Wifi uplink Question

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Cogenate

56 posts

Master Geek

#230534 28-Feb-2018 11:29

I have a 2 bedroom unit, the fibre terminates to an unfortunate location in the main living room. Rather than run a network cable across the floor and multiple doors to one of the rooms, I am thinking to just buy 2x UAP-AC-PRO or UAP-AC-LITE and set them up as wireless uplink. Will this work as I expect below, basically extending the wired LAN via the Uplink by connecting a switch to AP-2 and the router to AP-1?

Is there a better way? Not sure of the differences between mesh/uplink. Wish I could easily get the rooms cabled with CAT5e/6.. Really don't want to run wireless everything.

trig42

5816 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1965695 28-Feb-2018 11:39

Yep, should work like that.

Netgear's Orbi does the same thing (the Orbi units have 4 LAN ports in them, so you may not need the switch either).

I think the TP Link Deco, and Google WiFi will do it too.

Cogenate

56 posts

Master Geek

#1965715 28-Feb-2018 11:51

Cool thanks! I have a Ubiquiti POE switch and ER-Lite already, so was going to power the AP off that and keep everything Ubiquiti. Was a bit confused about MESH/Uplink but seems they are pretty much same thing.

Crowdie

228 posts

Master Geek

#1965918 28-Feb-2018 14:46

Both of the access points you quoted have omni-directional antennas so the mesh performance is not likely to be great. This is caused by:

Only a small percentage of the signal propagated from the omni-directional antenna will be directed to the other mesh access point. This means that the SNR will not be optimal so either will the data rate.
As the omni-directional antenna is propagating signal is a 360 degree horizontal pattern it will also be affected by interference sources in the same pattern. To minimise the detected interference sources use a directional antenna that has a much narrower beamwidth.

nicmair

244 posts

Master Geek

#1965946 28-Feb-2018 15:06

if you don't need the two AP's you could also extend the Ethernet via a coupe a Ethernet over power adapters, I've had pretty good success with the TPlink 1gb ones, and while you don't get 1gb, the performance has never been an issue.

Cogenate

56 posts

Master Geek

#1965947 28-Feb-2018 15:09

Interesting, any recommended products for the mesh? I do want to avoid using the Ethernet over power option as I had used it before and had funny ping issues. I was under the impression wifi mesh was next best thing to Ethernet..

chevrolux

4962 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1965957 28-Feb-2018 15:25

Ummmmm no this won't work with Unifi products.....? Wireless uplink on Unifi simply allows the access point to uplink to another AP and broadcast in an isolated area - it doesn't bridge the LAN port of the access point to the uplink .....as far as I'm aware.

As above though, wouldn't give very flash performance anyway.

If this is in a house, powerline adapters would be a much better option.

edit: To be honest I'm really questioning myself. I'm going to test when I get back to the office this afternoon.

Cogenate

56 posts

Master Geek

#1966012 28-Feb-2018 16:59

Haha, let me know if you test it - would be awesome! This is a small two bed room unit by the way.

Sharesies

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Crowdie

228 posts

Master Geek

#1966031 28-Feb-2018 17:53

All the UniFi mesh information I can see just have access points in the mesh and no Ethernet backhaul.

I had to laugh at a vendor quoting 1700 Mbps "speed" for a specialist mesh product and to make it worse they show two and three hop configurations. This really shows who Ubiquiti's target market is.