Home Wifi AP Hardware

Networking & Firewalls
1

I’m looking to upgrade my in home Wifi but can’t decide on the right APs to use. I have a Netgate SG-3100, and Airport Extreme and a couple hard wired Mac Mini’s that are setup as AP via MacOS internet sharing option. So it’s a bit of a mess.

I want to keep the SG-3100 and replace the Airport Extreme and my Mac Mini’s with proper equipment. There are only 3 people in the house and no more than 15 wireless devices. The house has two levels and is about 2200 square feet. The upstairs is all plaster wall and the downstairs is dry wall. The upstairs has a hard wire running towards the front and the back of the house meanwhile the downstairs has a hard wire roughly in the middle.

So my idea is to have two APs upstairs and one downstairs all of which are hardwired: maybe if I have two APs upstairs I won’t need the extra one downstairs? Currently the biggest problem is that due to the variety of hardware I use handoff does not work correctly as I move around the house.

Reading here and elsewhere it looks like either the Unifi Nano HD or Unifi Amplifi would do the trick; however, each one seems to have a problem in my case. The Nano HD requires POE switch which my SG-3100 does not have and so that means I would have to spend money on a POE switch. The Amplifi comes with the router with I technically don’t need since I have the SG-3100. I’m not sure which of these is the better option here.

My only reason for keeping the SG-3100 is because I want to use pfBlockerNG to be able to use Steven’s Black List. If I can use Steven’s Black List with Amplifi and Amplifi is the right solution here then I have no problem selling the SG-3100.

Thoughts? Other hardware suggestions other than Unifi?

2

I would go with the Nano HD. It likely comes with a POE Injector. I am not keen on the difference in all of the the Unifi APs, but I wouldn’t let the POE part stop that.

Also, I would stick with the pfSense solution. I personally prefer pfSense as a router/firewall over Ubiquiti’s line of products. I find that they don’t offer as many features and if the advanced feature does exist, it’s likely a CLI solution. Tom mentioned this in one of his videos, I believe.

3

Why an HD model though? Seems kind of overkill for 15 devices.

4

Good question. So your question made me take a closer look at their website. I was assuming, incorrectly, that the lineup they have at the bottom of their nanoUnifiHD page was their entire lineup. Which now I see it’s not.

At the bottom of that page they compare UAP-nanoHD, UAP-AC-PRO, and UAP-HD. Out of those I chose the nano because of the MIMO Chains 4x4 and MU-MIMO.

I guess the other thing I should mention is that I live in Canada and the options here are a bit different. The UniFi AC LR and UniFi AC Lite are the two cheaper options available to be me. Perhaps these are more appropriate?

5

It seems to me the nano is a newer generation of products and superseding the UAP-AC line, just like those superseded the UAP line of products.

I still believe you don’t normally need high density / MU-MIMO functionality in the home, in my opinion this is geared more towards enterprises / installs with high amount of concurrent users.