Need Recommendation: Access Point + Router

rans_ · September 29, 2022

Hello,
I've seen the video that it's best to use Access point + Router instead of relying on Router for Wifi. But I'm not sure what brand or specs to get...
My current ISP (PLDT Philippines) has free Modem Router but tends to be slow when there are around 10~20 device connected.

I'm planning to setup a wifi access that can hold upto 40~80 device at the same time. What seem to be the best Option for me? (Budget wise also)
Thanks!

voyager_ · September 29, 2022

If you can get them Ubiquiti i a great choice, Im running APs that are 6-7 years old and they work perfect. Not the fastest anymore but extremely stable. As far as routing goes you can either keep the ISP hardware managing that or run a seperate one like the unifi gateway or if you have an old machine (you may need to add network cards) you can run pfsense. This really depends on the ISP though, when I had comcast I was able to purchase my own router to connect to their service but with AT&T I have to use their hardware. In case you have to use their hardware to connect you can set it in bridge or DMZ+ mode depending on the hardware and connect your own router to it. What this does is forward everything though the ISP garbage to my router. A downside of the unifi hardware is that you do need a controller to manage the network, they make standalone devices to do this. You can also run it on a pc that will be on all the time or even on a raspberry pi, it requires almost no resources to run.

My current setup is the AT&T modem to connect to their service in DMZ+ mode connected to a unifi security gateway to handle Ip assignments, firewall rules, etc. this is then connected to a 24port switch. I currently have 3 APs. Two are for tv's and computers, phones, that sort of stuff while the 3rd handles the connection for smart devices. I was running into issues similar to what you were experiencing using the AT&T modem to handle IP addresses, it would take 5 minutes or so to get a connection. After switching everything connects immediately. When enabling DMZ+ on mine I did have to do a factory reset on the ISP modem, before the reset it was still trying to manage the devices connected through the unifi security gateway and preventing a connection. This may or may not be an issue for you, it's just something to keep in mind.

As far as costs go, I don't know the availability or cost of the equipment where you live. If you have something like ebay that may be a good place to look. The required hardware is really more dependent on your connection speeds. The AC-pro AP that manages any smart device was picked up used for about $80 and works great but is pretty old hardware but can do 10Mbps. You may just be able to toss a new single AP behind the ISP modem and be fine as well, I did that for a long time until I moved and had coverage issues.