New router or Ubiquiti Lite/LR?

[Megahackerd]

Hello,

just had sky installed and the wifi speed is terrible- can only get 35mpbs with one device connected on the 5ghz connection. Wired is able to get full 75mbps, and was wondering if it is worth it to get a new router or just an access point.
If i went for the ubiquiti is it worth the extra £15 for the LR rather than Lite as from what i can see it the only difference is the 6db antenna rather than 3db
If i went for a router should i go for a modem/router combo or just a router
Budget around £80, might stretch to £90 if it is worth it

 

[Megahackerd]

I recently changed to sky broadband - already had sky q. With the Q hub, and a repeater upstairs, and the main q box + q mini upstairs, forming the whole mesh was awful. Problems with lots of speed drops, issues with iphones in particular but generally poor and inconsistent coverage around the house. Got online and read about countless others with same problem.

I got an openreach modem, bought an AC LITE, and borrowed a friends Edgerouter X.... wow, the setup was so so much better. A single AC Lite, even with the thick ex-council house walls, was just miles better than the whole Sky mesh (or the previous Homehub 5 which wasnt too bad). I got a USG to replace the Edgerouter (as I wanted all my stats in one interface) and run a Raspi as my Unifi controller. Very pleased with the setup.

I do not have sky q TV, although I will be getting it later on as they dropped the price after I bought the broadvabr and after calling them today they offered me a great deal with the TV included

Is the USG worth it? I do have a raspberry pi b+ laying around so I might use it
What made you go for the lite rather than lr version?

 

[Megahackerd]

Lite vs LR - honestly, I went for the lite as I could get it next day rather than wait a couple of days But also a friend had the lite and raved about it's range, plus reading a ton of reviews (no doubt you're doing the same) I thought I would need the LR especially with our thick walls - I was wrong, Lite does perfect job better than any router's wifi signal I've had.

The USG is great if you want everything in one dashboard, but if you're happy with Unifi stuff (AP) separate from router, then at around £50 get the Edgerouter. Almost identical on the inside and a superb PoE router for that money.

Read about lots of issues trying to get any Sky router configured as just a modem, so getting an openreach one is the way to go. Setup on either USG or Edgerouter is a piece of cake (just a quick CLI edit so make sure you've got Putty installed). If you go this route and have any issues then PM me and I'll be happy to help.

Unfortunately the USG or edgerouter is out of the budget
if i use the sky as just a modem, ie disable the wifi, will there be any problem in terms of performance?
thanks for the help

 

[Megahackerd]

Sky router with wireless off + UniFi AP will be fine.

BTW disabling the wireless doesn't turn it into a modem.

sorry, messed up on the wording, i meant router with no ap

You can’t (easily) ‘use the sky as just a modem’, for what you want a UniFi will give you better Wi-fi performance, but you will want to hard wire it and locate it centrally - remember it needs a PoE injector.

i am planning to hard wire it, although it wont be centrally located as i dont want to run new cables around (new build), and openreach engineer that installed said that sky dont allow them to do extensions. Anyway from the reviews it seems that it will have no problem having around the house- the current superhub 3 that sky is replacing can reach 75mbps on a 108mbps on the garden.

it is shame that the best deal vm can offer is £48 for 108mbps with anytime calls- my current deal with sky is 75mbps, anytime calls and entertainment package for £35pm + £100 giftcard, although a 3/4 of the speed it is a significant saving for that loss of speed

from the looks of it i should not bother with another router like archer c7 ac1750? and also how is the bt mesh wifi (2 disc) compared to the ubiquiti lite?

thank you very much for the quick reply

 

[Megahackerd]

In your situation, I’d be looking at the Mikrotik RB4011iGS+5HacQ2HnD-IN.

https://mikrotik.com/product/rb4011igs_5hacq2hnd_in

thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately it is out of the budget but it does seem like a cheaper option than ubiquiti lite + edgerouter

anyway i have received my ubiquiti ac lite and after figuring out why it was connecting at 100mbps rather than gigabit to the sky q hub (spoiler: the hive hub supplied cable is not a cat5e cable as it is missing wires).
the wifi signal seems to be good, and currently set the 5ghz to channel 104 and no problems so far -my neighbours annoyingly have their 5ghz set to 80mhz so they take the non dfs channels

thank you very much for everyone's help

 

[Megahackerd]

Lite vs LR - honestly, I went for the lite as I could get it next day rather than wait a couple of days But also a friend had the lite and raved about it's range, plus reading a ton of reviews (no doubt you're doing the same) I thought I would need the LR especially with our thick walls - I was wrong, Lite does perfect job better than any router's wifi signal I've had.

The USG is great if you want everything in one dashboard, but if you're happy with Unifi stuff (AP) separate from router, then at around £50 get the Edgerouter. Almost identical on the inside and a superb PoE router for that money.

Read about lots of issues trying to get any Sky router configured as just a modem, so getting an openreach one is the way to go. Setup on either USG or Edgerouter is a piece of cake (just a quick CLI edit so make sure you've got Putty installed). If you go this route and have any issues then PM me and I'll be happy to help.

last few days i have been trying to get the Sky Q tv box to connect to the AC-Lite. Every time after connecting to the 2.4ghz (5ghz is not enabled for non sky access points) it just just disconnects after a few minutes and never reconnects again. It connects just fine to the Sky Q hub
I have tried to copy the SSID for the ACLite to the SKY Q hub and connect it by WPS and then disabling it (btw i did change the channels to non dfs for this) but it does not want to connect

 

[Megahackerd]

What is your DTIM set to? The recommendation is usually 3 for Apple devices but I find 1 can be essential for some IoT devices that need to be constantly awake.

sorry didnt have time to reply in the least few weeks
the dtim is set to default, so 1. All my apple devices seem to be fine, however i noticed i have being having a lot of dropouts recently on my phone (android)
what are the chances that i have a faulty access point?

 

[Megahackerd]

Given that it works sometimes the chances of your access point being physically damaged are almost zero.

Bad firmware is a definite possibility - especially if you've been lured into the Beta programme.

Most likely though is some basic incompatability in the settings between the various bits of equipment and the access point. Are you doing anything 'clever' with the access point or is it just a vanilla install with 1 SSID and no guest network?

1 guest ssid and 2 normal ssid (1 2.4ghz and 1 ghz)
nothing else changed

 

[Megahackerd]

Do the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands have different SSIDs?

By default each WLAN has a single SSID that broadcasts on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

As I read it, you have set up 3 WLANs, Guest, SSID1 (2.4GHz) and SSID2 (5GHz). Is that correct?

That is correct

 

[Megahackerd]

Can I ask why you have two separate WLAN SSIDs for 2.4GHz and 5GHz?

It’s a lot of extra wireless traffic management for not a lot of gain.

Have you tried it just all defaults?

i have quite a few devices that only support 2.4ghz and the devices that support both just connect to 2.4ghz all the time
i have tried band steering on the setting but it seems that it doesnt do much