I’m looking to update my router and wifi and have been doing a lot of research but wanted to ask the community as well.
The modem part I assume will probably be tricky so I’m ok keeping my Verizon modem+router but only use it as a modem.
From what I’ve seen online people recommend UniFi for Wifi and Mikrotik for routers. One thing that worries me about MikroTik after a lot of research is that it’s a preferred brand for many ISPs (which surprised me) and that hackers love attacking it and since they don’t have auto-update, I do have to be careful and take care of updates myself. That’s a huge downside for me – if true – because I don’t trust myself to be responsible enough to do it. I used to have a Google Wifi router for many years and I loved that it would auto-update every few weeks with security patches.
Another caveat to what I’m looking for is that I don’t need more than a single Wifi AP so something that’s built into the router is totally fine for me - no need for a true mesh. Unless it’s better to separate router from wifi point (eg if I’m betting different brands)?
On the number of ethernet ports, I would need about 8-12. PoE would be a nice-to-have but not a must. The one more “hardcore” requirement is that I’d ideally love the ethernet ports to be capable of 2.5G at least, ideally 10G ports (my hard wiring is on CAT6A and the jacks are very high quality, as well as my patch cables)
Other nice-to-haves would be the ability to have a second WAN port on the router, certainly not a must.
And also the ability to hook up to a UPS but I assume that can be handled totally independently.
I don’t need anything too fancy in terms of management, I don’t foresee needing to do any advanced VLAN or similar sophisticated setups. I’m not good with networking anyway. I do need the ability to assign static IP addresses to a few devices but that’s about it.
In terms of budget, I’m fairly unconstrained though obviously don’t want to spend many thousands on enterprise level gear which I do not need. Let’s say limit would be 1000-1250 though hopefully can find something cheaper. On the flip side if you are aware of a combo of hardware that is say 1500 and amazing, I’m definitely willing to go with it.
And finally - of course, I’d love something that works well with HA. 
I realize this is a pretty big question but if anyone has strong opinions or thoughts, pls feel free to share them. Thanks!
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