* Official Ubiquiti Discussion Thread *

stoofa · 25 May 2016 at 16:31

So the "RF Environment Scan" option that you can do from the device - silly question, but what is that actually showing me?
I did a 2G scan and got the following back:

So not being someone who understands this. Is green telling me the optimal channels to choose? Or......?
Basically, what does that all mean and from that, which channel should I be ideally running on?

Cheers.

dbeckett · 26 May 2016 at 19:59

peterwalkley said:
Which model did you buy ? I've been lurking on this thread for a while wondering whether to pull the trigger. I'm on virgin too and had been thinking the range and throughput would improve by moving to one of these instead of the SH2 wireless.

So I suppose I had time to rethink my post. The issue is that I had too much of a expectation from the uniquiti. The virgin media superhub AC 2 is actually quite a good router when it comes to wifi range. 10 years back replacing the ISP router with a third party one gave twice the performance, however the latest virgin media ones are decent. The 5Ghz band range in both cases is not usable unless Im in the room next to the router/ubiquiti APs.

I bought the ubiquiti AC Long Range, and honestly it gives little difference so I wouldnt advise replacing the virgin media with it. What I will instead do is either run 2xubiquitis in parallel or the Virgin media and the ubiquti together and put one of the ubiquitis at the furthest away point of the house, potentially using the faster 1200mbps powerlines, this may also be the best option for yourself.

Wireless channel wise- Im using a channel with no interference from the neighbours, Im only getting a maximum of 40mbps wireless on both virgin media and ubiquiti (tested using speedtest.net and testing the lan link using iperf). Getting 100mb+ wired so wireless seems to the issue, I'll do some further investigation and if i come across anything Ill report back

joeyjojo · 26 May 2016 at 22:45

dbeckett said:
The issue is that I had too much of a expectation from the uniquiti.

Sorry to hear this OP.

Hopefully some of the regulars on this subforum who are always quick to recommend ubiquiti stuff as panacea will take note. The number of threads that get several posts in a row saying "buy a ubiquiti ..." is getting tiresome.

stoofa · 26 May 2016 at 23:55

joeyjojo said:
Sorry to hear this OP.

Hopefully some of the regulars on this subforum who are always quick to recommend ubiquiti stuff as panacea will take note. The number of threads that get several posts in a row saying "buy a ubiquiti ..." is getting tiresome.

Or - of everyone who has purchased one this is the first one that hasn't "lived up to expectation". On that ratio I'd say the people who continue to recommend are still spot on with said recommendation.

bremen1874 · 27 May 2016 at 00:46

There's nothing magical about them. They must be using standard commercially available wireless chipsets, and they have to work within the permitted power limits.

If your existing wireless router has decent wireless and is located in a good central location then you probably aren't going to see a massive benefit.

uvarvu · 27 May 2016 at 08:11

bremen1874 said:
There's nothing magical about them. They must be using standard commercially available wireless chipsets, and they have to work within the permitted power limits.

If your existing wireless router has decent wireless and is located in a good central location then you probably aren't going to see a massive benefit.

I think it's down to the design - they force you to think about positioning. Average joe will typically place their router next or near to the demarcation point but the ubiquiti lot will do their best to place their access points in the optimum position. I'm sure if I stuck my router on the ceiling in the central point of my house upstairs my performance would be just as good.

Broken Hope · 27 May 2016 at 09:42

The Unfi AP's just have the benefit of enterprise features and the fact they are POE makes them easier to place than traditional AP's so as said more likely to be placed in an optimal position.

I doubt the actual WiFi performance is much different to an Asus or Netgear router in a similar price bracket.

Deleted member 138126 · 27 May 2016 at 11:46

UniFi APs give fabulous coverage, great stability, a useful subset of enterprise features, all for a very reasonable price. I am over the moon with my two UAP AC Pros, have had them for several months, and off the back of that experience I bought 8-port and 16-port UniFi switches.

The greatest testament for me was when my wife (without my having told her anything) said "did you do something to make the wifi better?".

Craigius · 28 May 2016 at 07:24

Well I took the plunge and ordered one of these I'm goingto install this weekend and see how it goes.

peterwalkley · 28 May 2016 at 11:42

dbeckett said:
So I suppose I had time to rethink my post. The issue is that I had too much of a expectation from the uniquiti. The virgin media superhub AC 2 is actually quite a good router when it comes to wifi range. 10 years back replacing the ISP router with a third party one gave twice the performance, however the latest virgin media ones are decent. The 5Ghz band range in both cases is not usable unless Im in the room next to the router/ubiquiti APs.

I bought the ubiquiti AC Long Range, and honestly it gives little difference so I wouldnt advise replacing the virgin media with it. What I will instead do is either run 2xubiquitis in parallel or the Virgin media and the ubiquti together and put one of the ubiquitis at the furthest away point of the house, potentially using the faster 1200mbps powerlines, this may also be the best option for yourself.

Wireless channel wise- Im using a channel with no interference from the neighbours, Im only getting a maximum of 40mbps wireless on both virgin media and ubiquiti (tested using speedtest.net and testing the lan link using iperf). Getting 100mb+ wired so wireless seems to the issue, I'll do some further investigation and if i come across anything Ill report back

Thanks for the feedback. I suspect my issue is more about the placement of the SH2 as others have also commented. Ours is in a bottom-left-back corner of the house where the TV is and really the only place with a signal issue is the top-right-front bedroom. I was looking at pre-empting problems as my girls are getting older and one is likely to be wanting a computer in her bedroom soon for homework come September. Your thought of running two could be a possibility as I have a wired connection upstairs that one could connect to.

Deleted member 138126 · 28 May 2016 at 16:47

Computers in bedrooms...? Hmmm over my dead body I think. Maybe when they turn 21?

Ricimer · 28 May 2016 at 19:32

Remember the device connecting to the AP also has to send its signal back... changing APs will not make your laptop/phone etc more powerful or have more antennas. Better APs handle *bad* wireless more gracefully than cheap ones.

peterwalkley · 28 May 2016 at 20:27

rotor said:
Computers in bedrooms...? Hmmm over my dead body I think. Maybe when they turn 21?

I'll trust them until proven wrong. My girls are sensible, although that could all go wrong come teenager time.

I had an Apple II in my room from age 14 and think I turned out ok.

Craigius · 29 May 2016 at 10:36

Well I have installed on of these on the top level of my house and I am impressed with the coverage so far I am using my wireless router on the bottom floor and all of my devices seem to switch over from one to the other nice, the only thing I have noticed is that when I go back on to the UniFi AP my phone doesn't say Wi-fi calling on it but if I go back down stairs on to my original wi-fi router it picks it back up?

I'm going to order another one for downstairs in the garage in any case.

Deleted member 138126 · 29 May 2016 at 18:42

peterwalkley said:
I'll trust them until proven wrong. My girls are sensible, although that could all go wrong come teenager time.

I had an Apple II in my room from age 14 and think I turned out ok.

I'm pretty sure your Apple II didn't have Internet access. I'm hoping my daughters turn our pretty sensible too, but this stuff really worries me.

ChrisD. · 9 Jun 2016 at 08:57

I've got a pro in my house and it's superb. I get wifi everywhere, even down to the end of the garden. I've turned wifi off now on my RT-N66U and I'm actually looking for a wired router to replace it with.

DragonQ · 9 Jun 2016 at 09:49

Was kinda looking forward to trying one of these but it turns out I don't need one. The 5 GHz WiFi of my TP-Link Archer VR900 reaches all the way to the top floor and into the garden, and I get maximum internet speeds in both places. I assume the 2.4 GHz WiFi would also reach my parking space but I haven't had a need to use WiFi there yet.

bledd · 9 Jun 2016 at 10:54

Dooksy said:
I've got a pro in my house and it's superb. I get wifi everywhere, even down to the end of the garden. I've turned wifi off now on my RT-N66U and I'm actually looking for a wired router to replace it with.

Edgerouter Lite (you'll need any switch too if you want more than one port to be used)

ChrisD. · 9 Jun 2016 at 12:47

BoatyMcBoatface said:
Edgerouter Lite (you'll need any switch too if you want more than one port to be used)

Does it do VDSL? May take a look. I've got a Cisco switch, but I think it's full. Serves me right for being anal about having everything wired that can be!

bremen1874 · 9 Jun 2016 at 12:51

Dooksy said:
Does it do VDSL?

You'd need a separate modem (which you presumably already have?).

Why do you want to replace the RT-N66U? It's more than fast enough to handle a VDSL connection.

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