Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

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Discussion

Blown2CV

28,995 posts

204 months

Monday 2nd January 2023
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but surely the router is plugged into the switch, and all the APs hang off the management device, which in turn is connected to the switch? There isn't only one AP that handles it... maybe there are multiple ways to do it...

Bikerjon

2,202 posts

162 months

Monday 2nd January 2023
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What client devices are you using to test the WiFi speed?

Seventyseven7

893 posts

70 months

Monday 2nd January 2023
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Bikerjon said:
What client devices are you using to test the WiFi speed?
An iPhone 14, a Mac Book Pro, an iPad Pro, an XPS etc etc. It's not the devices....

paralla

3,545 posts

136 months

Monday 2nd January 2023
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Interested to know what you are replacing it with.

SteveKTMer

785 posts

32 months

Monday 2nd January 2023
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What speed does the AP state your MacBook is connecting at ?

Bikerjon

2,202 posts

162 months

Monday 2nd January 2023
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Seventyseven7 said:
Bikerjon said:
What client devices are you using to test the WiFi speed?
An iPhone 14, a Mac Book Pro, an iPad Pro, an XPS etc etc. It's not the devices....
Good, and they're definitely all connecting to the 5Ghz channel because you have disabled the 2.4 channel to test this out?


wombleh

1,800 posts

123 months

Monday 2nd January 2023
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Unifi stuff can set bandwidth limits per user, worth checking that’s not enabled.

Think you can get more wifi info by holding option key and clicking the network icon on a mac, will tell you what frequency/channel you’re connected on and the advertised rate, might give some clues.

troc

3,788 posts

176 months

Monday 2nd January 2023
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There’s definitely something odd with your system. Are the APs up to date firmware-wise? Uunfi are notorious for shipping hardware with buggy firmware and there have been many updates to the APs recently.

There’s a very active unifi discord that can be very helpful with setup too.

I get the full 600Mbps of my connection to my iPhone 12 when standing next to my unifi wifi 6 APs.

Captain_Morgan

1,232 posts

60 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
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Seventyseven7 said:
Sorry, I was supposed to say VM hub is in modem mode.

Yes, I think resetting one AP and starting from there would be sensible, but it would be so time consuming to have to reset the whole system (Which would be the case if I reset the master AP). I'll see if the new system that comes on Thursday has any issues, if it doesn't instantly give me a good speed, then I will spend the time to reset the Unifi system.

Will look for the wifi anaylser on the controller now, thanks
I think I didn’t convey my suggestion very well. The aim was to give you the most basic unifi setup to test the ap’s with minimal config work & allow you a easy roll back in the event it’s needed.


You are managing the unifi devices via the controller app on you mac(?) correct?

If so the config stays live on that, you can factory reset devices & then re connect them, tell the controller sw they are that device & it downloaded ‘old’ config to them, think of it in much the same way as you would when replace dead or faulty device.

So if you powered everything bar the vm hub & a single ap
shut down the unifi software controller app
do a factory reset on the ap
put the vm hub back into default mode & turn off wifi on it
connect the ap to the vm hub via ethernet,
Fire up the unifi iOS app on your phone/iPad & do a minimum config to set it up as a single ap
you can then test a single ap, wired direct to the vm hub with a basic config on it.

If you get ~5-600 you know it’s likely config related, if still ~100 then likely hw, you could then try a factory reset of other ap’s & introduce them with a wireless interconnect if you so wished.

To roll back to the old config delete the iOS app. Factory reset any test ap’s, vm hub back to modem mode, reconnect & power all devices, fire the controller up on the Mac (wired) & re-adopt the reset ap’s.

I’d guess sub 10mins each way.

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Tuesday 3rd January 08:37


Edited by Captain_Morgan on Tuesday 3rd January 08:41

Seventyseven7

893 posts

70 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
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Captain_Morgan said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Sorry, I was supposed to say VM hub is in modem mode.

Yes, I think resetting one AP and starting from there would be sensible, but it would be so time consuming to have to reset the whole system (Which would be the case if I reset the master AP). I'll see if the new system that comes on Thursday has any issues, if it doesn't instantly give me a good speed, then I will spend the time to reset the Unifi system.

Will look for the wifi anaylser on the controller now, thanks
I think I didn’t convey my suggestion very well.

You are managing the unifi devices via the controller app on you mac(?) correct?

If so the config stays live on that, you can factory reset devices & then re connect them, tell the controller sw they are that device & it downloaded ‘old’ config to them, think of it in much the same way as you would when replace dead or faulty device.

So if you powered everything bar the vm hub & a single ap, shut down the unifi software controller app, put the hub back into default mode, turn off wifi, connect the ap to the vm hub via ethernet, do a factory reset on the ap, fire up the unifi iOS app on your phone/iPad & do a minimum config to set it up as a single ap you can then test.

If you get ~5-600 you know it’s likely config related, if still ~100 then likely hw, you could then try a factory reset of other ap’s & introduce them with a wireless interconnect if you so wished.

To roll back to the old config delete the iOS app. Factory reset any test ap’s, vm hub back to modem mode, reconnect & power all devices, fire the controller up on the Mac (wired) & re-adopt the reset ap’s.

I’d guess sub 10mins each way.
Perfect, going to try this later then. I didn’t realise this was all I needed to go. Will report back later with results

Seventyseven7

893 posts

70 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
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troc said:
There’s definitely something odd with your system. Are the APs up to date firmware-wise? Uunfi are notorious for shipping hardware with buggy firmware and there have been many updates to the APs recently.

There’s a very active unifi discord that can be very helpful with setup too.

I get the full 600Mbps of my connection to my iPhone 12 when standing next to my unifi wifi 6 APs.
Yes all up to date. An update seems to come out very frequently with these, but I always run the updates.

Seventyseven7

893 posts

70 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
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SteveKTMer said:
What speed does the AP state your MacBook is connecting at ?
I haven’t checked, will do today.

Bikerjon said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Bikerjon said:
What client devices are you using to test the WiFi speed?
An iPhone 14, a Mac Book Pro, an iPad Pro, an XPS etc etc. It's not the devices....
Good, and they're definitely all connecting to the 5Ghz channel because you have disabled the 2.4 channel to test this out?
I assume so, I’ve tried turning off 2.4 and 5 at different times and also tried it when both selected. No difference


wombleh said:
Unifi stuff can set bandwidth limits per user, worth checking that’s not enabled.

Think you can get more wifi info by holding option key and clicking the network icon on a mac, will tell you what frequency/channel you’re connected on and the advertised rate, might give some clues.
Will try this later. I can’t see any bandwidth limits set, I can see on the Wi-Fi profile it says unlimited so I assume that’s all good.

Captain_Morgan

1,232 posts

60 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
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Seventyseven7 said:
Perfect, going to try this later then. I didn’t realise this was all I needed to go. Will report back later with results
I made a couple of edits to that post so just reference my original post.

Also when the replacement kit arrives you know you can use the same wifi ssid/password combo as on the unifi setup, it should make it easier to switch & test between the two setups. I’m sure you already knew that but just in case you didn’t. Obviously only have one wifi platform turned on at a time.

Also I wouldn’t do that when testing the unifi ap as you want control over what clients connect during testing.

Bikerjon

2,202 posts

162 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
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Seventyseven7 said:
SteveKTMer said:
What speed does the AP state your MacBook is connecting at ?
I haven’t checked, will do today.

Bikerjon said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Bikerjon said:
What client devices are you using to test the WiFi speed?
An iPhone 14, a Mac Book Pro, an iPad Pro, an XPS etc etc. It's not the devices....
Good, and they're definitely all connecting to the 5Ghz channel because you have disabled the 2.4 channel to test this out?
I assume so, I’ve tried turning off 2.4 and 5 at different times and also tried it when both selected. No difference

OK it only takes just a few seconds to confirm. In Unifi go to the client devices screen, find and click on your iPhone or Macbook and the pop out screen will display the information on the connection status/channel/TX/RX rates etc. Obviously make sure your testing devices are placed near to the AP when you do this.

Evanivitch

20,261 posts

123 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
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Recommended cheap and simple Wireless Access Point?

We have a new garden room. CAT6 running in. Power socket near by. Will occasionally be used as an office space for video calling.

Blown2CV

28,995 posts

204 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
quotequote all
Seventyseven7 said:
SteveKTMer said:
What speed does the AP state your MacBook is connecting at ?
I haven’t checked, will do today.

Bikerjon said:
Seventyseven7 said:
Bikerjon said:
What client devices are you using to test the WiFi speed?
An iPhone 14, a Mac Book Pro, an iPad Pro, an XPS etc etc. It's not the devices....
Good, and they're definitely all connecting to the 5Ghz channel because you have disabled the 2.4 channel to test this out?
I assume so, I’ve tried turning off 2.4 and 5 at different times and also tried it when both selected. No difference


wombleh said:
Unifi stuff can set bandwidth limits per user, worth checking that’s not enabled.

Think you can get more wifi info by holding option key and clicking the network icon on a mac, will tell you what frequency/channel you’re connected on and the advertised rate, might give some clues.
Will try this later. I can’t see any bandwidth limits set, I can see on the Wi-Fi profile it says unlimited so I assume that’s all good.
incidentally did you do the install yourself or did you get a specialist to do it?

xeny

4,384 posts

79 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
quotequote all
Evanivitch said:
Recommended cheap and simple Wireless Access Point?

We have a new garden room. CAT6 running in. Power socket near by. Will occasionally be used as an office space for video calling.

Something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WA1201-AC1200-... ?

somouk

1,425 posts

199 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
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Anyone using the TP Link Omada equipment for their home network instead of Unifi?

I’m starting the move over when the router arrives tomorrow.

dmsims

6,558 posts

268 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
quotequote all
somouk said:
Anyone using the TP Link Omada equipment for their home network instead of Unifi?

I’m starting the move over when the router arrives tomorrow.
"The Smarter Cloud Solution for Business Networking"

Unlikely as it's not some corporate willy waving contest


wombleh

1,800 posts

123 months

Tuesday 3rd January 2023
quotequote all
Yea I made the switch last year, was very smooth. My old unifi kit used to restart after most config changes which was a massive PITA, was a few years old so their newer kit may well be different. I find the Omada stuff easy to setup, tweak and all works well.

I don’t think you’d go wrong with either, especially if not doing much fancy,