WIFI mesh system vs. APs analysis paralysis

Please HELP! WIFI mesh system vs. APs analysis paralysis

  1. Original system: 2 x Ubiquiti Amplifi HD more and more problems + outer rooms lack/slow WIFI
    1.a House 1700 square foot x3 (2-stroy+besement) Rectangular shape 10x16
    1.b European house, steel reinforced concrete slabs 30cm, walls are brick.
    1.c APs are hardwired Ethernet. Maximum 3 walls to the furthest rooms.

Questions:

  1. For the new APs do I need a dedicated controller if I want the system to tell the mobile devices when to change APs to avoid “stickiness to APs”?
    (Current mesh system can do this without it.)
    /I don’t need mesh system because wireless backbone rather this controlling capabilities!/
  2. Old system WiFI range pattern was mostly “a sphere” the new UFO shaped APs do not seem to cover upwards if it is on the ceiling (Unifi U6) isn’t it?
  3. Which APs do you suggest don’t need the newest pricerange is like Ubiquiti Unifi (Qualcomm if possible)
    -Unifi U6 PRO, U7 PRO (U6 mesh do not trush heat issues)
    -Mikrotik CAP ax
    -TP-Link. Omada; deco
    -Any other mesh system suggestion
    5.Don’t need the latest newest one and want to solve with the least amount of APs

I really love the stand on the desk (cube) formfactor if it is possible.

Thank you for your time and help!

@Kacsamento I don’t like mesh systems. I have tried every manufacturer’s mesh system that didn’t cost under 1,000 and never found one that would provide adequate WiFi. You only need a controller to program the new Unifi APs once they are set up and programmed; you don’t need the controller. You can create a virtual machine and install the controller software; you don’t need to buy their controller unit. I don’t have any experience with Mikrotik, and I don’t like TP-Link products. From experience dealing with the type of house you have, you will need at least 4 AP units, one for each floor and an extra one placed somewhere in the basement. You might need more depending on how thick the walls are where you place your units.

Unifi doesn’t manage client handoffs between APs; all roaming decisions are made by the client. If you are unfortunate enough to have garbage WiFi chipsets (MediaTek/Realtek/Qualcomm) in your clients you will still have issues with roaming.

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I second staying away from a “mesh” system. I have ripped several out and replaced with UniFi or Mikrotik and the clients were much happier for it.

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Not true see next two paragraphs on ways unifi does do this.

unifi is using the 802.11r part of the standard(for unifi ap’s that support the r part, i think wifi 5 and later ap’s) to hint to clients to swithc ap’s, this does require though that the connecting device also support the 802.11r standard. i forgot where in windows, but you can set the coresponding setting for how activly windows will look for a better ap, and switch. Its set conservativly on windows, becasue swithcing ap’s would make teams, skype and voip traffic in general drop the call. So maintaining a workable connection is preffered to having the best connection. should be noted this has to be on in the unifi settings, its off by default i believe.

unifi also has a feature where the ap’s will just drop a client to force it to reconnect if its signal gets to low an you can set this, although in my experinece this lead to a worse experience, if not tuned correctly. Edge cases are real gotcha’s when doing this.

Wifi really doesn’t travel through solid objects especially 5ghz and 6ghz bands. nothing but 2.4ghz is going to penetrate effectively brick and concrete. if you want 5ghz and 6ghz speed your probably going to need an ap in each room/area that is segregated by concrete and brick.

With your current unifi setup have you mapped out your singnal using wifiman on a mobile device, to see where and wehn your current setup changes bands or aps. Note where a laptop or different device would change is going to be different but it still gives you an idea of your coverage.

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