Which system to go with?

[Richywilson]

Hey everyone.

 

I'm looking for opinions on what networking set up would be best for me in my current situation and have about $400-500NZD to play with so that's roughly $320 USD so if anyone is able to assist I'd appreciate that. Feel free to tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about and to look into something different. Happy to be told I'm a dumbass if it will save me time and money.

 

The problem:

With my network I have little problem with range as my rental is only 14-15 decently sized steps wide in a one bedroom apartment. The problem i have is with connectivity. I've purchased a lot of home automation/smart home devices like amazon echos, the Fire Cube, Sonoff smart switches, Broadlink Minis, Ring doorbell/Wyze cams etc etc. As anyone who is similar with smart tech knows, a lot of these devices connect via the 2.4ghz band which has resulted in my current ISP router simply not being up to standard with several of these devices dropping off the network the more the devices pile up. As a solution I tried the ASUS 86U Here the problem however is that this didn't resolve the issue although I did find the coverage and speed via wireless better, according to the amazon reviews this router as a model may have 2.4 band issues itself so that's probably worth taking into consideration.

 

I've previously been recommended Ubiquitis Unifi range of products IE the USG, any random switch and their wireless access points. While I would love to be able to use these as they're quite highly rated, i don't have permission to mount them and running ethernet cables throughout the apartment isn't possible and I've been told having an access point no matter how good sitting hidden away like a normal router with these isn't such a good idea. 

I have roughly 15 2.4ghz devices and 5 or so 5ghz devices + 4 ethernet enabled devices.I will be trying to get some of these off the wireless soon with a switch or if the router has more ethernet ports.

 

Possible solutions I've found:

 

Option 1: The Ubiquiti Amplifi HD here 

 

Pros:

• It's not an eye sore
• I've seen several people with smart homes with them and not report any issues, in fact there's a video of a dude testing his here at 2:18
• Reviews all seem pretty positive and it's easy to access their support. 
• It seems not to drop signal in tests
• I've been told by Ubiquti it has a possible 128 clients although real world testing is probably a lot lower than that.

Cons:

• No Mi Mimo support: Yes I know most devices I have won't support it but for those that can and future devices it would be a bonus (Although it does say it has 6 mimo chains. Not quite sure what that means)
• Tests I've seen show the speed isn't as good as some single point routers.
• The USB on the back is disabled so you can't connect a external HD to it.

 

Option 2: TP-Link Archer AX6000 here

Pros:

• AX capability, not so useful now but will be down the line. Bit of future proofing
• Has Mi-Mimo for that future proofing as well. This does not mention how much "Mimo chains" it has if that's important.
• 8 Ethernet ports
• It looks like the hardware is better than the amplifi from a power point of view. 

Cons:

• People are reporting 2.4ghz issues on the amazon reviews, although there are few and a firmware update may have fixed this issue judging by the replies.
• Doesn't have the 24/7 support Ubiquiti does here.

Option 3: An Edge Router with a FlexHD

Pro:

• Has the 24/7 support from ubiquiti
• Is made for sitting on desks unlike the access points.

Cons:

• Ubiquiti have told me it can only support 20-30 devices
• Currently not available so whether that changes is an unknown

 

What do you think?

 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

I'm unsure whether or not this will help you, as it sounds like you have a few more wireless clients than me, but never the less here is my personal setup for my flat (which to be fair, is not very large).

 

I personally run a pfSense router into a 24 port managed switch into a UAP AC Lite, and this has given me no problems. That said I only have 10 or so clients on my wireless network. I have however not had any clients drop off, be they 2.4 or 5ghz connections, and the throughput is more than adequate to my wireless devices.

[Richywilson]

5 minutes ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

I'm unsure whether or not this will help you, as it sounds like you have a few more wireless clients than me, but never the less here is my personal setup for my flat (which to be fair, is not very large).

 

I personally run a pfSense router into a 24 port managed switch into a UAP AC Lite, and this has given me no problems. That said I only have 10 or so clients on my wireless network. I have however not had any clients drop off, be they 2.4 or 5ghz connections, and the throughput is more than adequate to my wireless devices.

Whoops, updated as i left out the number of devices. At the moment I'm running roughly 15 2.4ghz devices to 5 5ghz devices. I'd love to go with the AC Lite or even the Nano HD but I just have no permission to mount anything. 

[amdorintel]

yeah go with 5ghz, the router i was using was old, like bought new 5 years ago maybe 8, had 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz

we live in a 2500 sqft house, no problems using the router. Router downstairs, ipads up stairs no problems. at that time it was like a $200ish router, maybe $250, turned the dumb isp router off to fling to the asus router and everything worked fine.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

1 minute ago, Richywilson said:

Whoops, updated as i left out the number of devices. At the moment I'm running roughly 15 2.4ghz devices to 5 5ghz devices. I'd love to go with the AC Lite or even the Nano HD but I just have no permission to mount anything. 

To be completely honest, mine is just sitting on top of my switch in a corner, and works just fine. If I owned the place I would obviously mount it, but for now I have no problems running it like I do.

[Richywilson]

2 minutes ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

To be completely honest, mine is just sitting on top of my switch in a corner, and works just fine. If I owned the place I would obviously mount it, but for now I have no problems running it like I do.

What's your coverage like? Pretty much everyone has told me doing this is just a no go but perhaps since my place isn't that big it would be fine.

[Richywilson]

4 minutes ago, amdorintel said:

yeah go with 5ghz, the router i was using was old, like bought new 5 years ago maybe 8, had 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz

we live in a 2500 sqft house, no problems using the router. Router downstairs, ipads up stairs no problems. at that time it was like a $200ish router, maybe $250, turned the dumb isp router off to fling to the asus router and everything worked fine.

Not sure which one you mean, All the solutions have 5ghz, the issue is that most of the smart home devices these days only connect via 2.4ghz. 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

4 minutes ago, Richywilson said:

What's your coverage like? Pretty much everyone has told me doing this is just a no go but perhaps since my place isn't that big it would be fine.

Coverage is absolutely fine within my flat, it does get dodgy when going outside, but the complex I live in is pretty much thick concrete walls, so I would expect this to be the case.

 

I think a point to consider here, is that you can place it anywhere you would place the Amplifi HD, so it shouldn't change much.

[Richywilson]

10 minutes ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Coverage is absolutely fine within my flat, it does get dodgy when going outside, but the complex I live in is pretty much thick concrete walls, so I would expect this to be the case.

 

I think a point to consider here, is that you can place it anywhere you would place the Amplifi HD, so it shouldn't change much.

Is there anything infront of your AC Lite that would possibly obstruct it? Just seeing if it was able to put it behind something.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

2 minutes ago, Richywilson said:

Is there anything infront of your AC Lite that would possibly obstruct it? Just seeing if it was able to get through it while looking around thinking of where id put mine lol 

Yes and no. There is no lead shielding around it, but it is never in direct line of sight of any clients.

[Richywilson]

1 minute ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

Yes and no. There is no lead shielding around it, but it is never in direct line of sight of any clients.

Sounds like chucking it on the desk behind a monitor would still work fine then

[Hans Christian | Teri]

2 minutes ago, Richywilson said:

Sounds like chucking it on the desk behind a monitor would still work fine then

I would definitely think so.

[Richywilson]

Just now, Hans Christian | Teri said:

I would definitely think so.

There we have it then. Looks like Unifi after all. Thanks mate.

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Just now, Richywilson said:

There we have it then. Looks like Unifi after all. Thanks mate.

You're very welcome.

[Richywilson]

17 hours ago, Hans Christian | Teri said:

You're very welcome.

Out of curiosity, is there a router you'd recommend? I'm looking for something that can handle this but perhaps also one where i could connect to an external hard drive on the network. 

 

Also with POE, what would you recommend here, I'm a little concerned of plugging in my ethernet devices and accidentally frying them.

 

Again thanks for your help

[Hans Christian | Teri]

7 hours ago, Richywilson said:

Out of curiosity, is there a router you'd recommend? I'm looking for something that can handle this but perhaps also one where i could connect to an external hard drive on the network. 

 

Also with POE, what would you recommend here, I'm a little concerned of plugging in my ethernet devices and accidentally frying them.

 

Again thanks for your help

For the router I don't know, it really depends on how dirty you want your fingers. I absolutely enjoyed building and setting up my own with pfSense, but it definitely isn't for everyone.

 

My switch handles all of my PoE, no need to be concerned here as it performs a signature detection process to determine whether or not the equipment on the other end takes PoE before sending out any real power. If you don't need PoE for anything else though, the UAP AC Lite comes with a PoE injector.