What equipment should I buy to connect over a hundred WiFi devices?

[c627627]

What does the 'Long Range' refer to in this model to give it a name indicating it can reach further than Pro and Lite, and how does that spec compare to the flagship HD model you recommended?

What do you interpret Ubiquiti means by 300+ max concurrent users on this model, does it mean 150 max on 2.4GHz?

 

[JrClocker]

So my theory of having them all on the same band being important appears to be true.
Therefore it was VITAL to label the 2.4GHz & 5GHz connections differently so you can CLEARLY see what you are connecting to.
Labeling both connections the same because of "seamless switching" has just been demonstrated to be false - unless there is a second explanation for my test scenario.

I don't think you have enough data to make this conclusion...would have to look at how the rest of your network is setup and configured.

I have both my 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz on the same SSID and let the network determine what goes where, and I don't have the issues you have.

 

[Railgun]

What does the 'Long Range' refer to in this model to give it a name indicating it can reach further than Pro and Lite, and how does that spec compare to the flagship HD model you recommended?

What do you interpret Ubiquiti means by 300+ max concurrent users on this model, does it mean 150 max on 2.4GHz?

The LR model has a larger antenna array. It should be more sensitive to weaker signals, thus effectively provide more range. The pro is largely similar save for the antenna design. The lite model is only a 2x2 MIMO whereas the others are 4x4, which is beneficial for multiple clients. Though all three claim to handle 300+ clients, you'd get better overall performance with the 4x4 radios.

 

[c627627]

Well so the Pro has a powerful, but weaker antenna than LR, is that correct?


Around 100 feet is when things start to get iffy. I was surprised it connected to the barn light a hundred feet away (!) - but it struggled with the barn power sockets - so around 100 feet is when you see its distance limitations, these can be somewhat mitigated by placement of the Ubiquiti device (ceiling vs. wall, etc.)

 

[JrClocker]

Reminds me - with the round UniFi access points, due to their antenna patterns, you want to mount them so that the "blue light circle" is facing up or down in the horizontal position...not sideways. This will give you the best performance.

Said differently, you don't want to mount them vertically on a wall. They have a separate form factor if you want to mount the access point vertically on or in a wall.

 

[Railgun]

Reminds me - with the round UniFi access points, due to their antenna patterns, you want to mount them so that the "blue light circle" is facing up or down in the horizontal position...not sideways. This will give you the best performance.

Said differently, you don't want to mount them vertically on a wall. They have a separate form factor if you want to mount the access point vertically on or in a wall.

I can confirm this.

 

[c627627]

That is useful information.

This model took on about 80 connections on 2.4GHz like a champ so far and additional 15 on 5GHz.
If you have a larger number of devices in your house, there is really zero sense in purchasing the usual - they cannot handle any kind of volume of devices like Ubiquiti clearly can. The big test is tomorrow night, I hope the music holds without interruption.



So regarding my question that is actually very relevant: is there anything else on the market that competes with Ubiquiti as far as what I have experienced so far?
I mean this thing is worth its weight in gold.

 

[Janus67]

Anything that is leaning towards a more professional segment would be similar (meraki is one, there are others). Ubiquiti is a good solid pro-sumer brand that has more and more pro-esque products as well

 

[c627627]

Would you please post what meraki couterpart models are so I can see what their pricing is - and how do they compare to Ubiquiti, performance wise?

 

[c627627]

So this worked beyond a dream.
↑ I have not even mounted this thing, it is just sitting in my bedroom, like this ↑
And it is reaching every device in a 67 foot radius.

It is not reaching the barn a hundred feet away but I mean, I never expected it to. So that's the conclusion on how much superior the range is.
I mean I don't know if I need to bother moving it to a more centralized place - every device can be turned ON/OFF with it so far... in a 67 foot radius, I used a laser distance measuring gadget to calculate the radius of reach.

 

[c627627]

Another mystery solved.
When I had Netgear and tp-link extenders I could not stream Pandora from my PC. On Ubiquiti, Pandora streams fine!

Before, within 15-30 minutes, Pandora would "hick-up". [Interestingly Spotify would not "hick up" - Spotify could stream from my PC fine - but Pandora could only stream from my cell phones.] So something in the way Pandora was programmed did not sit well with using consumer Access Points and Extenders....


And I would also go back to the importance of having all Google Audio Chrome casts on the same 2.4GHz band - I really think it helped synchronized streaming to seven receivers in separate rooms.

I would not buy a consumer Access Point / Extender ever again.

 

[The_Jizzler]

Forget meraki gear, it has annual licensing and if you don't keep it active, bye bye network. It's for businesses willing to shell out hundreds or thousands a year in licensing. Ubiquiti is considered prosumer or SMB type gear. Basically, anything intended for the business market is going to have annual costs/licensing associated with it. Maybe mikrotik gear doesn't need licensing?

 

[Janus67]

Forget meraki gear, it has annual licensing and if you don't keep it active, bye bye network. It's for businesses willing to shell out hundreds or thousands a year in licensing. Ubiquiti is considered prosumer or SMB type gear. Basically, anything intended for the business market is going to have annual costs/licensing associated with it. Maybe mikrotik gear doesn't need licensing?

thank you, I had mikrotic in mind when I said meraki

 

[JrClocker]

I would not buy a consumer Access Point / Extender ever again.

Remember this when you need to upgrade a switch, router, or add cameras. The UniFi products in these areas are very good as well.

 

[c627627]

Ubiquiti passed the test of 100% stability over the weekend. It is rock solid. Question: Where do you go to create a guest password / network for guests on Ubiquiti?

No savings / sales are worth getting a Netgear/tp-link/similar consumer Access Point. In fact I have found out the hard way that you should not accept a FREE Netgear/tp-link/other consumer Access Point. The price you will pay in time and frustration for a consumer product is not worth any savings.


This brings us to trying to understand the current market.


So, in case Ubiquiti models are not available, (and most are not available at the end of 2021 - not even mine is available any more and I just got it last week), what other products compete?
You mentioned this brand
https://mikrotik.com/products/group/wireless-for-home-and-office

All right, which items compare to Ubiquiti, why are they better/worse? Is there another brand that competes with Ubiquiti (that does not have an insane subscription model)?

 

[JrClocker]

Ubiquiti passed the test of 100% stability over the weekend. It is rock solid. Question: Where do you go to create a guest password / network for guests on Ubiquiti?

You are using a UniFi access point, which is a Ubiquiti product. I keep highlighting this as Ubiquiti has other product lines as well...and, for example, while the UniFi and Edgerouter series will work together, you need two different controllers as they are different product lines.

If you have a UniFi router (USG, USG Pro, Dream Machine, Dream Machine Pro ... they are also working on a new router series too...forgot the name) and a UniFi switching product then setting up a guest network within the controller software (UniFi Network Application) is trivial...and there are many online guides on how to do this.

If you do not have a UniFi router and switch:
- Make sure that any switches you have can pass VLAN traffic...these are usually "managed" or "semi-managed" switches
- Create a separate VLAN for a guest network with the appropriate firewall rules
- You will need to know the VLAN ID for both your main network and the guest VLAN
- Ensure that the switch port the UniFi access point is connected to passes both the main and guest VLAN IDs
- Ensure the access point has a wired connection back to the router which is managing the VLANS (through 1 or more switches is OK)
- Go into the setup page for the access point, and create a new SSID and attach the guest VLAN ID to the new SSID

 

[c627627]

I only have this router, no switch:
https://www.netgear.com/support/product/R7960P.aspx

 

[JrClocker]

Chapter 6 talks about VLANs.

 

[trents]

Okay, I will look for the Ubiquiti Access Point to buy. Do I need a PoE switch or can the Ubiquiti pair up with my router directly
https://www.netgear.com/support/product/R7960P.aspx

Ubiquity APs are POE-powered. We put in about 20 of them this summer in a private school. With the number of devices you speak of being polled all the time you may find there is a lot of noise/cross talk that will generate disconnects. We were using Chromecast dongles for our classroom projectors and all the kids had Wifi Chromebooks. We initially had a huge problem with Wifi noise/cross talk because of all the Wifi devices in each classroom and adjacent classrooms. Mainly it created a problem with the Chromecasts. We basically fixed this by reducing the frequency of the polling using settings found in the Dream Machine Pro. Using Vlans is a good idea, serving to split up and segregate a large number of Wifi devices into smaller service segments to combat noise/cross talk on the network but creating them can be labor intensive I understand.

 

[c627627]

"We basically fixed this by reducing the frequency of the polling using settings found in the Dream Machine Pro."

That means you fixed it on the router part of the equation - not the Access Point settings?
I connected the Ubiquiti AP with over 100 WiFi devices directly to my router, no switch.

Should I ever need it, does that mean that the fix you used can also be applied inside my Netgear router, or is this a setting specific to your Dream Machine Pro router?