Help me buy a router/mesh system, please

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#2290038 5-Aug-2019 09:36

gcorgnet:

Last question for now is: What if I wanted to stick a UAP AC Lite on the fritzbox (and disable the fritxbox wifi) could I do that? And I could use the POE injector to power the AP, right?

How would I go about configuring the AP in that case?

That's a similar set-up to what I've got - I'm using the Fritzbox as a router (with wifi disabled) and two APs powered by PoE (Grandstreams in my case, but I'd not recommend these!). Works a treat though I wish I'd gone with the AC Lites, especially given the level of support here on GZ for them.

One annoyance is that the Fritzboxes do have one fewer ports than most routers, which can be a hassle if you're not using a separate switch (eg, the two APs will take up two ports on your router, so depending on what else you have plugged in...).I swapped out my Huawei router for the Fritzbox a few weeks back and hit this problem. Luckily I'd also not got around to plugging in the SamKnows box - once I'd done that it gave me back that 'missing' port!

gcorgnet

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#2290046 5-Aug-2019 10:14

Last bit: Do I have to ceiling mount a UAP AC Lite? Would it work OK sitting on a TV cabinet, for example?

cyril7

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#2290047 5-Aug-2019 10:16

Hi, ideally APs are up high, this is so they see over the clutter rather than through. It will work just sitting on a self, but if you can put it on a ceiling all the better if you want to get the best coverage out of it.

Cyril

Yoban

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#2290151 5-Aug-2019 12:41

Watching/reading with interest as started to head down the upgrade path from draytek 2820 router and netgear poe switch runnign CCTV and Unifi APs.

@Cyril7, what would your Mikrotik preference be with regards to router & switch setup rather than the Edgerouter-X/Unifi switch discussed?

cyril7

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#2290152 5-Aug-2019 12:48

Hi, depends on your speed requirements, I am assuming a fibre connection, if you are happy with wan speeds up to around 400Mb/s then a humble HexS (aka RB760iGs) which is around $100, but if you want to take advantage of full GigE WAN then the RB4011 which is around $330, and has 10x Gig LAN ports to boot

Cyril

blackjack17

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#2290170 5-Aug-2019 13:41

jonathan18:

gcorgnet:

Last question for now is: What if I wanted to stick a UAP AC Lite on the fritzbox (and disable the fritxbox wifi) could I do that? And I could use the POE injector to power the AP, right?

How would I go about configuring the AP in that case?

That's a similar set-up to what I've got - I'm using the Fritzbox as a router (with wifi disabled) and two APs powered by PoE (Grandstreams in my case, but I'd not recommend these!). Works a treat though I wish I'd gone with the AC Lites, especially given the level of support here on GZ for them.

One annoyance is that the Fritzboxes do have one fewer ports than most routers, which can be a hassle if you're not using a separate switch (eg, the two APs will take up two ports on your router, so depending on what else you have plugged in...).I swapped out my Huawei router for the Fritzbox a few weeks back and hit this problem. Luckily I'd also not got around to plugging in the SamKnows box - once I'd done that it gave me back that 'missing' port!

What issue do you have with the grandstream? I have one based on a recommendation from here and it has been rock solid with very strong signal

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Yoban

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#2290180 5-Aug-2019 14:05

cyril7:

Hi, depends on your speed requirements, I am assuming a fibre connection, if you are happy with wan speeds up to around 400Mb/s then a humble HexS (aka RB760iGs) which is around $100, but if you want to take advantage of full GigE WAN then the RB4400 which is around $330, and has 10Gig LAN ports to boot

Cyril

Cheers for that...was looking at RB2011/3011 + CRS328-24P-4S. yes have fibre, not GigE yet (100/20) but keen to future proof for this. Will keep putting pennies in the jar and waying up Unifi/EdgeRouter path or Mikrotik.

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toejam316

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#2290198 5-Aug-2019 14:43

Definitely take an RB3011 over a 2011, however for the cost, unless you need something the 3011 does the 4011 doesn't I'd recommend that. It is pretty overkill mind.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

jonathan18

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#2290226 5-Aug-2019 15:18

blackjack17:

What issue do you have with the grandstream? I have one based on a recommendation from here and it has been rock solid with very strong signal

My most significant problems occurred over the first few months of ownership - see https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=66&topicid=232195&page_no=5#2002636

The problems I had then seemed to only occur when I was running both APs, and given you have a single device...

The problems with the Grandstreams have greatly reduced since I switched out the Spark-provided (replacement) Huawei HG659 for the 2-Degrees-provided Fritzbox. But they're certainly not faultless devices. Every now and then and for no (apparent) reason my device's connection to the closest AP will be lost, and it'll desperately connect to the AP at the other end of house (with a corresponding loss of signal strength and speed).

I found the support from the firm to be seriously lacking; initially slow to reply they simply ended up not bothering responding.

There's surprisingly little functionality in the control of specific SSIDs, eg I can't set up the SSID the kids' devices connect to be enabled/disabled at specific times, which would be far easier to manage than controlling each device separately.

It's for these types of reasons I'd not buy them again or recommend others buy them, not when other brands' products with better reputations are not too dissimilar in price and have better support (including here on GZ).

bignose

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#2290264 5-Aug-2019 15:53

cyril7:

Hi, depends on your speed requirements, I am assuming a fibre connection, if you are happy with wan speeds up to around 400Mb/s then a humble HexS (aka RB760iGs) which is around $100, but if you want to take advantage of full GigE WAN then the RB4011 which is around $330, and has 10x Gig LAN ports to boot

Cyril

the HexS is mt7621 based - same as the ubnt er-x/er-x-sfp - those platforms can get close to gig speed (800+ on edgeOS, close to 900 on openwrt) so if the hexS is indeed limited to 400mb/s it's limited only by mikrotiks code (no hw offloading)

cyril7

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#2290267 5-Aug-2019 15:56

Hi, yes this is correct, it seems there is no offload when doing vlan and more importantly pppoe, I guess one of the penalties of having a OS that supports a very wide range of hardware platforms, something has to give.

Cyril

tanivula

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#2290327 5-Aug-2019 16:14

Did you try adding a 2nd Fritzbox to your LAN and setup a mesh network? The mesh capabitlity is pretty good (I've got 2 at home and have setup 2 at my parent's place).

gcorgnet

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#2290371 5-Aug-2019 17:09

I haven't but actually realised I didn't need mesh since I can have a cable going between my 2 AP locations.

Sorry the title doesn't really reflect my use case anymore

gcorgnet

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#2290667 6-Aug-2019 07:26

Just wanted to report on a successful install of an UAP AC-Lite on my fritzbox.

Massive thanks to @cyril7 for the help getting this running.

Switched off wifi from my fritzbox (and some old dlink bridged router) and running 20 odd devices off one single WAP, with good quality. I'll monitor to see if I need to add another AP.

Now, I'm linking the Unifi experience so much, I want to look into moving the router part as well.

Can someone plese confirm an Edgerouter-X will work well on a Gigabit 2Degrees Fibre connection? (Plugged in straight into the ONT, obviously)

Would it achieve 9xx Mbps (with offloading on) as the Fritzbox does?

Thanks

Yoban

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#2290736 6-Aug-2019 09:31

gcorgnet:

...

Massive thanks to @cyril7 for the help getting this running.

Now, I'm linking the Unifi experience so much, I want to look into moving the router part as well.

Can someone plese confirm an Edgerouter-X will work well on a Gigabit 2Degrees Fibre connection? (Plugged in straight into the ONT, obviously)

Would it achieve 9xx Mbps (with offloading on) as the Fritzbox does?

Certainly not wanting to hijack the thread @gcorgnet, as I too am liking the unifi experience with my UAPs and would be keen to have the above question answered from a USG/USG-Pro view point.

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