Setting up a Ubiquiti network

[Ryois]

So I don't know much about Ubiquiti hardware. I want to set up a Ubiquiti network for a house with ~15 Wi-Fi devices and 4-8 Gigabit Ethernet devices. What Ubiquiti hardware will I need? I know I need a router, switch, and APs. I want this to be easy to setup and to configure but with more advanced options for the future. I also want some features such as

• Guest network on a separate VLAN.
• Better QoS better than Netgear's trash one that cannot do anything
• Real-time Bandwidth used by each device
• Easy to manage from a single IP. Remote will be a bonus.

My house isn't that big but has thick walls and brick exterior walls. I want Wi-Fi outside too. Our internet speeds right now is ~20ms ping, 0-5ms of jitter, 115-120Mbps download, 5-7Mbps upload. Our speeds might increase as fiber becomes available in our area. We do not have Ethernet ran to any other room besides the one with the modem.

Also would this modem be DOCSIS 3, Spectrum compatible?  http://a.co/bI3oKhu  we are currently using the Arris ISP provided modem.

Thanks!

[Lurick]

Just a heads up, DO NOT I repeat DO NOT touch the SB6190! Either go with the SB6183 or the SB8200. The SB6190 uses the Pum6 chipset and it's AWFUL! I literally would see tens of thousands of errors on the line in a few hours, swapped the modem and it went down to a couple dozen, additionally my ping was cut in half switching away from the SB6190.

 

Where is your location, city/state wise? Spectrum just announced DOCSIS 3.1 in 7 cities with 940Mbps/35Mbps down/up respectively and they don't have any third party modems certified yet.

[Ryois]

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Just a heads up, DO NOT I repeat DO NOT touch the SB6190! Either go with the SB6183 or the SB8200. The SB6190 uses the Pum6 chipset and it's AWFUL! I literally would see tens of thousands of errors on the line in a few hours, swapped the modem and it went down to a couple dozen, additionally my ping was cut in half switching away from the SB6190.

 

Where is your location, city/state wise? Spectrum just announced DOCSIS 3.1 in 7 cities with 940Mbps/35Mbps down/up respectively and they don't have any third party modems certified yet.

Knoxville Tennessee area.

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, Ryois said:

Knoxville Tennessee area.

Ah, nothing in the Tennessee area yet for gigabit. I know they are supposed to raise download rates to 400Mbps from 300Mbps and increase the minimum to 200Mbps. I would go with the SB6183 since I don't think DOCSIS3.1 will be fully rolled out across the network for a while yet.

[Ryois]

9 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Ah, nothing in the Tennessee area yet for gigabit. I know they are supposed to raise download rates to 400Mbps from 300Mbps and increase the minimum to 200Mbps. I would go with the SB6183 since I don't think DOCSIS3.1 will be fully rolled out across the network for a while yet.

Xfinity has gigabit, EPB, and etc but charter gives us crap speeds...

[Lurick]

Just now, Ryois said:

Xfinity has gigabit, EPB, and etc but charter gives us crap speeds...

Yah, well Spectrum/Charter are morons. They have IPv6 implemented on their other plans so I figured they would have it on their gigabit plan that I signed up for. NOPE! Enabling IPv4 and IPv6 for dual stack on the router right behind the modem causes it to infinitely loop and die after a couple minutes because it doesn't know how to handle IPv6 yet on that plan.

[Ryois]

@Lurick https://linustechtips.com/main/profile/348719-lurick/?status=185064&type=status

yeah that would be great if Charter got IPv6 to work Im using 6to4 

[Ryois]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

Yah, well Spectrum/Charter are morons. They have IPv6 implemented on their other plans so I figured they would have it on their gigabit plan that I signed up for. NOPE! Enabling IPv4 and IPv6 for dual stack on the router right behind the modem causes it to infinitely loop and die after a couple minutes because it doesn't know how to handle IPv6 yet on that plan.

I had IPv6 on my older modem before they replaced it... they replaced it and no more IPv6 only a 6to4 tunnel will work.

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, Ryois said:

@Lurick https://linustechtips.com/main/profile/348719-lurick/?status=185064&type=status

yeah that would be great if Charter got IPv6 to work Im using 6to4

Exactly! And when it does work they don't even assign you IPv6 blocks like they do for IPv4, if you reboot anything you get a whole new block which is a pain in the butt if you use a /56 and have it subnetted since you have to change all that =/

 

 

1 minute ago, Ryois said:

I had IPv6 on my older modem before they replaced it... they replaced it and no more IPv6 only a 6to4 tunnel will work.

Yah, when it was still TWC the SB6183 didn't have the firmware but after they were bought out and everything was done they finally pushed out a working firmware for the SB6183 and SB6190.

[Ryois]

6 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Exactly! And when it does work they don't even assign you IPv6 blocks like they do for IPv4, if you reboot anything you get a whole new block which is a pain in the butt if you use a /56 and have it subnetted since you have to change all that =/

 

 

Yah, when it was still TWC the SB6183 didn't have the firmware but after they were bought out and everything was done they finally pushed out a working firmware for the SB6183 and SB6190.

We have Charter now called Spectrum I want TWC... my aunt has TWC and she gets like 200/100 which is great! Compared to my speeds....

I did have a 10/10 but now its 7/10 

[scottyseng]

33 minutes ago, Ryois said:

-snip-

Ah, depending on the size of the house, you may need a different amount of APs.

 

You pretty much need:

USG (Router)

 

UniFi Switch (8 port might cover you, you may need the 16 port version for future space. Keep in mind they sell PoE and non PoE switches. Up to you if you can live with having separate PoE injectors for the APs or not). I think if you can cover the cost, the PoE version is worth it.

 

UAP AC-Pro (If you want 3 x 3 antennas) or the AC-Lite (Has 2 x 2 antenna) if on budget. There's also the AC-HD but I would only get that if you want the most throughput and need it (Has 4 x 4 antenna and Mu-MIMO support), it's very expensive however. I kind of default to the AC-Pro myself. Depending on the size of the house, 2-3 may be needed. You can always add more as you go on.

 

Also, if you're running Ethernet cable, I would get Cat6 at min. Cat5e is kind of dying as the standard these days.

[Ryois]

@Lurick @scottyseng

https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-x/ Router OR https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-routing/usg/ UniFi gateway

Keep NETGEAR R7000 use in AP mode and https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-pro/ for outside and better connection.

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-switching/unifi-switch-8/ 8 port gigabit switch

Would I need https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-cloud-key/ ??

[scottyseng]

2 minutes ago, Ryois said:

@Lurick @scottyseng

https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-x/ Router OR https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-routing/usg/ UniFi gateway

Keep NETGEAR R700 use in AP mode and https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-pro/ for outside and better connection.

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-switching/unifi-switch-8/ 8 port gigabit switch

Would I need https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-cloud-key/ ??

Well, if you want to stay in the UniFi system, the USG. The edgerouter is more advanced out of the two.

 

There's very little chance that the Netgear and the AC-Pro will handoff to each other on the same network. I would stick to all Ubiquiti for the wireless network. The transfer is pretty seamless. I mean you can try, but I don't usually trust trying to combine networks between different manufacturers.

 

You do not need the cloud key. If you have a PC, you can run the unifi controller on it (if possible, have it running 24/7 if you want to see stats about speed / traffic for data logging).

 

Though, did you mean netgear R7000? I'm surprised that doesn't work well for you, it's a pretty solid router from my experience (I've never used QoS on it though).

[Ryois]

Just now, scottyseng said:

Well, if you want to stay in the UniFi system, the USG. The edgerouter is more advanced out of the two.

 

There's very little chance that the Netgear and the AC-Pro will handoff to each other on the same network. I would stick to all Ubiquiti for the wireless network. The transfer is pretty seamless. I mean you can try, but I don't usually trust trying to combine networks between different manufacturers.

 

You do not need the cloud key. If you have a PC, you can run the unifi controller on it (if possible, have it running 24/7 if you want to see stats about speed / traffic for data logging).

 

Though, did you mean netgear R7000? I'm surprised that doesn't work well for you, it's a pretty solid router from my experience (I've never used QoS on it though).

Ok, the UniFi is where the Cloud Key can manage all of them?? correct?
 The R7000 can be for everyone, AC-Pro for outdoor and me

I do not have a PC that is up 24/7 or close to 24/7

Yes, I meant the R7000 I edited it yeah its pretty good but for me outside range isn't that great  

[scottyseng]

7 minutes ago, Ryois said:

Ok, the UniFi is where the Cloud Key can manage all of them?? correct?
 The R7000 can be for everyone, AC-Pro for outdoor and me

I do not have a PC that is up 24/7 or close to 24/7

Yes, I meant the R7000 I edited it yeah its pretty good but for me outside range isn't that great  

Cloud key is a dedicated controller you can connect to that controls everything, correct. You only really need one if you need to perform remote tasks in my opinion. For your use, just having a PC with the controller is good enough. You don't have to have the controller running 24/7 either.

 

Ah, just make sure you set the channels correctly. Also, if you plan to use VLANs for guest networks, you might not be able to have it on the netgear. I don't think the netgear supports VLANs, but unsure there. The USG would be passing the VLANs out to the switch. While you can put the whole netgear router on the guest network, that would make both the guest and main wireless network from the netgear be under the guest VLAN. The AC-Pro can handle up to 4 VLANs if I remember right.

 

Hmm, interesting. Yeah, these days it's much better to have several cheaper wireless APs rather than trying to cover the whole area with one expensive router combo (Like the Netgear there). I'm also not a fan of mesh networks myself either.

 

I would also plan a single spot where all of the networking gear goes and run all of the Ethernet to that spot. Getting a small patch panel and labelling it will help you keep things organized too.

[Ryois]

Just now, scottyseng said:

Cloud key is a dedicated controller you can connect to that controls everything, correct. You only really need one if you need to perform remote tasks in my opinion. For your use, just having a PC with the controller is good enough. You don't have to have the controller running 24/7 either.

 

Ah, just make sure you set the channels correctly. Also, if you plan to use VLANs for guest networks, you might not be able to have it on the netgear. I don't think the netgear supports VLANs, but unsure there. The USG would be passing the VLANs out to the switch. While you can put the whole netgear router on the guest network, that would make both the guest and main wireless network from the netgear be under the guest VLAN. The AC-Pro can handle up to 4 VLANs if I remember right.

 

Hmm, interesting. Yeah, these days it's much better to have several cheaper wireless APs rather than trying to cover the whole area with one expensive router combo (Like the Netgear there). I'm also not a fan of mesh networks myself either.

 

I would also plan a single spot where all of the networking gear goes and run all of the Ethernet to that spot. Getting a small patch panel and labelling it will help you keep things organized too.

Ok so that is what the Cloud Key is

Yes the Netgear can do VLANs. So on the USG I would make a VLAN for guest, main, and iot. Assign ports to each VLAN and go from there?

Yeah cheaper the better

 

Cable comes in into the room where the PC is... I might?? be able to get Ethernet or the cable moved into my room?? Idk. All of our networking gear is already in one spot

[gamerking]

2 hours ago, Ryois said:

So I don't know much about Ubiquiti hardware. I want to set up a Ubiquiti network for a house with ~15 Wi-Fi devices and 4-8 Gigabit Ethernet devices. What Ubiquiti hardware will I need? I know I need a router, switch, and APs. I want this to be easy to setup and to configure but with more advanced options for the future. I also want some features such as

• Guest network on a separate VLAN.
• Better QoS better than Netgear's trash one that cannot do anything
• Real-time Bandwidth used by each device
• Easy to manage from a single IP. Remote will be a bonus.

My house isn't that big but has thick walls and brick exterior walls. I want Wi-Fi outside too. Our internet speeds right now is ~20ms ping, 0-5ms of jitter, 115-120Mbps download, 5-7Mbps upload. Our speeds might increase as fiber becomes available in our area. We do not have Ethernet ran to any other room besides the one with the modem.

Also would this modem be DOCSIS 3, Spectrum compatible?  http://a.co/bI3oKhu  we are currently using the Arris ISP provided modem.

Thanks!

you dont need to run the controller its nice to have but ant required unless you need to change something .

i ran mine on my NAS for awhile but updating it wasnt fun (centos 7) i bought a cloud key just awhile ago .

 

i would get the USG if you dont already have a firewall, if you got a firewall already you dont need one . for switches the unifi stuff is all managed so if all the Ethernet stuff is connected in one place then if its 4-8 things + the AP's i would get a 8  port 60w POE switch or a 16 Port POE version , another Option is if all the Ethernet stuff ant together spread out get two  8 port Switches . i have cloud access remote with the controller always running . for AP's i went with AP-AC-PRO's since my house is brick exterior  also . the modem doest really matter it would either go to the WAN of the USG or just in one of the ports on the switch .

 

depending on what version you go with the interface has some large changes 5.5.22 i had no access to log all my speedtest done by the USG with 5.6.22 its able to keep a log . nice when your isp says they had no outages and you can prove otherwise . per port in/out traffic on the switch is also nice on the latter version , my cloud key came with it automatically .

if you dont want to run Ethernet to other rooms for AP's you can get one good AP then get there mesh network ones for the other rooms you just need to supply it power then . it will use the Main AP to relay from .

[Ryois]

56 minutes ago, gamerking said:

you dont need to run the controller its nice to have but ant required unless you need to change something .

ok

 

56 minutes ago, gamerking said:

i would get the USG if you dont already have a firewall, if you got a firewall already you dont need one . for switches the unifi stuff is all managed so if all the Ethernet stuff is connected in one place then if its 4-8 things + the AP's i would get a 8  port 60w POE switch or a 16 Port POE version , another Option is if all the Ethernet stuff ant together spread out get two  8 port Switches . i have cloud access remote with the controller always running . for AP's i went with AP-AC-PRO's since my house is brick exterior  also . the modem doest really matter it would either go to the WAN of the USG or just in one of the ports on the switch .

ok. My R7000 will be turned to an AP and I will need a USG.

 

57 minutes ago, gamerking said:

if you dont want to run Ethernet to other rooms for AP's you can get one good AP then get there mesh network ones for the other rooms you just need to supply it power then . it will use the Main AP to relay from .

ok yay!

[gamerking]

2 hours ago, Ryois said:

ok

 

ok. My R7000 will be turned to an AP and I will need a USG.

 

ok yay!

that wouldnt be the netgear R7000 would it . if so have fun . and as far as i know the AP for the mesh networking has to be controllable by the unifi software since it has the AP's and mesh AP's talk to each other . this youtube has alot on the AP/mesh stuff also probably will answer some of your questions

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVS6ejD9NLZvjsvhcbiDzjw

[scottyseng]

9 hours ago, Ryois said:

Ok so that is what the Cloud Key is

Yes the Netgear can do VLANs. So on the USG I would make a VLAN for guest, main, and iot. Assign ports to each VLAN and go from there?

Yeah cheaper the better

 

Cable comes in into the room where the PC is... I might?? be able to get Ethernet or the cable moved into my room?? Idk. All of our networking gear is already in one spot

Yeah, just assign VLANs to what ports you need.

 

Haha, have fun running the cables. I got done running Ethernet around our house. I would recommend putting two Ethernet jacks per Ubiquiti AP. That way in the future when the faster models become cheaper, you can use both (Well, even the AC-Pro can use two Ethernet connections).

[gamerking]

1 hour ago, scottyseng said:

Yeah, just assign VLANs to what ports you need.

 

Haha, have fun running the cables. I got done running Ethernet around our house. I would recommend putting two Ethernet jacks per Ubiquiti AP. That way in the future when the faster models become cheaper, you can use both (Well, even the AC-Pro can use two Ethernet connections).

the second port is for chaining AP's one is the main other is a Slave port AP 1 is the (controller) for AP 2

[MWaldhauer]

Go Unifi all the way for ease of configuration and sweet functionality.

This is my home setup:

 

I run my controller as a docker on my Unraid server.

All you do is define your networks and wireless networks and you are good to go

 

If you run multiple AccessPoints on the system you get awesome roaming and stuff

I run a USG, USW with PoE and an UAP-AC-PRO. The USG max out at around 500Mbps so go for the PRO if you need more than that.

[Ryois]

1 hour ago, MWaldhauer said:

Go Unifi all the way for ease of configuration and sweet functionality.

This is my home setup:

 

I run my controller as a docker on my Unraid server.

All you do is define your networks and wireless networks and you are good to go

 

If you run multiple AccessPoints on the system you get awesome roaming and stuff

I run a USG, USW with PoE and an UAP-AC-PRO. The USG max out at around 500Mbps so go for the PRO if you need more than that.

Ok ok! thanks.