Home Network Upgrade

[JLehnert]

Contemplating upgrading my home network.

Currently have Comcast (360 down/12 up) going into a Eero Pro in the basement (Blue #3 on the picture). The Basement Eero serves as the router. A second Eero Pro is on an exterior wall on the second floor (Blue #2) with a Cat5 connection to the basement. A third Eero Pro is inside the garage at the far end (Blue #1). The garage Eero is in repeater mode. Probably 25 items connected by WiFi. A 24 port Zyxel switch is connected to the Eero in the basement with 14 ports in use. A Fiber Optic cable goes 400' down a pumphouse on the waterfront, and connects to a Ubiquiti 8 POE-60W.


Why change? The Zyxel switch is unmanaged, 8+ years old, and is giving indications that it's starting to go south. WiFi coverage towards the lake extends barely 50 into the yard, and the Eero throttles all the wired connections to 100 Mbps. The only interface for the Eero is app based and leaves a lot to be desired. Lastly, I want to add another AP at the pumphouse and it doesn't make sense to buy another Eero.

Lots of people on this board (and elsewhere) sing the praises of Ubiquiti products, so I'm thinking about heading down that path. Thinking of a Dream Machine Pro to serve as the router/security/etc. A US-16-150W so I have sufficient ports for current and future requirements. This will also give me a total of 24 ports and POE in the house. Three UAP-AC-M access points, one at the pumphouse, another on the front of the deck, and the third on the end of the garage (red numbers). I'm leaning toward a NanoHD inside the house on the second floor where the Eero currently is located.

Thoughts, comments?

[Eman]

If I had to buy a Ubiquiti Switch again this one is the one I would look at : https://www.ui.com/unifi-switching/u...strial-switch/

I had a 500w 24 port switch pack up on me and took down the router as well . I was lucky I had a Mikrotik CCR around to fall back on. The rest of their devices are fine.


Eman.

[Uncle Michael]

I have recently converted to Ubiquiti, using a USG and a separate 150W managed POE switch along with one access point located centrally in the ceiling of a closet that provides excellent coverage for about 3000 square feet over two floors and extends to exterior spaces as well. I'd suggest starting with a central AP and one in the pump house, then add another if (and where) you need it.

[AllHailJ]

I have 3 AP pro's, a cloudkey, a ubiquity POE switch and an edgemax pro router. I have an additional 3 switches from various vendors. All Gb equipment. If unifi existed at the time of purchase, I would have bought all unifi. I go for months without booting the router, switches or cloudkey - mostly for firmware upgrades. The edgemax is about 6 years old and no signs of any problems. Very solid equipment.

I would consider the long range UAP at the pump house so you had better wi-fi coverage over the property and onto the lake.

[Corvl1]

would consider the long range UAP at the pump house so you had better wi-fi coverage over the property and onto the lake.

Don't forget.... the uplink from your wiresless device like phone needs te be able/power enough to send data back to the AP. If the AP is strong enough for a signal to be received but the wireless device can't send so far back it's useless and can cause problems with switching to a data network. (Been there, done that).

Cor

[Pete]

Here always a fan of Ubiquiti...recently switched over to Ruckus WAPs. Have an old Tycon managed mid stream injector. Newer managed TP-Link 24 port switches (3) and one managed TP Link POE switch. You can today purchase a TP Link L2/L3 managed Gb / 10 gb ports for less than $200 on Amazon. Also using a PFSense box with 2 wan connections and 4 lan connections.

[pcburcham]

Don't forget.... the uplink from your wiresless device like phone needs te be able/power enough to send data back to the AP. If the AP is strong enough for a signal to be received but the wireless device can't send so far back it's useless and can cause problems with switching to a data network. (Been there, done that).

Cor

He's got a fiber cable running down there, so the AP is probably just for extending coverage down toward the lake. Agreed though, doesn't matter how powerful an AP is if the device can't talk back.

I think you'll be pleased with Ubiquiti. All Unifi equipment in my home and no complaints or troubles.

[prsmith777]

Dream machine is newer and has had some issues with firmware. Unless you're set on using Unifi as your NVR, I'd avoid it.

I have Unifi gateway Pro with Unifi 48 POE switch that has been rock solid since I bought them a few years ago. I have several Unifi AP-AC-Pros and one Unifi AP-nano-HD that provide excellent coverage across my large house. Also have Unifi AP-AC-Mesh-Pro for coverage of a detached garage with no cat 5 about hundred yards from home that works very well.

[pcburcham]

Folks are reporting that 1.8.0 just went stable and is fixing a lot of the initial problems with the UDM Pro. Getting good feedback from 1.81 beta that was just released also. Hopefully, they're on their way to righting that ship. It came off the dock listing though, for sure.

[Eman]

I have used Netgear Switches for years! Until when I switched to UniFi this happened to me : https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=unifi+switch+power+supply+failure Now, I can't tell if it will happen to you too but to not always look at a one sided reviews to make critical decisions else, it's your pretty penny

I think they are rigged to fail so to move you on to a next gen or poor design on the side of the power regulation. (Now, I don't know about plugging them in an external power regulator would mitigate that but worth thinking about)

Eman.