Hello everyone, been reading the main site for years - kudos to Tim for the excellent work. It's my first time on the forums though.
I am about to upgrade the home networking infrastructure devices (router and AP). For the router I am decided to purchase EdgeMax Lite and I am now looking for a dedicated AP with the following characteristics:
The only obvious choice is Ubiquity's UniFi AP Pro and probably Apple's Airport Extreme that both come with a price tag. Airport Extreme also comes with lots of other goodies that we don't need. I also checked several Mikrotik offerings but stability and speed are not achieved.
Any other recommendations? Should I opt for a router with a tomato or DD-WRT firmware? My maximum budget is UniFi AP Pro but I would rather avoid such a steep tech investment.
Thanks in advance to everyone for your assistance
I am about to upgrade the home networking infrastructure devices (router and AP). For the router I am decided to purchase EdgeMax Lite and I am now looking for a dedicated AP with the following characteristics:
- Simultaneous dual-band operation (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz)
- Gigabit ports (minimum 2, preferably more)
- IPv6 support
- Speed with a mixed workload (email, surfing, accessing an external VPN, some streaming from the local NAS and/or internet, etc.)
- Stability (no disconnects and minimum bandwidth deterioration with load) without the need of power recycling.
- Future proofness (hence the IPv6 requirement).
- The average WiFi devices vary from a minimum 4 to 8 (family gatherings) and include laptops, phones, and tablets. As family grows and technology progresses this is expected to increase steadily
- There are 3 fixed devices on the Cat6 LAN (NAS, Wii and TV) on an 8-port HP Gigabit switch.
- Other goodies running on the AP are not needed (e.g. USB storage, firewall, etc)
- The AP will be installed in a 1000 sq feet apartment (i.e. WiFi signal coverage is very easy to achieve everywhere)
- A nice to have feature is WiFi scheduling (powering on/off at a specific time of the day).
The only obvious choice is Ubiquity's UniFi AP Pro and probably Apple's Airport Extreme that both come with a price tag. Airport Extreme also comes with lots of other goodies that we don't need. I also checked several Mikrotik offerings but stability and speed are not achieved.
Any other recommendations? Should I opt for a router with a tomato or DD-WRT firmware? My maximum budget is UniFi AP Pro but I would rather avoid such a steep tech investment.
Thanks in advance to everyone for your assistance