Unifi APs: what tweaks would you recommend to improve performance?

[Txom]

Hi,
Following some useful comments on my previous post on this forum, I've just taken over management of the Unifi access points in our house via a controller on my MacBook. I don't really know how any of this works yet, but I wasn't comfortable relying on someone else managing our internet access.

I didn't manage to get hold of a site export, so I had to reset the access points to adopt them. That was all straightforward, but the system doesn't seem as stable as it did before. The 'wifi experience' is regularly dropping from 100% to 60% and then back up again for the same device, and the wifi drops completely on some devices every now and again. So I'm after suggestions for things that might have been set up differently before I reset the APs, or just ways I can improve the performance.

My set up is Virgin Hub 3.0 (in router mode with wifi disabled) > Draytek POE switch > Unifi APs

Our house has three floors. I have a UAP-AC-Pro in our living room on the ground floor at the front of the house, a UAP-AC-IW in the bedroom at the front on the first floor, and an older UAP-Pro in the loft at the back of the house. The locations aren't ideal (under desks, behind TVs, etc.), but there's not much I can do about that and they should still give enough coverage for our needs.

What are the first things I should be looking at to configure the system? Apart from location of APs!

Thanks very much

 

[Erm yeah that’s hard to pick one]

They are designed to be mounted on the celling. So height is might.
Decent cable.
Try them on low power
VHT to the max bandwidth
Let channel be auto for the moment.
Disable the Wi-Fi on the hub so UniFi only.

What’s the controller on?

 

[Txom]

Thanks for the suggestions. Ceiling mounting isn't an option at the moment. The ethernet cables all terminate low down on walls, so it's a case of squeezing the best performance I can out of not ideal AP locations. I'll give everything else a go, though.
The controller is on a MacBook Pro. It's not running 24/7, but I don't need to monitor things all of the time, just tweak them every now and again, so I think that will do for now.

One thing I am thinking about is replacing the two older UAP-Pros that are no longer supported. Given that they can't be ceiling mounted and will be in the corners of rooms, is there a different type of AP that would be more suitable than the discs in terms of direction? The in-wall APs or free-standing FlexHDs, for example?

 

[Armageus]

A single AC-Pro mounted on the first floor ceiling in the centre of the house, will 95% of the time provide decent coverage for the whole of a house.
By not ceiling mounting and having multiple access points, then you are introducing issues relating to signal strength, and roaming between APs.

Best thing to do is unplug all but 1 access point (ideally move it as central to the house as you can), and then walk around with a mobile and check signal strength (rather than relying on the Unifi wifi experience indicator). Work out where it starts to become low or drops out.

You may find that one access point covers far more than you expect - therefore if you need to add a 2nd (or 3rd) access point, you need to be careful with signal strengths (e.g. you may need to turn the power down), to avoid them both interfering with each other, or preventing device hand off to a closer/stronger AP.

 

[Avalon]

As above this sounds like you may have fallen into the trap of thinking more AP’s are better. I moved house last year and put almost everything in storage, I had spec’d an AP per floor, but when I was unpacking, I only located one AP initially. Surprisingly it’s covering three floors, the 5Ghz isn’t great for speed on the ground floor, but it’s OK, the 2.4Ghz is solid everywhere.

 

[whitecrook]

try setting power levels to lowest.

 

[neil_g]

As above this sounds like you may have fallen into the trap of thinking more AP’s are better. I moved house last year and put almost everything in storage, I had spec’d an AP per floor, but when I was unpacking, I only located one AP initially. Surprisingly it’s covering three floors, the 5Ghz isn’t great for speed on the ground floor, but it’s OK, the 2.4Ghz is solid everywhere.

I mean I wouldn't really call it a trap, in a lot of scenarios more/weaker APs is probably the best practice over single/strong AP when a lot of obstacles are encountered such as walls and ceilings. As you found, 5Ghz especially can get degraded pretty quickly. Plus with a single strong AP you have to consider the clients ability to transmit back, I often like the analogy that if the AP is always shouting and the client can only whisper it doesn't make for good conversation.

But that said, there is never going to be "one size fits all" advice for AP deployment. It will vary widely depending on the amount of obstacles and what they are constructed of. Plasterboard/stud walls you may get through 2-3 of those on a good say (depending on insulation and whether its that foil/metallic covered stuff which reflects signal horribly), brick a bit less and concrete much less (concrete with high water content/still drying god help you). Any combination of those obviously stacks up in terms of degradation. And all that before you encounter sources of interference..

Do Unifi still do that planner software? It's probably worth making up a scale floor plan and using that to get a rough idea.

E: Apologies if that's a little preachy, I know a lot of you guys aren't daft. I've just spend far too much time staring at Airmagnet this week..

 

[the-evaluator]

VHT to the max bandwidth

I disagree. Absolutely leave the 2.4GHz radio on 20Mhz. 5GHz is worth experimenting with but rarely is going straight for 160MHz the answer. In my setup 80MHz gives the best results.

Let channel be auto for the moment.

But don't leave it on auto. Do an RF survey to see how busy the air is and then pick a channel that's least busy.