Recommendation for a Wireless AP with switch

[Duke of Kidderminster]

Have poor WiFi at home plus I regularly saturate my BT HH6, even on wired connections. So figure it's time to put in some robust networking equipment for my home servers, storage and wireless devices. Don't want to break the bank and splash out huge money though.

Can anyone recommend a good all-in-one AP and Switch - possibly with an ADSL modem built in? A cloud managed service as well is a plus (akin to Meraki) but not a requirement. It needs to be able to stand up to sustained data transfer between internal devices as well as getting strong WiFi to the top of the house

[Harpoon]

So a switch, AP and ADSL modem? You mean an ADSL router then?

[Duke of Kidderminster]

yep, that's it. But something that's better than the crud you get from an ISP. Needs to be robust enough for heavy data usage as well as provide a strong WiFi signal.

[randlemarcus]

Is the WiFi signal strong enough throughout the house, i.e. signal strength, rather than speed?

If so, maybe an Asus/Netgear etc router to replace your ISP provided one, assuming that's supported.

If not, then maybe a Mesh wifi, or a Unifi setup will do.

All spend is relative

[Duke of Kidderminster]

wifi is weak at the top of the house thus increasing ping times and reducing speed.

also, when copying large volumes of data over wifi or wired the router can get overwhelmed and slow down significantly

[Bikerjon]

Maybe a Draytek 2862ac would fit the bill. You may still need another AP to cover the Wi-Fi at the outer limits, but they do some compatible units that can integrate with the 2862 as a controller.

[Sonie]

I had this issue until I put in a Mesh Wi-Fi system. I chose the BT offering and it’s great. I’d suggest getting the 4 disk.

I haven’t googled the most you can connect but they do sell them individually

[hutchst]

"Heavy data usage" and "strong Wifi signal" are both subjective terms. Only you know what they mean to your situation. There are a range of solutions with a range of price tags.

The ASUS stuff is very good, you could try the DSL-AC68U for about £130 or better still the DSL-AC88U for about £200. Remember that range is better on the 2.4GHz band than 5GHz when it comes to connecting to dual band routers, although theoretically lower throughput.

[Mattt]

If you can wait for a while, I’d go for the UniFi Dream Machine.

It’s in Beta at the moment, cloud managed, gigabit routing with IPS, WiFi AP, switch etc.

[robbieduncan]

Mattt said:

If you can wait for a while, I’d go for the UniFi Dream Machine.

It’s in Beta at the moment, cloud managed, gigabit routing with IPS, WiFi AP, switch etc.

Was about to be my recommendation too. You can always add additional APs either in mesh or with wired backhaul too

[Mr E]

Can your stations do 802.11ac
Or ac phase two?
Or ax?

If they can’t, little point in sticking in high performance WLAN

[hutchst]

Mr E said:

Can your stations do 802.11ac
Or ac phase two?
Or ax?

If they can’t, little point in sticking in high performance WLAN

Only if you're not planning on getting any new phones, laptops, tablets and stuff over the next few years. How many phones less than 2 years old don't do ac?

[Mr E]

hutchst said:

Only if you're not planning on getting any new phones, laptops, tablets and stuff over the next few years. How many phones less than 2 years old don't do ac?

Agreed, but won’t solve the OPs current problem

[dmsims]

https://www.netgear.co.uk/home/products/networking...

[Duke of Kidderminster]

any idea on when the UniFi Dream will release? Can't find much about it online other than the beta program.

failing that i'll take a look at the Netgear recommendation

[Mattt]

Rumour was around end of the year

[anonymous-user]

Look at T.P Link kit