Upgrading with ubiquiti

ColdDigital · June 1, 2020

Hi all,

planning to upgrade my home network that has CAT 7 throughout the whole house (family of 4).

Usage: Streaming on PCs and TVs, downloading, occasional gaming, uploading/downloading from our home file server and the usual internet browsing.

I was going to get 2 Amplify Alien Routers to act as access points since they're up to date to wifi 6 (since I dont want to upgrade again for the next 5-10 years). They're also backwards compatible? Would they work with my 2.4ghz devices on Wifi 5? I saw that they only provide a chip inside for Wifi 5 5ghz, so I was starting to get worried because of that.

Would this be an overkill network? Or should I go with 3 nanoHd's instead to put into each house floor? Is there any other reason I shouldn't go with 3 nanoHD's except for them not being wifi 6? Or should I go with a different model completely?

Thanks

RobinD · June 1, 2020

What size property do you have in sq foot or metres?
What speed do you get in your area?
Are you network familiar or have a desire to learn?

Background : amplifi l you take it home unbox it and it will work out of the box with almost no configuration.
Unifi, you set up a controller and then add devices. Your home file server maybe suitable as a controller. This will take some time and a little research for a tech familiar user,
Unifi doesn't have Wifi 6 yet but will soon and the cost saving will probally make buying twice cheaper then buying once.

So here my conclusion : 2 x Amplify Alien Routers feels overkill to me unless you plan to stack them and have 2 lines into the house for a high resilience setup.(not sure why you would want this at home). Otherwise i would suggest 1 router + 1 AP or 1 switch plus 2 APs.
If you have Cat 7 house wide, I don't see why you need to upgrade or change anything? If you want wireless just a couple 2nd hand APs around the house.

Business buy APs like these for temporary lets or pop up offices or new starts or buy 5 when they only need 1 to cover an office and then the 2nd hand market gets flood with either current or last gen APs, its easy to pick up a few for as much as 50-80% off retail.