Question about AP inherited after moving house

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Hello,

I’ve just moved house and the previous owner has left a Ubiquiti AP Lite behind. It also appears that they’ve wired the house with 4 separate LAN input sockets that originate in the “office” of the house and have four separate corresponding output sockets scatted around the house.

I know very little about setting this thing up, hence my post here. What I do know is that our BT Smart Hub WiFi range doesn’t cut it, and I know I can do something about that with the AP Lite. I’ve done some reading and the AP Lite doesn’t appear to have any power when I run a cat 5 cable from my router to the LAN socket in the office, then another cat 5 cable from the corresponding output LAN socket to the AP. I understand that this is because I need PoE?

Firstly, is the BT Smart Hub ok for using this AP?

What’s the cheapest thing I can purchase to power this single AP Lite? Is it an injector or do I need a switch? If it’s an injector what voltage do I need for the AP Lite? Is it 24v only? Please could someone recommend me something?

If I do decide to add 3x more AP’s in the future, presumably I’d need a switch?

Many thanks
 
Hello,

I’ve just moved house and the previous owner has left a Ubiquiti AP Lite behind. It also appears that they’ve wired the house with 4 separate LAN input sockets that originate in the “office” of the house and have four separate corresponding output sockets scatted around the house.

I know very little about setting this thing up, hence my post here. What I do know is that our BT Smart Hub WiFi range doesn’t cut it, and I know I can do something about that with the AP Lite. I’ve done some reading and the AP Lite doesn’t appear to have any power when I run a cat 5 cable from my router to the LAN socket in the office, then another cat 5 cable from the corresponding output LAN socket to the AP. I understand that this is because I need PoE?

Firstly, is the BT Smart Hub ok for using this AP?

What’s the cheapest thing I can purchase to power this single AP Lite? Is it an injector or do I need a switch? If it’s an injector what voltage do I need for the AP Lite? Is it 24v only? Please could someone recommend me something?

If I do decide to add 3x more AP’s in the future, presumably I’d need a switch?

Many thanks

If you don't have a poe router/switch and no power supply for the Ubiquiti you have a couple of options, buy a power supply and reset the ap and set up as required. The other option would be to replace the ap with a switch and cable in every ethernet, that way you will have 4x hard wired ports or however many you need per room (assuming every room has terminations). If i was doing this I might also consider the bottleneck on a single gb port from the router to the switch so something that supports lan teaming might be useful so you can fire a couple of connections from the router to the switch if that was an issue.

1) is the bt smart hub ok - yes assuming the Ubiquiti is in the correct mode (access point) and not router mode, assuming this is a thing on Ubiquiti as it is on most other routers/ap devices like that, alternatively so long as it is set up properly it will work.

2) can you give me the model number of the Ubiquiti? It might be that you can power the ap from a cheap POE switch but id need to know a little more about what you are looking at.
 
Howdy,

thanks for the quick reply. I’m not at home presently but pretty certain it’s this:

https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lite/

Cheapest way to do it: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ubiq...it-power-over-ethernet-adapter-nw-00m-uq.html
Budget with good expansion: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tp-l...4-gigabit-ethernet-10-100-1000-nw-21a-tp.html
One of the better solutions with enough to run quite a few ap's: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ubiquiti-networks-unifi-switch-8-port-150w-poe-switch-nw-00f-uq.html

Basically I would go straight in with a POE switch with a little headroom, the datasheet on the ap puts it's power consumption at 6.5w:



So both of the above options offer all you will need. The first option will only run one and will consume a port on your bt hub per ap. so you will go out of the hub, into the injector, out of the injector poe, into the wall to the ap.

If you go straight for a switch it's out of the bt hub, into the switch then straight out of the switch to how ever many AP's you require (first switch will give you 5 comfortably and second double that).

Depending on the options offered in the home hub (never used one so cant say without knowing which one you have) it may be as simple as just creating a second ssid (wireless network) on the AP with the same ssid and key.

https://community.ui.com/questions/...-Network/50902396-df79-4d46-b2a7-e1360b6464e6

Ignore the fact they are talking about a netgear router the premise is the same.
 
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Vince has given the best answers.

One thing to bear in is that when the Lite and the LR models came out they were compatible with 24v POE only which is not an issue if you decide to buy a Unifi POE switch in the future but if you bought a switch from a different manufacturer it might not be able to power the AP and worse case damage it as 24v POE is a Ubiquiti proprietary standard.

If the device has a serial number or manufacturing date on it Ubiquiti might be able to give you an answer.
 
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If you can take the AP down and get a photo of the label then people will be able to confirm exactly what PoE injector you need.
 
Sorry to hijack your thread OP.
I am in the same situation except I am starting from scratch.
I am extending my house so I want to have APs through out my house and have Ethernet wall sockets.
I really like Vince’s advice, and I am interested in the -
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tp-l...4-gigabit-ethernet-10-100-1000-nw-21a-tp.html as it appears to tick all the right boxes.
I have a BT home hub 5, will that be compatible with this switch?
Also would that switch work with https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ubiq...long-range-indoor-access-point-nw-001-uq.html?
Many thanks

*edit* so would I effectively connect the smart switch to the WAN at the back of my home hub?
 
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