I am living in Germany now. And i like the reviews about Unify Pro and LR and the rest.
I bought together with my wife an apartment 95qm2 so now i want to have an Wi-Fi access point to cover the hole apartment with network. Since most of the wife’s do not like cables to pull a cross the house, but want to have internet i think for now an AP is a good idea.
For me since i will have an 1000mbit line from Vodafone Deutschland, the benefits are to go for the Pro to use the full speed of the Wi-Fi. But the price is more expensive for the Pro then the LR.
So now the question also, the coverage, in the attachment you will find my setup.
I will use an Qotom mini PC with Esxi host windows 10 machine with UDM and a virtual machine for OPNsense.
The given meters is of course in a perfect condition, but as you know it will never be the perfect condition in house, apartments etc.
So for example the 122 meter with the Pro will end up in how much meters you think? And will it cover the hole apartment after calculation of the walls etc.
In Germany of course we have concrete walls, no wooden walls with plasterboard walls.
Can you do a top down diagram with the measurements of the flat?. I’d also do a wifi site survey before deciding. If you want FULL Gbps, you’ll need to get a 5Ghz unit. To be safe, use 50% of the quoted meterage.
Looking at the wifi comparison chart here UniFi WiFi - Ubiquiti I’d get the HD @ $350 . because of upto 1,733Mbps 5Ghz , wave2 & 2nd Eth port.
BTW if OpenSense your firewall or router + firewall?
In my “house” I previously had wireless, extenders and access points, to deliver wireless without any ethernet cables. For several years the performance was between not great and terrible, probably for a host of reasons.
A year ago I wired up the house with ethernet and have one access point, now it’s bliss Looking at your flat, it looks like the ceiling is low so perhaps you’ll need a couple of access points.
If you have an ethernet cable between your switch and AP, then you ought to be able to get away with 2 if not, then you really need to tune those buggers.
In my “flat” I have only wifi on a router on the floor and there is a lot of interference from neighbours, I just live with poor wifi. In the end you’ll probably get away with it as long as you don’t stream blurays !
One mistake I made was to spend close to £1000+ (over time) on routers, access points etc … that same money could have been better spent on cabling which I ended up doing anyway.
from the attached file, the first room right will be the room where i will manage all the network from.
If i can trust this website its about 1022 square feed.
@ZaK86 the Qotom Mini PC will be the firewall, dhcp, vpn, portforwarding etc machine.
With Esxi host on it with Windows 10 machine for managing the AP. And a vm for OPNsense.
and then to connect it to an switch of 10p etc.
If you can’t drill for cables, is there a drop ceiling? You could use Ethernet-over-powerline adapters, not my fav solution, but it will do if you get a decent model.
Is your modem in bridge mode? ALso check UNMS, its free now. https://unms.com/
I can put the modem in Bridge, i already asked the Vodafone DE community for that.
So when i have the real network (modem) i will put it in bridge mode, connect it to my OPNsense Qotom Mini pc, and will configure the settings like vpn, firewall etc etc. And then connect it to an switch.
From the switch i want to take a cable of 10/15meters to the hallway and to mount the Unify AP.
But before that to choose the correct one. We have concrete walls, no drywall in the hole apartment.
the problem will be money. I saw here in Germany they are about €280 / $307 that will be to expensive as well. Because i need also to buy some switches etc. I need to see then if i can buy it somehow second hand.-
I do not have that much devices wired connected. Maybe in the future to get an electric person to open the walls and to pull cables. But for now it is easy.
I was thinking
Modem - Qotom PC - switch - PoE Injector - AP
Modem - Qotom PC - switch - the rest of the devices within the room like
PC, tv etc.
Like Yoda says "“Do or Do Not” from my experience laying cable is easy, get the right drill, go through the wall, use only punch down jacks. If you have the cash buy the wifi equipment you want but expect not to have the same quality as ethernet.
Personally I use these netgear switches, the GUI is crappy but works, read the manual for the unit to make sure it does what you need, from the ones I have I tend to buy only if it has dynamic LAG / LACP.
Same in my country.
Looking at your flat, it looks like the ceiling is low so perhaps you’ll need a couple of access points.
its about 1022 square feed.