New house wifi setup

energizer123

energizer123

energizer123

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30 Nov 2016
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616
Hi all,

Moved into a new house 3 months ago and inherited their networking. It's over 5 floors and then have a AP on each floor, I would guess it's circa 10 years old and could do with an update. Coverage and speed, passable.

Looking for what equipment, I should buy, I've used Ubiquiti before so this would be my preference.

What I'm looking to do:
- 10 gig connection to my PC
- 2.5 gig switch downstairs to future proof me
- AP on every floor

Setup
- 5 floors, each floor circa 900 sq ft
- 3 gig community fibre runs into the top floor where my PC is. Currently I plug my PC directly into the 10 gig port on the provided router
- I then run a cable into a wall port, which runs to a 16 port router on the ground floor, which appears to flow into every single AP
- I have a small rack in the same room, so want stuff I can rackmount or at least put on a shelf in the rack.

Floor 4
Internet comes in
AP
PC connected directly via 10 gig through community fibre supplied rouoter

Floor 3,2
AP on each floor

Ground floor
AP
Switch in a cupboard which connects to floor 4 and seems to power all the AP (16 port)

Basement
AP
Another switch (which I'm keeping non-ubiquiti)

Reading I think I need a Dreammachine, 5 x AP and a 16 port 2.5g/10g switch (PoE for APs and can be fixed to a wall in cupboard ideally) for the ground floor. It's an old house, cabling in all walls so that's a limitation currently which I may change in the future.

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks all!
 
What's the limitation with the structred cabling in place currently, do you know if it's Cat5e, 6 or 6a?

I can't 100% tell by the way your post is worded, but do you have Cat cabling and network switches on most floors + ceiling APs on all 5 floors already?
 
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Sorry I have cat cabling and AP’s on every floor. Hoping it’s just a case of replacing all the hardware old for new.

Not sure on cabling type (5e vs 6 etc.) it’s in the wall. But will likely run outside in the future if it’s a significant bottleneck.

Thanks!
 
I think you got it right. You would need something like a Cloud Gateway Fibre ( or Dreams Machine if you preferred the rack mount form factor ). 5 AP of you choosing ( U7 lite would do unless you wanted 6Ghz radio) and a switch in the ground floor such as the Flex 2.5G POE ( it has 8 ports but seems it more than covers you)
 
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Typhoon said:
I think you got it right. You would need something like a Cloud Gateway Fibre ( or Dreams Machine if you preferred the rack mount form factor ). 5 AP of you choosing ( U7 lite would do unless you wanted 6Ghz radio) and a switch in the ground floor such as the Flex 2.5G POE ( it has 8 ports but seems it more than covers you)
Click to expand...
Thank you. Would he Dreammachine give me 10 gb to my PC up there. Assume I can repurpose one of the WAN points with a RJ45 adapter?

I need a 16 port for the ground floor. Anything you would recommend instead of the Flex 2.5G POE?

Thanks!
 
energizer123 said:
Would anyone suggest any changes on the below

Switch Pro Max 16 PoE

Dream Machine Special Edition / EU Version

Access Point U7 Pro / Single Unit x 5
Click to expand...

Funny old thing, I ordered a load of kit last night so have been doing more research...

You really want to see if you have CAT5E, CAT6A or CAT7 cabling throughout..

If I had CAT 6A throughout (will allow 10G up to 30M or so) then I'd be looking more at:
1 x Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber (You could stick with a Dream Machine SE, but it's not offering you anything for your setup other than cost) which IMHO should be located on the top floor between provided community fiber router/modem and your PC..
1 x Pro XG 10 PoE Switch (10 x 10G PoE+++ ports, with 2 more 10G SFP+)
5 x U7 Pro XG (the XG's are newer, and have 10G ports, since the theoretical data rates for each AP is much more than the 2.5G the U7 Pro has, you won't be theoretically bandwidth limited)

Now, you say you need a 16 Port Switch, I've only offered a 12 port 10G switch, but you could add any of the Flex 2.5G switches that you fancy to fairly cheaply bump up the port count).


If you only have CAT 5E and/or don't really want to future proof that much (because new stuff comes out all the time)

My comments on your list are
1. The Pro-Max-16-PoE only has 4 x 2.5G PoE ports, so one of your APs is going to be on a 1G port, thus technically a bit limited.. you could get 2 x Flex 2.5G PoE switches to give you all 2.5G PoE ports.. (be aware, you need to buy additional power supplies for these, they don't come with any)
2. As your provided internet 'router'* comes in on the top floor, this is where I'd put the Gateway, in your case the Dream Machine SE, although I'd switch that out for a Cloud Gateway Fiber, it's neater, smaller and has more fast ports (3 x 10G and 4 x 2.5G) whilst actually having more performance for things like Intrusion detection and prevention (5gbps vs 3gbps)
3. The U7 Pro's you should replace with U7-Pro-XG, these are newer and only if you had an edge case (like ESP32 based IoT devices) would I stick with the older U7 Pro's (which had a hardware change in the last few months to seemingly make them behave nicely with these edge case IoT devices).


* - You want to check the provider 'router' for your incoming internet has a 'modem' mode (or is a modem, not a router), what isn't ideal is having that as a router then going in to a unifi router (Dream Machine or Cloud Gateway), this can cause problems..
 
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Thanks @Demon - really appreciate it.

I'm on community fibre, have their 3 gig package. I think I have a Technicolor 10 gig router, fibre modem and a Linkys mesh. Assume I just ethernet cable into the WAN port into the dreammachine / Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber or is any of the equipment replaced? Would any of this create an issue.

I've actually just upgraded to 5 gig, whilst writing this, multi-tasking but same equipment!

Will follow your advice, only downside for me with the Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber is that it can't be rack mounted but sounds like it gives me more for less?
 
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energizer123 said:
Thanks @Demon - really appreciate it.

I'm on community fibre, have their 3 gig package. I think I have a Technicolor 10 gig router, fibre modem and a Linkys mesh. Assume I just ethernet cable into the WAN port into the dreammachine / Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber or is any of the equipment replaced? Would any of this create an issue.

I've actually just upgraded to 5 gig, whilst writing this, multi-tasking but same equipment!

Will follow your advice, only downside for me with the Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber is that it can't be rack mounted but sounds like it gives me more for less?
Click to expand...

For your setup, I am not familiar with Community Fibre, but from Reddit, it seems that the ONT (modem) has a 10G RJ45 connectoin, So you'd be ditching the Technicolor router (and of course, the Linksys Mesh).

Leaving you with
Option A
Code: 
Floor 4:

Fibre In -> Fibre Modem -> Unifi Router 10G LAN Port -> PC

                                         Unifi Router 10G (or 2.5G) LAN Port -> WALL Socket to Ground Floor



Ground Floor:

Wall Socket -> Unifi Switch(es) - > lots of cables to each floors Access Points

i.e. If your intention is to wire your PC directly in to the "Router" on Floor 4, then you need the Unifi Router on that floor..


A further question/thought, do you have other RJ45 Wall sockets on each floor going back to the Ground Floor switch? You say you need a 16 port switch, so presumably if you take the 5 x APs out of the equation, and one 'uplink' cable to Floor 4, that leaves 10 ports on the switch, are these going to wall sockets or cameras etc?

If you did have extra wall sockets on each floor, and presumably at least two wall sockets on Floor 4, then you could do:
Option B
Code: 
Floor 4:
Fibre In -> Fibre Modem -> Wall Socket
Other Wall Socket -> PC

Ground Floor
Wall Socket -> Unifi Router -> Unifi Switch(es) - > lots of cables to each floors Access Points/Sockets
So you are simply passing the incoming internet down to the ground floor, in to a router, then the switch, then distributing that all back out to the rest of the house, meaning the router is on the groundfloor in your cabinet.


Whilst having 5gig sounds amazing (and I'm jealous!), bear in mind that this can actually require a careful setup to ensure you can actually use all that..
For example, the Dream Machine SE is limited to 3.5G if you turn on all the network security features like IDS/IPS (Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Protection), The Cloud Gateway Fibre can do 5G if you turn on everything (because its a newer model).. the Dream Machine Pro Max can 5G with everything switched on, but its £575 (but has more resource for camera handling etc).
Then you have to get that throughout the property, so really want >2.5G backbone to all access points (and use the U7 Pro XG or XGS access points), this needs a 10G PoE switch and also suitable cabling throughout, generally CAT6A can do 10G over reasonable lengths (tens of meters), CAT 5A will struggle to do 10G at 1M in a lot of cases...

But, if you just want your PC to have the lions share and basically the rest of the house is OK to just use whatever it can up to 2.5G, then of course you can just do option A above..
 
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Thanks all - really appreciate it.

When you say, Fibre In -; Fibre Modem -; Unifi Router 10G LAN Port -; PC

I assume the "Unifi router 10g Lan port" would be the Cloud Gateway Fibre? So cable from the gateway fibre into PC, the other into a the wall socket which runs to the 16 port switch on the ground floor.

I sadly don't even know where all the 16 cables go. There are some odd wall sockets in random rooms. Also I have a rack on the top floor, the ground floor switch is in a cupboard so more room upstairs for equipment.

Think i will go option a (with a cloud gateway fibre), but run it to a 2.5 gig switch on the ground floor with PoE, that all the U7 Pro XG's will run from (one to each floor - cabling already in wall). If cables are not up to it, I can look at doing external runs at a later date but would prefer to future proof.

My PC getting full 5 gig is my number 1 and good WiFi throughout.

Last question, do i gain anything from Dream Machine Pro Max over the Cloud Gateway Fibre other than cameras which I have a seperate system for?

Agree on the 5 gig completely unnecessary but why not!

Thanks!
 
The DM Pro Max won’t offer you anything over the UCG Fibre in a home setup if you are not going to be using cameras.
I would connect the ethernet cable from the ONT ( not really a modem) to the UCG Fibre using a 10G SPF+ transceiver. SPF+ LAn port on the Router to your PC and configure the 10GbE RJ45 as a LAN port and connected that to the Flex 2.5 POE switch on the ground floor ( it has a 10GbE Port ). Even if you only have CAT5e cabling you may get 2.5/5/10GBps through it for short distances.
 
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