Moving to my own place... Need WiFi

[MG2R]

As title suggests: need WiFi solution in new house. Footprint is 8x10 meter for basement and ground level, 8x8 meter for first and second level (attic).

 

Looking for a solution which plays nicely with multiple devices and multiple APs. I'd like an access point on each floor except the attic since that'll be used for storage.

 

Back when I was super active here, Ubiquity was all the rage but I've heard that they're not actually as superb as I had thought. Care to share your vision?

 

All feedback and questions welcome.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

get a router for each floor u want an AP and connect each one with a cable ( u can set routers so that their on AP,s )

 

or get an high coverage router ( recommend this instead )

 

 

[MG2R]

My experience with multiple independent access points is that switchover for roaming devices is a nightmare, which is why I specifically mentioned that in the OP. From my experience, it seems clients try to stay connected to the same AP as long as possible, instead of recognizing the best AP for their current location.

[Fictionvl]

You can get the Linksys Velop which basically makes it so it doesnt switch AP everytime you go to another floor 

[Levisallanon]

some people complain about ubiquity but as a user of it I don't notice any problems and theire mesh technique works pretty good.

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, MG2R said:

My experience with multiple independent access points is that switchover for roaming devices is a nightmare, which is why I specifically mentioned that in the OP. From my experience, it seems clients try to stay connected to the same AP as long as possible, instead of recognizing the best AP for their current location.

Im pretty sure Ubiquti has a solution. They have this thing called Zero handoff that suppose to make it less of a pain to roam. https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205144590-UniFi-What-is-Zero-Handoff- but to my understanding their is a software competent that runs on a machine. A) You buy the unifi key from them or B) You run the software on a machine on your network. Maybe something like a raspberry pi. Plus I read you need to make sure the AP's are no too close together to make this work. 

 

 

[Blake]

11 hours ago, MG2R said:

Back when I was super active here, Ubiquity was all the rage but I've heard that they're not actually as superb as I had thought. Care to share your vision?

They are the exact same back then as now. For the price you get some great enterprise level features, if you want to the same level of features, you will either need to go with another "prosumer" device (Ruckus/that cloud switch brand I can remember) or get an actual enterprise setup. Meraki, Aruba/HP, Cisco, Juniper will all do the same thing you require (and more), but they'll cost as much as the deposit on that house.

[itzzkolt]

22 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Im pretty sure Ubiquti has a solution. They have this thing called Zero handoff that suppose to make it less of a pain to roam. https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205144590-UniFi-What-is-Zero-Handoff- but to my understanding their is a software competent that runs on a machine. A) You buy the unifi key from them or B) You run the software on a machine on your network. Maybe something like a raspberry pi. Plus I read you need to make sure the AP's are no too close together to make this work. 

 

 

 

Agreed and putting my recommendation for Ubiquiti in as well.

 

OP, if comes a time where you decide to go Unifi and end up with multiple APs using the zero handoff feature, distance between each of them shouldn't be a problem if you decrease the power output so they don't cause disturbance

[MG2R]

Thanks for all the replies. I ended up finding a great deal on some enterprise Cisco APs specifically designed to handle this sort of thing. Ubiquity ended up costing me more.

[Lurick]

4 minutes ago, MG2R said:

Thanks for all the replies. I ended up finding a great deal on some enterprise Cisco APs specifically designed to handle this sort of thing. Ubiquity ended up costing me more.

I hope you got them in standalone mode or have a controller for them.

 

What model btw?

[MG2R]

36 minutes ago, Lurick said:

What model btw?

Got three AIR-CAP3502I-E-K9 at just under 50 a piece. Looking at switching over to Air-cap-1702i-e-K9 if I can flip those 802.11n APs again at a reasonable price.

[Lurick]

Just now, MG2R said:

Got three AIR-CAP3502I-E-K9 at just under 50 a piece. Looking at switching over to Air-cap-1702i-e-K9 if I can flip those 802.11n APs again at a reasonable price.

Nice.

Did you get them placed into standalone mode or are you going to use a controller?

[MG2R]

On 10/25/2017 at 3:46 PM, Lurick said:

Did you get them placed into standalone mode or are you going to use a controller?

Looking into controller solutions. I want roaming hand-off so I can't go the standalone route. Probably will be running the VM appliance.

[Lurick]

25 minutes ago, MG2R said:

Looking into controller solutions. I want roaming hand-off so I can't go the standalone route. Probably will be running the VM appliance.

Look at the 2504 WLC, it's pretty cheap and can handle up to 5 APs.