Which Ubiquiti UniFi AP option for a townhouse?

[alfa147x]

I'm moving into a 1500ft² townhouse and I need an AP or multiple APs.

My router will be running PFSense or Sophos UTM. I want to try both out before making a decision. After the router will be a ProCurve Switch 1800-24G. The equipment will be in a well ventilated closet under the stairs. This is where I was planning on having an AP and the other I was going to place in the office closet directly above on the 2nd floor.

Option 1 $90:
UniFi AP Long-Range

Option 2 $70:
UniFi AP

Option 3 $140:
2x UniFi AP

Option 4 $200:
3x UniFi AP

The UniFi AP 3 pack is far over kill.
Should I go with 2 APs or 1?

I'm thinking 1 AP should be plenty for 2 people. Any idea if the Long-Range model is worth it?

 

[DrGreen2007]

I have one Unifi AP in my downstairs coat closet mounted on the wall (about the middle of the house)(its kind of a cool night lite as well, hah)
I have excellent signal downstairs and in the garage and great signal upstairs and on the deck, I have good signal all the way to the road and around the yard

(1600ft² and the yard is 150x200 /roughly)

 

[alfa147x]

I'm thinking the best way to go about this is to just order one UniFi AP and try it out. If I need more I can always add another. I'll go ahead and run the cat-6 cable to the office and in the meantime I can use it to LACP between switches.

I think my concern is the interference from other wireless networks due to close proximity.

 

[CubanlB]

Lack of 5GHz really kills these for me for an environment with a lot of noisy neighbors. Also 10/100 ports? Lame... 300Mbp/s Wifi should be able to saturate the ethernet port easily.

I would try to get two or three of the cheapest decent 5GHz capable APs I could find. and Gb ports would be a bonus for throughout.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

I'm thinking 1 AP should be plenty for 2 people. Any idea if the Long-Range model is worth it?

Don't bother with a LR model, as your mobile devices can't transmit as far as the AP.

You'll find that with a single Unifi AP that the range and quality of the signal is better than any other consumer AP, partly because it is on the ceiling or wall.

With the regular non 5 Ghz models, you'll max out at about 70 Mbps on the Ethernet port.

I would start off with at least two, one up and one down, you can lower the power on each one and even enable zero handoff. Plus fun to learn about.

 

[alfa147x]

So here are the dual band wireless APs that I found for around $100

TEW-750DAP $50

LINKSYS WAP300N $98

HAWKING HD45B $113

 

[CubanlB]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833704144

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833156353

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

These are all in what I'm guessing would be in your price range. Might be rolling the dice on the QA of the cheaper ones. If I cared about through put for my wifi stuff I'd get something like these. I just run some 2.4 150mb/s dlinks that don't meet any of the criteria I put out earlier.

You don't have to limit yourself yo looking at consumer "Access Points" vs Wireless routers as the APs just do not have the routing portion of the devices. Any wifi router will work fine as an AP.

 

[kevnich2]

No offense but where did the OP say he wanted cheap crappy consumer gear? He specifically asked for unifi units that are more enterprise grade and MUCH more reliable.

As far as a direct answer, if you don't want 5ghz, stick with the plain Unifi AP NON LR. As the other poster indicated, your clients won't have the transmit power to transmit back to the AP. Wifi is two way. Just make sure you're network cable that you run goes to a central location. These come with the POE injector so you can locate these anywhere you have a network drop. I put mine in the ceiling in the very center of my house. Gets signal everywhere and I'm around 2600sq foot

If you do want 5ghz, go with the Unifi Pro AP. Cost is higher but the 5ghz is nice to have. If you're in a house though, even with alot of wifi around, the signal of the other AP's shouldn't be strong enough to cause many issues. If you're an apartment or condo, that's different and I suggest going with the Pro version. Their both good units.

As far as the Unifi only having 100mb port on it, it's all it needs. On 2.4ghz, you're not going to get over 100mb/s so why put it in? The pro version does have a gigabit NIC and in ideal instance, I can hit about 150mb/s on my laptop but again, that's ideal RF environment.

 

[CubanlB]

No offense but where did the OP say he wanted cheap crappy consumer gear? He specifically asked for unifi units that are more enterprise grade and MUCH more reliable.

As far as a direct answer, if you don't want 5ghz, stick with the plain Unifi AP NON LR. As the other poster indicated, your clients won't have the transmit power to transmit back to the AP. Wifi is two way. Just make sure you're network cable that you run goes to a central location. These come with the POE injector so you can locate these anywhere you have a network drop. I put mine in the ceiling in the very center of my house. Gets signal everywhere and I'm around 2600sq foot

If you do want 5ghz, go with the Unifi Pro AP. Cost is higher but the 5ghz is nice to have. If you're in a house though, even with alot of wifi around, the signal of the other AP's shouldn't be strong enough to cause many issues. If you're an apartment or condo, that's different and I suggest going with the Pro version. Their both good units.

As far as the Unifi only having 100mb port on it, it's all it needs. On 2.4ghz, you're not going to get over 100mb/s so why put it in? The pro version does have a gigabit NIC and in ideal instance, I can hit about 150mb/s on my laptop but again, that's ideal RF environment.

Note the price range? Reliability in a home environment is debatable, my bottom of the barrel wireless router has almost a year of uptime, which was when I first turned it on.

PoE is super helpful for placement as you noted.

Pretty much boils down to do you need PoE.

I would rather have more 5ghz APs in a town home than almost enterprise, that's all.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would start with just 1. My house is 1100sqft and I have one in the basement and it does the whole house. It's not even in an optimal location, it should be higher up.

As for 300mbps, you don't actually get close to that. Wireless is weird in that they rate things way higher than what they actually can do. You will not saturate the 10/100 port. I can get around 50mbps or so with mine.

The POE adapters also come with them. Unfortunately they don't use standard POE so even if you have a POE switch you still have to use their adapters. It makes cable management a bit tricky to have those adapters but it's doable. Make sure you plug in a UPS.

 

[JackMDS]

If you do not really need a Dual Band

I'm thinking the best way to go about this is to just order one UniFi AP and try it out. If I need more I can always add another

There is also Dual Band Ubiquiti, but the price is a little over the top.

http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Netwo.../dp/B00D80J2XU

-------------------
Otherwise you should consider using a Wireless Router configured as an Access Point. The Entry Level stand alone APs are over priced and do not offer better quality.

Go with the ASUS RT-N66U.

In case you get tired of a computer running as a Router you can use the ASUS RT-N66U as your main Router and get a second unit for Access Point.

 

[s44]

One should be fine for coverage, but a second might help if you have a lot of clients moving around.

 

[alfa147x]

Thanks everyone for the help.

I'll have to research and decide weather Dual Band is something I need or not. I wanted to go with somewhat prosumer gear to learn more about enterprise wireless networking.

If you do not really need a Dual Band



There is also Dual Band Ubiquiti, but the price is a little over the top.

http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Netwo.../dp/B00D80J2XU

-------------------
Otherwise you should consider using a Wireless Router configured as an Access Point. The Entry Level stand alone APs are over priced and do not offer better quality.

Go with the ASUS RT-N66U.

In case you get tired of a computer running as a Router you can use the ASUS RT-N66U as your main Router and get a second unit for Access Point.

Hmm. The problem with going that route is the WAF or in this case the GFAF. I'll look into it though since I can easily hide a router.

 

[alfa147x]

One should be fine for coverage, but a second might help if you have a lot of clients moving around.

2 - 3 iPhones
4 - 5 laptops
2 - 3 iPads


That split between 2 - 3 people should be fine for one AP.

 

[alfa147x]

I would start with just 1. My house is 1100sqft and I have one in the basement and it does the whole house. It's not even in an optimal location, it should be higher up.

As for 300mbps, you don't actually get close to that. Wireless is weird in that they rate things way higher than what they actually can do. You will not saturate the 10/100 port. I can get around 50mbps or so with mine.

The POE adapters also come with them. Unfortunately they don't use standard POE so even if you have a POE switch you still have to use their adapters. It makes cable management a bit tricky to have those adapters but it's doable. Make sure you plug in a UPS.

I was planning on getting a UPS. I'll probably get one for my VMware box and another for my router and networking gear.

Which brings up a good point:
I would prefer going with one device or PoE so that I can power the APs off of a UPS. I guess I could have only one AP running if the power goes out.

 

[kevnich2]

Just curious but what are you doing with wireless if you have no power? I'm a huge tech geek but if the power is gone, I shut off everything just in case I HAVE to have it later.

As far as the AP - Go with one of the standard Unifi AP's and see how it works. I originally had two in my house and ended up removing the second one as just the one provided plenty of coverage. I do have a pro unit though as some devices I prefer having on 5ghz but you should do fine with 2.4ghz. Try it and see...

 

[adairusmc]

I have been using a UniFi AC unit in my house, which is about the same size, and it works great in both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz - downside is that they are pricey.

As everyone else said here, I would start with one.

I have been very happy with mine, that along with their airfiber products are helping redeem themselves in my mind after trying to use some of their terribad airmax products at the Wisp I work at.

 

[avos]

If you do not really need a Dual Band



There is also Dual Band Ubiquiti, but the price is a little over the top.

http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Netwo.../dp/B00D80J2XU

-------------------
Otherwise you should consider using a Wireless Router configured as an Access Point. The Entry Level stand alone APs are over priced and do not offer better quality.

Go with the ASUS RT-N66U.

In case you get tired of a computer running as a Router you can use the ASUS RT-N66U as your main Router and get a second unit for Access Point.

There is also http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-UAP-PRO-Enterprise-System...keywords=unifi+pro


A little cheaper of an option if you don't require 802.11 AC.

 

[alfa147x]

Just curious but what are you doing with wireless if you have no power? I'm a huge tech geek but if the power is gone, I shut off everything just in case I HAVE to have it later.

Currently I have a cheap UPS for the cable modem and router. It was able to power the two of them for over 12 hours. But I mostly want it so we can save our work which takes place over VPN.

 

[grendel19]

I actually live in a townhouse as well of about 1,500 sq ft. I use only 1 regular Unifi AP and it works just fine. I usually have about 10 wireless devices on it (smartphones, tablets, laptops, squeezeboxes). No issues at all.

 

[s44]

2 - 3 iPhones
4 - 5 laptops
2 - 3 iPads


That split between 2 - 3 people should be fine for one AP.

Yeah. I assume your main TV inputs will have ether?

 

[azazel1024]

Just curious but what are you doing with wireless if you have no power? I'm a huge tech geek but if the power is gone, I shut off everything just in case I HAVE to have it later.

As far as the AP - Go with one of the standard Unifi AP's and see how it works. I originally had two in my house and ended up removing the second one as just the one provided plenty of coverage. I do have a pro unit though as some devices I prefer having on 5ghz but you should do fine with 2.4ghz. Try it and see...

Well, in a townhouse, I'd wonder to.

I live in a single family rancher a bit out toward the country from the city. I NEED UPS. Not just for my server. The power flickers in bad wind a fair amount of the time. I'd say 5-8 times a year we'll get a storm strong enough that the power will sag/drop out for 1-20 seconds 2-6 times over the course of a few hours.

The rebooting of routers/APs/computers/DVRs is damned annoying without UPS. Especially if it ends up happening with a cluster of 2-3 in just a few minutes time.

Also, even though I've only lived here 16 months, we've had one big power outage for about 36hrs. If it wasn't for the fact that it friend my FIOS ONT, there was no actual local node outage (my neighbor across the street that connects through the same node didn't lose power or FIOS). I now have a generator after that little incident, so UPS protection provides plenty of time to keep things running while I plug in and startup the generator.

Also...so what if you don't have internet. I have a nice server that I can stream stuff off of. Bored with the power out, get the generator running, the lights and heat back on and throw a movie on the TV for the family.

As for performance, unless you have crappy clients, crappy router/access point or have lots of congestion, a 300Mbps setup should easily exceed the port speed of a 10/100 port. My 300Mbps router with gigabit ports hits 180Mbps with my laptop (which is roughly the practical limit of 11n once overhead and error correction is taken in to account).

If you don't need really high speed wireless that is fine, but it gets annoying to me to constantly hear people claims that 10/100 ports don't limit anything until you are talking 11ac.

Even in my old townhouse with a boat load of competing networks if I was in the same room with my router, my laptop could hit a good 95-110Mbps, which is above the practical port speed of a 10/100 port (which is going to be in the 90-94Mbps range when you are figuring overhead).

I would deffinitely go in on something that has 5GHz if you are looking at a townhouse.

 

[alfa147x]

Yeah. I assume your main TV inputs will have ether?

Yup. Not a smart TV but the Mac Mini in the living room will be hardwired in.