Omnidirectional WAP

[Glom]

I have a couple of Unifi wireless access points. Because of the low ceilings in my upstairs, the beam is too narrow with them being ceiling mounted. I'm looking for an omnidirectional wAP not unlike the Google units that come with Google Fiber. I believe theirs is a mesh. Unfortunately, I don't understand mesh systems well enough yet, and maybe that's what I need, but for my immediate use, a non-directional WAP would solve an immediate issue. What can you recommend that is not Netgear? Thanks.

 

[Tech9]

the beam is too narrow

It can't be too narrow because the antennas inside most common UniFi APs are low gain.

https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005212927-AP-Antenna-Radiation-Patterns

I'm using U6 Mesh APs and they are listed as omnidirectional with 3dBi on 2.4GHz and 5dBi on 5GHz band. Can be mounted on the ceiling, on the wall/pole or sit on top of a shelf/desk. Wall/pole mounting hardware as well as desktop stand are included, ceiling mount hardware is sold separately.

 

[degrub]

Model number would be useful.

 

[tgl]

"U6 Mesh" is the model number, see https://techspecs.ui.com/unifi/wifi/u6-mesh. That seems like a good choice if the OP wants to stay in the UniFi ecosystem.

 

[Tech9]

"U6 Mesh" is the model number

This is what I have. We don't know what @Glom has.

 

[tgl]

Ah, I misunderstood @degrub 's question. But as long as we're asking, it would also be good to know how large an area the existing APs are being asked to cover and what their Tx power levels are set to. Perhaps "replace the APs one-for-one" isn't the right answer at all.

 

[Tech9]

I can speak of U6 Mesh performance and surprisingly it beats RT-AX86U AIO router in both range and speed at much lower power. The range of those little guys is simply amazing and they deal with close networks interference like a boss. Asus Broadcom radios in the same test environment and channel make something like hills and valleys throughput graph, U6 Mesh Qualcomm radios start at max speed and go all the way to the end. Very impressive for such a small device. One inconvenience is the heat generated. U6 Mesh is IPX5 waterproof, no air vents, the casing heats up >50C. Designed to work like this.