Which should I go with- multiple Commercial wireless APs, or consumer-grade wifi mesh kit?

[astones153]

Must be 2.5GbE?

If you can do without 10GbE SFP+ uplink and 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, this Aruba switch is pretty decent value imo.
https://www.lazada.sg/products/arub...w-switch-jl813a-i2239062310-s12879420567.html

Highly unlikely i'll ever make use of 10Gbe SFP+ ports at the present, since I still don't have any servers/NAS to connect to the network, but this one also looks rough on my budget haha. I think for now I'll settle on a decent 8-port 1gig switch with poe+ injector, then upgrade to 2.5gbe or 10gig down the line whenever got sale/clearance etc. My home broadband havent even upgrade to 1+1gig internet either. So far need to budget for pfsense box ($200ish) and wifi 6 AP ($250ish)... Parents not sponsoring either since this is just a DIY project for me. Appreciate all the tips/advice given, I'll continue to lurk more and learn

 

[xiaofan]

Highly unlikely i'll ever make use of 10Gbe SFP+ ports at the present, since I still don't have any servers/NAS to connect to the network, but this one also looks rough on my budget haha. I think for now I'll settle on a decent 8-port 1gig switch with poe+ injector, then upgrade to 2.5gbe or 10gig down the line whenever got sale/clearance etc. My home broadband havent even upgrade to 1+1gig internet either. So far need to budget for pfsense box ($200ish) and wifi 6 AP ($250ish)... Parents not sponsoring either since this is just a DIY project for me. Appreciate all the tips/advice given, I'll continue to lurk more and learn

I do not see the need for 2.5G and 10G network yet.

I actually have some 2.5G stuff including 2.5G dumb switch. But I have not find the use case yet. Just for testing only.

I have given up on the NAS idea and choose to pay for Google One cloud storage now for mobile phone photo backup.

My home is not wired and I am happy with wireless (≥500Mbps for laptop and Mac Mini M1, ≥150Mbps for mobile phone and tablets) .

And I hope I do not need to wire up my home at all since future (5-10 years time) 5G/6G mobile and WiFi 7 will make wireless fast enough (high speed and low latency) even for killer AR/VR/metaverse.

 

[astones153]

I do not see the need for 2.5G and 10G network yet.

I actually have some 2.5G stuff including 2.5G dumb switch. But I have not find the use case yet. Just for testing only.

I have given up on the NAS idea and choose to pay for Google One cloud storage now for mobile phone photo backup.

My home is not wired and I am happy with wireless (≥500Mbps for laptop and Mac Mini M1, ≥150Mbps for mobile phone and tablets) .

And I hope I do not need to wire up my home at all since future (5-10 years time) 5G/6G mobile and WiFi 7 will make wireless fast enough (high speed and low latency) even for killer AR/VR/metaverse.

I've got over 15 devices at home all connected to a single AP thats stuck on one side of the house. Granted, the use of bandwidth is uneven throughout the day, and I've read around in other threads saying that most home networks can run on 500mbps internet speeds, and that the true bottlenecks are shitty AP placement and poor connections to international CDNs(?) Game plan is to stay with current starhub 1gbe plan, get the pfsense up and running, get a handle on DNS and OpenVPN, and see if changing wifi AP location will yield desired results. More or less settled on a single strong wifi 6 AP that will connect to a 1gbe switch. Is there a meaningful difference between the different "AX1800" vs "AX3600" models of AP in general? Stuff like radio broadcast strength, antenna dbi/gain etc, signal integrity through 1 or 2 walls etc.

 

[xiaofan]

I've got over 15 devices at home all connected to a single AP thats stuck on one side of the house. Granted, the use of bandwidth is uneven throughout the day, and I've read around in other threads saying that most home networks can run on 500mbps internet speeds, and that the true bottlenecks are shitty AP placement and poor connections to international CDNs(?) Game plan is to stay with current starhub 1gbe plan, get the pfsense up and running, get a handle on DNS and OpenVPN, and see if changing wifi AP location will yield desired results. More or less settled on a single strong wifi 6 AP that will connect to a 1gbe switch. Is there a meaningful difference between the different "AX1800" vs "AX3600" models of AP in general? Stuff like radio broadcast strength, antenna dbi/gain etc, signal integrity through 1 or 2 walls etc.

Yes there are differences between different brands and within the same brand there are also differences about the antenna design and the FEM used and the TX power differences (of course there is a limit), other than the wireless spec differences.

Example: Max TX power differences between U6-Lite and U6-LR is very significant. This could be important in case you want to only deploy one wireless AP. But if you want to deploy multiple AP then the difference may be less significant.

And of course when you set to a different country code the TX power may need to be adjusted to follow the local regulation limit. But from the Unifi U6 Lite datasheet we can see that Max TX Power of 17dBm is really low, even if compared to the normal lowest regulation limit of 20dBm.

1) Unifi U6 Lite: 2.4GHz 23dBm, 5GHz 17dBm (the 5GHz Max TX power of 17dBm is surprisingly low)
https://dl.ui.com/ds/u6-lite_ds.pdf
2) Unifi U6 LR: 2.4GHz 26dBm, 5GHz 26dBm
https://dl.ui.com/ds/u6-lr_ds.pdf
3) Unifi U6 Pro: 2.4GHz 22dBm, 5GHz 26dBm
https://dl.ui.com/ds/u6-pro_ds.pdf
4)
Unifi AC-Lite and AC-IW: 2.4GHz 20dBm, 5GHz 20dBm
Unifi AC-LR: 2.4GHz 24dBm, 5GHz 22dBm
https://dl.ui.com/datasheets/unifi/UniFi_AC_APs_DS.pdf

 

[xiaofan]

List of Wifi band
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels
IMDA Standard for TX power limit
https://www.imda.gov.sg/-/media/Imd...ion-Standards/Radio-Comms/IMDATSSRD.pdf?la=en

1) Max RF output power (TX power)
2.4000 – 2.4835 GHz: ≤ 200 mW (e.i.r.p) or 23dBm

5.150 – 5.350 GHz:> 100 mW (e.i.r.p.) or 20dBm and ≤ 200 mW (e.i.r.p.) or 23dBm; DFS and TPC for 5.250-5.350GHz sub range

5.150 – 5.350 GHz: ≤ 100 mW (e.i.r.p.) or 20dBm, DFS for 5.250-5.350GHz sub range

5.470 – 5.725 GHz: ≤ 1000 mW (e.i.r.p.) or 30dBm, DFS and TPC

5.725 – 5.850 GHz :<=1000mW (e.i.r.p.) or 30dBm. If > 1000 mW (e.i.r.p.) ≤ 4000 mW (e.i.r.p.); Operating under this provision shall be approved on an exceptional basis.

2) Max Transmitter spurious emissions
All frequency bands used by WiFI are >1GHz, so the limit is the same: <=-30dBm

 

[firesong]

List of Wifi band
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels
IMDA Standard for TX power limit
https://www.imda.gov.sg/-/media/Imd...ion-Standards/Radio-Comms/IMDATSSRD.pdf?la=en

1) Max RF output power (TX power)
2.4000 – 2.4835 GHz: ≤ 200 mW (e.i.r.p) or 23dBm

5.150 – 5.350 GHz:> 100 mW (e.i.r.p.) or 20dBm and ≤ 200 mW (e.i.r.p.) or 23dBm; DFS and TPC for 5.250-5.350GHz sub range

5.150 – 5.350 GHz: ≤ 100 mW (e.i.r.p.) or 20dBm, DFS for 5.250-5.350GHz sub range

5.470 – 5.725 GHz: ≤ 1000 mW (e.i.r.p.) or 30dBm, DFS and TPC

5.725 – 5.850 GHz :<=1000mW (e.i.r.p.) or 30dBm. If > 1000 mW (e.i.r.p.) ≤ 4000 mW (e.i.r.p.); Operating under this provision shall be approved on an exceptional basis.

2) Max Transmitter spurious emissions
All frequency bands used by WiFI are >1GHz, so the limit is the same: <=-30dBm

Good find...

Each geographic region has regulations for both power output level and approved frequency bands, because they take into consideration other uses of the same frequency bands. That's why there's a regulatory body to coordinate this - so the guidelines should be adhered to in order for everyone to play well together.

This is also a reason why parallel importing routers meant for use in other counties could even be illegal - because they would exceed IMDA's stipulated guidelines. Wireless frequences are both a boon and a bane - it enables convenience but a user's excessively strong signals also serve as signal jammers to all the neighbours.

 

[astones153]

This is my current game plan. Now just to save cash and dig up documentation for every other AP out there too

 

[TopGun]

Yea rn my options are either a 2.5gbe poe+ switch or just get 2.5gbe switch with poe injector. Its a real PITA because my house doesnt have a lot of places to mount AP on ceilings (a lot of it is false ceiling), and the places I can mount APs are pretty much in the center of the house. Therefore my solution is to just get a powerful AP and place it in the middle of the house, but the more powerful APs (AX3000~3600) use 2.5gbe ethernet ports. Here's hoping wifi 6E will incentivise faster 2.5gbe adoption.

Use something like this. I just cut 3 short strips and mount it on the ceiling.

https://www.amazon.com/VELCRO-Brand-Fasteners-Industrial-VEL-30703-USA/dp/B09BNPX3XJ/

 

[astones153]

My new NetGear WAX218 finally arrived a few days ago, it's been hooked up with POE and is sitting in a more/less central location at home. Signal strength measured through Wifiman has been good in previous dead zones (-70/-80dbm to -50dbm), all thats left to do is test it for a few weeks in deployment to see if i need to do any amazon returns

Its quite a mess but it works, this will eventually be updated to neater cable trunking