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Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

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Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#221
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like you are moralizing about a guy's house when the topic is simply wifi-reliability. Given who he is (the creator of https://haveibeenpwned.com/ ), I would just assume that he have over-provisioned his physical housing capacity in anticipation of a major event. :-) Seriously, put down the proletariat pitchfork and lets talk about the content. Maybe this is just his warm-up for putting wifi on his superyacht!!…

There's certainly also a moral argument to be made (as you say that I'm moralizing), but I was more alluding to the introductory sentence: "I'm increasingly of the view that both my time and my sanity are worth more and more as the years progress". For me reducing the house size seems like a more effective way of restoring sanity and reducing time needed than installing professional grade equipment, which is kind of…

I'm not sure how a big house makes anything a matter of morals.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#222

So I have posted this before as there has been a ton of Ubiquiti threads. 3 story house, 1 AP AC Pro per floor 1 AP AC Pro in the detached office 1 Switch 16 POE in the house 1 Switch 16 POE in the office - 2 x Cat6a between switches in a LAG 1 Security Gateway 3P 1 Cloud Key I upgraded all the firmware on the complete system as I was typing this message using their app for the iPad. Run a FreeNAS Mini in the office…

any specific reason you went for the Pro and not the LR?

Proper coverage is lots of APs at low power. Remember the device on the other end of the connection could be a phone. Just because is can see the LR does not mean it can talk to it.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#223
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in an apartment with probably 15 wifi networks visible at any time. Plus my xm radio has recently started cutting out in the parking lot of my apartment, it's either the microwave radio tower or noise coming from the high voltage lines/electrical substation behind my complex. I "upgraded" last Christmas to a Linksys AC router, it was awful had to reboot it daily to get wifi to work, got annoyed and picked up a…

You could probably be a good neighbour and turn down the transmit power on your router, your current setup is equivalent to dealing with not being able to hear a conversation in a crowded room by shouting at the top of your voice and forcing everyone else to get louder as well.

Good point, didn't really think about that. I'll dig in to the settings tonight and see what I have to do to lower th transmit power.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#224
post #183
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the opposite. I prefer to have an open OS installed. It's a question of trust. And did you try the recent version of DD-WRT there by the way?

> I think the opposite. I prefer to have an open OS installed. An open OS with closed source drivers? The comparison with Android XDA images wasn't so far fetched. > And did you try the recent version of DD-WRT there by the way? You mean the nightlies? They don't even release any stable versions anymore.

The driver is open.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#225
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree. Ubiquiti have some great marketing and slick looking UIs on their gear, but the hardware is not enterprise grade. They use standard Qualcomm/Atheros chips that almost every wireless router uses (Source: https://nl.hardware.info/reviews/5592/4/ubiquiti-unifi-acces... ) so you are basically paying for software with a flashy UI and proprietary cloud configuration.

Ruckus hardware is better but 10x as expensive.

Have you looked at Xclaim offerings? It's ruckus hardware but less enterprisy.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#226
post #53

what is a good way to connect router or access points OVER WIFI. i dont have wired backhaul in my office and it would be fairly cumbersome to build one. are there APs with two radios each - one for backhaul and one for service?

With packet-switched network, one radio may suffice for both purposes. Likely you're looking for a wifi repeater.

The wifi repeaters are horrible because they interfere with the source AP so the total signal quality goes down if you use them.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#227
I had 3 of the same Linksys boxes, had exactly the same problems, moved to UniFi stuff and couldn't be happier. I've got two APs in the main house, one in the barn (man cave, exercise room), and still have one Linksys in the guest house. Which gets power cycled when I need it.

I really don't get how Linksys screwed the pooch, but they did. $300 AP that doesn't work.

Edit: one config that made them work better for me was to change some setting from maximum speed to maximum distance, without that the connection was pretty short range. The lower speed is still faster than my internet connection so I'm fine with it.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#228
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With packet-switched network, one radio may suffice for both purposes. Likely you're looking for a wifi repeater.

The wifi repeaters are horrible because they interfere with the source AP so the total signal quality goes down if you use them.

Aren't they directional? They would make no sense at all unless they were directional. Or wired and sufficiently far from the source.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#229

what is a good way to connect router or access points OVER WIFI. i dont have wired backhaul in my office and it would be fairly cumbersome to build one. are there APs with two radios each - one for backhaul and one for service?

you might want to look into the Netgear Orbi line, a wifi mesh solution. I tested one at home, the wif connection of the satellite ist really fast and responsive, better than any repeater I tried.

I've heard good things about these. They have two separate antennas and radios for the client-facing part and the backhaul part. That way you don't get the bandwidth-halving effect of a store-and-forward repeater.
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