Wireless access point efficiency
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I keep reading that Ubiquiti Wireless Access points are the best. What is so good about them and how do I tell how good my current WAP is?
Is there any way of measuring signal strength at a given distance? (say with some Android app on a phone or tablet…)
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The best bang for the buck maybe, but probably not the best ….
Signal strength at a certain distance isnt the only factor. (WiFi analyser apps can be found in the various appstores)
For me it's more important how much throughput you get at a certain distance & how many clients can keep working on a single AP without packetloss
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The review on SmallNetBuilder for their AC Pro and AC Lite isn't exactly glowing:
The last paragraph of the conclusion is:
…Ubiquiti's UAP-AC-Lite and PRO are damn cheap AC access points with poor-to-middlin' 2.4 GHz performance and 5 GHz performance that runs with most of the AC DWS pack. Easy-to-setup and use DWS they ain't. But a relatively inexpensive way to get a decently performing multi-AP Wi-Fi network with pro-grade features, they certainly are.
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Please download wifi analyser for Android.
UAP pluses are decent price and an enterprise feature.
Despite not a glowing review, they are very popular for those two reasons. I have installed two UAP AC Pros in our 3000 sq feet property. They are great for me. I don't like 2.4 GHz band as laptops and phones won't connect at 5 Ghz. I disabled 2.4. I get a very good coverage, which can be different in your case. Local environments and your house construction would make a big difference. I get a full wire speed at 50% of house and 60-70% elsewhere at 5 Ghz.
Btw, the UAP's need to be ceiling mounted and wired for best performance and NOT kept on the floor.
If price is not a factor, you can go down the meraki, ruckus, xirius route.
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I keep reading that Ubiquiti Wireless Access points are the best.
Where did you read that?
They are cheap with reasonable feature set and performance but that's about it.Signal strength is NOT a quality criteria there days.
The ability to deliver throughput in demanding surroundings is.Metageek's inSSIDer once was free for home use. Maybe you can still find a copy somewhere.
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Openmesh is another product that you should look at ubiquiti requires you to host your own controller either on a server or a desktop and if desktop you need to use static ip. With openmesh it is free.
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ubiquiti requires you to host your own controller either on a server or a desktop and if desktop you need to use static ip.
Only if you want to run a guest portal. Otherwise, you can set up once and forget about it.
Static IP is better, which can be done from the router's NAT.
It does not evaluate the RF and auto adjust the channel for you. We need an expensive APs like Ruckus to achieve that. This is an awesome AP, if OP can afford.
@Balanga: what's your isp speed please? What AP do you have? Some additional details of your property in terms of coverage will be appreciated.
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As others have stated.. I don't think your going to get anyone saying that unifi is the "BEST" this is always the same nonsense that comes to IT when users throw out that term.. Best at what exactly?? Without some actual parameters to compare you can not call anything "BEST"
Now is the unifi line a good choice for budget minded users that want access many enterprise sort of feature sets on their AP.. Then yeah they are great choice here!
If you line it up against other enterprise grade AP.. Then sure its prob going to come in at the best price ;)
It is very simple to setup to be sure - they do have a APP you could use on your phone even to set them up. The controller software while it provides great insight into your wifi network if left running and can provide features like captive portal if running. As mentioned it is not a requirement to leave the controller running. But if you do and don't have a place to run it - they do sell a cloud key (little computer on a stick) for $80 that is even poe and if you have poe switch can just plug it in and there you go.
Would I recommend them - yes!! I run 3 of them, Pro, Lite and LR in my home.. Most new users could prob get away with the lite model to be honest.. At < $90 an AP for the feature set they are very home/smb budget minded… They do DFS, they have band steering, ATF, you can wireless uplink with them.. Vlan support.. Many of the features of a enterprise AP at cost that makes it home user friendly
To be honest I would love to run something like areohive at the house.. But they are pricey - and also require a subscription.. Even the new low end AP122 of theirs is 200$ without the subscription.. Its only 2x2 like the lite model from unifi. If no budget I would be running something other than unifi sure - but then again I didn't win the lottery and wife found out I dropped $1K on an AP she would freaking kill me ;) So you get what best suites your needs and budget.. Unifi does that great.. Vlan support, plus many other enterprise sort of features at price that is doable on pretty much any home/lab budget..
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hey john, out of curiosity what wireless speeds are you getting on your unifi's?
like inter-LAN file transfers, etc?
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I keep reading that Ubiquiti Wireless Access points are the best.
They are the best at the price point IMO, I use an AC-PRO & CloudKey.
Stuff that should work doesn't an example is LLDP, I'd hate to try and diagnose a fault at a site with lots of APs without LLDP.
QA also seems to be an issue with hardware & software, I've had to roll back an update as a few devices stopped working.
https://www.servethehome.com/ubiquiti-edgeswitch-es-16-xg-review-quality-control-absent/
But having said all the above I'm a happy user of my AC-PRO.
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So just fired up wifes laptop.. iperf showing 200mps so about half the PHY connected at 433.. its a shitty little 5ghz dongle on her older laptop.
When I get home tonight I will test iperf and file copy test with my work laptop has built in ac wifi that does 800 PHY I believe…
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Thanks! The reason I ask is because about the best I can get on my AC Pro is 200Mbps. I've spent a lot of time troubleshooting with their tech support but that's just as good as it gets.
I was wondering if others are seeing better or if that is normal.
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Well what is your PHY rate? Your not going to see more than 200mbps if your at a 433 PHY..
You might see 60% of PHY if everything is perfect.. But normally 50% is a good ballpark to assume.. Like I said that was a crappy 15$ usb dongle in my wifes old laptop, let me fire up my work laptop pretty sure its 2x2.. And I do have a pci card I could fire up on my desktop that is 3x3..
Keep in mind if your doing wireless to wireless you automatically /2 what you could see.. Your best test is from a wired device at gig, and then from a good wifi client.. Most clients are at best going to be 2x2.. So with a 2x2 client and getting a 867 Mbit/s PHY you could see 400mbps..
Hmmm - I might be able to fire up 3x3 pci card on my desktop remotely, and do some testing while at work ;) remotely…
edit: Ok I am seeing 3x3 PHY speeds from my pci card.. But going to have a hard time testing speed to something wired on that network segment.. Its my isolated wifi network for my iot stuff. When I get home I can fire up something and put it on the same vlan on my switch.. And I don't wont to switch off my wired interface on that remote box cuz I could loose access to it remotely..
Guess have to wait til I get home..
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That's iperf between a wired desktop that gets full gigabit between other wired clients on iperf, and a couple different wireless clients (iPhone 7, S7 edge) the wireless clients usually show speeds >700Mbps in the ubiquity controller.
This is on a clean 5GHz channel. Actual file transfer speeds are abysmal (2-5Mbps). I've spent over two hours with ubiquity support on TeamViewer troubleshooting (HUGE recommendation for their customer support, never seen anything like it). I was starting to think that this might just be reality on the hardware?
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I did file copy from my wifes laptop this morning. But it was to my plex server on a different vlan that is hairpinned and routing through my pfsense that is running vm that the same storage vm is running on.. Its not the best test of unifi speeds and was seeing 13MBps in the file copy.. Which is well over 100mbps..
I will do a real test when when I get home tonight just testing AP, taking any routing/firewall out of the picture.. Traffic will be
wifi client –- wifi ---- AP ---- switch ---- wired fileserver
Are you running any sort of captive portal in the controller?
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No captive portal, a couple of VLANs but otherwise nothing special
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Ok so here did a test..
43MBps file copy from wife laptop I plugged into wire from box with wired off and only connected via wifi card .. Iperf shows 348Mbps, show a PHY of 877 on windows – seems a bit odd, uc controller shows the rx at 867.. So while the 350mbps iperf is a bit low - it matches right up to the file transfer speed 43MBps * 8 gives you 344mbps..
This is well over 200, and the abysmal file transfer speeds your seeing.. So something clearly not right.. What firmware you running on the the AP? I always run latest and greatest on 3.8.1 currently - and this morning I noticed 3.8.2 is out..
So test was wired like this
wifi client -- wifi -- AP --- switch (sg300) --- switch (tl-sg108) -- wife laptop.
Just for completeness 2nd is the wired test.. Same devices same wired path but turned off the wifi and put my wife laptop into my wired vlan vs the wifi psk vlan
client -- switch (sg300) -- switch (tl-sg108) -- wifi laptop
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Thanks so much for doing the tests John.
I've always tested on latest and greatest firmware.
My topology is similar.
WiFi client, WiFi, ap, switch gs1900-8hp, pfsense.Ubiquity even replaced the AP with a new one to rule out hardware. Really confusing me and their support staff.
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have you tried different wifi clients?
So your testing to pfsense?? That not going to be a good test, or is pfsense routing your traffic to another vlan where you iperf server/file server is?
You really should test from your wifi to wired client on the same layer 2.. Pfsense as end point is not a good iperf test, nor is something you want to throw into the mix of file transfer testing of wifi routing/firewall.
Pfsense could of been off in my tests, other than it provided dhcp to both the wired and wireless clients. I can do another test routing traffic through pfsense - but my pfsense is vm on older hardware and can not do gig on the wire.. I have seen 400mbps between segments. I can do that when I get home again tonight - have to head to work now.
But if your testing the AP - I would take pfsense completely out of the test.. wifi client, switch and wired iperf/file server is all that should be in the path.
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Sorry for the confusion, I just posted the entire setup.
The tests are all layer two over the switch. I have even tried unplugging the switch from pfsense after leases were served just to make sure something weird wasn't happening.
I have tried several different clients
