Mesh Wifi recommendation - community pub!

[Cardiff_Exile]

Hi All

My 'lockdown project' has been the creation of a community pub in our village. We've got the pub mostly setup and the management team start next week with opening in planned June.

One of my final tasks is Wi-Fi and need some real world experience within my budget of £300 - I've an EFM line in place and later this year hopefully a 900Mbps internet service courtesy of a providers community scheme)

The main requirement I have is to run separate SSIDs that I can rate limit, primarily a guest network. Looking at the triple packs in the price range from TP link / tenda etc they give me the coverage (I can always add another device) but seem to have scant detail on what you can actually do re SSIDs

Any recommendations for the scenario?

Thanks!

[randlemarcus]

If the broadband is specifically for the pub, are you splitting it to use for EPOS etc, or just for guest/regular usage?

[xeny]

A set of Unifi APs will do the multiple SSIDs with bandwidth restrictions easily, but they're slightly more work to configure than a consumer mesh arrangement.

[Cardiff_Exile]

randlemarcus said:

If the broadband is specifically for the pub, are you splitting it to use for EPOS etc, or just for guest/regular usage?

At the moment the single line will be used for EPOS & Card terminals so need to protect bandwidth for that and segregate from the 'guest' SSID. Terminals are P2PE that take takes away a PCI headache. No overly concerned either by a single /24 internally as the place isn't that big and it is wet sales only

[Cardiff_Exile]

xeny said:

A set of Unifi APs will do the multiple SSIDs with bandwidth restrictions easily, but they're slightly more work to configure than a consumer mesh arrangement.

I've seen these and heard good things but slightly over budget and was hoping there was something more domestic in pricing that would meet my needs

[FunkyGibbon]

Take a look at the TP-Link Omada stuff.

Very similar to unifi but about 1/3 - 1/2 the cost. Will meet you initial needs (you can run the controller from laptop/pi/cloud for free), and upgrade as required.

[xeny]

Good point abut the TP-Link stuff, but it isn't that much cheaper.

Say 3 Unifi AC-Lites @£67 or EAP 225's at £62.50 each (Amazon prices for reference).

Either ideally wants a switch (say £20 for an 8 port gigabit switch and use the bundled power injectors rather than spend on a PoE capable switch) and wired connections to the APs.

Either would come under budget (leaving say £70 for a Pi to run the controller if you want a guest portal), but ideally wants some network cable run for best effect.

How big is the venue, and what is the building - concrete walls, or open plan or ...?

[Cardiff_Exile]

xeny said:

Good point abut the TP-Link stuff, but it isn't that much cheaper.

How big is the venue, and what is the building - concrete walls, or open plan or ...?

I've a telco supplied router and a POE switch for CCTV racked in a small cab at a room behind the bar . Ideally there would be a 'master' AP via CAT5 and the 2 other APs linked wirelessly back to it

Size wise approx. 40m x 15m so thinking 3 x units on the back walls

[boxst]

I use fritZbox routers as they have lots of features like dect connections for voip phones and a guest network.

They work quite well, the only thing is that the WiFi isn’t the strongest so needed quite a few in mesh mode for coverage.

[randlemarcus]

As with most networky stuff, for best results, wire it. The mesh stuff works well, but reduces performance a little.

Try eBay to bring the budget inline a bit, but be very wary of End of Life Unifi products. My setup was a bargain a few years ago, but now all needs replacing, including the controller.

[Cardiff_Exile]

[quote=randlemarcus]As with most networky stuff, for best results, wire it. The mesh stuff works well, but reduces performance a little.

my plan was wire a bit

[randlemarcus]

Cardiff_Exile said:

my plan was wire a bit

You'll be running speaker wire, wire for CCTV, and all sorts, just throw another couple up to the far ends, simplifies the AP choice, and means you can concentrate on the guest portal bits

[FunkyGibbon]

Cardiff_Exile]andlemarcus said:

As with most networky stuff, for best results, wire it. The mesh stuff works well, but reduces performance a little.

my plan was wire a bit

A pair of Asus zenwifi AC 3000 would work.

Out of the box they can use separate WiFi channel for the mesh back haul, but also can be fully wired. Amazon have a pair for £258.

You can easily add more nodes with any Asus ai mesh access points.

[troc]

xeny said:

Good point abut the TP-Link stuff, but it isn't that much cheaper.

Say 3 Unifi AC-Lites @£67 or EAP 225's at £62.50 each (Amazon prices for reference).

Either ideally wants a switch (say £20 for an 8 port gigabit switch and use the bundled power injectors rather than spend on a PoE capable switch) and wired connections to the APs.

Either would come under budget (leaving say £70 for a Pi to run the controller if you want a guest portal), but ideally wants some network cable run for best effect.

How big is the venue, and what is the building - concrete walls, or open plan or ...?

I would agree with this as well, for what you want, a set of unifi APs would be more robust that more home-based gear. Running the controller on a pi is fine too

[Magnum 475]

troc said:

xeny said:

Good point abut the TP-Link stuff, but it isn't that much cheaper.

Say 3 Unifi AC-Lites @£67 or EAP 225's at £62.50 each (Amazon prices for reference).

Either ideally wants a switch (say £20 for an 8 port gigabit switch and use the bundled power injectors rather than spend on a PoE capable switch) and wired connections to the APs.

Either would come under budget (leaving say £70 for a Pi to run the controller if you want a guest portal), but ideally wants some network cable run for best effect.

How big is the venue, and what is the building - concrete walls, or open plan or ...?

I would agree with this as well, for what you want, a set of unifi APs would be more robust that more home-based gear. Running the controller on a pi is fine too

I'd recommend ordering from their European on-line shop if you go this route. The EU shop has Wifi 6 APs in, so the latest WiFi specifications, whereas I've not been able to get these in the UK yet. Delivery is typically 48 hours, with all Brexst taxes / duties sorted for you by Ubiquiti. I've just put 3 of the Wifi 6 AP Lites into the house and the coverage is way better than it ever was on the TP Link items that I've replaced.

[xeny]

Magnum 475 said:

I've just put 3 of the Wifi 6 AP Lites into the house and the coverage is way better than it ever was on the TP Link items that I've replaced.

I don't suppose you've got a feel for 2.4GHz performance on them? I've used one as a direct replacement for an AC Lite, and the 5GHz performance is OK, but the 2.4GHz throughput (I've got a couple of legacy 2.4 only devices) is far worse than the old AC unit.

[Magnum 475]

xeny said:

Magnum 475 said:

I've just put 3 of the Wifi 6 AP Lites into the house and the coverage is way better than it ever was on the TP Link items that I've replaced.

I don't suppose you've got a feel for 2.4GHz performance on them? I've used one as a direct replacement for an AC Lite, and the 5GHz performance is OK, but the 2.4GHz throughput (I've got a couple of legacy 2.4 only devices) is far worse than the old AC unit.

I've not compared between the 2.4 & 5 bands to be honest. Most of my devices are on 5GHz, and a couple are already using Wifi 6 (my iPhone 12, and the wife's 12 Mini). The only thing I'm seeing is that areas of the house that previously had very poor performance are now covered much more effectively with much better signal & performance.

[FunkyGibbon]

Magnum 475 said:

coverage is way better than it ever was on the TP Link items that I've replaced.

Out of interest what TP-Link stuff did you replace? Might help me stop making a mistake!

[Lucas Ayde]

Cardiff_Exile said:

Hi All

My 'lockdown project' has been the creation of a community pub in our village. We've got the pub mostly setup and the management team start next week with opening in planned June.

One of my final tasks is Wi-Fi and need some real world experience within my budget of £300 - I've an EFM line in place and later this year hopefully a 900Mbps internet service courtesy of a providers community scheme)

The main requirement I have is to run separate SSIDs that I can rate limit, primarily a guest network. Looking at the triple packs in the price range from TP link / tenda etc they give me the coverage (I can always add another device) but seem to have scant detail on what you can actually do re SSIDs

Any recommendations for the scenario?

Thanks!

I'm familiar with the BT Whole Home Mini. I got them for £75 for a three pack on a deal from Amazon. Think they usually go for around £99.

They are WiFi 5 and potentially deliver 866mbit/s over 5Ghz and something like 300mbit/s over 2.4Ghz. You probably won't get those speeds though.

SSIDs are the same name for 2.4 and 5Ghz bands, you can't separate them - the system will auto steer the devices trying to connect to the 'best' network for them if they support both. Seems to do this very well as all my 5GHz capable devices end up on 5GHz, the older stuff works great on the 2,4GHz band.

You can also have a separate Guest WiFi network too.

Very easy to install - plug the first disc into the router via ethernet cable and place the other two discs where you find the best combo of coverage/ performace, they just need power. They can be connected via ethernet to the router also, if you want, but they will sync over WiFi otherwise.

I'm only using them in a regular house but they have completely blanketed the place with signal. Performance is easily able to max out my internet connection from any device, anywhere, even out in the front garden or back yard. More importantly for me they have been very stable - my built in router wifi would fall over every 5-7 days requiring a router reboot, which is why I bought the discs to replace the WiFi functionality. No such issues with the discs.

You can't rate limit however - unless you have the ability to do that at the router level. The discs are just a wireless Access Point.

[troc]

One thing to bear in mind maybe is the number of anticipated users. The home-based gear may struggle with a large number of multiple wifi users whereas the unifi stuff (for example) is designed to handle hundreds of simultaneous wifi users on multiple SSIDs and VLANs. If the pub will only ever have 10 users at the same time, it's probably irrelevant but if you anticipate the whole village popping in for a pint and still want to run the EPOS etc then there is an advantage to the more commercial gear.