Need wireless suggestions

[paarlberg]

We have a 6000 (3000 over 3000 2-story) sq ft house and approximately 20 wifi connected devices.

Currently I am re-purposing 2x ENH201 for 2.4ghz (one is primarily for my 7 wifi thermostats) and an ENH500 for the 5ghz side.

I am looking for a simpler AP config to clean up the clutter. The Ubiquiti UniFi AP AC Pro or comparible Engenius model is what I am leaning toward. I don't need router/firewall functions in the device, just AP.

Any suggestions?
[h=1][/h]

 

[bp2008]

My recommendation is the Ubiquiti. You can and should get more than one of them. They don't all have to be the pro model; some can be lite or LR of course.

I haven't tried Engenius before.

 

[paarlberg]

I have been happy with Engenius, but all of mine are outside units, single band and older. Not to mention they don't look so great inside.

I might have to give Ubiquiti a try,

 

[paarlberg]

I ordered a Lite to test. Should be here this week.

 

[ekaz]

I have a couple Ubiquiti AC LR units and they work great. Depending on the layout you may want 2 per floor to get good coverage. I have one on the second floor of my house and still get strong signal in the basement. I am planning on getting a pro model so I can mount it outside cause my house is brick and signal on the deck is a little weak. So either a pro outside or another LR on the main floor.

 

[paarlberg]

I installed the lite last night. Signal is decent overall. The engenius was stronger in some areas, but the ubiquiti has a more even coverage since it isn't as directional.

 

[ekaz]

I installed the lite last night. Signal is decent overall. The engenius was stronger in some areas, but the ubiquiti has a more even coverage since it isn't as directional.

Try changing the radio from auto to medium. Also, channel width up to 40. Not sure how much you've messed with the config, but that's what I'm currently running with good results.

 

[paarlberg]

The radio is on high, the channel width is HT20 and VHT40

 

[paarlberg]

I changed the width to HT40 and VHT80 and my connect speeds increased greatly. Will give this a try for a while and see how it goes.

 

[ekaz]

High isn't really recommended cause just because it's "screaming" at you doesn't mean that your device can "yell" loud enough back.

 

[paarlberg]

Will change to medium to see if it is any better.

 

[nayr]

when you start installing more access points you want to run them on medium/low, this way your WiFi devices can detect which access point is really closest and roam correctly..

If you have more than one access point and they are all at high power, your WiFi device will see all the access points with the same signal level and have no idea which one is closest, so it'll grab onto one and wont let go.. even if its the one all the way across your house and there is a closer one just feet away.

It also lets you re-use channels without the access points interfering with eachother, you only have 3 2.4G channels at HT20 (1/6/11).. and even less at HT40

 

[paarlberg]

Just for testing, I picked up an Engenius ENS1750. The Ubiquiti falls way short. I am able to run speed test from 200' outside my house and get 35-40mbps on 2Ghz, and 18-20mbps on 5Ghz. The Ubiquiti lost signal 25' from the house. I am able to cover the full house with the one Engenius. The interface is not as nice, but I haven't tried the management software yet, just the web interface.

I will probably put the Ubiquiti in my mom's house (or return it), her house is much smaller and they only have a couple devices that need connectivity.

Thanks for all the info, thought I would try the Ubiquiti.

My house sits 200' from the street, so a full acre lot is covered since my back yard is about the same. The ENS1750 is in the middle of the first floor and the house is 4-sides brick.

 

[nayr]

you bought the light version, if you wanted distance you should gone the long range.. light is designed for high density deployments, if you wanted to pull this off with a single AP you bought the wrong model.

Light is 2x2 MIMO w/0.1 Watt of Transmission power
LR is 3x3 MIMO w/0.25 Watt of Transmission power

Your Engenius is 0.8 Watts, which wont help you unless your bridging access points.. as no WiFi client you have likely has more than 0.25 Watts of transmission power.. the UniFi AC Outdoor has this power output also, and these are designed for a point to multipoint bridge network and/or large outdoor spaces.

Light model is cheap and low power so you can afford to put one in each room, you do this to get great 5GHz performance throughout the property, this is required for proper band-steering to 5Ghz and massive throughput.. my network can pull >100Mbps on 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz from anywhere on my property and many times that when in a room with direct LOS to an access point.

With 6000sqft house your going to need multiple access points if you want high throughput everywhere, my internet is faster than your Wifi..

 

[ekaz]

you bought the light version, if you wanted distance you should gone the long range.. light is designed for high density deployments, if you wanted to pull this off with a single AP you bought the wrong model.

Light is 2x2 MIMO w/0.1 Watt of Transmission power
LR is 3x3 MIMO w/0.25 Watt of Transmission power

Your Engenius is 0.8 Watts, which wont help you unless your bridging access points.. as no WiFi client you have likely has more than 0.25 Watts of transmission power.. the UniFi AC Outdoor has this power output also, and these are designed for a point to multipoint bridge network and/or large outdoor spaces.

Light model is cheap and low power so you can afford to put one in each room, you do this to get great 5GHz performance throughout the property, this is required for proper band-steering to 5Ghz and massive throughput.. my network can pull >100Mbps on 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz from anywhere on my property and many times that when in a room with direct LOS to an access point.

With 6000sqft house your going to need multiple access points if you want high throughput everywhere, my internet is faster than your Wifi..

Same experience I have, except on my deck. But that's because I have a brick house and the AP is on the second floor in the middle of the house. I still have a decent signal, just not as strong. I'm going to get another AP for the first floor and think that should fix the deck issue.

 

[bp2008]

I wish I could figure out why my UAP-AC-LR's 5ghz network stops passing traffic after a few hours. It works fine and fast for a few hours after a reboot, but when I try to connect the next day, none of my devices can even obtain an IP address on the 5ghz network. Sadly this isn't even the first time I've seen unifi act a little glitchy. Probably just questionable hardware quality control, or maybe it is because my 1 foot cat6 cable between the POE brick and the access point doesn't have a ground wire. I wonder if engenius does better.

 

[ekaz]

I wish I could figure out why my UAP-AC-LR's 5ghz network stops passing traffic after a few hours. It works fine and fast for a few hours after a reboot, but when I try to connect the next day, none of my devices can even obtain an IP address on the 5ghz network. Sadly this isn't even the first time I've seen unifi act a little glitchy. Probably just questionable hardware quality control, or maybe it is because my 1 foot cat6 cable between the POE brick and the access point doesn't have a ground wire. I wonder if engenius does better.

Have you updated the firmware or checked their forums? Pretty active group over there.

 

[bp2008]

Have you updated the firmware or checked their forums? Pretty active group over there.

Yup, both. I found reports of the same 5ghz traffic drops but did not find a solution.

 

[paarlberg]

This Engenius doesn't have the pretty interface, but I have had excellent success with them before. It was $172.99 and it does what it should. So it is cheaper than 2 of the LR from Ubiquiti. I will need to tweak it a bit to cut down on the power due to the large coverage area. You don't usually say that when it comes to wifi.

 

[paarlberg]

I ended up returning the Engenius and the Unifi lite. I picked up 2 of the Unifi AP AC LR. The Engenius had excellent signal on a horizontal plane, but it did suffer a bit from the vertical side. if you were outside a certain degree of center it would affect the signal. If you were within that range, it was excellent. I tested to about 400' on 2.4Ghz and about 220' on 5Ghz. That was with the AP in the house and walking away from the house until the signal was unusable. It would work great outside for covering a large area of a several acres.