Quote:
Originally Posted by Meelapo
Thanks. I took a look at the UDM Pro SE and didn’t realize you still need to introduce something that provides wifi. So I feel like the Express 7 x 2 and the switch might be the best option for what we need for the next few years. And then I can upgrade to a more advanced option at a future point.
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If budget is a concern, I'd recommend getting coax pulled onto the main floor AND utility room. Buy just 1 Express 7 vs 2 and operate that way by putting it on the main floor.
Buy another Express 7 only if truly needed later on, which should help the budget. These things are more powerful than you may realize. At my parents house, it was a huge leap from a single Amplifi HD on the main floor vs 3 TP link mesh nodes. My dad actually got mad and said the single router was noticeably better and a second node was completely unnecessary.
Or in a few months to a year when budget is better, you can probably recover more than you expect from potentially selling the Express 7, and put that towards the set up you want, UDM or otherwise. Amplifi HD routers still sell for $100-200 each and they're discontinued. I purchased them for $180-250 each brand new. Used express routers are still going for $150-200 USD. Not bad for a router you're aiming to buy $285 CAD brand new.
Assuming no worse than my AmpliFi set up, the complexity of debugging an Express 7 mesh set up vs a UniFi set up is only incrementally more, but relatively straight forward. Basically both are fruit baskets and will be approached similarly for someone wanting to consume, but one is all apples (mesh), and the other has apples plus a variety of fruit. You'll have less concerns for allergies for all apples, but sometimes complaints about wanting some other type of fruit too.
IMO, they would be near identical. The Express 7 set up is of a more limited ecosystem of hardware, so there's less decision tree work to establish what is the cause of an issue, because there's a lower variety of hardware and settings variations that can cause a problem. IIRC, initial app set up etc. is actually slower than the UniFi set up, but it's more mindless clicking. The initial UniFi set up is faster, but then you need to explain what you're adding to the network etc. Once you got it going, it's easy to set and forget.
The extra time debugging is really minor differences in research and confirming things like settings, hardware and Wifi 6/7 device "bugs". The Wifi 6/7 thing has mostly gone away with more recent updates to devices in general. If you have an issue, someone else likely did and it's easy to find those posts and copy what they did to resolve it. Anything else would probably be identical time regardless of Express 7/UDM Pro (ie: device issue, networking connectivity issues, strategic positioning of units etc.).
Issues I usually ran into for a mesh network would be devices basically dropping connection for longer than expected when the hand off between the mesh nodes got confused (devices usually bounce from one node to another based on the best reception, sometimes it gets stuck in hand off for like 10-30 seconds if I'm perfectly in between the hand off criteria). The settings available are more limited for mesh networks to address this, so sometimes I just had to wait it out. Identical hardware also meant confusion at times, because I would know a node is having issues/interference, but I didn't know which of the two identical pieces of hardware was experiencing it without digging into details.
Also, if I needed to do anything with the primary node (updates or otherwise), the whole network goes down until that node is back to operational.
For the UDM pro, an update to the UDM Pro of course makes the network go down until it's done. However, for multiple AP, because it's not really a primary vs secondary node situation, I can do updates on the AP one at a time and have no/limited down time due to a primary/secondary node issue. I can bind devices to specific AP (ie: devices that don't move) to avoid the hand off issue. I can also set one AP to broadcast in 2.4 more powerfully and the other at 5.0 to maximize speeds in specific circumstances/locations in my home.
Ubiquiti also has an excellent and logical interface. The extra features shouldn't be shown in a way that causes confusion regardless of whether you're doing AP or mesh. Honestly speaking, I got more confused other brands app and web interfaces where the features were far less than the Amplifi or Unifi system with way more features and settings. TP link was terrible for this where there'd be a settings tab with no ability to do anything. No such thing for Ubiquiti IIRC, and many settings explain what happens and pros/cons of doing so and sometimes what prep you should do before doing that setting.
