Wireless AP suggestions?
-
Looking for a decent and cheap wireless AP for home use with pfSense. Any suggestions?
-
Unifi is prob best bang for the buck.. The new AC lite is $89, pro is $149 these are true AP designed to be mounted in the ceiling or wall and are POE. So you just need to run etherent cable to them. And either use a poe switch to power them or the included poe injector.
https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ac/
You will find many users of pfsense using them.. I have 3 of them in my house, lite, lr and pro.. Sold off my older AC model to user here on pfsense community.
If you have any questions about them, their forums are also quite active and sure plenty of people here willing to answer questions about them. While there are other options, these seem to be at a very sweet price point for the feature set. They provide free software controller that runs on pretty much anything, windows, mac, linux/bsd. And they even sell little "key" for $79 think raspberry pi type computer that can plug into your switch and runs the controller. Can even just pull power from your switch if poe. And sure there are people running the controller on pi's as well.
https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-cloud-key/
Or if you don't want to run controller software you don't have to.. But it does provide lots of insight into your wifi clients, connection and usage, etc. But if you want they have a app you can run on our ios or android device to configure your AP. Or you can just fire up the controller software configure them and then turn off the controller software.
They even just enabled DFS channels for US and CA, etc. So if your in a wifi rich area this could provide you with channels without overlap, etc.
They support up to 4 SSID per radio (2.4 and 5) so total of 8 if you so desired and do vlan tagging of your SSIDs so work great for isolation of your different wifi network using pfsense.
-
I've been using an Engenius EAP1200H at home for a while now, which can be had for ~$100 now. It can do up to 8 SSIDs with VLAN segmentation, client isolation, and has 2.4->5GHz band steering. Has worked pretty well for me so far. It also has a web interface, so can be configured without installing any software, which I prefer for single deployments (if you want to deploy multiple APs, controller software a la Unifi can be useful though).
-
Thanks guys. I'll have a look into your suggestions.
-
Be aware that Lite and LR use passive PoE and can only be powered using the included 24v injectors. If you want to power them from a switch you need the Pro version
-
i am using ruckus zf7363 mounting ceiling at home so far no wifi problem.
-
Good choice. A 7372 tucked under my TV is serving a large, 2-story home nicely, but not ideally.
Ceiling-mounted on both floors would be better for sure.
BeamFlex ftw.
-
i have 2 Unifi AP Pros and the cloudkey and really like them.
-
Budget:
Netgear, Buffalo and TP-Link WLAN router with pre or past installed DD-WRT or OpenWRTMid ranged:
MikroTik RBsBest option:
UBNT & CloudKey
UBNT & Software WiFi controllerProfessional:
Netgear (WAC) WiFi APs & ControllerEnterprise:
Xirrus & Cloud based ControllerLooking for a decent and cheap wireless AP for home use with pfSense. Any suggestions?
Go with UBNT fpr more quality or take a look over the budget named devices.
-
Ruckus is a bit over the top for a regular home user, except you source your equipment from eBay and such. So did I.
For the average home: xclaim wireless (a Ruckus company)
regular 802.3af PoE, stand alone OR cloud controller OR App configuration, some of Ruckus' Magic, small, cheap.
Only 3 models available: single band, dual-band and AC.
Officially no Beamflex but AC has beam-steering in the standard anyways.
