Best Home Access Point: Ubiquiti UniFi UAP AC Pro or Others for 600 Mbit Fiber Connection?

Hi!
I want to install a decent AP on the first floor of a single-family house. Until now, I used my old SMC router for this purpose, but it keeps unconfiguring and losing WIFI on the floor every few weeks. I've had enough. SMC goes to the garbage and I open a new chapter in family history.

I want to buy a bullet-proof device that I will install and forget about it. I have a 600 Mbit fiber in my house, so the AP will get this speed over the cable. It's supposed to distribute decent AC WIFI all over the floor and work ..... work .... just work ....

I can spend even PLN 500-600 on it, if necessary. Which does not mean that I have to force myself to waste money, if something really proven can be bought cheaper.

What do you recommend? Ubiquiti UniFi UAP AC Pro?

Greetings!
Peter

Exactly. This UAP AC Pro will suit you.
Of course, in real life, the speed achieved will largely depend on the structure of the house, the surrounding networks and the customer's capabilities.

Yes, I am aware that the final speed will be influenced by the factors you write about (and I cannot change them), but I want to be sure that I have an armored solution on the sending side.

Thanks!

RicoSky wrote:

It's supposed to distribute decent AC WIFI all over the floor

AC works at 5 GHz, and this band has more obstruction attenuation. If you have walls on this floor, or rather yes, it's gonna be bad.

How can I connect the repeater to the router but not to create 2 separate networks only to increase the wifi range? It is possible?

When walking around the house with my phone, I have to switch between networks, which is very troublesome.

rafalw92 wrote:

How can I connect the repeater to the router but not to create 2 separate networks only to increase the wifi range? It is possible?

When walking around the house with my phone, I have to switch between networks, which is very troublesome.

There will always be 2 networks between which the mobile device has to switch.
As you connect 2 cable access points to the router, everyone creates their own channel. You can name them identically, set the same password - it will switch automatically. But always some packets may escape during the switch.

If you connect to an existing WiFi network via a WiFi repeater, it works like 2 devices in one: a WiFi client that connects to the network just like a computer or telephone, and on the other hand creates / transmits its network.

Najelpie, like any AP, broadcasts the network with the same password and name encryption. ONLY on another channel.

m.jastrzebski wrote:

rafalw92 wrote:

How can I connect the repeater to the router but not to create 2 separate networks only to increase the wifi range? It is possible?

When walking around the house with my phone, I have to switch between networks, which is very troublesome.

There will always be 2 networks between which the mobile device has to switch.
As you connect 2 cable access points to the router, everyone creates their own channel. You can name them identically, set the same password - it will switch automatically. But always some packets may escape during the switch.

If you connect to an existing WiFi network via a WiFi repeater, it works like 2 devices in one: a WiFi client that connects to the network just like a computer or telephone, and on the other hand creates / transmits its network.

Najelpie, like any AP, broadcasts the network with the same password and name encryption. ONLY on another channel.

I tried to set it in such a way that the name and password are the same, but sometimes when going to the other room the device was still connected to the more distant router and could not switch to the closer one - I also could not manually switch due to the same the name of the network. For other names, I can always manually switch to a closer device.

Wouldn't my problem be solved with a router with antennas? It's just that I would buy additional antennas wifi extenders and put it in several rooms, hiding the cables in the strips? Then I will have coverage of one network in each room?

rafalw92 wrote:

m.jastrzebski wrote:

rafalw92 wrote:

How can I connect the repeater to the router but not to create 2 separate networks only to increase the wifi range? It is possible?

While walking around the house with my phone, I have to switch between networks, which is very troublesome.

There will always be 2 networks between which the mobile device has to switch.
As you connect 2 wired access points to the router, everyone creates their own channel. You can name them identically, set the same password - it will switch automatically. But always some packets may escape during the switch.

If you connect to an existing WiFi network via a WiFi repeater, it works like 2 devices in one: a WiFi client that connects to the network just like a computer or telephone, and on the other hand creates / transmits its network.

Najelpie, like any AP, broadcasts the network with the same password and name encryption. ONLY on another channel.

I tried to set it in such a way that the name and password are the same, but sometimes when going to the other room the device was still connected to the more distant router and could not switch to the closer one - I also could not manually switch due to the same the name of the network. For other names, I can always manually switch to a closer device.

Wouldn't my problem be solved with a router with antennas? It's just that I would buy additional antennas wifi extenders and put it in several rooms, hiding the cables in the strips? Then I will have coverage of one network in each room?

Whether and when to switch to another access point is decided by the customer: phone / computer. In good routers, you can set below what signal the router will break the connection. The phone will then try to connect again, this time with a stronger signal.

It's a bad idea with these antennas. You kill MIMO transmissions and the speeds drop.

m.jastrzebski wrote:

It's a bad idea with these antennas. You kill MIMO transmissions and the speeds drop.

So if the router has 4 antennas, they should always be next to each other and the end ... yes?

How can I cover my entire home with one network? I can pull a suitable cable for each room, but what is the best solution and does it even exist?

rafalw92 wrote:

m.jastrzebski wrote:

It's a bad idea with these antennas. You kill MIMO transmissions and the speeds drop.

So if the router has 4 antennas, they should always be next to each other and the end ... yes?

How can I cover my entire home with one network? I can pull a suitable cable for each room, but what is the best solution and does it even exist?

It's not so simple. In WiFi N or AC, each antenna can transmit something different. This way you gain speed. If you carry one antenna somewhere behind a few walls, this functionality will stop working. The router may switch to a different mode of operation where the speed will drop significantly. The router authors know what will happen. But definitely nothing to worry about. In addition, 4 antennas can be 2 from 2.4Ghz and 2 to 5Ghz.

A solid thing to do are access points from the same company, connected with LAN cables to the router. Definitely recommended unifi. There you set everything to make the switching smooth and automatic.

m.jastrzebski wrote:

A solid thing to do are access points from the same company, connected with LAN cables to the router. Definitely recommended unifi. There you set everything to make the switching smooth and automatic.

So you recommend these unifi wheels - they still need the main router, can I connect them via LAN to the UPC router?

rafalw92 wrote:

m.jastrzebski wrote:

A solid thing to do are access points from the same company, connected with LAN cables to the router. Definitely recommended unifi. There you set everything to make the switching smooth and automatic.

So you recommend these unifi wheels - they still need the main router, can I connect them via LAN to the UPC router?

A router is a router. You connect with cables, configure and forget you have. These are good and polished devices at decent prices.

m.jastrzebski wrote:

A router is a router. You connect with cables, configure and forget you have. These are good and polished devices at decent prices.

From what I can see they don't work at 5GHz?

rafalw92 wrote:

m.jastrzebski wrote:

A router is a router. You connect with cables, configure and forget you have. These are good and polished devices at decent prices.

From what I can see they don't work at 5GHz?

There are a lot of models there.

There are AC models.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqvAYL28rYg
Installation and configuration requires a software controller on the PC, but during everyday work it does not need this application anymore, so if we turn off the computer, the network continues to work. Adding more APs is very simple, because the controller will detect the device. The SSID is set once at the beginning, subsequent devices are connected to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkt6mMWn5aI&vl=pl

jprzedworski wrote:

There are AC models.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqvAYL28rYg
Installation and configuration requires a software controller on the PC, but during everyday work it does not need this application anymore, so if we turn off the computer, the network continues to work. Adding more APs is very simple, because the controller will detect the device. The SSID is set once at the beginning, subsequent devices are connected to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkt6mMWn5aI&vl=pl

This is a question for me. What does the controller do except for applying the same configuration to multiple devices?
Does unifi support the change of AP change after kicking the client below a certain signal level?

My single AP is a little bit a bit sick and I am thinking about adding the second one.

With the help of the controller, you can do, for example, firmware update (if there are many APs in the network, PoE switches, unifi router, it is very easy - with almost one stroke the entire network) and many other things. Almost, because you should not update your swich and AP at the same time, because if you restart your swich after the update, it will crash the AP update and we have a problem. There is also a system of additional user authorization, e.g. by means of tickets, but at home it is unnecessary.

m.jastrzebski wrote:

Does the unifi support AP changeover

Watch this first video.

m.jastrzebski wrote:

My single AP is a little bit a bit sick and I am thinking about adding the second one.

It's just that it is not compatible with the UniFi system, so roaming will not work with it. They all have to be UniFi.

jprzedworski wrote:

m.jastrzebski wrote:

Does unifi support AP changeover

Watch this first video.

I didn't learn much. Yes "roaming" it supports any AP where the threshold for the signal can be set. Roaming in quotation marks because it is not real roaming as few or no devices support the appropriate roaming protocols, guaranteeing no packet loss. So some kind of active cooperation of both the 2 AP and the end device to switch the client.
I don't know if there are any possible half-measures, that one AP notifies the other that he is about to kick the client, he will come to you, do not authorize him, just connect. Or something like that. That is, independent of the client's action.

m.jastrzebski wrote:

So some kind of active cooperation of both the 2 AP and the end device to switch the client.
I don't know if there are any possible half-measures, that one AP notifies the other that he is about to kick the client, he will come to you, do not authorize him, just connect. Or something like that. That is, independent of the client's action.

I am only a UniFi user (6 AP + 2 switches + hardware controller). I have not analyzed the mechanisms in this system, but I can see that individual APs can somehow contact each other. How and what they mention, I do not know. For example, I noticed that if an AP loses contact with the cable (but is powered), it goes into repeater mode, radio connects to a neighbor and distributes data further.
On UniFi roaming, I found this current article:
https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004662107-UniFi-Fast-Roaming

UniFi supports the 802.11r standard. If your phone is also 802.11r compliant, you will have working high speed roaming with FT.
The 802.11r protocol suite defines two paths for the transmission of authentication information - radio and wire. The radio way is the Lite version, the wired way is the Full version with additional possibilities. UniFi only supports radio, however roaming works and there are no problems with that. Of course, this is not fully automated, where the access points measure signal strength, latency, cell load, interference, etc., send it to the controller, which determines network behavior and client relogging, but then you would have to spend about 10x as much as UniFi.
There is nothing better for small installations at a reasonable price.

Gentlemen, wait a minute! I can see that the discussion went to areas about which I know as much as about playing on the bagpipe.

Just in case, I will ask again - I need a regular, armored AP (e.g. the Ubiquiti UniFi UAP AC Pro I mentioned), which I will connect via LAN cable to the main home router (of course working non-stop) and after entering the computer, plugged into the network home LAN, I will get to the configuration panel of this AP and configure it. Then I will forget everything because it will work. I don't want any controllers, tickets, or additional antennas at home, and I damn well know what else.

Is this how it will work?

RicoSky wrote:

Then I will forget everything because it will work. I don't want any controllers, tickets, or additional antennas at home, and I damn well know what else.

Is this how it will work?

It will run without the controller turned on and nothing else to think of. You connect, configure, forget. For configuration, however, you need a controller, i.e. a program downloaded from the manufacturer's website, installed on a laptop. After configuration, the program is not needed for further operation and the laptop does not need to be started.

Gentlemen, I noticed that the UAP-AC-PRO-E appeared on sale. It is about PLN 100 cheaper than the AC-PRO model.
One store says it's the "successor".

What's the kaman?

RicoSky wrote:

It is about PLN 100 cheaper than the AC-PRO model.

Maybe because it is sold without a power supply!

but if I understand the PoE system correctly, I don't need any power supply, just plug in the network cable and it works?

How do you want to power it?

AC PRO works in POE power supply. Does it not mean that it is enough to connect the LAN cable coming from the home router for the AP to be supplied with electricity in this way? do I need an additional power supply? possibly Do I need a special router that will power this AP via PoE?

You need a POE switch to which you connect an AP that will "get" electricity, and a router with the Internet to the PoE switch.