Networking issues... which wireless access point should I buy?

[pete_c]

I switched my DD-WRT AP in the midwest to an Ubiquito a couple of years ago. Its been working well.

First AP purchased in quite a while that I left the OS untouched.

 

[etc6849]

It works great so far, thanks for asking. Much better coverage for my entire home for 2.4 GHz The 5 GHz signal still isn't great in one room, but I haven't installed the Ubiquiti AP in the ceiling yet, it's just temporarily installed on the floor of my great room as I wanted to test it some first. Overall, it's a pretty nice product, THANKS!

Hi etc - just checking in to see how that Ubiquiti AP worked out for you? What kind of coverage did you end up with?

 

[rpiatt]

I meant to respond to this last night but got sidetracked...

For that house, I would bet a single UAP-Pro or UAP standard will work great if placed correctly. I too have a pretty central kitchen and just put one on top of my kitchen cabinets and I get excellent coverage everywhere (1 UAP-LR covering 2 stories, 4,000sq ft and my yard + some distance away).

Very timely find here. I just moved into a 4000sq ft. home, and am trying to figure this exact issue out. Thinking mounting something like this in the ceiling of the great room (center of the house) is a great idea. Gigabit switch will be in the basement. Any concerns about the Cat-6 run to this AP being approx. 40 - 60 feet?

Powering the AP's - they always come with a passive POE injector - these are dumb injectors that just dump 48v power onto the pairs with no intelligence like 802.3af POE - but they are also compatible with regular POE switches and injectors as well. Netgear has some prosafe plus switches that have VLAN support and four POE ports - pretty handy for stuff like this. Now all that's specific to the UAP-Pro; the other UAP models use 12-24V passive POE only; if you want to power them off 802.3af they sell an instant POE adapter that's just a little pigtail that goes between the switch and the AP (same with their cameras, radios, and mFi platform) and they come in indoor and outdoor forms.

In process of wiring up the house currently, and would appreciate any recommendations on those Netgear ProSafe Plus switches. Need 24 ports overall, and need Spanning Tree protocol support (Sonos usage). Have a 16-port Netgear now, but need to upgrade, and the POE feature needed here adds to the feature checklist...

 

[tmbrown97]

Cat5E will handle 300ft; 40-60 is a non issue. Cat6 will handle it slightly better but isn't required.

Adding POE to a 24-port switch will add quite a bit more expense than it's worth for 1-2 devices. I'd either cascade a second switch in there for those devices - something like this. Or, maybe a used Cisco 3560 POE switch off E-Bay - they look to be about $350. Much more complex though.

 

[rpiatt]

The GS108PE is actually what I was thinking as well. Bigger problem seems to be finding an affordable (i.e. not $600+) gigabit switch that will support spanning tree protocol when I start installing Sonos. The JGS524E is a crazy low powered switch, which really appeals to me, but it doesn't support it... Decisions, Decisions.

 

[tmbrown97]

The JGS524E says it has "Loop Detection" which might very well work as STP; if you want to play it safe, go for this one - it's only $200 and the specs specifically state the following:

• IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol
• IEEE 802.1W Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
• IEEE 802.1S Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol