How many Unifi U6 Pro for 350m2 house?

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steve98

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#310730 17-Nov-2023 09:15

Hey Team, in my single-storey 350m2 house I started with one centrally-located AC-Lite but noticed some spots in the far corners of the house where coverage wasn't great, so I intended to buy one more but ended up buying two when I found a deal. So now I have three and have been careful to have each one on non-overlapping channels etc., but still I sometimes think performance is slightly worse overall than it was when I just had the one... coverage is much improved but throughput speeds seem lower (usually seeing only around 150Mbps @ 5Ghz on a gig fibre connection). Perhaps 3 APs is just too many?

Looking at what's available now, how many U6 pro do you think would be appropriate for a home of this size? In terms of materials the house is a relatively new build so just typical construction materials, usual timber studs etc - nothing out of the ordinary.

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#3160422 17-Nov-2023 09:28

I have 223m2 and run one U6-LR (Pro didn't exist back then) and 2x AC-Pro. I have coverage everywhere including outside. But it really depends on the devices you have the cut of the house and how many walls you're going through. Also look out for water! Your boiler is like a big Wifi shadow maker. Nothing goes through that.

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cddt

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#3160429 17-Nov-2023 09:46

A couple of questions to assist with troubleshooting:

Do you have all APs using wired backhaul?
Are they on the same SSID?
Have you configured minimum RSSI?

coffeebaron

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#3160431 17-Nov-2023 09:52

Make sure wireless meshing is turned off.

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steve98

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#3160440 17-Nov-2023 10:08

cddt:

A couple of questions to assist with troubleshooting:

Do you have all APs using wired backhaul?
Are they on the same SSID?
Have you configured minimum RSSI?

Yes, all wired back to 1Gbps ports on unmanaged network switch, which in turn is connected 1Gbps port on Fritzbox 7530

All three are broadcasting the same two SSIDs - one is 2.4/5Ghz, and the other is 2.4Ghz only for IOT stuff

I have my 2.4Ghz radios set at 20MHz / Auto transmit power, and my 5Ghz radios set at 80MHz channel width / Medium transmit power. I have not configured Minimum RSSI - is it recommended?

I have selected non-overlapping channels on both radios, and set load-balancing to 'Prefer 5Ghz', but other than all the above, other settings set to auto as my knowledge around all the other settings isn't strong enough to know what to pick.

steve98

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#3160443 17-Nov-2023 10:11

coffeebaron:

Make sure wireless meshing is turned off.

This is off

olivernz

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#3160445 17-Nov-2023 10:21

Have you set minimum RSSI? That is very important and makes for a heaps better handoff / quality wireless network.

networkn

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#3160468 17-Nov-2023 10:55

olivernz:

Have you set minimum RSSI? That is very important and makes for a heaps better handoff / quality wireless network.

I'd be interested to hear more about this.

CYaBro

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#3160477 17-Nov-2023 11:18

Our house is about 205m2 single story and I only have one UAP-AC-LR pretty central and it covers the whole house pretty well. Has been like that for almost 5 years.
Am thinking about moving it and adding another AP however, perhaps an inwall unit, mainly to get some better wifi outside on the deck.

olivernz

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#3160483 17-Nov-2023 11:35

So in your AP Settings tab there are these. Basically you tell the AP to cut off the transmission to the device if the quality of the connection drops below a certain level. And you may need to play around with the number a bit depending on how close your APs are. If you don't do that the AP will hold on to the connection even if you're standing right next to the next AP. This results in a bad signal and not the actual hopping between APs that you want. Also plays along with the transmission power you are using. Having everything turned up to max may be counter productive.

networkn

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#3160493 17-Nov-2023 12:05

@olivernz thanks for that. I wasn't aware of the particular setting that controlled that.

Do modern mesh devices like the TPLink that guide you to place AP's at ideal signal strength distances, set these for you?

cddt

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#3160505 17-Nov-2023 12:46

steve98:

my 5Ghz radios set at 80MHz channel width / Medium transmit power. I have not configured Minimum RSSI - is it recommended?

Change to "high" transmit power and configure a minumum RSSI. Read up about what it does, it's an important part of wireless networking as soon as you have more than one AP (even when you have one AP with two radios on different frequencies it's important).

steve98:

I have selected non-overlapping channels on both radios, and set load-balancing to 'Prefer 5Ghz', but other than all the above, other settings set to auto as my knowledge around all the other settings isn't strong enough to know what to pick.

Remove the "prefer 5GHz" option. What this will do is push devices to the 5GHz connection even when it is too weak to reliably transmit packets and the 2.4GHz should be used instead.

olivernz

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#3160630 17-Nov-2023 15:39

@Networkn, no, that's a 801.11 feature. Maybe others have a different default but it's far too specific to be set automatically. But I think default on Unifi is no RSSI limit. I certainly noticed a BIG difference with my 3 APs.

Also upgrade to Network 8.0.1 RC software. Has new features in the Wifi space that will help to debug!

cddt

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#3160659 17-Nov-2023 17:04

networkn:

olivernz:

Have you set minimum RSSI? That is very important and makes for a heaps better handoff / quality wireless network.

I'd be interested to hear more about this.

It essentially tells the AP when to boot your device because the connection is too weak. By default the device will hang on to the current connection even when you move to a location where there is a better connection available. Booting your device from the network forces it to search again for the best connection.

E.g. if you have only one AP with dual 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radios, because the 2.4 has much better range and penetration, as you move away from the AP there will be a point where your device will get much better speed and stability on 2.4 than 5. This is where you configure minimum RSSI to boot your device from the 5 GHz.

E.g. if you have multiple APs, you don't want your device hanging on a connection where packet delivery is flakey when you're standing next to a different AP.

steve98

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#3162270 21-Nov-2023 21:54

Thanks everyone. I took your advice and changed to high transmit (I previously had this set to medium at the advice of someone else) and set RSSI to minimum to -75dB. The difference is immediately noticeable. Whereas I was getting typical speed test results of around 190Mbps it is now around 400Mbps on newer devices. Happy to stick with existing units now as this is likely as fast as I’ll need for the foreseeable.

Thanks again!!

olivernz

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#3162337 22-Nov-2023 09:04

Excellent! Was hoping you'd have some success with that. What about coverage in the house? Should have improved too.

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