I I read that since Home Automation devices are constantly connected “regular” WiFi router fail often, and that the way to go is router with MiMo technology.
Before throwing away my
Asus N55 on ground floor +
(attached via Ethernet) Netgear R7000 on first floor +
(attached wirelessly ) a EX7000 extender on third floor
I wanted to know your experiences
Why are they saying the router will fail? Overload, unable to support the number of devices? Mimo is the new technology everyone hears and parrots around, I’m guessing a lot of the people recommending it don’t really understand what it does.
I wouldn’t think that Home Automation devices would present that much load on a router. They aren’t sending that much data and watching a HD movie would be more stressful to the router. Unless, the router is near its max number of Wifi connections or the state table is getting full. You would have to have a ton of devices for this to happen though.
That being said I was having issues with my router as I started adding more HA devices. It was however, getting old, poorly located and not well ventilated. The added stress of the new devices was lilkey enough to make it uncomfortable. I didn’t like zwave when I tried it so I have stuck to all Wifi devices, they add up quickly. With 30 or so devices connected, my old Netgear N600 was having issues now and then, I was dropping connection to the internet and losing my Wifi connection here and there.
I now only use the N600 as a access point and have a box running pfSense as my router/firewall. Things have been much smoother since. I still want to replace the N600 and get an access point as I think I can get better coverage and throughput for relatively cheap.
A solid router should be able to handle the traffic unless you have a ton of devices. That R7000 is sitting idle as it is just being used as an access point and doesn’t have to perform any routing or firewall duties. Its really a waste of that router. Not familiar with the N55 but I would see which has better hardware and put it on “router” duty. Put the less powerful device on access point duty.
I like ubiquiti
Tried everything. Single ubiquiti AP stabilized my wifi (strong signal, good throughput, no drops).
I installed in friends 2800sqft 2 story home and single AP covers space easily
I now have ubiquiti gateway, switch and single B/G/N AP
(13) wifi devices, (15)LAN and external traffic streaming from my Plex server. This includes hardwired IP cameras and several devices streaming Netflix simultaneously on wifi
I have 0 issues and no bandwidth issues
I have gatway and AP( w/ generic switch) at a few other sites and same result. No problem
Ubiquiti has Mimo AP but I have not tested. I don’t think Mimo is needed unless you need to use it to extend your network distance using wifi. I think most.of this is hype since most.home connection can’t do better than 60/10 or so and B/G/N puts you at about 140/140. Basically unless your streaming 4k to 10 devices on your LAN simultaneously there’s a lot of headroom with standard (stable) wifi to support web browsing and Netflix, etc. video streaming
Eros is another Mimo thingy but I have not used this and don’t like that product category (google onhub, ubiquiti ampli, easy consumer wifi solution)
Home Automation devices are constantly connected
yeah, that’s kinda how wifi works… smh…
I’ve been running a WNDR3700 w/DD-WRT as my router with 2 WNR2000 w/DD-WRT as APs for years with more constantly connected wifi devices than most people’s home automation systems will ever have without incident. (I say that now) So you should be fine with whatever system you choose. I’d stay away from Belkin personally but YMMV.
Everyone in my house has a laptop, cell phone, tablet, 1 or 2 media streaming devices (roku and CC) some game systems, TV, blu-ray, Pi’s and so on and my main router hardly ever gets pushed. CPU usage rarely hits 20%. APs just chug along like nothing’s wrong.
I would recommend ubiquiti. Being a semi pro yet affordable wifi solution you can expect it to handle the more complex scenario you described.
(Mu)-Mimo is not your magic solution. For it to work it needs clients (and wifi access point) to support it. So in order to get the performance benefit make sure your clients also support it or prepare to be disappointed
+1 for ubiquiti APs. You really can’t go wrong with those: after years of struggling with my wifi, I’ve deployed 3 of them around my house and wifi has been rock solid for the last 12 months.
SO basically use the R7000 as router in ground floor (sell the ASUS), and then use Ubiquity as AP.
If I remember well AP you need ethernet connection with router, correct?
That can I do with first floor, but second floor I do not have access now with ethernet from the router
I have:
So not extremely complicated, but also not super simple
Yep, ethernet connection between router & AP needed.
I’ve tried to use some wifi range extenders with my first ubiquiti AP, but then my wifi became not 100% reliable. So I’ve run some cat6 through my building (actually my electrician, it was a pure nightmare) and put more APs.
I’m running around 100 wifi clients on my network (we are 3 families sharing a building), and not a single problem so far.
After my positive experience with aps, I’ve also bought a Edgerouter X as a router: not the most easy thing to configure, but again, really good product.
Good luck with your network 
Yep, that’s why I try to avoid it
All AP have to be connecte3d to the router, correct?
Or is it also possible
router — AP ---- AP ?
Other question, you name your WIFIs with
Yes
Ubiquitii AP can wireless bridge or mesh will also work
1 AP must be hardwired
Bandwith is basically reduced by 1/2
Requires at least 1 AP to be AC version, other can be bgn
I did this with (2)AC Capable AP. 5GHZ freq was used for bridge and 2.5 was used for devices (not necessary to split freq like that, I was just curious)
The new mesh AP may work well for this.
Ubiquiti requires controller install on server.
I have no server
Raspberry pi (server) or any PC is OK. It use low resources so nothing terribly powerful required.
This may not be worth it, for some, just to run single AP.
I
I could use the same pi3 where I have HASS
Yes
HA and Unifi controller should be OK on RasPi together
So to summarize I could build my network like this?
Router R7000 (ground floor), as main router connected to a VDSL modem
Ubiquity AP (first floor), connected via ethernet to the R7000
Ubiquity AP (second floor), connected wirelessly to the Ubiquity AP (first floor)
Unify server software running on pi3 connected via ethernet to the router R7000 or Ubiquity AP (first floor)
WOuld that improve the performance of my system?
p.s. I know that this can improve if I connect with ethernet Ubiquity AP (second floor) to R7000 (ground floor), but I would leave this project for the future
Ubiquity AP which model to buy? AC lite? or LR? please recomend for us
Just to be clear…There is no magical wifi so you should first look into anything that may create performance issues before going to buy something to make things better.
You originally had no issue, so You shouldn’t be concerned about future issues just because you add IOT. A lot of this stuff is cheap crap sold at high prices under big brand name. Wireless issues may be more in device side than network side which is usually the case.
With that said, Ubiquiti has performed stable for me and has strong wifi radio. I used mostly because I like user interface.
You proposed setup should work. If N600 transmits wifi make.sure you aren’t stepping on 1st floor AP signal by having both N600 and Unifi AP side by side.
Same for 1st and 2nd floor AP. APs have specific radiation patwrn and distance.capabilites. to place them so there is some overlap but not too close.so that they inject noise on to each other or so far there are many dropped packet.
What is result with AP on first floor connecting to.device on third? No signal, low signal? I installed in home with AP on second d and first floor where all device connect to second floor with no issue. Depending on home size this may be enough. What about AP on 1st and 3rd?(it wireless so why not try?)
5MHZ does not penetrate wall as good as 2.5MHZ. keep this in mind when setting up and planning since you must go through floor and wall.
AC Lite is require at minimum since you plan wireless bridge.
AC LR is OK as well and prices are about same.
IF AC not needed the standard Unifi AP and APLR are perfectly fine. Again, I don’t currently feel AC(5MHZ) is big deal need for web surfing, IOT(which usually is 2.5) or a few.video streams. Maybe in future when 4k is real but by then ACAP will be 1/3 price. Price being same,ACAP is best (AC Lite or ACLR)
There is unifi mesh available for $99. May be worth a try. Throughput is higher much higher I believe. (faster wireless bridging)
Ubiquiti AP is POE. Should include POE AC adapter.
Ubiquiti can have multiple SSID it single
If using Unifi gateway (router) you can have multiple network
I have signed SSID and network but block WAN for all IOT and Camera except TV or Media Player that need access for streaming service using firewall rule. Network Printer blocked for WAN as well.
WiFi from ground floor to second floor (first floor to third floor) is Zero
WiFi from first floor to second floor (second floor to third floor) is low signal, unstable. I do need to switch to the current extender (that covers the upper floor) to surf reliably