To use Wall mounted AP's or ceiling AP's?

Hello,

I’m in a quandry.

I’ve already got a Unifi NanoHD and am happy with it, not quite set up properly yet.

I was originally thinking of getting two more to cover the house, but then it occurred to me that I could just get the wall mounted 4 Port versions instead. I’d then give the area wifi in one go, instead of having more thing, plus if anyone wanted cable, it’ll be there ready.

They cost around the same amount (Wall / NanoHD), so I’m a bit undecided, any thoughts?

An aside, but I’m really glad that my TrueNAS machine allowed me to create a jail to install the Unifi Controller on. Works fine and dandy, quite impressive, if a little Apple looking.

Cheers! :+1:

Not a pro, but I’ve always heard put them on ceilings

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Yeah that’s where I was going to put them, in the hall up and downstairs. Just wondering now about reducing the number of runs I have to do :slight_smile:

It usually depends on density and the amount of floors.

If you’re a single story then centrally located or near area of anticipated usage, unobstructed, hight vantage point.

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Thanks for that. It’s 2 storey mostly, so far I’m thinking of just using the NanoHD ceiling mounted on the ground and first floor. That way everyone has coverage, it’s an annoying narrow building though, so I might need a 3rd in the back of the house. I guess I can buy a 2nd and 3rd and move them around a bit.

Instead of a NanoHD I’d get the U6-LR (actually I did).

They’re slightly larger physically, but they cost the same and have a much faster CPU inside, and also support Wifi 6 for the same money (they’re MT7622 based ARM A53 cores, instead of MT7621/MIPS1004). Faster CPU helps a little when bridging wifi and fixed lan.

Ceiling mounted is usually better in terms of obstructions, but not a hard requirement - you’ll typically just lose some throughput sooner if you have more obstruction. Perceived range will end up being determined more by your device and how tolerant the OS is to packet loss, more so than the access point itself.

You can mix and match as well (ceiling+sitting on a shelf+wall), whatever is convenient for a location.

If you don’t have ethernet runs yet, consider running more than one to places where you know you’ll need more physical ports. You can also get more ports in each spot from, e.g. usw-flex-mini if you just need data only ports, or a usw flex if you want to split up 1 POE ethernet line into several and power more stuff.

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Thank you very much for pointing the larger one out, it does seem more powerful for sure, according to the spec’s and it’s not much larger either. I could probably use one of them for downstairs and it’ll cover everything.

I was just thinking of trying to get two things done for the effort of one, if I got the wall mount version. It could saved me putting a ceiling mounted one up stairs, but that room would also have the option of cabled network all in one unit. The reach might not be great though, to bedroom 3.

The NanoHD was originally going upstairs as shown, but may be it’s strong enough for downstairs in the Dining room. Alternatively I could put the wall mount in there and it might get the whole of downstairs done.

I will install as many CAT cables as I can, even where I’m not likely using them, providing it’s relatively easy to get to!

It’s not simple, I’m trying to figure out how to have max 1 wall/floor between things and mostly perpendicular signal relative to walls. And also, make sure you spend most of the wifi time on wifi AP that’s in the same room if possible. It’s hard with your blue spots setup that way.

Your living room will get better coverage from bedroom1 than it will from dining room wall AP, for example.

Kitchen should be better covered by ceiling AP in the dining room, than dining room wall.

Dining room ceiling will cover bedroom 2 really well, bedroom 1 probably no more than 300-Mbps depending on what your client is. If you work from bedroom 1 (home office type of thing, or kids/bedroom/study type of combo), then, in wall is a good option.

Your lower bathroom, will be meh, either way, conservatory will probably be ok from dining room ceiling as long as you don’t close the door, the only way to get wifi there with your arrangement is through the door and reflection off of kitchen floor, that’s not good.

Assuming your conservatory goes into the garden, and you want wifi in the garden here’s an idea.

When you’re up in the loft/rafters, if you have roof eaves over conservatory, consider sticking a U6-LR outdoors, that should cover the gardeb nicely and maybe even the conservatory.


Anyways, bedroom 1 – of this is a study/mixed bedroom office, get a switch and u6-lr and a gigabit injector there.

I’d consider moving dining room ceiling AP to the kitchen.

That way you’ll cover most of the house with 2 APs.


If money is less of a concern, one AP on the living room ceiling, one on the hallway ceiling between bedroom 2/3. And one at the conservatory entrance.

That covers your with 3, and you get a bit more garden coverage.

— looks complicated (e g. why not do ethernet to your living room TV.

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That’s really kind of you to contribute, thoroughly appreciated :+1:

Yeah I was thinking it’ll get through floors better than walls.

I’m surprised about Bed 2 being covered by Dining room dish, I thought they didn’t work well above one that points down?

Luckily only one person is (school) working in Bed 1, I figured a wired connection would be handy in some ways.

The garden should be sorted, I’ll have a unit in an outbuilding - there’s one badly positioned right now and it nearly gets to the conservatory.

Something that is easy from a cable run perspective is putting one in the conservatory, may be one of these? I could even just put it on the wall outside the conservatory.

This is all ready handy stuff, I’m definitely going to ponder it for a bit and you’ve given me loads to think about. :+1:

I’d probably drop some cables down to the TV area to give it a dedicated feed, probably 2 while I’m at it.

I just ordered another NanoHD…they had no availability of the U6-LR and didn’t know when they’d be in :frowning: It’s a start, as you know I probably need another unit, but for the moment it’s getting annoying how slow my phone is to switch from office wifi to home wifi…it’s a basic setup at present :slight_smile: