Question for you know how guys, I need to set up a mesh network at home, its a large double story...

[G+_Graham Green]

Question for you know how guys, I need to set up a mesh network at home, its a large double story house, but I am getting confused and after opinions please. I know eero is a sponsor of the show and seems to get a lot of airplay, but am looking at multiple solutions includng orbi. Comments please, recommendations?

[G+_Randy Coley]

I am using the Orbi Pro. It comes with three wireless networks setup. I use one for my trusted devices, one for the untrusted devices and one for a guest network. Currently I am only using one satellite. I may add another in the garage. Have the router on the second floor and the satellite on the first floor. Full speed between the main unit and the satellite. Lots of setup options and was easy to setup. Have three TV's with HD streaming running at one time and some heavy downloads and have not noticed any slowdowns.

[G+_Robert Hafer]

As someone who is not a paid spokesman, I also recommend eero. I have larger than average two story house with a half finished basement. The gateway router is on the east end of the main floor two other pro models connected to my wired network in a bedroom above and my study in the basement. And a wireless beacon on the west end of the main floor. This gives me excellent coverage all over the house.

I might well have gotten by with less, but when my previous router failed on me, again, I went out and shopped angry. Still, very happy with my setup.

[G+_Ben Reese]

I've got a 2 story house with a finished basement. I'm not using any mesh, but a single Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR covers the whole house and front/back yards.

 

I'd probably consider Eero, but I'm cheap and had already experienced Ubiquiti hardware.

[G+_Graham Green]

Ben Reese I know I need to do some work with ubiquiti networks, wondering whether I should invest at home in this now?

[G+_Ben Reese]

Graham Green my only complaint about Ubiquiti APs is that they don't have a built-in web server for management like most APs and routers do. Instead, they rely on either an SSH connection or a management server installed on other hardware. That doesn't bother me for my use, but makes it a little harder to recommend to others.

 

I'm running the Unifi software on a VM, but can run easily on a Raspberry Pi or rented VPS (Digital Ocean, AWS, Vultr, etc). They also sell a "Cloud Key" - a small device they plugs into your network to run as the controller. It's really not too bad and actually nice if you manage multiple APs and/or multiple sites, but something to be aware of going in.

[G+_Travis Hershberger]

I really like the Ubiquity hear as well. I think their home mesh setup is overpriced compared to their normal gear. I've got a UAP-AC-PRO at home and a couple of the family houses. It does take some planning if you want to manage them all from a single place, but they are enterprise grade equipment. That's just how everything on that space works. And the price is outstanding for what you get.

 

Now if you want a laugh, do a performance test of a Cisco ASA device compared to an ER-X ?

[G+_Rud Dog]

Ben Reese Just set up some IoT devices around the house and was really excited about the edge router x that was being investigated in the community. Unfortunately, it has gone silent. (Thinking of doing some research on that when time allows)

In my case, I have temperature NodeMCU's and Wemos mini D1 controlling the sprinkler system in the backyard. The problem I am running into, some of the devices are just outside the WLAN signal.

I am running the Asus RT-AC87u which has its own problems.

What allows the " Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR covers the whole house and front/back yards." to cover such a vast area? Secondly is this the device you reference above utilizing the SSH access only? If it truly has that kind of range I would be interested in replacing my router with it. Not sure how if the Synology router recommended by Padre is equal or better then the device you are referring to?

Lastly of the items mentioned here how many reduce the through put of the bandwidth?

[G+_Travis Hershberger]

Rud Dog The ER-X units are good little boxes for the price, but they have better performing options. The recommendation is to stick with the EdgeRouter series and not the Unifi routers as the former have many more features available via the management interface. They both have the same options available if you go to the command line. I don't know what you mean by it has gone silent tho?

 

The UAP-AC-LR units have increased broadcast power. The thing you have to keep in mind is that the increased range is a 1 way street, devices aren't going to talk back to it with any more power than they normally do. I'd pickup a UAP-AC-LITE and add it onto your network as an additional access point close to the back yard. Should take care of the weak wifi signal out back.

 

Ubiquiti's access points are managed via a piece of controller software, or their "cloud key". The controller software can be run from just about any computer you have, and doesn't need to be constantly running. The AP will remember their settings after you get them configured initially. So no need to even have the software continually running unless you need 24/7 stats and management. You can SSH into them, but that's normally an 'uh oh, I messed up settings and knocked it offline' type of need.

 

The Ubiquiti access points DO NOT do routing as well. Which is why I also talk about their EdgeRouter line a lot. If you want a router and wifi, you need 2 devices.

 

The Synology router cpu looks like it's a dual core 1.7GHz, so it would be nearly the same as an ER-X with a dual core 1.5GHz cpu. The big question is how much can it offload to an ASIC, and that I just don't know. I do know that the other EdgeRouter cpus are 4 core, and goes up to "they've gone plaid" (10gbps ports, 80gbps throughput, and 18 million pps) mangolassi.it - Comparing Ubiquiti EdgeRouter and Cisco ASA PPS Performance and Cost

 

They will ALL reduce throughput if you're asking them to do certain things that their built in ASIC can't handle. The biggest example is QoS. An ER-X with QoS turned on can expect to see only 60-80MB/sec throughput. Jump up to an ER-POE and that jumps to 120-150MB/sec. I'd expect the Synology router to be a little less than the ER-X, just because it's cpu also has to take care of all the wifi things that an ER-X doesn't even have.

[G+_Jason Marsh]

Ben Reese Ubiquiti has non-Unifi devices. No SSH, ClouldKey, or cloud/local controller necessary; just a simple web-UI for management. I'm using the AirGateway LR and Nanostation Loco M2 in my RV to connect to park wifi and provide my private WLAN. They're working like a charm for me.

 

I don't really like the mesh options I see; this is mostly due to price, but also due to claims of solving problems that don't seem to be so bad anymore. They all claim to give a unified, seamless wifi experience, but I don't run into the roaming problem much anymore, even at one location with three APs from different manufacturers, and mobile devices from the three main OS families. Using the same SSID and password across multiple APs in the same area is all I've been doing to keep the WLAN going strong.

 

In my home, a 1700 sqft stick-built single level with ship-lap wood siding, I have no trouble connecting from anywhere in the home or even outside up to a few hundred feet to my single, poorly-placed AP at the wrong end of the house. I can roam my roughly 100 yard square patch of trees with minimal drop in speed even at the edges of my 2 1/2 acres. At this location, I've used a netgear dsl combo box (802.11N), then a Tp-Link Archer C8 (802.11AC), and now a Technicolor C2100T (802.11AC), and each has worked fine.

 

Graham Green I'd recommend you install wifi analyzer on your phone, walk your home/property and map out where coverage is poor, and add an AP wherever coverage isn't so good, rather than plunking down a stack of bills for a 'magic' mesh system that may or may not solve your connectivity issues. If you don't have/don't want to run ethernet where that AP would need to go, powerline networking can get you around that, even though it tends not to provide anything close to the speed touted on the box. While mapping out your local wifi situation, pay attention to the channels used by neighboring APs. These will have an impact on your wifi. Choose a channel (1, 6, or 11) that has the least neighbornets on it for your own wifi. In the 5Ghz space there are more channels available and the signal tends to have shorter range, so crowding is less of a problem; you'll only be able to take advantage of 5GHz if your devices can use it, though.

[G+_Ben Reese]

My AP is a couple feet off the floor in the basement and I'm on the 2nd floor. On 5 Ghz I'm getting 50 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up (wired PCs get ~140 down and 20 up).

 

The ER-X is next on my wishlist. I think I've heard that the Edge Router Security Gateway can also function as a controller for the APs, but it doesn't perform as well as the ER-X.

 

I leave the controller running constantly. I'm using Ubuntu APs at church and it's convenient to be able to see how many users are on each AP. And the app was also helpful for figuring out I left my phone at church tonight ?

[G+_Rud Dog]

Travis Hershberger "Gone silent" refers to the past conversation posted in the community a short while ago. Was interested in how it was being used as a form of the 3 Dumb routers helping to address the IOT's leg of the LAN.

[G+_Travis Hershberger]

Rud Dog Ah. Any Ubiquiti router would not be a part of a '3 dumb router' setup. For that use case, you just need 1 Ubiquiti router and getting some configurations set: https://www.grc.com/sn/files/Ubiquiti_Home_Network.pdf

[G+_Rud Dog]

Travis Hershberger Yes agreed, but this approach appeared to be a means of setting up two LANs using the Edge router.

[G+_Patrick C]

Have you done a three dumb router setup yet? Check out that episode and Security Now conversation on it. Once you do that as Padre has said move on to something like a Nighthawk would do and cover all your needs. Maybe an extender if a bad spot. However going straight to the most expensive might be confusing. Been there. Good luck sir

[G+_Rud Dog]

Travis Hershberger WOW! When did he post that paper? Off I go to read up on this most excellent use of time.

[G+_Steven Hurt]

Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ mentioned Mikro Tik; how does this look? http://jserv.ca/blog/index.php/2017/04/23/my-take-on-grcs-three-router-solution-to-iot-insecurity/

[G+_Travis Hershberger]

Steven Hurt I'm not as fond of Mikro Tik, just because of the added cost for their controller software if you need centralized management of them. That looks like it'd do the job tho.

[G+_Jon Reeves]

Travis Hershberger I thought the controller (CAPSMAN) was included with Mikrotik kit, not an extra cost?

[G+_Travis Hershberger]

Jon Reeves It may be included, but I know it also needs licensed at some point in size. Which probably isn't an issue for a home, but sure is in corp it.