Access points for home

[neufuse Veteran]

got my Unifi AP yesterday, got a little annoyed by the software at first... came with 2.4.5 firmware. it kept trying to talk to the controller at port 8080, well there was nothing listening at the controller at port 8080 after checking.. changed it to the port the controller was running the website on and it worked... had to do that via SSH on the AP... after that it finally showed up as adoptable, then it did a firmware update and was on 2.4.6 I think... been working OK since then. antennas aren't as powerful/range capable as my Netgear R6300 though (but that was an AC model cant remember the antenna config for it) so will be looking at the AC model if Budman says it's working good..

 

Hows the range for you?

 

The thing does feel a bit limited, as the Ethernet port is only 10/100 not GigE... for something that can theoretically go up to 600Mbps with bonding and 150Mbps+ typical speed, seems odd to limit the Ethernet port to 10/100. Have a feeling the radios in this AP only support around 100Mbit though as in the configuration they are placed in.

[sc302 Veteran]

With the unifi controller software there is the unifi discover application, with that you can use a gui to find and change the ip/ports of the unifi controller it connects to, if you have dhcp running on  your network to assign the aps a address.  the downside to this software is that it only scans the local subnet and has no option to be able to scan other networks...would be nice if you could put in a range to scan. 

 

I have a couple of APs that kept defaulting to the unifi unc name vs the programmed in ip address after reboot.   After several retries with the application and through ssh, it eventually took.  That was a pain.  It didn't happen with all of them, only a few...which was weirder yet.  I can say that with the 1000Mb/s on the pros, they don't seem to have the throughput that I would like to see.  Seem to be peaking at about 20Mb/s, it could be the crap network that it is on...the closest network that I have redesigned is a bit far for me to get anything more than 50% signal.  It's funny, I see 4 bars on the wifi card but only see 53% in the unifi software, but I guess the speed is about right...curret speed shows 19.5. 

[+BudMan MVC]

Well I didn't have any problems, fired up the unifi software and found it right away adopted it, etc..  Upgraded to 3.1.12 Bing bang zoom.  There are lots of AP/Routers that only have 100mbit interface but claim 300 mbit wireless, which is a bit of an oxymoron if you ask me as well ;)

 

As to range - I have mine on low for 2.4 and med on 5.. According to the coverage map, pretty much cover my whole lot.  I was out on the patio last night with the ipad having a cigar and bourbon playing boom beach and coc and had 40+ Mbps on a speed test with great coverage.

 

 

I started with a simple floorplan, need to fill in the details but got door and garage door, etc. in so go some basic idea of where to place the AP on the map.

 

My new sg300 switch should be here today, so will get that running etc.  Then can get some bench marks going - so I did install the AC card in my PC, and while it didn't show a 1300mbps connection via AC..  Problem is location I think.  The AP is currently on top of my desk until I can mount it in the hall, while the card ext 3x3 antenna only has about 3 feet cable and its sitting under the desk on the shelf by my feet.  So there is 2 monitors and cable modem and switch, scanner, etc.. between it an the AP -- not best location for best signal.  I will prob move the AP to other end of the house before I mount for benchmarking.  Going to look for some longer antenna cables to allow me to move the antennas to better location on top of my desk, etc.  But really have no use for that card - I just bought it to play with AC..  I didn't see any other AC in the area when I fired it up..

 

This is the part was most interested in vs just typical wireless router as AP, or even normal AP..  Where it would be much more useful in work setup with more AP, etc.  Its pretty nice to see exactly how much data your clients are moving, etc.

 

 

[neufuse Veteran]

Something must be up with my AP, even next to the AP my highest signal is only 53% which is about -80db which is really odd considering the distance I would expect some noise, but not -80db, I was expecting that to be a lot closer to zero

[sc302 Veteran]

Something certainly not right there.

[neufuse Veteran]

Might have to RMA this one and get a replacement.. the radios seem VERY week, I even tried changing the radio power settings with no luck

[+BudMan MVC]

So what does it show for your EIRP? Are you using custom? There was something in the forums about power level defaults changing with 3.1.x etc. Might of been .12 where if setting too low there were issues, etc.

Keep in mind the radiation pattern - right below the AP is kind of deadspot, your going to want to be out a bit from the device. So the doughnut pattern works to your benefit, etc..

if you notice in the screenshot, the chromecast is clearly the furthest device. Its by the TV which is against far wall in the living room from my computer room where the AP is.. Its a small house to be sure.. But being the farthest device of the ones listed and has the highest signal level.

Have not had time yet to work see if lowering with custom makes for better signals or not for the closer devices.

[sc302 Veteran]

You can change from h20 to h40 to see if it helps too

[dragon2611]

I have a couple of APs that kept defaulting to the unifi unc name vs the programmed in ip address after reboot.   After several retries with the application and through ssh, it eventually took.  That was a pain.  It didn't happen with all of them, only a few...which was weirder yet.  

 

 

I Think that was a bug in one of the firmware versions, which has since been fixed, of course if they shipped with the buggy version that might explain it, once they did manage to contact the controller they should have upgraded (Depending on controller settings this may or may not be automatic)

 

@Budman I don't have those other AP's set up at the moment but yes I did get better throughput from them than the Unifi's although it's not that surprising given they are a different radio chip and also had some pretty sizable Omni's on them, My unifi's weren't exactly well placed either.

 

 

The El-Cheapo bufferlos (WHR-1166D-EU) didn't do badly when I had a quick play with them earlier (Configured as a wireless bridge), will be interesting to see how well they do once they're installed at home.

 

This was between floors but I didn't really have time to setup a proper test just a quick Iperf with one on the floor below and one on my desk @ work  :rofl:

 

[sc302 Veteran]

It was happening even after the firmware was updated. Possibly a bad rom? Either way it did eventually stick

[+BudMan MVC]

280Mbits over what wireless, what connection details? What was the hardware involved in that test, and the server was wired or wireless?

Let me see if I can fire up a quick remote test, I should be able to turn on my home desktop wireless card and have it run an iperf..

edit:

Ok real quick test to my unifi vm that is on the same segment

------------------------------------------------------------

[204] local 192.168.2.11 port 6440 connected with 192.168.2.10 port 5001

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth

[204] 0.0-30.0 sec 626 MBytes 175 Mbits/sec

So with that connection rate of 405 do a simple /2 to get actual real world values at 175Mbps is pretty much right in the ballpark. I will have to look to see getting it to connect at 1300 rate since this is what the card should be able to do. But you can see only connecting at 400mbps rate both tx and rx

[neufuse Veteran]

So what does it show for your EIRP? Are you using custom? There was something in the forums about power level defaults changing with 3.1.x etc. Might of been .12 where if setting too low there were issues, etc.

Keep in mind the radiation pattern - right below the AP is kind of deadspot, your going to want to be out a bit from the device. So the doughnut pattern works to your benefit, etc..

if you notice in the screenshot, the chromecast is clearly the furthest device. Its by the TV which is against far wall in the living room from my computer room where the AP is.. Its a small house to be sure.. But being the farthest device of the ones listed and has the highest signal level.

Have not had time yet to work see if lowering with custom makes for better signals or not for the closer devices.

 

Transmit power is 20dB that's as high as it would also let me go with custom. Yeah I looked at the antenna patterns, and I am in an area that should be good coverage link wise. I've tried all the power settings, the levels barely change for signal to noise. I'd assume low power close to the device is best, you don't want the SNR way to high to the point it's screaming at the device :laugh:  but nope, no luck with low power also, always in the -80 through -70 range with about ~50% signal anywhere in the house.. yes it does fluctuate but never for the better, only worse :pinch:

[neufuse Veteran]

Messing around with 40Mhz bands now instead of the default 20Mhz ones... changed the power back to auto to see what it does

[+BudMan MVC]

see my quick test, edit from above show a -46 dbm, but not connecting at 1300 only 405 which I would say the 175 I am seeing is right what you would expect with wireless to wired with that connection rate. /2 is rough estimate.

[neufuse Veteran]

see my quick test, edit from above show a -46 dbm, but not connecting at 1300 only 405 which I would say the 175 I am seeing is right what you would expect with wireless to wired with that connection rate. /2 is rough estimate.

You know, when I had two netgear R6200 AC routers in bridge mode, they should of been doing 1300, they were capable of it. but I could never once get them to go above the 400Mbit range talking only to each other... So far everything I've done so far with AC seems to be hard to get them to get up into that bandwidth range, I think I had the two R6200's at one point talking at 650Mbit but that was the highest I ever saw it go on them

[+BudMan MVC]

Sure helps if you turn on 80mhz channels ;)

------------------------------------------------------------

[204] local 192.168.2.11 port 9259 connected with 192.168.2.10 port 5001

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth

[204] 0.0-30.0 sec 971 MBytes 271 Mbits/sec

Now my guess that limit in speed would be my VM the iperf server is running on, etc. Need do some tweaking and make sure there is no limit on the network other than the wireless to see what kind of speeds can get. But 80 sure makes a difference ;)

[neufuse Veteran]

Sure helps if you turn on 80mhz channels ;)

------------------------------------------------------------

[204] local 192.168.2.11 port 9259 connected with 192.168.2.10 port 5001

[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth

[204] 0.0-30.0 sec 971 MBytes 271 Mbits/sec

connectionrate.png

Now my guess that limit in speed would be my VM the iperf server is running on, etc. Need do some tweaking and make sure there is no limit on the network other than the wireless to see what kind of speeds can get. But 80 sure makes a difference ;)

my R6200's were using 80MHz channels, never was able to get the 5GHz radios to get that speed... wonder if there is any RF interference around here

 

have you had a chance to check the wattage of your AC AP?

[+BudMan MVC]

No, was kind of in a hurry to get it up and running. I will tonight for sure.. I think its in the garage - was measuring the draw on the new freezer we got for there a while back.. Its prob still hooked up there ;)

[neufuse Veteran]

No, was kind of in a hurry to get it up and running. I will tonight for sure.. I think its in the garage - was measuring the draw on the new freezer we got for there a while back.. Its prob still hooked up there ;)

ha.. I did that too when we got our new freezer in our garage... put it on forgot it was there... searched the whole house for it couldn't find it... walked out one day saw it still plugged in

[+BudMan MVC]

hehehe - that is too funny! ;) Great minds work a like I guess - ROFL!

[Ryster]

Another vote for UniFi. Bought a triple pack of UAP-LR units a few weeks ago for the house , and love them. I've got the controller installed on my pc so I can manage them when I need to, but it's shutdown when I'm not using the PC and the APs continue to work like a charm...

 

All three broadcasting the same SSID, each on a different channel (1, 6 and 11).. have even got two of them on other floors connected through AV500 homeplugs...it all works great :)

[neufuse Veteran]

Really starting to think I got a dud AP, right now the light on it is green, not blinking but I can not SSH into it and the controller software says its "disconnected" yet it's broadcasting traffic fine...

 

power cycle it and it works fine and can SSH into it again for a while then out of no where "disconnected" again

[+BudMan MVC]

Yeah that seems odd - your using the POE injector that came with it..

[marinejld]

I've been having problems with my existing NetGear WNDR4300 and was looking around for an AP to extend into the upper reaches of my home.  After reading through this thread and checking out the UniFi line I ordered my UniFi AP and feel like a kid waiting by the front door in anticipation of seeing that delivery truck.  

 

The house is three floors and in the past all three floors were covered pretty well with the NetGear.  The WiFi radio has been acting up the past few months and it now barely extends past the 1st floor.  I'm excited to see how this new AP performs and if it does the job I'm looking to bring in multiple indoor and outdoor units at the office.  

 

I'll post a quick recap of my experience next week.  

 

Thanks

[neufuse Veteran]

Yeah that seems odd - your using the POE injector that came with it..

yep, the included PoE injector is powering it... haven't bought my new PoE enabled switch yet, need to figure out all the voltages just to make sure the switch can handle them (cams and ap's)