Need help setting up whole home wifi solution

E

extrafuzzyllama

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2010
Messages
303
I would like to upgrade my current setup to get my whole house with reliable wifi connections.
Currently I have the modem and wifi router in one side of the house and at the other end i have a switch with multiple devices hard wired to it along with a old Linksys router acting as just an AP.
The switch is hard wired via Cat6 to the router in the other side of the house.
The Linksys AP and my wifi router both have different SSIDs
The router is capable of 2.4/5GHz while my Linksys AP is only 2.4.
My issue is there is a dead spot right in the middle of the house.
I would like to setup a wifi network where i don't need to manually switch between the 2 SSIDs.
If i move the Linksys AP outside of the back room and into the hallway it would better cover the room next to it along with the dead spot area which is the kitchen.
I plan on replacing the Linksys AP along with my main router.
Anyway to setup what i am looking for?
I am a wifi network noob and Im feeling confused after reading about mesh networks.
I rather avoid adding a third AP and also want to avoid products like eero.
I am open to suggestions on new hardware and really like the idea of using DDWRT or Tomato over stock firmware.
Ive been looking at the Nighthawk routers and looking for a discreet looking AP like the eero because i don't want a big old router in the hallway and like the aesthetic of a circular looking AP that won't stick out.


Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Simple and fastest is to turn off Wifi on the router, use it for just a router, buy 2 (or a 3 pack) Ubiquiti Unifi devices (AP, or AC)
They would both provide the same ssid and you can move between them without manually disconnecting/reconnecting
 
dbwillis said:
Simple and fastest is to turn off Wifi on the router, use it for just a router, buy 2 (or a 3 pack) Ubiquiti Unifi devices (AP, or AC)
They would both provide the same ssid and you can move between them without manually disconnecting/reconnecting
Click to expand...
I second this. The AC Lite should be fine. Also notes are POE so you can power them with just ethernet if you have a POE switch or use the adapters(POE injectors which are included) I just setup up mine and I am pulling 30-40MB/S on the same floor as the AP and 20-30MB/s on the second floor using 5GHZ AC clients.
 
I would like to mention Open-Mesh for your use also. Basically you turn off your existing WiFi and use multiple AP's throughout the house. Open-Mesh natively supports seamless roaming, guest networks and even more advanced features like VLAN's, etc.

The setup process is very easy using the free cloud based controller and they just work. Open-Mesh is very flexible, you can have one wired AP and several "repeater" AP's, multiple wired AP's and some "repeater" AP's or even all wired AP's. The best thing is that they even support seamless roaming in any configuration. Everything is centrally managed.

The one thing to remember is that every time you repeat the wireless you will be reducing the speed off the repeater node by up to half. It is important to use as many wired AP's as possible.

Open-Mesh is a little more expensive up front but it is a set-and-forget system. It manages firmware upgrades automatically and will email you if a node goes down. The hardware even has a hardware watchdog that will reboot itself if it goes non-responsive.

Their $135 802.11ac model is very nice BTW.

I've been putting Open-Mesh solutions for maily home clients for a little over a year and have never had a call-back. The hardware is very good at picking good WiFi channels.

The best example is a client that uses face-time & a WiFi VoIP phone while walking around his 4500sq feet lake home. He can walk around the entire house (and outside because of the 3 outdoor AP's) without dropping calls. The house has 8AP's total, mainly because he has a 1gbit connection. Having more AP's ensures the maximum wireless bandwidth available to the 8 people that live there. The house & outside could have been covered with 4-5 easily but he's a speed-test addict.
 
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bds1904 said:
I would like to mention Open-Mesh for your use also. Basically you turn off your existing WiFi and use multiple AP's throughout the house. Open-Mesh natively supports seamless roaming, guest networks and even more advanced features like VLAN's, etc.

The setup process is very easy using the free cloud based controller and they just work. Open-Mesh is very flexible, you can have one wired AP and several "repeater" AP's, multiple wired AP's and some "repeater" AP's or even all wired AP's. The best thing is that they even support seamless roaming in any configuration. Everything is centrally managed.

The one thing to remember is that every time you repeat the wireless you will be reducing the speed off the repeater node by up to half. It is important to use as many wired AP's as possible.

Open-Mesh is a little more expensive up front but it is a set-and-forget system. It manages firmware upgrades automatically and will email you if a node goes down. The hardware even has a hardware watchdog that will reboot itself if it goes non-responsive.

Their $135 802.11ac model is very nice BTW.

I've been putting Open-Mesh solutions for maily home clients for a little over a year and have never had a call-back. The hardware is very good at picking good WiFi channels.

The best example is a client that uses face-time & a WiFi VoIP phone while walking around his 4500sq feet lake home. He can walk around the entire house (and outside because of the 3 outdoor AP's) without dropping calls. The house has 8AP's total, mainly because he has a 1gbit connection. Having more AP's ensures the maximum wireless bandwidth available to the 8 people that live there. The house & outside could have been covered with 4-5 easily but he's a speed-test addict.
Click to expand...


I've been looking into Open Mesh and I'm a little confused about what acts as the router? You have to have a Cloud Trax compatible router but I'm finding little info on what those are?
 
Mopower said:
I've been looking into Open Mesh and I'm a little confused about what acts as the router? You have to have a Cloud Trax compatible router but I'm finding little info on what those are?
Click to expand...

You don't need a cloud trax compatable router, you just need a regular router. You can disable the WiFi on your current router but I prefer a regular wired-only router such as a ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite. So router does the routing, switch does the switching and Open-Mesh access points handle the WiFi. Setting up whole-home WiFi with multiple access points is "the right way to do it". Any multi-ap system will require the same base hardware.

IMHO seamless roaming is a must even if you don't use things like VoIP phones and face-time while walking around. It just makes the entire experience better. There are multiple UBNT products that do not support seamless roaming at all, and the ones that do require a controller running on the network all the time (like the cloud key). Open-Mesh supports it natively with just the cloud controller, which isn't an additional cost.

Another thing you need to think about is mounting options and power. If you are going to want wall-mounted AP's you will want POE. Most of open-mesh's products support passive POE and 802.3af. UBNT products mostly support passive only, but some support 802.3af. One advantage to the UBNT access points is that they come with a passive POE injector. One advantage to the open-mesh's access points is that you can get a multi-port POE injector and use a regular switch (often cheaper). Why would you want a multi-port POE injector? One electrical plug powers multiple AP's. Open-Mesh also costs less to get an AP outdoors, all they require is an enclosure that they sell.
 
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I wouldn't waste your time with the Unifi APs. We have scrapped those at work because the performance was absolutely horrible. Speed fluctuates all over the place, even when you are ~20' from the AP (mounted on the ceiling, parallel to the ground). Signal drops all the time, or worse, it stays connected but doesn't pass traffic to the router... We updated FW to the latest and the server software as well, no improvement. Ubiquiti even replaced the APs, and the new ones performed just as shitty. They are now sitting in the closet, replaced by a single ASUS RT-N66U which has not had any issues. We tried at 2 different offices as well to see if it was some kind of interference, but it was just as crappy at both locations.
 
bds1904 said:
You don't need a cloud trax compatable router, you just need a regular router. You can disable the WiFi on your current router but I prefer a regular wired-only router such as a ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite. So router does the routing, switch does the switching and Open-Mesh access points handle the WiFi. Setting up whole-home WiFi with multiple access points is "the right way to do it". Any multi-ap system will require the same base hardware.

IMHO seamless roaming is a must even if you don't use things like VoIP phones and face-time while walking around. It just makes the entire experience better. There are multiple UBNT products that do not support seamless roaming at all, and the ones that do require a controller running on the network all the time (like the cloud key). Open-Mesh supports it natively with just the cloud controller, which isn't an additional cost.

Another thing you need to think about is mounting options and power. If you are going to want wall-mounted AP's you will want POE. Most of open-mesh's products support passive POE and 802.3af. UBNT products mostly support passive only, but some support 802.3af. One advantage to the UBNT access points is that they come with a passive POE injector. One advantage to the open-mesh's access points is that you can get a multi-port POE injector and use a regular switch (often cheaper). Why would you want a multi-port POE injector? One electrical plug powers multiple AP's. Open-Mesh also costs less to get an AP outdoors, all they require is an enclosure that they sell.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info. I already use an Edgerouter Lite with Unifi AP's. So I might pick up a few Open Mesh AP's and see how they work at home. Sounds like a product that could fix some of my customers wifi issues if they want to spend the money that is. How well do the wireless repeater models work? The ones that aren't connected to the router physically?
 
bds1904 said:
I would like to mention Open-Mesh for your use also. Basically you turn off your existing WiFi and use multiple AP's throughout the house. Open-Mesh natively supports seamless roaming, guest networks and even more advanced features like VLAN's, etc.

The setup process is very easy using the free cloud based controller and they just work. Open-Mesh is very flexible, you can have one wired AP and several "repeater" AP's, multiple wired AP's and some "repeater" AP's or even all wired AP's. The best thing is that they even support seamless roaming in any configuration. Everything is centrally managed.

The one thing to remember is that every time you repeat the wireless you will be reducing the speed off the repeater node by up to half. It is important to use as many wired AP's as possible.

Open-Mesh is a little more expensive up front but it is a set-and-forget system. It manages firmware upgrades automatically and will email you if a node goes down. The hardware even has a hardware watchdog that will reboot itself if it goes non-responsive.

Their $135 802.11ac model is very nice BTW.

I've been putting Open-Mesh solutions for maily home clients for a little over a year and have never had a call-back. The hardware is very good at picking good WiFi channels.

The best example is a client that uses face-time & a WiFi VoIP phone while walking around his 4500sq feet lake home. He can walk around the entire house (and outside because of the 3 outdoor AP's) without dropping calls. The house has 8AP's total, mainly because he has a 1gbit connection. Having more AP's ensures the maximum wireless bandwidth available to the 8 people that live there. The house & outside could have been covered with 4-5 easily but he's a speed-test addict.
Click to expand...

As a Ubiquiti user (UAP-LR, not the AC version) I've been very happy, but I'm looking at upgrading in the near future and I'm interested in other options.

With the Open Mesh stuff being "cloud controlled", what happens if you lose all Internet connectivity? This case is rare for me, but I definitely need a product that still allows the APs and devices to communicate locally within the house.

I've only got the one LR model running and coverage in my 2400 sq ft house (and sitting in the front yard while the kids play) has been a huge improvement over my old wireless router and has also been "set and forget" since installed. However when I upgrade I was thinking of going with 2 APs just to help extend the coverage in the back yard by putting an AP in the downstairs office. So, I guess my comparisons would be the UAP-AC-Lite ($85) vs UAP-AC-LR ($100) vs Open-MeshOM5P-AC ($140), though I think two LR units would most likely be overkill for the house. Running a controller locally isn't an issue with my home VMWare lab. Multiple SSID and guest portal is important because I put the kids' devices on a web portal that we have to provide the password for every 2 hours.
 
Mopower said:
How well do the wireless repeater models work? The ones that aren't connected to the router physically?
Click to expand...

They work pretty well as long as they are placed correctly. Typically the repeaters use the 5ghz to link to another AP. In that config you get about 30-40mbit thruput consistently. You do have to be sure to only "repeat" the signal once.
 
Biznatch said:
I wouldn't waste your time with the Unifi APs. We have scrapped those at work because the performance was absolutely horrible. Speed fluctuates all over the place, even when you are ~20' from the AP (mounted on the ceiling, parallel to the ground). Signal drops all the time, or worse, it stays connected but doesn't pass traffic to the router... We updated FW to the latest and the server software as well, no improvement. Ubiquiti even replaced the APs, and the new ones performed just as shitty. They are now sitting in the closet, replaced by a single ASUS RT-N66U which has not had any issues. We tried at 2 different offices as well to see if it was some kind of interference, but it was just as crappy at both locations.
Click to expand...

i've got like 30 of these deployed, 1 of them that's gone bad, and not a single one has ever had issues like that...
 
Biznatch said:
I wouldn't waste your time with the Unifi APs. We have scrapped those at work because the performance was absolutely horrible. Speed fluctuates all over the place, even when you are ~20' from the AP (mounted on the ceiling, parallel to the ground). Signal drops all the time, or worse, it stays connected but doesn't pass traffic to the router... We updated FW to the latest and the server software as well, no improvement. Ubiquiti even replaced the APs, and the new ones performed just as shitty. They are now sitting in the closet, replaced by a single ASUS RT-N66U which has not had any issues. We tried at 2 different offices as well to see if it was some kind of interference, but it was just as crappy at both locations.
Click to expand...

I had a similar issue with the UAP Pro's. Terrible 5GHz signal strength, although 2.4GHz was fine. I can't say that the UniFi AC's (the new round ones) are much better either. Don't get me wrong, the 5GHz performance of the open-mesh WAP's isn't the best in the world, but they are certainly better than the UniFi AP's I've tried. At least with the Open-Mesh AP's the seamless roaming works, even while switching from 5GHz to 2.4GHz on the same AP.
 
Thanks for replies guys.
I'm a little late to reply but I was considering Unifi APs but now with mixed reviews I'm rethinking.
I plan to build a PFsense box and use a procurve switch now just need to find reliable APs.
I was about to pull the trigger on the new ACs but still don't get the difference between the Unifi AC Pro ($149) and Unifi AP Pro ($229)
 
Another vote for the OpenMesh stuff, I stopped deploying UniFi gear and now start with the OpenMesh MR1750 or OM2P-HS if I only need 2.4Ghz.
 
Another Vote for Unifi. I have one of there new AC Lites. While its not the fastest on the block, it just works and provides plenty of bandwidth for all my devices.(still damn fast!) I also wanted POE so it could be mounted on the wall. For under 100$ I am happy.
 
Vengance_01 said:
Another Vote for Unifi. I have one of there new AC Lites. While its not the fastest on the block, it just works and provides plenty of bandwidth for all my devices.(still damn fast!) I also wanted POE so it could be mounted on the wall. For under 100$ I am happy.
Click to expand...

This is an important distinction. Unifi devices aren't designed with speed in mind. They are designed to serve many devices equally, and reliably. I personally have yet to have any issues with them. Been using them for 3 years now, and have had nothing but success after deploying hundreds of them.
 
boss6021 said:
This is an important distinction. Unifi devices aren't designed with speed in mind. They are designed to serve many devices equally, and reliably. I personally have yet to have any issues with them. Been using them for 3 years now, and have had nothing but success after deploying hundreds of them.
Click to expand...

if i go with the Unifi APs which is the better option? The AC Pro or AP Pro? Im still confused over the difference one is $149(AC) and the other is $229.
As far as speed is concerned. Will I not get the speed of a regular old wifi router or does that depend on my ISP speed? Im currently on a TWC 200mb package and get around 190mb on my netgear wifi router
 
The AC Pro is the latest generation, hence better performance and better price point.
The AP Pro is their old model, not as good as the AC pro but higher price since it is under the old pricing structure.

You will have no trouble with the speeds, it will push your full bandwidth through no problem.

boss6021 said:
This is an important distinction. Unifi devices aren't designed with speed in mind. They are designed to serve many devices equally, and reliably. I personally have yet to have any issues with them. Been using them for 3 years now, and have had nothing but success after deploying hundreds of them.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I deploy Unifi to clients and have used every generation and model of AP they make. The only stinker has been the first gen AC model, and it still was better than most consumer APs.

Unifi is not all about speed tests, its about reliability, serving lots of clients, and great range. I have yet to see a system that compares for the price point. It also handles roaming very nicely for most clients (some clients are just PITA with roaming, I deal with that even on $2k+ Enterprise Cisco APs at work). Open Mesh looks promising too. There is not really a comparison to any of the consumer grade routers. Yes you might get more peak speed at some point or a fancier plastic case/glitz features, but the unifi line is more reliable and has better consistent performance in every environment I have tried.

I will say a lot of people get turned off of ubiquity because they are expecting things to work like consumer routers/APs. Ubiquiti has their own approach and you have to remember their roots as a WISP company, but once you get how they think it is amazing what you can do with the gear. I have solved so many clients issues by putting in Unifi and other Ubiquiti gear.
 
Grentz said:
The AC Pro is the latest generation, hence better performance and better price point.
The AP Pro is their old model, not as good as the AC pro but higher price since it is under the old pricing structure.

You will have no trouble with the speeds, it will push your full bandwidth through no problem.
Click to expand...

Oh ok thanks for clearing that up. By older model you mean the square looking one? Because I am referring to the 2 circular Pro models on their online store. I should have made that clear sorry.


One more question will the APs work just fine using a PFSense router?
 
extrafuzzyllama said:
Oh ok thanks for clearing that up. By older model you mean the square looking one? Because I am referring to the 2 circular Pro models on their online store. I should have made that clear sorry.


One more question will the APs work just fine using a PFSense router?
Click to expand...


Yes. They will work with any router. You only need the controller software running to configure them and to use seamless roaming. But if you get multiple AP's they will work fine connected to any router.
 
extrafuzzyllama said:
if i go with the Unifi APs which is the better option? The AC Pro or AP Pro? Im still confused over the difference one is $149(AC) and the other is $229.
As far as speed is concerned. Will I not get the speed of a regular old wifi router or does that depend on my ISP speed? Im currently on a TWC 200mb package and get around 190mb on my netgear wifi router
Click to expand...
You want the AC Lite. Its around 80-100$ depending om stock and where you order it.
 
im a little disappointed. i was on the ubiquiti chat and a agent said the AC models don't support zero handoff.
im not sure if thats true or if i just assumed AC models supported that feature
 
Grentz said:
You don't need zero handoff anyways. Clients still seamlessly roam.
Click to expand...

I'm still new to this type of setup so excuse my lack of knowledge. I just want to find well performing APs and want to avoid manually switching between SSIDs when going from one side of my house to the other.
My current APs don't switch to strongest signal and hold on to an AP on side of house i was in until its extremely weak.
 
Grentz said:
You don't need zero handoff anyways. Clients still seamlessly roam.
Click to expand...

Clients do not seamlessly roam by themselves, they hand off with packet loss.

Seamless roaming is where the ap keeps track of roaming clients, kicks a client off an AP and transfers it to another one without dropping packets. Basically it pauses the data stream while transferring AP's and the client picks up right where it left off.

The unifi-ac lites do not do seamless roaming. In a high end environment (house with someone walking around) you need seamless roaming. If you don't have seamless roaming you will get lag between AP changes (since they aren't managed by a controller) and sometimes it's enough to stop buffering a video and always enough to interrupt a video chat. The problem is even worse when you roam from 5ghz to 2.4ghz on the same AP.

We all know just how much Android and Apple phones hate changing AP's by themselves, it just doesn't work 100% of the time.

Open-mesh supports seamless roaming natively. After you set up an open-mesh network you can walk end-to-end over all the AP's while on a video chat without a stutter or drop. You can also run speed tests back to back without so much as a hiccup while walking around. I haven't ever been able to do either on the UniFi AP's, even with seamless roaming enabled.

For more on how open-mesh achieves this check out B.A.T.M.A.N. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Open-Mesh not only uses B.A.T.M.A.N. to handle ap-to-ap links, it also handles the clients. The key is it creates a mesh over any interface, including Ethernet.
 
In real world use, the client roaming is good enough for most applications. The Unifi devices work well in this scenario even with VOIP.

Zero handoff is only for the pickiest of applications. A general home user has no need.

Theory vs reality.
 
After a very successful run (200-300 deployed in SMB environments) with the 1st gen and LR UniFi gear, I REALLY wanted to like the Pro, AC and new AC lines. To the unit, every Pro I deployed has had to be returned to factory (taking weeks to process), and I got really cautious about the AC's I got in early on the competitive demo program and received an original AC unit. Worked for 3 weeks, then began to drop packets and freeze, so after a 6 week RMA process, I got the replacement. Same scenario, so It's now used as a paperweight. The kicker at the time for me was two-fold, with the new gen UniFi there was the complete and total lack of band-steering, despite people were begging for that forever. The god-awful java-based config software. At this point for most deployments, I'd much rather not depend on an installed software. I can't tell you how many times I've set the software up as a service to collect usage stats and the MongoDB has gone runaway and eaten up 50GB+ (seen it on both Windows and Linux installs).

I've only been deploying the OpenMesh product for about a year now, and have maybe 30 or so out in the field. In that time, I've had zero failures and only flakiness with my own personal AP that I forced beta code onto, and the cloud-based management is nifty for the statistical reporting alone. As the 1st Gen UniFi comes up for replacement, I'l be going with the OM gear.

All of that being said, for the OP, the AC-lite is probably more then enough for his home use. Just don't be blinded by the Fanboi-ism in these forums. Make sure you research all possibilities and it will serve you well.
 
extrafuzzyllama said:
im a little disappointed. i was on the ubiquiti chat and a agent said the AC models don't support zero handoff.
im not sure if thats true or if i just assumed AC models supported that feature
Click to expand...

This feature is supposed to be on the way, but as Grentz has pointed out, it has been a non issue for all of my clients as well.

Nate7311 said:
After a very successful run (200-300 deployed in SMB environments) with the 1st gen and LR UniFi gear, I REALLY wanted to like the Pro, AC and new AC lines. To the unit, every Pro I deployed has had to be returned to factory (taking weeks to process), and I got really cautious about the AC's I got in early on the competitive demo program and received an original AC unit. Worked for 3 weeks, then began to drop packets and freeze, so after a 6 week RMA process, I got the replacement. Same scenario, so It's now used as a paperweight. The kicker at the time for me was two-fold, with the new gen UniFi there was the complete and total lack of band-steering, despite people were begging for that forever. The god-awful java-based config software. At this point for most deployments, I'd much rather not depend on an installed software. I can't tell you how many times I've set the software up as a service to collect usage stats and the MongoDB has gone runaway and eaten up 50GB+ (seen it on both Windows and Linux installs).

I've only been deploying the OpenMesh product for about a year now, and have maybe 30 or so out in the field. In that time, I've had zero failures and only flakiness with my own personal AP that I forced beta code onto, and the cloud-based management is nifty for the statistical reporting alone. As the 1st Gen UniFi comes up for replacement, I'l be going with the OM gear.

All of that being said, for the OP, the AC-lite is probably more then enough for his home use. Just don't be blinded by the Fanboi-ism in these forums. Make sure you research all possibilities and it will serve you well.
Click to expand...

No "Fanboi-ism" at all here. If there were a product that performed as well at this price point, I would be using it. I have no loyalty to any brand, only functionality. Out of the hundreds deployed, I have never had a single one have issues. I also utilize a cloud based controller for all of my clients. I also have never seen the database issues you proclaim. Maybe i'm extremely lucky (not likely).
 
Nobody specified you, boss6021... We've both been around the [H] long enough to recognize that there is a bit of a Fanboi craze with the UniFi gear. Some have great luck with it, some don't. As I mentioned in my comment, I love the 1st gen stuff and they were reasonably bulletproof products at inception. But IMHO after the success of them, It just seems to me that all subsequent products were half baked. Either lacking in functionality and/or stability and depended on future software releases. That and wacky java-based software running in the user-space.
 
Nate7311 said:
After a very successful run (200-300 deployed in SMB environments) with the 1st gen and LR UniFi gear, I REALLY wanted to like the Pro, AC and new AC lines. To the unit, every Pro I deployed has had to be returned to factory (taking weeks to process), and I got really cautious about the AC's I got in early on the competitive demo program and received an original AC unit. Worked for 3 weeks, then began to drop packets and freeze, so after a 6 week RMA process, I got the replacement. Same scenario, so It's now used as a paperweight. The kicker at the time for me was two-fold, with the new gen UniFi there was the complete and total lack of band-steering, despite people were begging for that forever. The god-awful java-based config software. At this point for most deployments, I'd much rather not depend on an installed software. I can't tell you how many times I've set the software up as a service to collect usage stats and the MongoDB has gone runaway and eaten up 50GB+ (seen it on both Windows and Linux installs).

I've only been deploying the OpenMesh product for about a year now, and have maybe 30 or so out in the field. In that time, I've had zero failures and only flakiness with my own personal AP that I forced beta code onto, and the cloud-based management is nifty for the statistical reporting alone. As the 1st Gen UniFi comes up for replacement, I'l be going with the OM gear.

All of that being said, for the OP, the AC-lite is probably more then enough for his home use. Just don't be blinded by the Fanboi-ism in these forums. Make sure you research all possibilities and it will serve you well.
Click to expand...
I am just sharing my experiences. I only need a single AP due to my small square footage. The AC Lite has been working perfectly for me. No issues with the Java application. that only needs to run if you want to make changes to the AP or view stats. I have this running on my plex server as it runs 24/7. I encourage the OP to do there HW. I took a chance on the UniFi and its been working fine. I see no Fanboi going on in this thread.

BTW I think zero handoff is promised just not sure it when it will make it into the firmware. Also Band steering is enabled on the new AC units. Mine came with pretty recent firmware
 
I'm most likely going to give the Unifi a shot but if I have issues with it I'll try out the open mesh AP.
Thanks for all the help guys. I'll post from time to time on this thread with my experience with the Unifi and potentially Openmesh if the Unifi AP doesn't work out.
 
Nate7311 said:
Nobody specified you, boss6021... We've both been around the [H] long enough to recognize that there is a bit of a Fanboi craze with the UniFi gear. Some have great luck with it, some don't. As I mentioned in my comment, I love the 1st gen stuff and they were reasonably bulletproof products at inception. But IMHO after the success of them, It just seems to me that all subsequent products were half baked. Either lacking in functionality and/or stability and depended on future software releases. That and wacky java-based software running in the user-space.
Click to expand...

For sure! Funny you mention that, I have been around here since 2001, but it only shows 2006. Back when there was an issue on the backend (don't recall if it was a database corruption, or what happened) my join date changed.

Aruba and Cisco/Meraki are the blindly followed products in my area. I am hoping that the development cycle for Ubiquiti matures, and they flesh out their feature set.
 
Far from a unifi fanboy here. Just use what works. In a true enterprise I use cisco all day. Unifi has been the best at the price point for my clients.

The first gen AC was a POS.
 
Unifi is just recently getting their head on straight. The new CEO hired a couple additional programmers and 2 quality engineers. Unifi has come a LONG way. Released 5.0.6 which is scheduled to go GA next week is a huge step in the right direction but the LTS release of 4.8 which should be out within the next 30 days is just as important if not more so.


I expect Ubiquiti to go from WISP, tinkers, edu and power users to include small enterprise and mainstream use in 2016-2017. Ubiquiti has a project to implement 802.11 h/r/v for their gen 2 AP in the next 18 months as well.

Good Stuff is coming.
 
I own that one and feel your pain. There's a pile off bugfixes in the new 5.0.6 that should effect the older UAP-AC as well. I'd consider buying the newer UAP-AC-Pro but I know that a 4x4 MU-MIMO AP is due out in the next 12 months.
 
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