ASUS vs Engenius vs Ubiquiti vs ?

[arkhitektor]

I have been trawling Amazon, Newegg and other sites looking for reviews on various solutions to my "dead zone" problems in my home for many months. I found this wonderful site just recently - wish I had known about it sooner...ya know, back when TWC told me my routers-configured-like-APs needed to be plugged into the WAN port on the back of the unit or that configuring the routers as repeaters was a good idea...even while they ran phone cable (splicing to Ethernet ends) to connect my DOCSIS 3.0 modem to the two routers.

But I digress...

I've been looking at the EAP 300/350 since February or so, but I've seen mixed results on both speed and ability to go through floors and walls. I recently found out about the Ubiquiti line of UNIFI products as well. Now that I've found this site, the ASUS RT-N66U makes it seem like I might not need APs at all.

I'm confused. I think I want to stick with APs as the only place an Ethernet-tethered router (Netgear WNR1000 v3) has done me good is in the basement of my ranch-style home, but the speeds at the back corners of my home and on the rear deck were abysmal. Locating an Ethernet-tethered router on the first floor, centrally-located, has mixed results all over the house...and a microwave 30 ft away may not help. Running all APs would mean I'd have to fish wire to at least one other location in my home, but I'm willing to give it a shot if AP's are the best solution.

Another one of my use cases is that I want to track what guests are doing on my guest network as I do not want to see any P2P shenanigans happening.

I have seen many articles here on both the EAP and Ubiquiti, but the latter has been the Power AP-N (no longer available) so I don't know how the UNIFI compares to the AP-N.

Hopefully it's obvious I have done a load of research, but I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger. Any opinions on these two manufacturers' offerings, or even the N66U, re welcome.

 

[Daybreak]

Howdy,
At this time, any of the items will do better that what you have now.

Try the Asus RT-N66U router and then see if you have any dead spots.

Come back here and let us know the results

 

[tipstir]

Depends what you're expecting from these hardware. Ub is more for larger networks but most are using it. I am still not sold on that product yet. Engenius stuff have been very good but some of it hasn't been. I am still testing out the ESR600H as AP only. So far the 500MHz chipset in there really smooth. Signal is 90% to 100% so far in other rooms it's 96%.

 

[arkhitektor]

Thanks, guys. I guess I might NEED the EAP300 or 350 because I don't see that the Ubiquiti or Asus has multiple VLAN support. I need to insure my guests are isolated from my network, but I don't think the EAP has the management features of the Ub. Am I right? Isvtyer not a product that has both VLAN support and the ability to limit guests from seeing my other machines and, oh, being able to place quota limits on their VLAN?

 

[tipstir]

Thanks, guys. I guess I might NEED the EAP300 or 350 because I don't see that the Ubiquiti or Asus has multiple VLAN support. I need to insure my guests are isolated from my network, but I don't think the EAP has the management features of the Ub. Am I right? Isvtyer not a product that has both VLAN support and the ability to limit guests from seeing my other machines and, oh, being able to place quota limits on their VLAN?

You can get one of these ap free from Meraki but you must have a business and business email to attend a webcast. Their AP has enterprise support for AP and VLAN.

http://www.meraki.com/products/wireless/

 

[arkhitektor]

Okay, all. Got the 66u home. Want to see if I can get good range from this, then augment with APs if necessary.

How can I use Ethernet on my Motor Surfboard to leverage a switch along with a second Eth port for the Asus? Do they share routing tables, the SB and Asus, if I use the WAN port on the Asus? Do I need to use the LAN and config the Asus as an AP instead?

Thank you!

 

[arkhitektor]

Update on Asus RT-N66u Performance

Here's some feedback on the N66u and my setup:

1. I disabled the Wifi on my Surfboard, but kept the DHCP enabled.
2. I connected the rigged RJ45/Ethernet cable to the WAN port on the N66u and one of the LAN ports on the SB.
3. DHCP is enabled on the N66u
4. I enabled both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks on the N66u, but gave unique SIDs using WPA2 Personal.
5. Channel = 1
6. Wireless Mode = Auto (b/g Protection is checked)
7. Channel Bandwidth = 20 MHz
8. I enabled the Guest network on my N66u and set the SID to a unique value using WPA Personal.
9. Channel on the Guest network cannot be changed.

I haven't walked around my house with a Windows laptop and that program I saw in the one of the threads to test the strength of the signal. Instead I'm walking around with my MacBook Pro (stats at the end) and just using the WiFi Scan feature of OS X Mountain Lion. Doing so I'm seeing the areas I used to have "okay" signal in I now have excellent coverage!

I have the N66u in the basement so that I can take advantage of the GB Eth with my devices there (HTPC, XBox 360 and a laptop from time to time). Previously I had my routers on the 1st floor of my ranch to provide better signal to the two levels of my home and still got very spotty coverage in two corners of my house. Now, with the N66u in the basement, I'm getting a signal of -46 with a Noise level of -92 for a difference of 46 at one of the "bad" corners of my home. From what I've read, anything greater than 25 is an excellent signal.

I ran a test from my MacBook Pro at that same corner and got and average of 30.16/4.95 Mbps at www.speedtest.net and speedtest.comcast.net - pretty impressive stuff for my TWC 30/5 Mbps line. From the other corner, a signal of -50 and -92 noise nets 30.77/4.95.

Testing from the back deck, where I used to be lucky to get a single bar of WiFi (with my router(s) in the basement), I'm now getting all bars (seeing several more neighbor's WiFi's showing up), but mine is still -60/-92, netting speeds of 30.44 Mbps/4.97.

Would I get these results from another router, maybe the E4200v2? Maybe, but I'm very happy with the performance of the Asus so far and don't have the time nor the inclination to test with others, heh. I only hope it doesn't crap out on me in a year like so many others seem to. Oh well, if it does, I've got a 2yr warranty.

Question: Should I leave the 5 GHz set to 20/40 or limit it to one or the other?

EDIT: Okay, just went out to the attached garage. Now we're talking about going through cinder block and steel doors. Signal still shows at -61. Speed test netted 27.37/3.50. Wow. Just wow.

Stats on the MBP:

• Model Name: MacBook Pro
• Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,2
• Processor Name: Intel Core i7
• Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
• Number of Processors: 1
• Total Number of Cores: 4
• L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
• L3 Cache: 6 MB
• Memory: 4 GB

 

[spqr]

On the recommendation of a friend I decided to try out the Ubiquiti UniFi
product. My current router was an ASUS RT-AC66u. I have a small house
(about 1200 sq.ft. on a single floor) and the ASUS didn't seem to be covering
the entire area well. The router is located almost in the dead center of the
house. I was skeptical because the ASUS seems to be very highly regarded.
I thought that the range was just a result of my 5/8" drywall, tile, etc.
I already had a an 802.3af POE switch so I went with the AP Pro.

Well, I am pretty blown away by the AP-Pro. Leaving both the access point
and the ASUS active for testing, the WiFi Analyzer app on Android shows
a signal strength generally 10 db stronger on both the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz bands.
Now, 5 GHz reaches outside easily and both bands cover pretty much my whole
lot. The difference on 5 GHz is pretty astounding.

As I mentioned, I was skeptical that the access point could make this big a
difference, but honestly now I wouldn't even consider other products and
I'm switching the ASUS router out for the 5 port Ubiquiti device.

I'm noticing one other thing. With the ASUS doing a simple ping to a wired
device on my network would result in an occasional 150 ms+ ping. Most packets
were only 1 or 2, but there would be the occasional 150+. I've seen
that this isn't too uncommon on wireless networks, and keep in mind, the
ASUS is still acting as my router. Now with the Ubiquity AP-Pro a slow packet
is now no worse than 35 ms. This also seems very good! I was seeing the
same occasional slow packet behavior with the ASUS on different channels
and even on an alternate ASUS rt n66u that I also tested.

 

[L&LD]

spqr, I would think you would have seen that kind of difference going to an RT-AC68U too.

But glad you're happy with your new purchase.

Have you tried running the RT-AC66U with a Tx value of 200 for both bands? Just curious.

 

[abailey]

I use a Ubiquiti router and a Ubiquiti Unify AP in my house and am very impressed. As I assume you have found out the Ubiquiti AP does support VLANS and multiple SSID's as well as guest isolation even on the same VLAN. Anyway ASUS makes good products but the ASUS stuff is really consumer stuff and Ubiquiti is pro level stuff. So not really a fair comparison. What you give up when you switch from consumer to pro level stuff is ease of configuration (and usually price but Ubiquiti stuff is priced pretty well). It usually takes a little more tech knowledge to configure pro level stuff.

 

[spqr]

I did try boosting the power on the ASUS but it seemed to make almost no
difference. I even experimented with higher gain antennae but they actually
seemed to be worse than the stock ASUS units.

The occasional "slow packet" problem was also a significant knock on the
ASUS.