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Old 11-10-2022, 04:17 PM   #221
EldrickOnIce
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I have pretty much no idea what any of you are talking about...

I think I should just comp flights to Chicago and have one of you experts set something up for me...
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Old 11-11-2022, 09:06 AM   #222
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I didn't realize there were clamp on ones, I'll have to take a look at those. Right now I have the wall plate with a female end, then I run a cable to the IW. I need to remove the plate with the female and put a male cat 6 end on the cable then screw the mounting bracket to the gangbox. It's mostly laziness holding me back haha.

I just nailed the metal bracket to the wall 8" to the left of the gangbox and clipped everything in. Beautiful? No. Functional? Absolutely.

I started messing with the power levels on my APs but have yet to get anything better than leaving them on auto with fast roam enabled.
Ya, they are this type:

https://www.canadacomputers.com/prod...item_id=091157

Super simple.
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Old 11-11-2022, 10:08 AM   #223
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I have pretty much no idea what any of you are talking about...

I think I should just comp flights to Chicago and have one of you experts set something up for me...
Other than physical connections, a LOT can be done remotely....
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Old 11-11-2022, 01:53 PM   #224
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I have pretty much no idea what any of you are talking about...

I think I should just comp flights to Chicago and have one of you experts set something up for me...
TL;DR - Buy two of these HD modems or a version with the two mesh points. Hook one up to the modem, the others further in the house to help reduce dead spots via improved signal strength/repeating. Get a third if required. Then basically forget it.

https://store.amplifi.com/products/a...hd-mesh-router
https://store.amplifi.com/products/a...gamers-edition
===========

Longer explanation.

I personally would recommend multiple of the AmpliFi HD routers vs the mesh points. If you can connect the other routers (set as a mesh/access point), then the connection is more stable further away from the primary one. Plus, they're easier to sell than the mesh points if you realize you don't need them. I used this set up for around 5 years and was pretty happy with it. I just wanted even more omega power and less dead spots and ridonkulous higher signal strength, so I upgraded to a ridiculous option instead of just going with 3 AmpliFi HD. My parents are using my Amplifi HD now and they are blown away by the performance of the Amplifi HD vs the Deco mesh I had given them before. They're technologically dumb but could still notice the significant difference in signal strength.

---------------------

Step 1: give a short explanation of the space you need done
Step 2: define budget and technical expertise
Step 3: Request a list of hardware to acquire
Step 4: Procure hardware
Step 5: Youtube how to install hardware
Step 6: If the set up doesn't work, you had an error in step 2 which should have revised step 3 for a more dummy friendly set up.

In most cases, it's perhaps the difference between a Ubiquiti dream machine pro + access points and other gear for around $500-1.5K vs just buying AmpliFi (or equivalent) easy/advanced mesh systems for $200-800.

Mesh systems are ultra easy, but the cheap ones it seems you have to replace every 2-3 years (ie: Deco) due to slowness, issues and failure.

A more expensive mesh system is more easily scalable, but should also last longer and have better performance (Amplifi) I have several that are 5+ years and still going strong while still outperforming entry level mesh stuff.

The higher end stuff is just straight up stupid and unnecessary. It's perfect for some form of measure of self worth and easily last longer than any other option (ie: decade?) while offering a slew of self-deceit that makes you feel better.

The UDM systems we're talking about in this thread is overkill for many small businesses and we're installing these at home for entertainment reasons.
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Old 11-11-2022, 04:00 PM   #225
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Step 1:
Basement 3000 sq ft
Main floor 4000 sq ft (includes garage and self contained main floor inlaw suite, a portion of which do not have second floor above either. For reference to size, from front edge of garage to back of inlaw suite is more than 100 linear ft - just measured .
Upper floor 2600 sq ft.

Also want service over sizeable outdoor space in back. House exterior is entirely brick, apparently a pretty good signal killer.

Previous owners (they built it) ran network cable everywhere (and RG6). Literally miles throughout every room of house, but appears to me they cut all cabling in utility room when they left. Almost none are marked there anymore. Not sure if this is usable or how much may help.

Step 2
We need good stable internet throughout home for home offices and streaming entertainment purposes. We are not gamers. Budget is what is required to provide excellent coverage throughout the home. I have no idea how to rate level of knowledge, but I can learn.

Thanks
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Old 11-11-2022, 05:33 PM   #226
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Step 1:
Basement 3000 sq ft
Main floor 4000 sq ft (includes garage and self contained main floor inlaw suite, a portion of which do not have second floor above either. For reference to size, from front edge of garage to back of inlaw suite is more than 100 linear ft - just measured .
Upper floor 2600 sq ft.

Also want service over sizeable outdoor space in back. House exterior is entirely brick, apparently a pretty good signal killer.

Previous owners (they built it) ran network cable everywhere (and RG6). Literally miles throughout every room of house, but appears to me they cut all cabling in utility room when they left. Almost none are marked there anymore. Not sure if this is usable or how much may help.

Step 2
We need good stable internet throughout home for home offices and streaming entertainment purposes. We are not gamers. Budget is what is required to provide excellent coverage throughout the home. I have no idea how to rate level of knowledge, but I can learn.

Thanks
For your needs, my assumption is you need signal strength in all areas of the home (absolutely no dead spots) and that signal strength outside of the main areas (office, media room etc.) is not as big of a concern (consistent high speeds).

What do you have right now network wise and how "lacking" is it (signal strength issues, dead zones etc.)?
How big is a "sizeable outdoor space in back"?

The cabling you have and whether it is useable, no idea, but let's assume it's usable. It is worth the time and effort finish off ethernet cables and using a tester to figure out which cable is which plate the other areas of the home. I'd suggest this be done no matter what method you choose so that you can hard wire access points (rather than attempt to wirelessly repeat) and hardwire media/office (to have more consistent speeds/reduce potential interference).

For a mesh concept vs a specific networking concept, everyone can notice the difference in performance vs stability.

It's your choice to decide what tradeoff you want in terms of money, time and max performance.

----

I'm not a Ubiquiti fan boy, but it's just what I know and an easier standard than aiming lower end for units that aren't as consistent and I have good experience with them.

Amplifi line is cheaper, easier with a difficulty level barely more than looking at settings on an app. Some of the performance will only ever be "good enough, but perhaps that's what you want. Less settings to break things, but decent amount more settings than cheaper mesh systems. Issues causing down time are not too significant. You can keep adding more units and mesh points without much worry. Trade time for money. Highs not as high, lows not as low. Think iPhone, mostly similar across the board.

UniFi line is more expensive, with a difficulty level closer to customizing settings and confirming the settings are compatible with varied hardware. Your aim is for fantastic performance everywhere and good enough isn't always considered a victory. You could run into issues that could cause much more down time or be perplexed with a specific hardware add on that just isn't working right at all. Way more settings options to improve performance or cause a mess that needs to be reversed and revised. More AP isn't necessarily a good thing as they can interfere with each other. Money cannot always substitute time. The money is for higher level performance. Highs are much higher, lows are much lower. Think combining low and high end Android units depending on situation.

-------

For a home of your description + backyard area, in theory 3-4 AmpliFi HD should work with enough fingers crossing to hope that there aren't bad enough dead zones or weak zones that piss you off. You could tinker with positioning, or just add more point to mesh to a problem area. I am assuming that you'd hard wire the additional routers (ethernet) rather than attempt to get them to communicate wirelessly with each other to amp the signal (drops your speeds a lot due to duplication of transmissions).

1. At the utility room (basement?) Should be adequate enough for most of the basement.
2. Main floor x 2. One in a main area/closer to the garage side, one as close to the backyard wall with as little walls in between as possible.
3. Optional: Upstairs

In my place which is probably half your size, I had 3 Amplifi routers. One in basement/utility room (router), one upstairs south wall (Access Point/mesh), one upstairs north wall (Access Point/mesh).
Basement was fine signal strength wise.
(South) Backyard I'd get decent/weak signal up to 15-20 feet and 20-50 feet was weak/inconsistent away from the house wall (broadcasting through two inner walls + outer wall stucco). I could have moved it to broadcast only through the outer wall, but before I could test it, I upgraded.
(North) Garage I'd get strong signal.
Main floor (supplied by basement and upstairs) I'd get solid consistent signal everywhere.
I'm quite certain I could have constantly adjusted the positioning to make the signal more effective, but the Amplifi Mesh system was so simple, it would have been easier to just buy an additional mesh point or router and just plug it in close to the area I had issues with.

On a 300 Mbit plan, there was not a single place in my home that was slower than 20-30 MB/s when using speed test.

=====

Dream machine route (basic concept):

1. Dream machine (depends which version of it you want) at utility room (Basically a router)
2. Special access point (hardwired) broadcasting towards outside
3. Access point (ie: wifi 6 Long range) somewhere on the main floor (wall or ceiling)
4. Access point (AC) somewhere on the main floor but on the far side, have one to deal with bugs with devices confused by Wifi6

The dream machine and special access point are probably closer to $300 each all in for set up and additional work and the AP are probably $100-150 each. You're flirting closer to $1K at this point, but the expectation is that the performance could be up to 2-3x higher than with "generic" mesh points. The UDM system has some pretty slick stuff that can connect to it for additional features and expansion wise, you can either grab more APs or swap APs to more specialized jobs for your home. This set up however is going to be a combination of much higher performance due to more situational specific hardware being put up, but more complexity for set up and the research to figure out an issue will be higher because it's not as unified hardware and settings as something like the Amplifi.

In my home, I have the Dream machine Pro + U6 long range (wifi 6) AP and a AC lite AP. With only the UDM + U6 LR, I was getting over 100 MBits and lots of 200 MBits almost everywhere in the home with the occasional 30-40 MBits. I have the LR AP close to the outer wall and I can get solid signal almost 50-100 feet away. However, my inlaws had weird connectivity issues with their devices that I couldn't replicate with my devices. I added the AC lite AP and those connectivity issues are gone. But now I swear I have interference issues between the two AP and the speeds are basically 40-180 MB/s per speed test in my home. Faster than the Amplifi set up, but feels like a failure if I don't have over 100 MB/s+ in every damn corner of my home and the main area speeds dropping to around 80-180 instead of being consistently 16-200+. so I must spend time and figure it out when I get a chance.

Last edited by DoubleF; 11-11-2022 at 05:35 PM.
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Old 11-12-2022, 12:41 PM   #227
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Eldrick, as DoubleF said, really the very first stage - before spending any money - is to get that wiring sorted. I just did this at my son's place which he just purchased in Saskatoon...there were ethernet and phone ports all over the place, with nothing marked and zero indication of where anything went.

I brought my cable tester, crimping tool and a batch of ends - none of them expensive and all very easily available likely at home depot if nowhere else, but also loads online.

---

Given that you said all the cabling was cut...you will need to learn to reterminate the Ethernet cabling. Start there. It's easy and there are a couple of zillion YT vids on it. For ease and consistency use the "T568-B" standard (straight through). It appears to be the most common...but it doesn't matter as long as BOTH ENDS are consistent...so check your wiring against this guide:
https://incentre.net/ethernet-cable-...oding-diagram/

Tools required - anything of this nature:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Eclipse-...303672#overlay

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-To...-705/311456018

Take a few chunks of cabling and try it out.

You can often find some bulk cable at HD as well...just get 10' or so and build and test a few cables to get the hang of it...then you're ready to terminate the ones downstairs.

How to test....start with an ethernet port in any room in the house. Insert the "tone generator" part in that port. Go downstairs with your probe and start putting it close to wires. Eventually you will hear the tone and can then terminate AND LABEL that cable.

You can also do it the reverse way...starting in the basement and running all over the house looking for tone. (It's often harder that way, but not always!) In our case we also found quite a bit of cable ends hidden in the walls, in heating ducts. Yeesh.

Once you know to where you can actually run signal, you're part-way ahead of the game. You've got this!

THEN you can start to think about where Access Points and Routers can be placed...but you need to know first where you can reach. RG6 is also useful, but harder to work with, so start with the Ethernet cables.

Simple is easier with networking: if you're not a tech - and don't want to be - the Amplifi solution is terrific.

If you're interested in learning and getting a higher level of control, then the Unifi choice is better...but it IS more complicated to set up properly, although my son managed with some reasonable assistance from me, mostly on the phone with a little online support.
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Old 11-12-2022, 01:04 PM   #228
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https://www.amazon.ca/Cable-Matters-...T02/ref=sr_1_5

You can also just get a patch panel like this, and buy some of those keystone jacks I mentioned that don't require crimping. Keeps everything a bit tidier than loose cables all over.
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Old 11-12-2022, 04:01 PM   #229
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https://www.amazon.ca/Cable-Matters-...T02/ref=sr_1_5

You can also just get a patch panel like this, and buy some of those keystone jacks I mentioned that don't require crimping. Keeps everything a bit tidier than loose cables all over.
True enough...would have done that at my son's but they terminated all over the place in the basement. Not sure who did the wiring there (SaskTel?) but it was a complete gong show. Sometime I'll get back over there and just rewire the joint properly.

If the wires all terminate close enough then sure, use a patch panel and non-crimp keystones. Super easy. But sooner or later he's still gonna have to terminate a cable. :-)

BTW I love the non-crimp keystones. Quite useful. (Although I prefer the punch-down tool.)

Funny/odd story: after building cables for a zillion years, I can now no longer do CAT6 ones...too much arthritis and my hands can't hold 'em properly anymore. Blech.
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Old 11-12-2022, 04:14 PM   #230
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True enough...would have done that at my son's but they terminated all over the place in the basement. Not sure who did the wiring there (SaskTel?) but it was a complete gong show. Sometime I'll get back over there and just rewire the joint properly.

If the wires all terminate close enough then sure, use a patch panel and non-crimp keystones. Super easy. But sooner or later he's still gonna have to terminate a cable. :-)

BTW I love the non-crimp keystones. Quite useful. (Although I prefer the punch-down tool.)

Funny/odd story: after building cables for a zillion years, I can now no longer do CAT6 ones...too much arthritis and my hands can't hold 'em properly anymore. Blech.
Says you! I've managed to go at least 20 years since I last crimped.
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Old 11-13-2022, 12:37 PM   #231
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Says you! I've managed to go at least 20 years since I last crimped.
That's amazing!
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Old 11-22-2022, 12:35 PM   #232
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Thanks everyone.
Just got out of hospital yesterday, 10 days after emergency surgery.
Plenty of time to study a bit while down now.
Thanks for the responses
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Old 11-22-2022, 10:08 PM   #233
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Thanks everyone.
Just got out of hospital yesterday, 10 days after emergency surgery.
Plenty of time to study a bit while down now.
Thanks for the responses
Youtube it. Far easier to follow. It's also fun to watch the, "How to do #### with the completely wrong tools" types of videos. #### always happens so it's always to have a good temp option and then redo properly once you figure out wtf happened to the tool.
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Old 06-05-2023, 09:34 AM   #234
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Is it possible at an AP can be too close to a client? I have one dream machine going with one AP. Probably 30+ devices connected, all work pretty flawlessly.

The AP is on the 2nd floor, literally right at my TV - and my TV wifi keeps cutting out. I have to disconnect, then reconnect basically once a day. Why would all my other devices work great, except for the TV which is 7 inches away from the AP?
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Old 06-05-2023, 10:03 AM   #235
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Could be that your tv goes low power and disconnects when off. My Sony did that until the May update corrected it (Sony update)
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Old 06-05-2023, 11:44 AM   #236
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Is it possible at an AP can be too close to a client? I have one dream machine going with one AP. Probably 30+ devices connected, all work pretty flawlessly.

The AP is on the 2nd floor, literally right at my TV - and my TV wifi keeps cutting out. I have to disconnect, then reconnect basically once a day. Why would all my other devices work great, except for the TV which is 7 inches away from the AP?
It's either the TV dropping it completely due to a software error as mentioned, or maybe something is trying to cause it to connect to the other AP with poor results. This seems to happen a bit more with slightly older devices if you're using both a wifi6 and non- wifi6 AP (which I believe you have).

Did you try locking the TV to the AP?
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Old 06-05-2023, 12:19 PM   #237
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It's either the TV dropping it completely due to a software error as mentioned, or maybe something is trying to cause it to connect to the other AP with poor results. This seems to happen a bit more with slightly older devices if you're using both a wifi6 and non- wifi6 AP (which I believe you have).

Did you try locking the TV to the AP?
Ha. Yeah, I have your AP. I tried locking to the AP, but I feel like that's when the issues started so I disabled that. The Unifi app gave me an error saying that this model of AP doesn't support locking due to firmware- but it did anyway? Maybe I'll look for updates for the AP.

It's a Sony TV, so I'll try a manual software update - and maybe the lock to AP trick again.
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Old 06-05-2023, 01:13 PM   #238
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Ha. Yeah, I have your AP. I tried locking to the AP, but I feel like that's when the issues started so I disabled that. The Unifi app gave me an error saying that this model of AP doesn't support locking due to firmware- but it did anyway? Maybe I'll look for updates for the AP.

It's a Sony TV, so I'll try a manual software update - and maybe the lock to AP trick again.
I actually had to re-buy that model of AP afterwards to address some issues my in-laws were having with Wifi6. Keep it around because it might solve more issues than it creates. It was because my in-laws older devices were confused with the new Wifi certification or something random like that, so they kept dropping or refusing to connect unless I restarted my whole system.

I think my configuration is actually reverse of yours with my newer AP by the TV. I locked streaming devices to one AP and locked IOT things to the "legacy" one. I do recall certain devices would get confused and migrate/drop until I did some updates and some tweaks to the settings, but I don't recall what tweaks I did. I just found some post on the Unifi Reddit about good default settings to use.

I do recall the sous vide being one of the most temperamental until I locked it to an AP.
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Old 07-09-2023, 06:49 AM   #239
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Got my unifi protect up and running on my udm se and am very happy with it! Grabbed a G5 Flex and mounted it in the soffit outside my garage for a front camera and have a G3 instant for the kids in the house. Really like that it's not a cloud based system and everything is kept local.

Now if only the doorbells would get in stock!

Edit: Added Pic

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Old 12-11-2023, 08:49 PM   #240
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So... the UDM Pro is on sale right now for $379. A UDM SE is still $667.

The lack of PoE on the Pro isn't that big a deal for me - I need an additional switch and can get the 3 or so PoE ports I need that way. But the 2.5GB WAN port on the SE is appealing from a future proofing perspective (and 2.5GB is a big part of justifying this purchase). I know I can use a 10G SFP module on the UDM-Pro WAN SFP if it comes to that, but the RJ45 would be easier. I likely wont run cameras on this system.

Should I just go UDM-Pro? Or am I missing any other reasons to go with a SE?

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