Network upgrade for Christmas

[orkid1989]

so i am looking to upgrade the wireless network at my fathers house for Christmas. currently trying to decide what hardware i should use. he currently has a at&t wireless uverse router and the signal sucks. especially because it is installed in the basement in the corner of the house. also the upstairs have plaster walls. so i am debating if it would be better to buy a router and use the current one as a modem or to buy a ap. 1 powerful one in the correct location should more then cover the house. any opinions or suggestions?

[orkid1989]

also to add most of my networking experience is with Asus and really like their products. but have heard great things about ubiquiti as well.

[Slottr]

I would either go mesh or with one AP. Preferably from Ubiquity. Even their "Lite" AP performs extremely well.

[orkid1989]

1 minute ago, Slottr said:

I would either go mesh or with one AP. Preferably from Ubiquity. Even their "Lite" AP performs extremely well.

when you say go mesh you mean like use multiple asus routers in "ai mesh" mode? i just dont want to go too overkill seeing as the stock att router sucks.

 

what i did at my home is put the att router into modem mode by changing a bunch of settings and use a asus ac1900 as a router. seemed to work well but not sure if their would be a better way

[Semper]

4 minutes ago, Slottr said:

I would either go mesh or with one AP. Preferably from Ubiquity. Even their "Lite" AP performs extremely well.

I absolutely couldn't agree with this any more than I do currently.

Earlier this year, after being fed up with continuous failures of consumer level networking gear, I decided to bite the bullet and invest the money in a UniFi network (Ubiquiti ecosystem). It's been rock solid since I set it up, with the only interruptions coming from the ISP side.

If you're willing to take some time to set up your network, and understand what exactly is going on with your controller, it's an incredibly powerful ecosystem, and should you have issue, Ubiquiti has support on-hand 24/7. From my experiences, it's quality support as well.

 

[Slottr]

1 minute ago, orkid1989 said:

when you say go mesh you mean like use multiple asus routers in "ai mesh" mode? i just dont want to go too overkill seeing as the stock att router sucks.

 

what i did at my home is put the att router into modem mode by changing a bunch of settings and use a asus ac1900 as a router. seemed to work well but not sure if their would be a better way

Without knowing your home, it's hard to tell.

 

With that router you have now, if you still find that coverage is weak, on of those ubiquiti units will do fine in your upstairs (that's where it's weak, right?). It covers a fantastic amount of space and the controller is super easy to use.

[orkid1989]

i actually get coverage at my house all the way out in my garage through plaster and brick walls. not the best but works fine. inside the house i get nearly full signal everywhere but my router is centrally located in the basement broadcasting through the wood floor.

 

my fathers house the issue is the current att router is in the back corner of the house. he gets signal in his office on the other end of the house but is slow and weak. the plan is to run a cat6 to make it more central and either upstairs or down depending on installation difficulty. not a fan of plaster. but if i get a ubiquiti ap would it be bottle necked by the cheap att router? im sure either (ubiquiti or asus) will get adequate signal all over the house when relocated, but curious which would ultimately get the best performance in the end. both will be roughly the same price and work. 1 is a new router and the other is att as router with a ap

[orkid1989]

54 minutes ago, Semper said:

I absolutely couldn't agree with this any more than I do currently.

Earlier this year, after being fed up with continuous failures of consumer level networking gear, I decided to bite the bullet and invest the money in a UniFi network (Ubiquiti ecosystem). It's been rock solid since I set it up, with the only interruptions coming from the ISP side.

If you're willing to take some time to set up your network, and understand what exactly is going on with your controller, it's an incredibly powerful ecosystem, and should you have issue, Ubiquiti has support on-hand 24/7. From my experiences, it's quality support as well.

 

may i ask what hardware you got? might consider upgrading my home network as well but the website kinda sucks at describing their products.

[Semper]

12 minutes ago, orkid1989 said:

may i ask what hardware you got? might consider upgrading my home network as well but the website kinda sucks at describing their products.

Everything I have falls within the UniFi ecosystem, so it can all be controlled by the same controller site.

USG
Switch 8
UAP-AC-LR

A Cloud Key can be added if desired (Everyone I've talked to strongly recommends the Gen 2 for a number of reasons, but primarily for the graceful shutdown capability in the event of a power failure) that hosts the controller software. I run the controller directly off one of the hardwired clients (My rig, Windows 10), opted to save a little bit of money, but it does carry some drawbacks (most notably that when/if I change this rig, or start with a fresh install, I do have to reconstruct my controller, and if this system is offline, the controller is inaccessible)

[orkid1989]

maybe use these?

https://amplifi.com/instant/

or this?

https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lr/

or a ac1900 router?

[orkid1989]

1 minute ago, Semper said:

Everything I have falls within the UniFi ecosystem, so it can all be controlled by the same controller site.

USG
Switch 8
UAP-AC-LR

A Cloud Key can be added if desired (Everyone I've talked to strongly recommends the Gen 2 for a number of reasons, but primarily for the graceful shutdown capability in the event of a power failure) that hosts the controller software. I run the controller directly off one of the hardwired clients (My rig, Windows 10), opted to save a little bit of money, but it does carry some drawbacks (most notably that when/if I change this rig, or start with a fresh install, I do have to reconstruct my controller, and if this system is offline, the controller is inaccessible)

what is a cloud key for?

[Michael Ducharme]

UniFi is a very strong choice of course. Another option if you are more comfortable with complex technology is MikroTik, which is pro gear and can give almost the same performance for less cost, *but* you lose the nice easy to use GUI of UniFi with all of the graphs etc. and instead get a less user-friendly GUI.

[orkid1989]

Just now, Michael Ducharme said:

UniFi is a very strong choice of course. Another option if you are more comfortable with complex technology is MikroTik, which is pro gear and can give almost the same performance for less cost, *but* you lose the nice easy to use GUI of UniFi with all of the graphs etc. and instead get a less user-friendly GUI.

im up for that in my home but need something a bit more simple and reliable for my fathers home. if the internet drops out ill never hear the end of it lol

[Semper]

Just now, orkid1989 said:

what is a cloud key for?

It's functionally a computer that is running your controller software (basically, your network manager, analagous to 192.168.x.x on a typical router). Ubiquiti provides a number of means for accessing the controller software, be it a cloud key, a linux based computer like a Raspberry Pi, or through Windows. If the controller is inaccessible, the network is still active, but settings (again, similar to anything you'd do through 92.168.x.x on a consumer router) will be unable to be changed.

[Michael Ducharme]

Yup, UniFi is probably the best choice then. I have a VPN etc set up to manage my parents MikroTik stuff from home.

[orkid1989]

2 minutes ago, Semper said:

It's functionally a computer that is running your controller software (basically, your network manager, analagous to 192.168.x.x on a typical router). Ubiquiti provides a number of means for accessing the controller software, be it a cloud key, a linux based computer like a Raspberry Pi, or through Windows. If the controller is inaccessible, the network is still active, but settings (again, similar to anything you'd do through 92.168.x.x on a consumer router) will be unable to be changed.

so you cant access it by entering the ip? i thought that was part of the router workload.

 

2 minutes ago, Michael Ducharme said:

Yup, that is probably easier then. I have a VPN etc set up to manage my parents MikroTik stuff from home.

i will setup a vpn but usually best practice to do any modifications over a wired connection incase something happens

[Michael Ducharme]

The way the UniFi stuff works is the router, switch, and APs don't really have a GUI on them to speak of. The GUI runs on a USB stick (Cloud Key) that acts as a computer, as Semper said.

[Semper]

7 minutes ago, orkid1989 said:

so you cant access it by entering the ip? i thought that was part of the router workload.

you can SSH into the devices themselves, but I'm not sure if the controller has to be actively running or not for this, i've never had to SSH into a device.

To access them like you would another router, the controller software needs to be currently active and remote access needs to be enabled for.... remote access.

The controller for UniFI will be accessed from https://localhost:8443/

 

Or the Cloud Access Portal remotely.

[Michael Ducharme]

I don't believe the controller has to be running to SSH into the devices, but any changes made manually will be wiped out by the next change made on the controller (because the controller does not fetch changes made manually on the device). We were looking at rolling out UniFi for some clients but there were some features we needed that you could only change through SSH and not the Cloud GUI, so they would be erased if we changed anything on the controller. As a result we didn't go with UniFi for those clients. Thankfully that won't be an issue for the op, since the features that the client needed were somewhat more obscure, and any more straightforward network can be managed just fine from the Cloud GUI.

[orkid1989]

im just amazed that wouldnt be built into the router. i understand why it wont be built into the other devices but i would think it would be in the router like most other routers.

 

for my house i could probably use a linux vm on my server to run it.

[orkid1989]

for my fathers house i am leaning more towards using the unifi instant for ease of setup and reliability

https://amplifi.com/instant/

[orkid1989]

just watched some videos and controller is only needed to modify the network. so i can install it on a laptop for setup and should work fine. so i think im sold on ubiquiti for his house. now should i get the amplifi instant set (router and ap) or get a unifi ap ac lr? also will they work with uverse tv?

[Michael Ducharme]

The controller is needed to modify or monitor the network. If you don't have a controller that is running all the time, you lose your ability to remotely monitor it if you have problems. If you think you might need to remotely troubleshoot your father's setup, then the controller should be running on something permanently.

 

If you do need to remotely troubleshoot your father's setup, I would either recommend spending the extra money on the Cloud Key controller, or reconsidering MikroTik, where the controller can be run on any device (router, switch or AP) without the extra cost of a "Cloud Key". If you don't get the cloud key (and there is no system running 24/7 for the controller software), you are negating nearly all benefits of Ubiquiti.

[orkid1989]

i do not need remote monitoring or troubleshooting. i need a reliable network ap to extend the wifi signal

[Michael Ducharme]

It will certainly be reliable and work very well - it just strikes me a bit like buying a Ferrari and using it only to drive to the grocery store and back every few days. Thankfully the Amplifi Instant is cheap enough that the "Ferrari" is a huge bargain in this case.