Hi, I’ll be doing some renovations on my old flat, and I’m trying to plan my home network setup. The flat is about 90m2, I don’t understand it much but after some research, I would love to try Ubiquity because I like how it works for LMG and their staff. I have a rough layout of the place with ethernet ports, AP, and a place to put a rack plus the equipment I think would be the best for me. But I’m not sure. My old setup was a TP-link router and one repeater. Now I’m trying to do it better. Can you please tell me if those two APs would be enough or if it’s a total overkill? I’m really not sure. Thanks a lot!
Edit: Just to clarify, it’s a old reinforced concrete house so wifi strength is an issue also I have to do Cat6 cabling and everything from scratch. Currently there is nothing.
I was thinking about that, but I’m worried that I would not be enough due to the material and way this house is built. Plus when I have to do the cabling it will be easier to do it now when there is nothing and I have to do everything from scratch.
I would move the AP that you have near the middle up into the room above it. That should provide better coverage.
The U6+ is a great access point, but the U6 Long Range does have stronger transmit power and 1db more gain on the 2.,4ghz band. If you are worried about your concrete walls it might be better to go for the LR model due to the higher power. But that does add $100 cost so may not be doable. I wouldnt worry about wifi 6E or 7 because the 6ghz band will only be useful in the room the access point is install it. Its not going to get any throughput through a concrete wall.
If you can afford it, maybe do cabling for an access point in each room so 4 more drop locations. Then you can move the APs around through the house trying different configurations and see what works best.
Maybe in the future you might even want to add 1-2 APs and only activate the 6GHz band on it for the room they are in to provide extremely high bandwidth in that room. This would be doable if each room had an Ethernet drop location
One last thing, think about if you want security cameras ever. Adding drop locations with the cable sitting in the wall up near the ceiling that you could easily pull outside when you are ready would be nice to do now rather than try to run more later. Mark the location so you remember the cable is there and ready for down the line when you want it.
I’ve got a similarly over-built (not complaining) 1930s Victorian tenement flat, in my experience the main thing to look out for with APs is that your signal will not go through walls lengthwise - so as long as every area in your house has a decent line of transmission through only perpendicular walls to an AP, it’s ok. I’ve got two APs in my small flat, too, a pair of older non-LR UAP-AC-Lites.
Given that, I think your AP layout as proposed looks good.
Looks like a good idea, I’d avoid any locked in devices and just go with two Mediatek Filogic routers that supports OpenWrt. That way you’d also get a few ethernet connections do your wireless network if needed too.
you’ve plenty of ethernet drops to add wall mounted APs as needed - they don’t have to be ceiling mounted.
Based on your layout and central kitchen and shower area, and some experience with “concrete”, I’d do APs in 1.02 (or 1.03) / 1.05 / 1.10.
That’ll still get you some wifi in the kitchen, but it’ll be faster or in the same room where you’re likely to care about speed.
I’ve been using a pair of U6-LR for a while - they’re ok, U6-Pro will get you closer to 1Gbps consistently - and it’s a tiny bit cheaper.
As for Security Camera, … I’d say it’s useless there as long as you have a decent 24x7 doorbell cam - or even better, just add a regular camera, like an annke nc800 or something like that, and run Frigate and keep the doorbell normal analog one, and forget about Ubiquiti NVR stuff.
First off, while possible I do not recommend doing drops on exterior walls unless you have extensive experience running wire OR your fully remodelling down to studs.
Second, get multiple boxes/spools of cable and ALWAYS pull multiple to each drop. Minimum 2 cables per drop, I would suggest 3 or 4. IF you really want to future proof, pull CAT6a, I would also suggest pulling fiber at the same time. Having fiber and several CAT cables between my office and my rack means I can move all my noise and heat to a different room.
Third, pull to each 90deg it will make things simpler than trying to pull a snake of cables, or do maintenance of spider web cables.
As for Ubiquiti, know that they are a large LTT/LMG sponsor and that is part of why they talk about them so much. I personally do not like Ubiquiti I started out with their AP’s and quickly ran into support issues and end of life issues where new AP’s were still being sold a month before they decided to stop updating them.
My preference is actually for TP-Links business line of AP’s and switches primarily because they support self hosted controllers and dont force you into cloud like Engenius or Ubiquity.
Lots of people have had good experiences and I have installed full Ubiquity setups for friends at their specific request and for them its fine, and they are happy with it.
I have done a bunch of residential installs along with hundreds of commercial installs so if you have questions just ask, happy to share experiences.
I think you covered most of my main points with drawing the cables, your diagram is pretty much spot on. Though to be fair, I would not draw the cable through the wetspaces but on the other side of that wall, and I would also do wall mounted APs.
Rack I’m not even gonna try, too technical for me already.
Another vote for TP-Link Omada AP’s.
You can run controller in docker and create mesh if you don’t want to buy hardware one.
I have installed bunch of Omada AP’s to friends and family and everyone is very satisfied.
Thanks a lot! There are no studs. I’m from Czechia, and our apartment buildings were build really differently from what you are used to. I have to do a drop ceiling and then cut into walls to do sockets for electricity and LAN. So I’ll run cables under the drop ceiling in conduits and then down to sockets. I was already thinking about adding fiber. I’ll look into a TP-link business line. Thanks for this.
if you can afford to, i would forgo the cat6 cable and go with fibre.
that way you can attach any switch you like and the wire between em will never be a limiting factor.
why?
cat 6 is already being replaced by cat 7.
so you would have to upgrade the wire at some point if you want more bandwidth.
where as fibre, you just buy a faster switch.
They are pretty discrete, cost a fraction of the cost and if you put them in the top of ceiling corner it will be hard to tell the difference. Your house, your rules though.
I’ll do cat6a because 10G is a lot, and I don’t thing I’ll need more in the next 15 years, than fiber to some locations just because it will be easier to do now when we are stripping the flat to bare concrete.
@Jan_Hajfler - other than (potentially) the doorbell, is there anything outside that will need Wi-Fi?
Couple other things to keep in mind:
Where will most of your Wi-Fi devices be most of the time? For me that is our living room / kitchen. So we have an access point hidden above our cabinets. To help with IoT devices we also have an access point toward the backyard.
How saturated is your house with other Wi-Fi signals right now? Even if 1 ap in the center might reach the entire floor space if you have devices that need 2.5Ghz and have lots of neighbors blasting your house with their signals, it may not be optimal.
Edit: also for what you’re doing I would stick with copper for nothing else than the ability to do PoE to every drop.
