabin and the single AC-LR on the mainfloor completely covers the place and yard where the ASUS was spotty in the basement and loft, while non-existant outside.

I was just assuming it was more powerful in all directions. My house is not large but I currently have an ampedwireless router that has pretty solid coverage but I've averaged over 1Tb of data each month lately and received a notice from comcast that the data cap is being enforced soon. I need the throttling and monitoring abilities of the unifi. I'll just turn wifi off on the current router so that I can monitor usage properly and throttle things like the kids tablets and tv to like 480p netflix. I might just get a unifi router too but I'm waiting a little bit for that. money's a little bit tight. my oldest kid just turned 13 so I overspent.
 
Update. I went ahead and got the AC LR model. All the components are in and i'm mocking them up before I start drilling holes in walls and rerouting coax. During my mock-up the lights on the ACLR didn't turn on at all, I know POE is working because the cloud key is lighting up just fine. Any ideas?
 
Check and verify the AC LR with the included POE injector. There are two different POE specs. 802.3af and 802.3at I believe the AC LR requires 802.3at which is a higher wattage.
 
Not sure if anyone said anything but you linked in your OP to the old unifi AP's .... I would suggest at minimum the UAC-AP-LITE as previously .....


FWIW I run: ARRIS Modem (Telco's....getting a SB6190 soon to replace it) -> Unifi USG -> Unifi 250w 24 Port -> 2x UAP's (UAP-PRO and UAP-AC-PRO) ..... im 100% Unifi on my main network equipment (I have a few odd switches here and there, working on drops from the main switch however to remove the need). Let me know if you have any questions on using and setting up a fully unifi setup in a house as I have had this up and running for a year now rock solid (Only reboots have been for firmware upgrade, record was 150 days uptime).
 
I have a singl unifi AC LR that I ran a cable to the middle of the house and its between the ceiling of the basement and floor of the main floor. It has fantastic coverage to the WDTV upstairs in the kids room and their tablets stream up there great too so a singular LR managed to do it for me.

Time to order the router I think... I've been over the now enforcing 1tb comcast limit and trying to get my house under it before I have tod rop another $50/mnth.
 
Back
Top