55
What access points do you use?
(lemmy.ml)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2024
55 points (100.0% liked)
Selfhosted
62320 readers
1473 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil.
-
No spam.
-
Posts are to be related to self-hosting.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.
-
Submission headline should match the article title.
-
No trolling.
-
Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.
-
AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I use the Unifi access points. They work well and are fairly inexpensive. The management software can change settings on all of them at once, which is really handy if you have several.
If you're looking for top radio performance, not necessarily the fastest speed, get the Pro models, older gen / second hand if needed, especially if you have suboptimal physical conditions. E.g. concrete walls, metal, etc. I had AC Lite, AC LR and AC Pro in use at some point. All of them were very good but the Pro had the best overall radio performance. If you're in a wooden house with drywall partitions, probably all would do well enough.
I had a few AC Pros in a 110+ year old house where other AP’s had issues with all the plaster & lathe walls. They worked great. I also have a couple of them installed at a non-profit org I volunteer with and everybody is very happy with how they work there as well.
After moving from that first house to a new one with a bigger footprint I upgraded to a pair of their U6 mesh AP’s, one at each end of the house. Never had any issues with them.
Aaah, good old plaster wire mesh, it's kinda like a Faraday cage. I've lived in a condo with plaster walls and one room that had it all around was nearly impenetrable.
Not OP, but I have one NanoHD upstairs, one IW-HD and one U6-IW. Basically bought them in that order when needed. The IW have the advantage to also act as Ethernet switch to a few devices like Apple TV and so on.
Not OP, I've installed a little bit of all of them for work, every form factor and version seem to be stellar.
I installed a bunch of Enterprise 7s at work and they're super fast, but approaching chonky in size. Honestly, I really like the in-wall HDs They cover most of my house
The U6LR is amazing but overkill. I use one to cover the house and hdnano to mesh with a uap-ac in an external building.
I use a MoCo bridge and two U6LRs to cover 1km of farmland.
Pro has issues such as disconnects for 2.4ghz and runs hot.
The dream router is an excellent base to build upon. It provides all the normal functions (ethernet, wifi, router etc) as well as hosting the control software.
Unifi's real power is when you expand it. The access points make extending WiFi coverage easy. You dont even need a wired link. It will link over WiFi, either as a primary or as a fall back. The flex mini is also quite handy. It's a little poe powered switch. I have a couple tucked away providing extra ports around the house.
With my setup, I have detailed monitoring and control down to the port or wifi device. I can monitor and control things in detail, or get a high level view of my network.
My access points are AC Lite and and U6 Lite. Those are discontinued though.
If I get more for inside, I would probably get the U6+. I am also thinking about getting one of the AC Mesh access points for outside. I'm not too worried about speed since anything that needs high speed is wired. I don't have any neighbors, so I have all the bands to myself. If you are in an urban area, you should probably consider one with 6GHz support.
The U6+ will nearly max out gigabit with a 160MHz channel. The U7 Pro can provide higher speeds, but keep in mind there is only room for a single 240MHz channel on 5GHz. You will need 2.5G ethernet to take advantage of the higher speeds.
Interference from any other WiFi networks within your channel will slow things down a lot though. That makes running with channels wider than 80MHz difficult if there are any other networks in range.
It's also really annoying if you only have one.
The AP works really well, so I put up with it.