Home Network Upgrade Path

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Earbanean

945 posts

Ultimate Geek

#320269 24-Jul-2025 15:40

I'm thinking about upgrade path/options for our home network. Current hardware was mostly set up back on ADSL and with much slower Wifi devices. So the network kit was nowhere near the limiting factor. However, we're now on 500/100 broadband (which will probably increase over time) and have AX (Wifi6) capable devices. Since a big reno, we have a lot of wired ethernet devices, so that's still all good. However, the AC (Wifi5) WAPs are now a limiting factor.

Current kit:

Edgerouter Lite (worried about support/EOL)
Netgear 24 port PoE switch
3 x Cambium AC cnPilot WAPs (1 x E410, 2x E400)
Approx. 18 x ethernet sockets throughout the house.

Requirements:

Minimum AX Wifi6 (maybe 6E?)
Minimum gigabit capable WAN. Ideally headroom to go above that.
WAPs need to look good. (one is ceiling of main lounge area)
Need VLANs with different firewall rules & DNS and port based & SSID VLAN tagging
Router that is not near EOL.
Nice to have Single Pane UI

Thoughts:

Suitable WAPs with acceptable looks = Unifi. Maybe U6 Pros?
To avoid separate Cloud Key or controller device, maybe a Unifi Router with controller
Thinking maybe UCG Ultra, or for better future upgradability UCG Fiber?
Upgrade switch to something Unifi later on, but not high priority.
Maybe connect WAPs directly to PoE ports on UCG Fiber, rather than current 'Router on a Stick' config?

I have no experience with Unifi. Any issues/problems with above approach or materially better options?

Note, I considered Aruba Instant On gear and it sounds good, but the WAPs will probably be too ugly. We're more looking for a 'blister' on the ceiling, rather than an appendage. Same probably goes for Grandstream.

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#3396824 24-Jul-2025 15:58

Do you think you'll see any real world performance increase going from Wifi5 to Wifi6? You might see better throughput, but will that save you time, or give you a better experience? I wonder if it's one of those things that are better to defer until there's a concrete advantage / need.

cddt

1563 posts

Uber Geek

#3396834 24-Jul-2025 16:27

I would definitely buy Wifi 6 (ax) if I were buying today. My phone which is almost five years old uses Wifi 6.

However 6E or 7 probably only if you must be on the bleeding edge.

My referral links: BigPipe | Mercury

Earbanean

945 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3396836 24-Jul-2025 16:31

timmmay:

Do you think you'll see any real world performance increase going from Wifi5 to Wifi6? You might see better throughput, but will that save you time, or give you a better experience? I wonder if it's one of those things that are better to defer until there's a concrete advantage / need.

Right now, probably not. It's currently not an urgent requirement, but I thought it would be good to have a path/plan to work to. At some point do multiple laptops, phones, etc all video conferencing and 4K streaming concurrently become a problem?

Also, there are questions around ongoing Edgerouter/EdgeMax support, updates, etc (including amongst GZ members), so it would be good to know how possible router replacements would fit in with an overall network plan - even if the WAPs came later.

timmmay

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#3396838 24-Jul-2025 16:41

Personally I'd defer until I saw a problem or things were out of support. If you defer two years you will get even better tech that could solve the problem more effectively.

SpartanVXL

1319 posts

Uber Geek

#3396841 24-Jul-2025 16:59

I ran my ER-L till the flash died in it, which apparently is a common problem that technically can be fixed. It has gigabit routing with hw offload so no problem there.

As others have said unless you explicitly need some device support theres no need to get the latest.

Earbanean

945 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3396855 24-Jul-2025 18:06

I currently have no backup to my ERL. If it, or the switch, were to die, then I'd have to move really fast. Therefore, I'm trying to have a plan in place. Also having a new router, while still having the ERL available as a backup, would give me a level of redundancy that would be great.

Anyway, putting aside the valid issue of whether I should upgrade, it'd be great to have some feedback on the possible options I'm thinking about above. I guess I'm not sure about Unifi in general, and particularly newish gear like UCG Ultra and UCG Fiber. So, knowledgeable opinions would be great.

Or are there alternatives I'm missing? Mikrotik would give me great bang for the buck, but I don't think the learning curve would be justified by my modest config requirements. Also wouldn't give me single pane - which would be nice (but not essential).

jonherries

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#3396857 24-Jul-2025 18:11

I see you have an edgerouter. I had one and now have a Unifi cloud gateway ultra - highly recommend (have Unifi APs too which are good). Price is pretty reasonable too.

Jon

Quic Broadband

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JemS

48 posts

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#3396858 24-Jul-2025 18:31

I use the ucg ultra + U6 Pros at work and I haven't had any issues with them.

Earbanean

945 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3396860 24-Jul-2025 18:48

jonherries:

I see you have an edgerouter. I had one and now have a Unifi cloud gateway ultra - highly recommend (have Unifi APs too which are good). Price is pretty reasonable too.

Jon

Yeah, I thought the price was seriously good, especially considering it also means no extra Cloud Key cost required. Was wondering if there are any catches, or features missing.

Also, thinking about the UCG Fiber. A fair bit dearer but has materially more future-proofed specs, but maybe not justifiable for our use case.

JemS

48 posts

Geek

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#3396863 24-Jul-2025 19:03

The only catch that I can think of for the UCG Ultra is that while the wan port it 2.5gb, the 4 lan ports are all only 1gb.

Handle9

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#3396880 24-Jul-2025 20:22

JemS:

The only catch that I can think of for the UCG Ultra is that while the wan port it 2.5gb, the 4 lan ports are all only 1gb.

You can do the UCG Max with 2.5gb LAN ports but it's twice the price.

muppet

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#3396882 24-Jul-2025 20:45

Given way tech is at the moment, all you will potentially do is spend a lot of money, for almost zero noticeable impact. I agree with the other posters, wait it out a few more years.

If you really need to spend money, get Wi-Fi 7 units. That's where the latest tech is, no point spending money on old six gear.

I bet if you rate shaped all your gear to 50 mbps per second today, you wouldn't notice any difference than if you hadn't had a rate shape on.

eonsim

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#3396898 24-Jul-2025 21:39

Going from Wifi 5 to 6E or 7 is reasonably noticeable even if you only have a few key devices that support it and gigabit internet. We've got a couple of Wifi 6E/7 laptops and going from Wifi 5 to Wifi 7 for our main AP resulted in switching from 400Mbps to 1000-1200Mbps. General browsing you don't notice it, but download steam games or large software updates it really is noticeable. Also pushing data and backups to the NAS is a lot faster!

cmdbit

22 posts

Geek

#3396953 25-Jul-2025 08:50

Unifi is great and I see quite a few recommendations here on Geekzone for it.

I am wondering if you want to consider Grandstream for your home network. Like you, I was considering an upgrade for my home network and eventually I settled on the following :-

a. Grandstream GWN7003 router

b. Grandstream GWN7660 wifi 6 access points

c. Grandstream GWN7813 L3 core switch

Fits all your requirements. You can manage your access points and core switch from the router (a la single pane UI), create VLANs and view aggregated and individual client statistics.

The only caveat from what I see from your requirements is that you will probably want 3 POE ports for your 3 APs - the GWN7003 only has 2. You may want to get the POE switch variant for that (GWN7813P) but it is twice the price!

Earbanean

945 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3396960 25-Jul-2025 09:19

I've had a bit of experience with Grandstream, having set up a couple of WAPs at the local rugby club, like them and love the bang for buck. However, as I say in the OP, the aesthetics in this use case is a reasonably high priority. Both Aruba Instant On and Grandstream look a bit more of an 'appendage', where the diameter is smaller against ceiling and flares out. Whereas, Unifi are kind of a 'blister' if you like, in that the widest diameter is flush with the ceiling and the whole unit is only 35 mm deep. So IMO much nicer looking, with LEDs switched off.

After a high 6 figures renovation, spending an extra couple of hundred bucks for better looking WAPs is money well spent. (Why the main level WAP is cabled to that location is another story, but is done now and can't be changed).

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