Good day, looking for a bit of advise.
I’ve been using Netegear Orbit and have been satisfied with the performance thus far. However, lately, as the number of wifi devices has crossed the 60 units mark, the system has begun acting up.
So I want to migrate to Ubiquiti but welcome advise on what to get.
I’m thinking of 2 or 3 UniFi UAP-PRO Enterprise Wi-Fi
and one ubiquity edge Poe 5 router.
So my understanding is I connect the access points to the router and all is controlled by the ubiquiti app.
But I’ve also seen a gateway? What is it for and do I need it?
Yes you are correct with the access points and the controller (which can run on a Raspberry Pi)
The Gateway is a security device which gives you much more control on which traffic/ports are allowed in your network. It’s basically a Firewall, and also gives you a deeper insight of what’s going on in your network (type of traffic etc…) with nice graphs in your Ubiquiti Interface.
You don’t need it to get your Ubiquiti Wifi Network up & running.
You’ll see the debate back and forth in various places for the USG or Edge routers, they are all pretty close to the same hardware on various revisions but the software is different. The Edgerouters are more of your standard standalone router type where the configuration is done on the web interface or the command line, it’s a very powerful router with lots of software features but it is geared towards a little more advanced type people. With that said is it super easy to do a standard setup with the GUI Wizard? Absolutely! Where does it lack? It doesn’t have the pretty graphs and such for traffic monitoring all built into the UniFi controller.
The USG makes it a bit easier for folks who just need a GUI with buttons and graphs and all that don’t need to dig under the hood much for some advanced features.
Me, I went with the Edgerouter as I wanted a more open type of thing that was locked into just using the UniFi controller for configuration. Do your research and watch various YouTube videos might help out.
For the APs, make sure the POE router you get has the correct POE standard that supports the APs that you want. If you just need a couple, you will probably get some POE power supplies with the APs themselves so don’t let that make you seem you have to get a POE router, as you can do it separately. I have two LR APs in my home as I didn’t see the need really at the time for the 3x3 5ghz side as I don’t have an 3x3 devices at this time. They are definitely long range though! As I had to turn down the 2.4ghz side to medium as it was reaching way too far down the street for my liking.
Gentlemen, thank you very much for the advise.
Im inclined for the Edgerouter as well.
I need it as the access points im getting are sold without injectors and in the end it sort of squares out in price.
Thank you for the tip on the router/access point compatibility.
So even though its all ubiquiti there may still be a compatibility issue? funny.
I finally migrated to Unifi. Best kit so far.
I got the gateway, switch and 2 APs. Thank you for the advise.
One question, it seems to drop my mobile more frequently than normal and therefore I get the left/enter home notification.
Any advise on how to mitigate? Thank you.