I'm a big fan of MikroTik. They do EVERYTHING.....but do take some setup.
And you can't get faster / cheaper than this TP-Link Omada AC1750.
I am considering getting the Ubiquiti setup for a house that we're doing.
I'm thinking of the UDM and 3 ap's connected via cat6 to a unifi managed switch.
(It's a VERY large house!).
Apparently the UDM has the "cloud key" software built in.
FWIW. I'm running an Er3Lite, a Gen1 Cloudkey, and 3APs (2 AC Pros and one AC HD) but don't have a managed switch. I'm thinking of adding a Cloud Key Gen 2 with storage and some Ubiquiti Cams for outside.
My experience with Ubiquiti is that generally they're utterly reliable and once setup, "just work".
I have about 2800 sq ft across a basement and two above grade floors, I have an AP in roughly the center of each floor, and my WiFi is fantastic throughout the house.
Good stuff.
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Pfsense Netgate SG-1100 here.
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I use OpnSense (a fork of Pfsense) on a fanless micropc.
JUst out of curiosity, do you have a zigbee network?
Do you have any issues with interference between the channel of the ap's and the zigbee channel?
I’m going to try not to bash here but I’m only giving my experiences so don’t think I’m trying to bash any brand router so to my story. In the last 3 years I have had 5 different routers and 4 fail on me in order I have had the tp-link onhub failed had to replace, Asus ac1900 failed had to replace, tp-link Archer ax3000 failed had to replace, Netgear Orbi RB40 system failed had to replace. Before I purchased the first router on this list I asked the same question that the OP has asked but I didn’t listen even though the advise I was given was from people that were network engineers they all said to go with Ubiquiti equipment if I wanted a robust network that would last for years. So after the Orbi system went bad on me and I had to replace it (purchased from Amazon) when I got the money for the Orbi system this time I took the advice and purchased Ubiquiti equipment and I must say that it is the best networking equipment that I have ever had. Since switching to the Ubiquiti gear my network is running better and faster. I luv this stuff. So to end put me in the Ubiquiti camp I highly highly recommend their stuff.
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Yes. I have a whole lot of Zigbee sensors (Samsung Motion, Samsung Multi-purpose, Aeon, Aeotec, etc) a number of plugin Samnsung and Securifi (Peanut) plugs, some Hue outdoor Motion sensors, 2 Hampton Bay Fan controllers, and a pair of Honeywell/GE/Jasco Switches. I'm sure there are others.
No, I don't have any issues with Zigbee interference with my WiFi or vice-versa.
My Zigbee network is running on Channel 14. I have 2.4GHz Wifi in use all across the band (3 channels). I have no Zigbee issues whatsoever. Having said that, in a fit of caution, I have a relatively large number of plug-in Zigbee devices spread throughout the house, and the Honeywell switches were deliberately placed near my HBFC's to compensate for their well known issues with reception.
Just to be utterly clear, I don't think the Ubiquiti system itself has anything to do with my lack of issues with by Zigbee network.
I personally think it comes down to the Mesh.
S.
My environment:
It might be coincidence, but zigbee channel 14 comes close to a point with minimal interference from WiFi channels 1 and 6.
Just as, although I also use WiFi channels 1, 6, and 11, one of my zigbee networks is on channel 20, where is least likely to be impacted by either WiFi channel 6 or 11.
To be fair, my other zigbee network is on channel 23 (plumb in the middle of WiFi ch 11) - with ~30 Xiaomi sensors. That zigbee network has eleven Tradfri repeaters and outlets and has generally been stable as well.
Netgear R7800 router & zigbee channel 20 here. No issues.
J,
If you like the Hubitat Elevation platform, with all of its options, owner control of almost all hub behavior, periodic updates and prompt solutions for bugs, you might consider Synology routers. I see them as the Hubitat of routers, with the bonus of having a world-class windowed user interface. I have their most minimal mesh set-up, with a RT2600ac downstairs next to my cable modem and a MR2200ac upstairs. My house is medium large, with 3,360 square feet, and the coverage and performance are excellent.
Regards,
Jeff Broido
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Not to drift too far off topic, but...In all honesty, I think the "interference" thing is sometimes a bit of a red herring. It's easy to point the finger at, but much harder to prove without a spectrum analyzer, and real time demodulation of the signals with a method of seeing bit errors/demodulation errors.
I think one thing we tend to forget, is that these systems were/are designed to coexist in the same frequency band. WiFi bands are particularly heavily used and various and sundry users simultaneously transmit and receive in the same band.
Zigbee is a mesh network, very low power and designed from the get go to sit in the WiFi band. It's low duty cycle DSSS with O-QPSK modulation gives it benefits with regards to interference. The power is spread across a wide range, and effectively by adding the modulating wave to the DSSS carrier you get a lot of processing gain for the demodulator. Meaning it can recover the data even when the signal is "in the noise", and it gets much higher correlation values for its bits.
The O-QPSK means that it also should be able to correlate phases better in the presence of other coexisting QPSK networks using standard 90 degree phase values (0, 90, 180, 270).
WiFi uses OFDM and QPSK, which offers a whole different set of increased data recovery benefits.
Anyway. In short, although I'm sure Interference can and does occur, I would mostly expect to see this in very very dense environments. I'm thinking of the guy whose house was in line with a BT high power neighborhood WiFi service tower in his backyard. It was probably cranked up to 11 as well, dumping all kinds of garbage out on the edges of the band and between the channels as well. Thus stomping all over poor little Zigbee.
For most of us though, I think home construction and Mesh design, and possibly poorly behaved devices are much bigger factors.
S
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The Dream machine is a router, cloudkey, and access point all rolled into one. The downside is that if the router portion fails, you have to replace the whole thing. I've been using separate Ubiquiti components for years.
My story is about the same. I ended up wearing out home class hardware every year or 2. I went from lower end (often with other firmware) all the way up to the more expensive "gaming" routers. The last home router was actually more expensive that what I chose as my first Ubiquity setup of an AP Pro along with a EdgeRouter X using a laptop to be the controller for the initial setup. Once configured, it just ran. I've duplicated that setup at several small business/home customer sites with no issues over the last few years.
Here I'm now using the Cloudkey Gen 1, a USG (Unifi Security Gateway), an AP Lite (removed the Pro for testing), and mesh APs (UAP-AC-M-US).
I have a few newer Ubiquiti items in my shopping list to buy, but I just don't have the time to test them fully.
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