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jmosen

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#272154 11-Jun-2020 19:50
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If anyone has time to offer some advice on new gear options I'd appreciate that. I'll explain what I have and where I want to be at the end of this process.

 

 

 

A few years ago when UFB arrived at our place, with a family of teenagers consuming plenty of bandwidth I installed Cat6 cable throughout our fairly large house.

 

 

 

Downstairs we have a reliable Netgear router connected to the ONT. We're using its modem function to connect to Voyager and Wi-Fi is enabled.

 

 

 

Upstairs we have two Airport Extremes currently just acting as access points. Both have Ethernet devices plugged in such as our TV, a desktop PC and a Synology NAS among other things.

 

 

 

My objectives are to:

 

1. Standardise the network so everything is controllable from one app, so use the same manufacturer everywhere. I've had one or two issues with Sonos over the years and I think a consistent network will help.

 

2. Wi-Fi 6. My iPhone 11 Pro Max supports this now and if I'm going to shell out for new gear, I may as well go with a protocol more of my devices will support in future.

 

3. The UI must be screen reader accessible as I'm blind.

 

4. I need a real router that lets me open ports via NAT.

 

 

 

I've investigated what's out there, particularly from an accessibility perspective and the Ubiquiti iOS app is in perfect shape. They also come highly recommended so I'm inclined to go with that.

 

 

 

Given that we already have Cat6 cabling, am I correct that we would be better going with Ubiquiti access points upstairs and not a mesh network? If I'm understanding the theory correctly, access points where there is already cat6 would give me better throughput than mesh and spread the load a little?

 

 

 

If I'm on the right track, can anyone recommend specific Ubiquiti gear that would give me a modem/router downstairs and two Wi-Fi access points with, say, three or four Ethernet ports upstairs to plug our wired gear into?

 

 

 

Thanks for any and all recommendations.





Jonathan


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richms
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  #2503219 11-Jun-2020 20:04
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There is no wifi 6 on unifi at the moment, but the usefulness of that is questionable at best right now so I wouldn't let that influence you with not getting unifi gear.

 

The old USG gateway is CPU limited and they have the dream machine product out now which seems to be where they are actively developing. I wouldn't get the old gateway because I would worry that it is now a forgotten product line they will stop doing anything with sooner compared to the dream machine ones.

 

The small dream machine has the router, controller and one AP in it. You still need to power any APs you add to it so add in a switch with that or else use injectors on some AC nano APs and you should be all good.





Richard rich.ms



cyril7
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  #2503220 11-Jun-2020 20:14
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Agree with Richard, DM, small unifi switch and a couple of Ac nanos.
As for wifi6, don't get hung up on that, it's not likely to advantage you, even if your handset supports it, still very early days for 6.


Cyril

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  #2503222 11-Jun-2020 20:16
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richms:

 

There is no wifi 6 on unifi at the moment, but the usefulness of that is questionable at best right now so I wouldn't let that influence you with not getting unifi gear.

 

The old USG gateway is CPU limited and they have the dream machine product out now which seems to be where they are actively developing. I wouldn't get the old gateway because I would worry that it is now a forgotten product line they will stop doing anything with sooner compared to the dream machine ones.

 

The small dream machine has the router, controller and one AP in it. You still need to power any APs you add to it so add in a switch with that or else use injectors on some AC nano APs and you should be all good.

 

 

 

 

https://store.ui.com/collections/early-access/products/unifi-ap-6-lite




hairy1
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  #2503232 11-Jun-2020 21:08
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It sold out in two seconds flat




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richms
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  #2503235 11-Jun-2020 21:15
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All I can say is remember the first gen 802.11ac accesspoint. The square one. The one that you will find they have scrubbed any mention of from their site. Do you trust them to not stuff up first gen on a new standard again? I dont.





Richard rich.ms

jmosen

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  #2503254 11-Jun-2020 22:36
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Thanks for the advice guys.

 

 

 

Is the issue where you need to do the set-up of the UDM by connecting it to your router still a thing?

 

 

 

If so, does that mean in the unlikely event of a factory reset it's a good idea to have an old router on-hand?





Jonathan


BlinkyBill
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  #2503326 12-Jun-2020 07:58
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jmosen:

 

Thanks for the advice guys.

 

 

 

Is the issue where you need to do the set-up of the UDM by connecting it to your router still a thing?

 

 

 

If so, does that mean in the unlikely event of a factory reset it's a good idea to have an old router on-hand?

 

 

Yes this is still an issue. The DM Pro has had a firmware update recently, where I think (need verification) that this has been fixed, so I’m hoping the non-Pro update is coming. It’s not much of an issue though.

 

The Alien line does have wifi6 if you are very keen on that.


 
 
 

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jmosen

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  #2503350 12-Jun-2020 08:58
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BlinkyBill:

 

jmosen:

 

Thanks for the advice guys.

 

 

 

Is the issue where you need to do the set-up of the UDM by connecting it to your router still a thing?

 

 

 

If so, does that mean in the unlikely event of a factory reset it's a good idea to have an old router on-hand?

 

 

Yes this is still an issue. The DM Pro has had a firmware update recently, where I think (need verification) that this has been fixed, so I’m hoping the non-Pro update is coming. It’s not much of an issue though.

 

The Alien line does have wifi6 if you are very keen on that.

 

 

 

 

Thanks, I ordered the gear last night. I take the point that it's early days for Wi-Fi 6 so at this stage I'll be glad to just get grounded in the Unifi ecosystem.

 

 

 

Hopefully it won't be too painful making it play nice with Sonos. I've read a few horror stories but there appear to be solutions.





Jonathan


BlinkyBill
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  #2503352 12-Jun-2020 09:03
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jmosen:

 

Hopefully it won't be too painful making it play nice with Sonos. I've read a few horror stories but there appear to be solutions.

 

 

No issues for me with Sonos out of the box. Do you have a reference?


Lostja
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  #2503354 12-Jun-2020 09:14
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BlinkyBill:

 

jmosen:

 

Hopefully it won't be too painful making it play nice with Sonos. I've read a few horror stories but there appear to be solutions.

 

 

No issues for me with Sonos out of the box. Do you have a reference?

 

 

I have Unifi gear and Sonos speakers that work well together?


jmosen

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  #2503358 12-Jun-2020 09:17
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There are quite a few. Here is an example.

 

 

 

But I also found this helpful post on optimising Unifi for Sonos.

 

 

 

 





Jonathan


BlinkyBill
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  #2503369 12-Jun-2020 09:27
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jmosen:

 

There are quite a few. Here is an example.

 

 

 

But I also found this helpful post on optimising Unifi for Sonos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks. I do use a Bridge, so don’t use the wifi. That’s why I have had no issues I guess.


jmosen

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  #2504301 13-Jun-2020 20:33
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Just wanted to report back and to thank those who took the time to help me out.

 

 

 

I spent the afternoon setting up the new Dream Machine and originally planned to install two access points. That's what was required with other gear I've used. But in this case just one additional access point did the job.

 

 

 

Other than the fiddly process of getting the PPOE info into the UDM to begin with, it's been a straightforward, slick experience getting set up, creating some port forwarding rules I need for server things etc. Sonos is working fine just using regular 2.4 Wi-Fi.

 

 

 

Oh and as a blind guy I do appreciate the audible tone telling you when the UDM has finished start-up. Nice accessibility feature.

 

 

 

It's early days but so far I'm impressed and glad I finally took the plunge.

 

 

 

Thanks all for the help.





Jonathan


nztim
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  #2504320 13-Jun-2020 22:19
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My 2c I use UAP-IW-AC-PRO x3 and love them




Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer. 


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