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

 

[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?