So firstly my motivation for spending a bit more than the usual 1k or so spent on a home network. I've used mainly Linksys, netgear and tp-link "home" equipment previously. Now it seems that one wifi AP is not really enough to cover my house adequately to even be able to connect, never mind actually transfer at a decent speed.
My current setup involves 1 adsl router in the lounge (with 3 ports used for other devices) connected to another AP upstairs (connecting lounge, bedroom, other room, server) and this in turn connects to another AP in the bedroom.
The lounge and bedroom are at opposite ends of the house so I generally use those to connect to wifi. I find though that I often have to "switch" manually because when walking through the house my phone will stay connected to the "far" AP and then it doesn't work so well and it's a pain. I tried setting AP's to the same SSID's but this didn't work well either, it just means I lost control of which AP I'm actually connecting to, and even got confusing as it would show 5 bars in a scan but actually be connected to the far one at 1 bar etc. I've also tried WDS and besides the obvious compromises on performance it wasn't at all stable and was impossible to diagnose where the problem was. The current routers also often just have the wifi part "die" when I'm copying files across the network. Sometimes I find they just aren't working as they should. The maximum I can ever copy files seems to be about 5MB/s even with 1 device right next to a router connecting at 150Mb/s+ and the other pc connected via gigabit Ethernet. I think part of the problem is that if a single router is 99% up then a single device networks works 99% of the time but with 3 then the network only works 97% of the time. I usually have to reset a router once a day. I've tried alternative firmwares as well and it hasn't really been successful.
Current devices requiring wired connectivity:
TV
Roku * 2
Desktop
AVR
DVD player
Alarm
Server
And Wireless:
Laptop * 2
Phones * 4
Printer
Tablet
So I've been looking to get something more reliable, as in you plug it in, set it up and never touch the thing again. For wifi purposes the ubiquiti UniFi range looks like a good option, because basically what I want is just one "network" to connect to. The pro AP is rather pricy but the baby one and the long range one aren't too bad, but limited to 100Mb Ethernet which I think I could deal with, as it would probably still give double the throughput I'm getting now. Unfortunately their UniFi AP's don't also provide at least a 4 port switch as it wouldn't make much sense in the ceiling.
I definitely want to move my adsl line, router, ups and server to "upstairs" as there is already a convenient cupboard there and it is quite central so I figured a toughswitch pro poe would be good here as I could run it, the server and the adsl router off the ups (and probably get another separate ups for the server later) and then it could power the AP's so I'd still have wifi+plex when the electricity goes off. As a side effect it would make it easier to plug our printer/scanner/(fax) into the phone line so it could be used to fax (there's always that ONE place that wants you to fax them).
Now I've basically already run out of ports on the "upstairs" central switch so I think an 8 port would be sufficient (2 AP's, 1 server, 1 adsl, 1 bedroom, 1 lounge, 1 alarm, 1 desktop), hence the toughswitch pro poe 8 port. This would then power two UniFi AP's and then I'd need to get other switches for the lounge/bedroom so toughswitch poe (5 ports) would be sufficient.
Rough cost of this setup would be R1100*2 (for APs), R2400 for main switch, R2400 for smaller switches so 7k plus.
All the PoE in the mix is quite a waste as it will only be used for the 2 AP's so I started looking at non PoE gigabit switches and came across the Mikrotik cloud router switches, specifically this one with the AP built in since it's not much more than the non AP model.
http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php/cloud-router-switch-desktop-p-1539
I've played around with mikrotik stuff before. It's definitely more difficult to set up than the average home router but I found it to be "rock solid". That price for just a plain 24 port gigabit switch isn't bad (obviously adding vat/markup). What I figured is maybe I should get that as my upstairs central switch, and see if it goes any better with having the wireless centrally located, and if not disable the built in AP and add two ubiquiti AP's and 2 PoE injectors. I'd prefer to have the other two switches (bedroom and lounge) be the same brand or whatever so maybe just have 2 smaller routerboards (like the 260GS) with a "dumb" configuration, at least to start.
Maybe later on I could get to vlans/tagging/QoS etc. (Basically the server is the download box so it should always be lowest priority, and desktop is gaming so it should always be highest. Browsing and remote desktop/teamviewer etc, streaming should also be highest)
What do you guys think? Stick to Ubiquiti, combine mikrotik and ubiquiti, go with something else, shut the ***** up and just use a normal router like everybody else, spend 3k on a fancy asus router, ???
My current setup involves 1 adsl router in the lounge (with 3 ports used for other devices) connected to another AP upstairs (connecting lounge, bedroom, other room, server) and this in turn connects to another AP in the bedroom.
The lounge and bedroom are at opposite ends of the house so I generally use those to connect to wifi. I find though that I often have to "switch" manually because when walking through the house my phone will stay connected to the "far" AP and then it doesn't work so well and it's a pain. I tried setting AP's to the same SSID's but this didn't work well either, it just means I lost control of which AP I'm actually connecting to, and even got confusing as it would show 5 bars in a scan but actually be connected to the far one at 1 bar etc. I've also tried WDS and besides the obvious compromises on performance it wasn't at all stable and was impossible to diagnose where the problem was. The current routers also often just have the wifi part "die" when I'm copying files across the network. Sometimes I find they just aren't working as they should. The maximum I can ever copy files seems to be about 5MB/s even with 1 device right next to a router connecting at 150Mb/s+ and the other pc connected via gigabit Ethernet. I think part of the problem is that if a single router is 99% up then a single device networks works 99% of the time but with 3 then the network only works 97% of the time. I usually have to reset a router once a day. I've tried alternative firmwares as well and it hasn't really been successful.
Current devices requiring wired connectivity:
TV
Roku * 2
Desktop
AVR
DVD player
Alarm
Server
And Wireless:
Laptop * 2
Phones * 4
Printer
Tablet
So I've been looking to get something more reliable, as in you plug it in, set it up and never touch the thing again. For wifi purposes the ubiquiti UniFi range looks like a good option, because basically what I want is just one "network" to connect to. The pro AP is rather pricy but the baby one and the long range one aren't too bad, but limited to 100Mb Ethernet which I think I could deal with, as it would probably still give double the throughput I'm getting now. Unfortunately their UniFi AP's don't also provide at least a 4 port switch as it wouldn't make much sense in the ceiling.
I definitely want to move my adsl line, router, ups and server to "upstairs" as there is already a convenient cupboard there and it is quite central so I figured a toughswitch pro poe would be good here as I could run it, the server and the adsl router off the ups (and probably get another separate ups for the server later) and then it could power the AP's so I'd still have wifi+plex when the electricity goes off. As a side effect it would make it easier to plug our printer/scanner/(fax) into the phone line so it could be used to fax (there's always that ONE place that wants you to fax them).
Now I've basically already run out of ports on the "upstairs" central switch so I think an 8 port would be sufficient (2 AP's, 1 server, 1 adsl, 1 bedroom, 1 lounge, 1 alarm, 1 desktop), hence the toughswitch pro poe 8 port. This would then power two UniFi AP's and then I'd need to get other switches for the lounge/bedroom so toughswitch poe (5 ports) would be sufficient.
Rough cost of this setup would be R1100*2 (for APs), R2400 for main switch, R2400 for smaller switches so 7k plus.
All the PoE in the mix is quite a waste as it will only be used for the 2 AP's so I started looking at non PoE gigabit switches and came across the Mikrotik cloud router switches, specifically this one with the AP built in since it's not much more than the non AP model.
http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php/cloud-router-switch-desktop-p-1539
I've played around with mikrotik stuff before. It's definitely more difficult to set up than the average home router but I found it to be "rock solid". That price for just a plain 24 port gigabit switch isn't bad (obviously adding vat/markup). What I figured is maybe I should get that as my upstairs central switch, and see if it goes any better with having the wireless centrally located, and if not disable the built in AP and add two ubiquiti AP's and 2 PoE injectors. I'd prefer to have the other two switches (bedroom and lounge) be the same brand or whatever so maybe just have 2 smaller routerboards (like the 260GS) with a "dumb" configuration, at least to start.
Maybe later on I could get to vlans/tagging/QoS etc. (Basically the server is the download box so it should always be lowest priority, and desktop is gaming so it should always be highest. Browsing and remote desktop/teamviewer etc, streaming should also be highest)
What do you guys think? Stick to Ubiquiti, combine mikrotik and ubiquiti, go with something else, shut the ***** up and just use a normal router like everybody else, spend 3k on a fancy asus router, ???
) is that it has very powerful scripting. So you can automate things like updating OpenDNS or Unotelly with your current IP address without having to run annoying apps on your laptop.
Yeah I don't quite understand it either. Ideally I would get the "pro" or even the AC unit but there's *quite* a price jump there and to be honest I doubt I'll be getting more than 12MB/s (100Mbit) over the "300Mbit" wifi. I'd be very happy with 12MB/s. It's highly unlikely it will ever be any faster than that copying from one wifi device to another as you'd straight away have to divide the 300Mb by 2, then there's quite a bit of overhead and then of course other issues like not being right next to the AP etc.