Home WiFi setup

[messy]

Hello,

I was wondering if people knew about various options of decent home wifi?

To begin with I had some TP link powerline adaptors with built in wifi that were ok but for various reasons I wanted to improve on. So I then liberated some old Avaya 9144's (or some similar model) from work and stuck those around the place, just connected into my router.

These turned out to be flakey as ***** so I am now looking at ways to sort it out and make it all nice.


I'm going to get a proper managed PoE switch and some better AP's. I've heard consumer grade AP's are garbage, but I'm worried business grade ones will require additional license or special hardware purchases or something to operate.
Are there any good quality AP's that once you bought once, you just own and can use outright forever? And I can just plug into whatever switch I want and get decent functionality?

Thanks!

[Dedayog]

17 minutes ago, messy said:

Hello,

I was wondering if people knew about various options of decent home wifi?

To begin with I had some TP link powerline adaptors with built in wifi that were ok but for various reasons I wanted to improve on. So I then liberated some old Avaya 9144's (or some similar model) from work and stuck those around the place, just connected into my router.

These turned out to be flakey as ***** so I am now looking at ways to sort it out and make it all nice.


I'm going to get a proper managed PoE switch and some better AP's. I've heard consumer grade AP's are garbage, but I'm worried business grade ones will require additional license or special hardware purchases or something to operate.
Are there any good quality AP's that once you bought once, you just own and can use outright forever? And I can just plug into whatever switch I want and get decent functionality?

Thanks!

What's wrong with a nice powerful router that encompasses the entire home/yard?  Or a mesh system like the Ubiquiti Amplifi HD that covers a half acre?

 

 

[messy]

3 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

What's wrong with a nice powerful router that encompasses the entire home/yard?  Or a mesh system like the Ubiquiti Amplifi HD that covers a half acre?

 

 

I live in an old Victorian house and its like a bunker. Basically need an AP per floor

[messy]

5 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

What's wrong with a nice powerful router that encompasses the entire home/yard?  Or a mesh system like the Ubiquiti Amplifi HD that covers a half acre?

 

 

beside....what is a "powerful" router?  WiFi  Tx power is regulated. I think just about every WiFi device (cheap and expensive) is more than capable of banging out the max.

[Dedayog]

42 minutes ago, messy said:

beside....what is a "powerful" router?  WiFi  Tx power is regulated. I think just about every WiFi device (cheap and expensive) is more than capable of banging out the max.

Like a Nighthawk.   Their coverage bubbles are pretty damn big, but not sure of penetrating power.

 

May need a mesh system, which is sorta what you're trying to accomplish with the APs.  Not sure how a DIY one works vs a "mesh system".

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, messy said:

I live in an old Victorian house and its like a bunker. Basically need an AP per floor

As in internal concrete/brick walls? If so, you have the right idea.

 

Some of the pro-sumer grade APs that don't require subscriptions or licensing fees are Ubiquiti, Grandstream, Alta, EnGenius, and TP-Link Omada. Leaning towards enterprise are Cambium, Ruckus Unleashed, etc. I think more of the enterprise solutions are starting to roll out license-free alternatives if you search around.

 

1 hour ago, Dedayog said:

May need a mesh system, which is sorta what you're trying to accomplish with the APs.  Not sure how a DIY one works vs a "mesh system".

A well-planned multi-AP system will perform much better than mesh, especially in building layouts that restrict WiFi signals.

 

As long as there is an ethernet uplink to a switch, run that AP!