Best Wi-Fi Strategy for Home Automation

I am having enough Network/Wi-Fi issues lately that I am looking to upgrade but I am not sure what the best strategy would be.
 
Current environment: PepLink Balance 20 router with 2 WAN connections. 4 Engenius dual band APs plus various gigabit unmanaged switches.
 
Problems:
 
1 The DHCP server on the PepLink sometimes stops giving out addresses. I have to reboot the router to fix it. This is a recent development.
 
2 Home Automation devices that are Wi-Fi connected to the nearest AP will switch to a more distant one if the nearest AP reboots or otherwise goes offline (this is good). Once the nearest AP comes back online most of these devices will NOT switch back but rather will continue to cling to the marginal distant signal and ignore the closer AP(this is bad).
 
Solution requirements:
 
1 Need a router that does not need to be rebooted regularly. Would like a 2+ year continuous operation between boots.
 
2 Need a way to ensure all devices will actively change their connections to the strongest signal.
 
3 Need to maintain my multi-WAN failover functionality.
 
4 Need to reserve approximately 170 IP addresses (all existing devices) so only guests get random addresses from the server.
 
5 A way to monitor Wi-Fi so I can verify connection quality and troubleshoot issues. Ideal tool would show all wireless connected devices and all APs within range of each device with a signal strength indication for each AP the device can see. The AP the device is currently using should be highlighted somehow so I can confirm that the strongest signal is the one being used by the device.
 
Am I looking at just upgrading my router and/or APs? Or do I need to look at one of these mesh network systems (assuming they support multi-WAN)?

pfSense for the router.  Hands down.  Run it on something with solid state storage.  They are stupid stable although I would argue you would want to apply security patches more often than 2 years.  It can do multi-WAN and reserved addresses no problem.  Very granular firewall capability and monitoring as well.
 
If you can, get Ubiquiti networks Access Points.  Very easy to manage, and you can even create a separate WiFi network from the same APs for guests or IoT devices.  The Ubiquitis also talk to each other, and will force the devices to roam back to better APs.  The management interface is excellent at showing what devices are on what AP, and what their signal strength is.

++ on PSense and Ubiquiti.
 
Here moved to PFSense many years ago after using Smoothwall for many years and wanted dual WAN connectivity which was not offered in the free version of Smoothwall.
 
Just did a PFSense update yesterday.  Painless and less than 5 minutes.
 
 
Ubiquiti has a very good support forum.

What does PFSense need for resources? Can it run on a small fanless PC?

A computer with two network cards or one built in and one USB to NIC.
 

Firewall Hardware Sizing Guide
 

pfSense Hardware Requirements

Check out the Ubiquiti Edgerouter series.  Read some of the review sites.   
For less than $100, the ER Lite is a hell of a router.  Pair that with the Ubiquiti wireless access points and you've got a rock solid network.

upstatemike said:

What does PFSense need for resources? Can it run on a small fanless PC?

Click to expand...

 
Absolutely.  I use these multi-NIC units from Jetway...
 
https://smile.amazon.com/Jetway-Networking-Appliance-Embedded-JBC373F38W-525/dp/B00ESMUF7O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1513785508&sr=8-3&keywords=jetway

+10 on Ubiquiti Unifi AP and Ubiquiti router! I have an Edgerouter Pro 8 that I got on a Woot fire sale, $50 more than an ER Lite and the Unifi AC Pro is rock solid. They both just work. I did a firmware update today on the AP, had been up for 63 days 18 hours without so much as a burp, snark or glitch of any sort.  I can monitor all aspects of the AP from my phone via their UniFi software.
 
If you want to go for future proofing, complete overkill and 100% up-time (even during firmware updates) on your AP go with the AC HD Pro, it's new to the market in 17 and has a 4x4 antenna instead of 3x3 in the AC Pro but is priced over 2x the AC Pro (Amazon prices.)
 
Here's a review ARS Technica did on the AC Pro in 2015, article convinced me Ubiquiti Unifi was the way to go...

Uniquity POE5 EdgeRouter here with two AC Pro access points. Rock solid so far. Still gonna add a managed switch to enable all features with VLANs.


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Yeah, I went with their managed switches as well so that I could segment my network, HA vs non HA, video, etc and see what was flowing where. Recently decided to link the switches via fiber 1) because I could, 2) it was a learning exercise and 3) it was really inexpensive in order to provide electrical isolation between the switches. Have had indirect lighting hits twice on current home.

You guys have sold me on Ubiquiti UniFi.  I was looking at getting 2 to 4 of the Ubiquiti Unifi UAP-AC-Lite.  Any feedback as to why the PRO might be a better choice would be welcome.
 
I was also looking at the UAP-AC-IW (IN-WALL) since I would have to run more Cat-5 for the ceiling installs and I have plenty of wall jacks already.  Opinions of this would be welcome too.

I'm not quite there yet. I have a couple of concerns after reading through the material from the various links...
 
1 it looks like Ubiquity uses some proprietary version of POE? Not sure I'm comfortable with that.
 
2 I need to mount my APs on a wall. There is no way to run twisted pair into the ceiling... all the literature seems to indicate Ubiquity is ceiling mount only?
 
3 Do you need a computer running UniFi Controller software 24/7 for all of the AP features to work? I had tried a set of Luxul APs at one time which used a separate appliance to manage roaming handoffs between the APs (Not sure if it really worked because I didn't like the Luxul APs themselves and ditched the whole setup.) Is Ubiquity dong the same sort of thing with UniFi Controller running on a PC?
 
4 Is it true that Ubiquity no longer supports the zero handoff feature for roaming between APs? No support for 802.11r or 802.11k?
 
5 What the heck is a UniFi Cloud Key? Does this give me fast BSS transition roaming as a replacement for zero handoff roaming?
 
Overall I am having trouble picturing the what the full Ubiquity solution requires and what it can actually do. Also nervous about the use of proprietary POE and proprietary roaming assist instead of 802.11r. And I need to address the whole wall mount issue.

I get the Pro stuff as better antenna and maybe better processor. HD is overkill for a home in my opinion as it was built for device dense environments such as an auditorium.

1. Do not believe they have proprietary PoE but there are multiple standards.
2. Wall mount works, I also have the AC-Inwall-Pro which works well and mounts on the wall.
3. Yes you need a computer for advanced control. Or the Cloudkey, which is a computer running the software.
4. Not sure but I’ve never noticed an issue with any of my devices. I think they do it but are adjusting the technology/method used.
5. See #3.

If you’re going to make the investment, I’d recommend the Ubiquiti AC Pro devices as better performance for slightly more dollars and you’ll have them for years.

Zero hand-off has been replaced by "Fast Roaming".  See here:  https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205144590-UniFi-What-is-Zero-Handoff-
 
You DO NOT need a computer running 24/7 for the access points.  It is needed for configuration, statistics gathering, firmware updates and portal type installations (e.g. hotels, etc.).  You could just fire it up when you want to reconfigure.  Cloudkey is a cloud based hosted Unifi software installation so that you do not need your own installation - it works very well.

So Fast Roaming reduces the delay that might be experienced when a device decides to transition to a different AP but does it do anything to push a reluctant device into switching to a stronger signal?