eero 3 pack vs ubiquiti edgerouter + 3 x unifi lites

[paranakalips]

Hi all!

I'm choosing a wifi solution for a 3-storey house. Floors are 700 sqft (65 m²) and there is a rooftop veranda. There's some cat5e wiring on every floor (not on the roof) and the WAN speed is 200/70 mbps. My priorities are the overall reliability and the ease of "wifi roaming".

After some research I'm down to 2 options:

1. 3-pack of eero wifi mesh units for $500
   
2. Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X + 3 x UniFi AC Lite for around $350

There's a non-zero chance that I'll have to add an extra access point to cover the roof. This one will have to connect wirelessly and the extra cost will be $200 for an eero or around $100 for an Ubiquiti UAC-AP.

Dear all, do you have any first hand experience with either of this setups? Are they viable or am I walking into a trap here? Will Ubiquiti APs provide good roaming or should I go with the more expansive eeros?

 

[thiggins]

Roaming depends on the stickiness of your clients.

Will you be connecting all APs via Ethernet?

 

[paranakalips]

Roaming depends on the stickiness of your clients.

Well, we have no control over the clients, do we? :-(

Afaiu the only way to mitigate the wifi roaming issues from the network side is to examine client signal from all the APs and then make intelligent decision if the client should be advised / forced to reconnect. Basically what I'm saying is that mesh software might add a "magic souse" to help clients with their roaming.

From what I read on the interwebs eero is trying to do exactly that, but the evidence is anecdotal. Ubiquity used to have smth called Zero-Handoff but they phased it off with the latest generation of APs. So the question is did the UAP-ACs get some new "magic souse" instead?

Will you be connecting all APs via Ethernet?

Yes, that's the plan. But if I won't get good coverage on the roof I'll have to add an extra AP that I'll have to connect to the rest of the mesh wirelessly.

 

[L&LD]

"Magic Souse"?

https://www.google.ca/search?q=sous...u&ie=&oe=&gfe_rd=cr&ei=Cx-ZV_P6B7Kw_AOng5LIBQ


I don't think a habitual drunkard will help here. (Need better clients).

 

[Just Mark]

I'm using the Unifi solution in my home and found that the min-RSSI function works very well with Apple phones. I have very poor cellular signal in my home and rely on WiFi for calls when i am home. Calls are seamless with the Unifi UAP AC Pros.

 

[Mokers]

roaming is usually more dependent on how the client decides to handle the connections as thiggins says. like Just mark, I use unifi at my house (two APs) and have used the minimum-rssi function to help the clients that don't want to switch readily (for me, it is my mac laptop). Since unifi requires a separate device to control the APs, they are a little harder to setup than the eero, but I have been really happy with the performance.

 

[sfx2000]

Roaming depends on the stickiness of your clients.

Will you be connecting all APs via Ethernet?

A lot of that "stickiness" on the client side is poor planning on the WLAN - most clients will not start searching until RSSI hits a certain level - with Apple i-Devices, as an example, they don't actively start searching (in lieu of 11v/k/r) until RSSI is -60 or so (little bit up and down on those depending on the client state), so they might decide the current AP is good enough.

Site survey is the first step - and then adjust power levels and/or AP locations can help out much here - one does need to drive the triggers with design and thought - not just plopping in AP's willy-nilly and hope for the best...

 

[jevel]

I have been watching the new mesh systems closely since they first were announced, but sadly I haven't gotten my mittens on any of them yet.

However; mesh as I've used it earlier means one of two scenarios. Either half duplex or dual radios on separate channels / one really wide channel.

In densely populated areas this could be a problem, and I'm curios as to how they are approaching this.

On my end I'm using three UniFi APs, and it's leaps and bounds better than any other setup I've had.

-KJ


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[thiggins]

On my end I'm using three UniFi APs, and it's leaps and bounds better than any other setup I've had.

Connected via Ethernet, correct?

 

[jevel]

Nope. One via Ethernet and two on wireless awaiting me getting the cables done.

-KJ

 

[Kasper]

You could give ubiquiti's new home system a shot:

https://www.amplifi.com/

looks promising.

 

[paranakalips]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and suggestions!

I ended up installing the unifies, just finished configuring my new setup yesterday and I'm quite happy with the APs so far. The guest isolation is a little "rough on the edges" though: setting up two guest WLANs considerably impacts the throughput. Also the ebtables rules that do the isolation can't be changed, only new custom rules can be added. And the way that they are added is quite likely imho to break the guest isolation when controller software is updated. But it's no big deal really

I have a min-RSSI question though: @Just Mark, @Mokers, @sfx2000, what minimum RSSI settings worked for you? I know I'll need to tweak this settings but as of today I have no idea how to do that – except for the good old trial and error

Thanks again!

 

[sfx2000]

-60dB is a good place to start for RSSI triggers...

Might consider using a tool like WiFi Explorer or similar to do a quick site survey - noting the Rx power in different locations - with 3 AP's, you can have too much of a good thing, and clients will start sticking when they should move...

So look at the Tx power levels of the AP's once that survey is done...

 

[paranakalips]

… with 3 AP's, you can have too much of a good thing, and clients will start sticking when they should move … So look at the Tx power levels …

Lowering the transmit power might be problematic for the rooftop coverage. And I really do not want to install the fourth AP on the roof because I can't get the cable there. Also the only place where an indoor AP can be installed on the roof tends to get really hot on sunny days – not sure how long a "garden variety" AP will survive there.

Anyway I'll play around with the radios' settings. Might take some time though…

Thanks!

 

[sfx2000]

I doubt if you'll need more than 3 - as it is, three might be too many

 

[paranakalips]

I doubt if you'll need more than 3 - as it is, three might be too many

I think you're right – at least in theory I mean if I could install the APs anywhere on the premises I think I'd get two UAP-AC-PROs, put one on the ceiling in the middle of the bottom floor and the other one on the wall or on the ceiling of the uppermost floor. But since I had to stick to the existing Ethernet sockets, and they are nowhere near the "sweet spots", I decided that three UAP-AC-LITEs would be a safer bet.

 

[awraynor]

Using Eero for a few weeks now. It's solid, luckily got mine with a discount code. Still quite interested in the Amplif HD models.
Waiting for some more real world reviews. All the Amplifi reviews I've seen have been good.

 

[whsbuss]

Using Eero for a few weeks now. It's solid, luckily got mine with a discount code. Still quite interested in the Amplif HD models.
Waiting for some more real world reviews. All the Amplifi reviews I've seen have been good.

There are two reviews in recent days on youtube.