Best Placement For Ubiquiti AC LR?

[AlanAlan]

I recently bought a Ubiquiti AC LR and I haven't got a chance to configure it. I want to know what would be the best placement. My current situation is that my ISP modem is not able to reach the back end of my home (2 stories). The internet in the front side of my home is fine. Its just the back. I can run an Ethernet cable from the modem to downstairs in the back end. If I put the AC LR on a table facing upwards. Will mounting it on a wall be better?

[Lurick]

I would try to mount it on the wall if you can, pointing towards the area with low signal.

If that's not possible or it would look out of place or bad then you should be able to place it on a table in a way that faces towards the back.

[AlanAlan]

15 minutes ago, Lurick said:

I would try to mount it on the wall if you can, pointing towards the area with low signal.

If that's not possible or it would look out of place or bad then you should be able to place it on a table in a way that faces towards the back.

It is possible to mount it to the wall, but I want to cover both the top story and the bottom story of the back end of my home. If I place it facing upwards on a table, would that give me the best connection?

[Lurick]

12 minutes ago, AlanAlan said:

It is possible to mount it to the wall, but I want to cover both the top story and the bottom story of the back end of my home. If I place it facing upwards on a table, would that give me the best connection?

Depends on how the internal antennas are laid out.

You can try it on the table, see how the coverage is, and adjust it later.

[AlanAlan]

1 hour ago, Lurick said:

Depends on how the internal antennas are laid out.

You can try it on the table, see how the coverage is, and adjust it later.

Have you used any ubiquiti access points before? Are they easy to setup for home use? Are they reliable?

[Lurick]

Just now, AlanAlan said:

Have you used any ubiquiti access points before? Are they easy to setup for home use? Are they reliable?

I have not used any personally but from what I hear they are pretty solid and reliable and setup isn't bad either.

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, AlanAlan said:

Have you used any ubiquiti access points before? Are they easy to setup for home use? Are they reliable?

To my understanding all you gotta do is install their software on a PC on your network and that software configures the AP. While I never used them before either. Ive pretty much heard they are good, reliable and easy to setup for the most part. 

[scottyseng]

6 hours ago, AlanAlan said:

Have you used any ubiquiti access points before? Are they easy to setup for home use? Are they reliable?

I have two ubiquiti AC Pros (Overkill enough for 1200 SQ FT). They work great.

 

You just need to install UniFi controller on either PC or your phone (Recommend PC personally), and once you have it set up, they run on their own. If you leave the controller software running on a server, it'll log usage stats for you.

 

Typically you want to mount these on the ceiling, but wall mount works fine. Just try it first.

[AlanAlan]

3 hours ago, scottyseng said:

I have two ubiquiti AC Pros (Overkill enough for 1200 SQ FT). They work great.

 

You just need to install UniFi controller on either PC or your phone (Recommend PC personally), and once you have it set up, they run on their own. If you leave the controller software running on a server, it'll log usage stats for you.

 

Typically you want to mount these on the ceiling, but wall mount works fine. Just try it first.

Can I place it on a table? Because I want to cover my upper floor.

[Donut417]

4 minutes ago, AlanAlan said:

Can I place it on a table? Because I want to cover my upper floor.

Its not like your going to attach it to the table. So Id say do it and see what happens. Or do it and do a site survey and see how the signal goes thru in different points of your house. Because if you put it on a table its not like you can move it around a little later, if you need to find a better spot. 

[scottyseng]

57 minutes ago, AlanAlan said:

Can I place it on a table? Because I want to cover my upper floor.

Yeah, the antennas are mostly meant to be on a horizontal surface. As stated above, just plug it on, plop it on the table and see if it covers what you need.

You might need two APs depending on how bad it is.

 

But yeah, I've turned off my ISP (Frontier Fios, formerly Verizon FIOS) router's wifi and just use the Ubiquiti APs without issues. I want to get a Edgerouter 4 to replace the ISP router though.

[AlanAlan]

On 1/27/2018 at 8:32 PM, Donut417 said:

Its not like your going to attach it to the table. So Id say do it and see what happens. Or do it and do a site survey and see how the signal goes thru in different points of your house. Because if you put it on a table its not like you can move it around a little later, if you need to find a better spot. 

 

On 1/27/2018 at 9:25 PM, scottyseng said:

Yeah, the antennas are mostly meant to be on a horizontal surface. As stated above, just plug it on, plop it on the table and see if it covers what you need.

You might need two APs depending on how bad it is.

 

But yeah, I've turned off my ISP (Frontier Fios, formerly Verizon FIOS) router's wifi and just use the Ubiquiti APs without issues. I want to get a Edgerouter 4 to replace the ISP router though.

I installed my ubiquiti yesterday and it has been working good so far. I had a problem where in the unfi controller the status says "disconnected" but it works. How can i get rid of that? How can I restart it?

[scottyseng]

18 minutes ago, AlanAlan said:

I installed my ubiquiti yesterday and it has been working good so far. I had a problem where in the unfi controller the status says "disconnected" but it works. How can i get rid of that? How can I restart it?

What do you have the UniFi controller installed on? PC?

 

If PC, make a rule in Windows Firewall to allow port 8080 under inbound rules for UniFi controller.

 

You can't restart the ubiquiti unit unless connected to it via UniFi controller. Else, you can unplug the Ethernet cable that goes to it (It's POE powered and will turn off).

The alternative way to get to it is to log into it via SSH with putty.

 

Yeah, for some reason Windows allows the outbound connection for UniFi controller to set up the AP but blocks the inbound port so it doesn't get a signal back from the AP and UniFi thinks it's disconnected.

[AlanAlan]

51 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

What do you have the UniFi controller installed on? PC?

 

If PC, make a rule in Windows Firewall to allow port 8080 under inbound rules for UniFi controller.

 

You can't restart the ubiquiti unit unless connected to it via UniFi controller. Else, you can unplug the Ethernet cable that goes to it (It's POE powered and will turn off).

The alternative way to get to it is to log into it via SSH with putty.

 

Yeah, for some reason Windows allows the outbound connection for UniFi controller to set up the AP but blocks the inbound port so it doesn't get a signal back from the AP and UniFi thinks it's disconnected.

Yeah, I have a PC. So unplugging and re plugging is the only to restart the access point?

[scottyseng]

1 hour ago, AlanAlan said:

Yeah, I have a PC. So unplugging and re plugging is the only to restart the access point?

Well, if you have the AP connected and online on UniFi controller, you can restart the AP via UniFi controller. It doesn't work if the AP is showing up as disconnected though.

[AlanAlan]

1 hour ago, scottyseng said:

Well, if you have the AP connected and online on UniFi controller, you can restart the AP via UniFi controller. It doesn't work if the AP is showing up as disconnected though.

It is connected now. How can I restart the AP using the Unifi Controller?

[intertan]

I thought if you have 1 ap a 24/7 controller isn't needed? preferred but not needed

Now if you have 2 or more then yes it is needed.

[scottyseng]

3 hours ago, AlanAlan said:

It is connected now. How can I restart the AP using the Unifi Controller?

If you go to devices, you'll see restart on the far right under actions.

 

@intertan You don't need unifi controller 24/7 even with multiple APs.

[VTF5252]

The reason ubiquity recommends mounting them horizontally is because they project a doughnut shape parallel with the ap and in front of the ap. In a commercial setting the buildings are longer than they are tall and if they need to cover more stories they will just add aps on each story. In a house trying to cover multiple floors its best mounted against an external wall in as middle of the height of the house as possible. Here is a chart of the radiation pattern of the ac lr.

 

[AlanAlan]

3 hours ago, intertan said:

I thought if you have 1 ap a 24/7 controller isn't needed? preferred but not needed

Now if you have 2 or more then yes it is needed.

 

3 hours ago, NTF5252 said:

The reason ubiquity recommends mounting them horizontally is because they project a doughnut shape parallel with the ap and in front of the ap. In a commercial setting the buildings are longer than they are tall and if they need to cover more stories they will just add aps on each story. In a house trying to cover multiple floors its best mounted against an external wall in as middle of the height of the house as possible. Here is a chart of the radiation pattern of the ac lr.

 

 

3 hours ago, scottyseng said:

If you go to devices, you'll see restart on the far right under actions.

 

@intertan You don't need unifi controller 24/7 even with multiple APs.

When I connect my laptop to the AP it uses wireless N but my laptop is compatible with wireless ac. Do you guys know how to fix this?

[scottyseng]

5 hours ago, AlanAlan said:

When I connect my laptop to the AP it uses wireless N but my laptop is compatible with wireless ac. Do you guys know how to fix this?

Install WiFi Analyzer on your laptop. See if the difference in strength between 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands is a lot. If so, your device will default to using 2.4 GHz as it has stronger signal. You might need to lower the power on the 2.4GHz network to have the 5GHz stand out more.

 

You can enable band steering and tell your devices to prefer 5GHz, but if 2.4GHz signal is much stronger, it'll stick to 2.4GHz.

 

Alternatively, create two WiFi networks, one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz and connect the wireless AC devices to the 5GHz one (Though this is a lot of work).

[Donut417]

11 hours ago, AlanAlan said:

 

 

When I connect my laptop to the AP it uses wireless N but my laptop is compatible with wireless ac. Do you guys know how to fix this?

AC is technically 5Ghz. If you look at AC products most on the product box have 2.4 Ghz labeled as wireless N and 5 Ghz labeled as AC. Check what network you connected to. But keep in mind 5 Ghz has less range and penetration power. So you if your too far away 2.4 Ghz might be your only choice. 

[intertan]

On 2/3/2018 at 7:15 PM, scottyseng said:

If you go to devices, you'll see restart on the far right under actions.

 

@intertan You don't need unifi controller 24/7 even with multiple APs.

isn't it recommended to help the transfer from ap to ap?

[scottyseng]

1 minute ago, intertan said:

isn't it recommended to help the transfer from ap to ap?

Ah, you mean the handoff feature. It's not required for the controller to be running for that. The APs are pretty much programmed and manage that themselves.

You only really need unifi controller running 24/7 if you want alerts / stats (which are cool to see)

[mynameisjuan]

2 hours ago, scottyseng said:

Ah, you mean the handoff feature. It's not required for the controller to be running for that. The APs are pretty much programmed and manage that themselves.

You only really need unifi controller running 24/7 if you want alerts / stats (which are cool to see)

A controller is needed for any decent handoffs. AP handoffs are usually pretty shit as without a controller it has no clue what the connection strength is to the other APs to have a smooth handoff.