Reccomended AP For Entire Home

[DriedSponge]

Hi there,

I am looking for a recommendation for a single wireless AP that would work well independently for an entire home. The home is two floors, ~2500 square feet, and the interior is dry wall. I would prefer a AP that supports different SSIDs at different frequencies. For example, a 2.4 network and a 5.2 network. We are currently using the default Xfinity router and it has solid coverage around the house, but we are ditching them as a provider. For additional context, I am not looking for an entire router, just an AP.

Thanks!

[OhioYJ]

Personally I've had good luck with Ubiquiti's APs for a while now. I'm using just the APs, with OPNSense as my router. Though it sounds like depending on your setup you may be best to use a couple APs.

 

Ubiquiti has a designer though, you can lay out your floor plan and put different models in it and see how your coverage would be roughly on the different bands.

[DriedSponge]

6 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

Personally I've had good luck with Ubiquiti's APs for a while now. I'm using just the APs, with OPNSense as my router. Though it sounds like depending on your setup you may be best to use a couple APs.

 

Ubiquiti has a designer though, you can lay out your floor plan and put different models in it and see how your coverage would be roughly on the different bands.

Thanks, I will look into them. I also plan on using OPNSense as my router. The reason I am mostly looking for one access point is because I don't believe I have the proper infrastructure in my home to support several (in term of ethernet wiring). Thanks for the suggestion!

[OhioYJ]

51 minutes ago, DriedSponge said:

Thanks, I will look into them. I also plan on using OPNSense as my router. The reason I am mostly looking for one access point is because I don't believe I have the proper infrastructure in my home to support several (in term of ethernet wiring). Thanks for the suggestion!

I would definitely play with that Ubquiti designer then. It's a little clunky, but it does work once you get the hang of it. I know I started out with two U6 Lites, then moved to two U6 Enterprise access points in my house. I use a different SSID for each of my VLANs in my setup.

[DriedSponge]

3 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

I would definitely play with that Ubquiti designer then. It's a little clunky, but it does work once you get the hang of it. I know I started out with two U6 Lites, then moved to two U6 Enterprise access points in my house. I use a different SSID for each of my VLANs in my setup.

Sounds good. I'll see if I can get designer to work for me. I would like one AP to work mostly because I don't want to worry about trying to configure several to work together. Did you find the setup for several APs easy when using OPNSense? Do you use any other Ubiquiti equipment? Thanks!

[Electronics Wizardy]

24 minutes ago, DriedSponge said:

Sounds good. I'll see if I can get designer to work for me. I would like one AP to work mostly because I don't want to worry about trying to configure several to work together. Did you find the setup for several APs easy when using OPNSense? Do you use any other Ubiquiti equipment? Thanks!

Its super easy to add additional APs with the unifi system or almost all the other other simmilar Wifi solutions. You don't really have to touch the router much for adding an ap.

[OhioYJ]

12 hours ago, DriedSponge said:

Sounds good. I'll see if I can get designer to work for me. I would like one AP to work mostly because I don't want to worry about trying to configure several to work together. Did you find the setup for several APs easy when using OPNSense? Do you use any other Ubiquiti equipment? Thanks!

No I only use the APs, no other Ubiquiti equipment. I actually started on pfsense, and moved to OPNSense, never had to touch my AP setup. In fact swapping APs later for my upgrade was easy, didn't even have to touch my settings, adopted the new APs, and was up and running (It kept my original settings and everything).  Basically all I did was have to swap them and in and hook up the cord.

 

You'll setup the APs though Ubiquiti's interface (accessed through the browser). It feels a lot like any other router interface? Here's an image I have up on my server still from when I was troubleshooting my VLAN stuff to give you an idea:

 

 

It's pretty intuitive really.

[DriedSponge]

13 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

No I only use the APs, no other Ubiquiti equipment. I actually started on pfsense, and moved to OPNSense, never had to touch my AP setup. In fact swapping APs later for my upgrade was easy, didn't even have to touch my settings, adopted the new APs, and was up and running (It kept my original settings and everything).  Basically all I did was have to swap them and in and hook up the cord.

 

You'll setup the APs though Ubiquiti's interface (accessed through the browser). It feels a lot like any other router interface? Here's an image I have up on my server still from when I was troubleshooting my VLAN stuff to give you an idea:

 

 

It's pretty intuitive really.

This is helpful, thank you! Most of my confusion comes from not understanding how the APs coordinate with each other but it seems like Ubiquiti has a nice way of doing it. The only thing I have to figure out now is placement and such within my house if I need several APs. I looked into my ethernet situation and I do have Cat 5 in my walls, but it seems I can only connect one port downstairs to one port upstairs, meaning I'd have to get a switch for the upstairs if I need several devices connected to ethernet (I think). I also don't think I have POE capabilities. Thank you!

[whispous]

Do bear in mind that walls are walls and nothing about an AP can do a huge amount to change that.

[OhioYJ]

15 hours ago, DriedSponge said:

I also don't think I have POE capabilities.

Not really a big deal, as you can just pick up a POE adapter.  Or Honestly, you might also price POE switches too, many times these aren't very expensive. I started with adapters though.