There are plenty of excellent reviews on this product so I won't go into a lot of detail around the technology, but I will highlight some of the better points of my experience.
My network is a mix of wired devices and wireless devices totaling over 100 with 60+ devices on Wi-Fi. Many standard devices such as phones, tablets and computers I also have cameras, a home security system and many IoT devices. I have four access points throughout the, not for signal reason, but to help balance the connections to each access point. My Internet speed coming in is 600 Mbps (download) and 20 Mbps going out (upload). I use a basic cable modem (non-router) and I have a firewall/security device.
My previously wireless system was very problematic, and the access points I had were not cheap ones. I experienced a lot of drops during the day and some devices would not even stay connected. For example, our refrigerator would connect for a day or two and then lose its connection to the Wi-Fi permanently. I would have to “reboot” and reconnect it over and over again. I just assumed the refrigerator had a flawed wi-fi card or firmware. I also experienced drops while streaming with frequent freezing of the video stream. The bandwidth/speed I was getting from the AP’s would average about 40 Mbps but would peak at 130 Mbps. Sometimes it would go as low as 10 Mbps. Whenever an access point was overloaded it would reboot causing Wi-Fi outages in certain areas for several minutes. When an access point went offline, the devices would attempt to reconnect to one further away getting a degraded signal with lower throughput. The issue went on and on until my wife called me at work completely frustrated because our kids could not get connected to their online classes, and when they got connected, they were being dropped every few minutes. I debated making the investment in Ubiquiti for some time but hadn’t because of the money I had invested in my current system. I went ahead and purchased four access points to replace the four I have now.
Installation was easy. I was fortunate that my previous AP’s were PoE, so I just swapped them out. I immediately noticed the improvement. When opening a web page on any device there was always a short delay in loading the page. The pages now load instantly with a very noticeable difference.
I used the PoE injectors that came with these new AP’s. I was also fortunate that I already have a server to install the UniFi Controller software.
A little side note about my sever; I was able to pick up a used blade server on which I run a free version of VMware ESXi to host a few servers. One is a pfSense firewall (open source and free). Two are Ubuntu severs running as Minecraft servers. All of this sounds complex and expensive but really is not. I cranked up a new Ubuntu 20 server and installed the Ubiquiti UniFi controller software which I downloaded from their web site.
The best part of these access points is that they are not stand-alone (although I believe they can run stand-alone). This is important for several reasons. First configuration is a breeze. Just setup your Wi-Fi network and all access points will get the configuration. Second, all monitoring is done via the UniFi Controller software which has a rich configuration and numerous capabilities. Third, you can configure the controller for remote access through Ubiquiti’s web site in a secured manner. I did not have to open any ports on my firewall. In addition, two-factor authentication can be turned on to provide an extra level of security to your AP’s. Finally, if you have other UniFi products from Ubiquiti this controller software. For example, you can get the Security Gateway and/or one of the (PoE) switches and manage them from this controller software.
If you plan on purchasing these access points plan on installing the controller software. If you don’t have a computer running all the time on your network, you can purchase the Ubiquiti Cloud Key which has the software running on it and connects to your local network (wired) to manage and control the AP’s. You can install the software on your computer or tablet to setup and manage the access points, but certain features, such as setting up a guest network, require the controller software to be running on the network all of the time.
The controller software has a new AI feature that analyzes the traffic and the connections and determines the best settings such as transmit power and channels. This help gets the best performance from your network. I have been running this for a week and watching the performance and stability increase each day. It is an amazing feature.
Since installing these access points, I have seen 100% of my issues go away. No more drops. No more AP’s rebooting. No more video streaming freezes. The bandwidth is amazing. All devices are averaging above 200 Mbps downloads from the Internet with peaks upwards of 350 Mbps. Even those devices that would not stay connected are up and running consistently with no issues. Most importantly, my kids are able to stay connected to their classes now without any performance issues or delays (my kids actually stopped complaining about the Wi-Fi!).
After purchasing the initial four access points, I decided to purchase a fifth. I have several devices running in my garage and outside (such as security cameras) that need some extra bandwidth. I ran a fiber cable from my main switch (which is also not very expensive these days) out to the garage. You may ask me why I need five access points. The answer is simply I do not want so many devices sharing a single LAN connection. In some cases, such as the garage, I needed a better signal in that area. Since these are HD AP’s I can use more in a smaller space and get excellent performance. I use more than one to get a good balance of signal and total throughput.
I am extremely impressed with the Ubiquiti line of products. They bring everything you need to have a professional grade Wi-Fi network in your home, complete with a high level of easy management and security at much lower prices than big companies pay. If you are working from home or depend heavily on your home network, do yourself a favor and invest in Ubiquiti.
I can definitely recommend these as the best Wi-Fi products available for the home.
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
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