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Home Router Recomendations

I’m using 2 SPF+ ports, so can’t help. But it’s Amazon and they easily accept returns! Seems like you would get the module that is appropriate for the specific unit. Also, submit a ticket. Their support people answered a couple of my questions within a day. SJ
Thanks, yes I’ve done exactly that and ordered from Amazon to try out. The thread below helps to clarify, but there’s still a lot of disagreement!

 
can't be of much help here as I'm not using SFP at all, as you can tell from my pictures earlier in the thread.
 
I too am using the security gateway 4 like Josh. Main reason was for failover protection as I have two providers coming into the house. If I understand correctly one of the sfp’s on the dream machine pro can be converted the Ethernet and used in a failover capacity so I would think SFP+ would work.
 
I’ve connected SFP+ bet
Actually, I'll disagree here. I returned the in-walls I bought and went with the FlexHD ones.

LOVE them. Ceiling mount may well be great, but what a hassle getting POE ethernet lines into your ceiling for a clean look. I can pull wires into walls, but ceilings are too much work for me. The Flex access points are small and unobtrusive when deak/table mounted, and are easy to wall mount.

I have 3 of them. What are the extra settings you mentioned to improve performance? Although so far seems pretty solid. SJ
 
I’ve connected SFP+ bet


I have 3 of them. What are the extra settings you mentioned to improve performance? Although so far seems pretty solid. SJ
Did you have any problems setting up the UDM Pro? Have seen quite a few people on YouTube having issues getting an internet connection and having to reset the firmware etc. Hopefully these issues have been ironed out?
 
No, it was straightforward. I had to change the default IP address and a few other changes before deploying my switch, etc. Good idea to get each component working with the latest firmware before moving on. The switch didn’t seem to be working, but then noticed I had plugged the SFP+ port into the WAN port. :unsure: Going to setup the next area of our home today with the second switch. SJ
 
Same here, installing one by one and updating after booting. No issues at all. Love the dashboard! The Ubiquiti Flex Mini Switch that @josh mentioned is the real deal. I got three of those for some areas that I don't need many ports. And they are PoE powered so no need to plug them!
 
Same here, installing one by one and updating after booting. No issues at all. Love the dashboard! The Ubiquiti Flex Mini Switch that @josh mentioned is the real deal. I got three of those for some areas that I don't need many ports. And they are PoE powered so no need to plug them!
Yes, but just to clarify... you can power the switch itself from PoE but it doesn't pass PoE on to any of the ports... so it's not the switch for a zone where you're also installing a unifi camera or unifi AP, unless you're ok with using an injector. Cleaner for those zones would be to use a Unifi PoE switch.
 
I have 3 of them. What are the extra settings you mentioned to improve performance? Although so far seems pretty solid. SJ
Sure - the HUGE difference in wifi reliability and speed for me was some advice found on the Reddit Ubiquiti forum and the official Ubiquiti community forum. The summary is:
- turn OFF the "auto-optimize" function. This is near unanimous among Ubiquiti system administrators that this function causes WAY more problems than it can help. I had so many problems until I turned this off, mirroring what many others had posted or told me.
- Change DTIM to 3... you have to do this for each of the two radios (2.4ghz and 5ghz) and each of your SSIDs (including a guest network if you implemented one). So for me it was 4 changes... 2.4ghz main SSID, 5ghz main SSID, 2.4ghz guest network, 5ghz guest network. Easy to google DTIM and see what it's all about... and why Ubiquiti's default setting of 1 is definitely NOT ideal. Bonus - higher DTIMs will make all your mobile devices' batteries last longer... as it lowers the rate each device pings the network. I had never heard of this before my Ubiquiti setup experience...

You can read much of my learning and the community's help here:

Note that this is not a recommendation to turn off "Wifi A.I." feature... that one seems to be helpful to my network, as it automatically balances the channels of your APs based on what else each AP is seeing from neighboring networks in your area. I've left Wifi A.I. on and like to watch the changes it makes each night and the effect it has, which has generally been quite good.

The last piece of advice is to dial DOWN your transmit power of your radios for each access point. Too high and your access points interfere with each other and cause client devices to often attach to the wrong/distant access points rather than the closest ones. Unless you have a wifi analyzer app (typically Android), this takes many days of tweaking and watching the results, but the basic idea is to watch the list of clients and what APs they're currently connected to. If they're connecting to a distant AP, dial back the radio power on that AP... a bit at a time, leaving each change for a day or so to "settle in". I've got most of my radios now dialed back to a much lower power level, and the network is now super reliable to all the devices in the house. Ubiquiti defaults each AP to FULL power, which is usually way too much for a home environment with multiple APs. If you only have one AP, then ignore this advice... full power is fine. but once you have more than one, you'll find that lower power settings actually improve the network dramatically.

Hope that's helpful... happy to answer any more questions.

-josh
 
Yes, but just to clarify... you can power the switch itself from PoE but it doesn't pass PoE on to any of the ports... so it's not the switch for a zone where you're also installing a unifi camera or unifi AP, unless you're ok with using an injector. Cleaner for those zones would be to use a Unifi PoE switch.
Absolutely. Using an injector with the mini switch defeats its purpose. In other zones, I have installed the Switch 8 60W.
 
Finished my network upgrade. Theater and main hub were straightforward but our family room (without a dedicated equipment separate room) was more work pulling out furniture,etc. Goodness things seem so rock solid and easily much more manageable and transparent at what’s going on in our home. Example, ring doorbell was having issues. Easily seen with the network management tools. Pulled power on it and it’s back to normal. No issues with my K equipment. My network has a main 48 pro switch running off of the Dreammachine Pro and then to another 24 Pro switch in our family room. All connected with 10GB connections. Added another 8 port POE switch in our office. 3 AP all working well, but will look at Josh’s suggestion. I had so many different network components built up over many years. Glad to have an integrated solution! Of course my network map is crazy looking with 80+ devices. 😆 Cool to see wireless devices roaming to different APs. One more switch to replace as I plan on running those components to one of our main switches to complete things. Now the final cleanup of everything. SJ
 
Sure - the HUGE difference in wifi reliability and speed for me was some advice found on the Reddit Ubiquiti forum and the official Ubiquiti community forum. The summary is:
- turn OFF the "auto-optimize" function. This is near unanimous among Ubiquiti system administrators that this function causes WAY more problems than it can help. I had so many problems until I turned this off, mirroring what many others had posted or told me.
- Change DTIM to 3... you have to do this for each of the two radios (2.4ghz and 5ghz) and each of your SSIDs (including a guest network if you implemented one). So for me it was 4 changes... 2.4ghz main SSID, 5ghz main SSID, 2.4ghz guest network, 5ghz guest network. Easy to google DTIM and see what it's all about... and why Ubiquiti's default setting of 1 is definitely NOT ideal. Bonus - higher DTIMs will make all your mobile devices' batteries last longer... as it lowers the rate each device pings the network. I had never heard of this before my Ubiquiti setup experience...

You can read much of my learning and the community's help here:

Note that this is not a recommendation to turn off "Wifi A.I." feature... that one seems to be helpful to my network, as it automatically balances the channels of your APs based on what else each AP is seeing from neighboring networks in your area. I've left Wifi A.I. on and like to watch the changes it makes each night and the effect it has, which has generally been quite good.

The last piece of advice is to dial DOWN your transmit power of your radios for each access point. Too high and your access points interfere with each other and cause client devices to often attach to the wrong/distant access points rather than the closest ones. Unless you have a wifi analyzer app (typically Android), this takes many days of tweaking and watching the results, but the basic idea is to watch the list of clients and what APs they're currently connected to. If they're connecting to a distant AP, dial back the radio power on that AP... a bit at a time, leaving each change for a day or so to "settle in". I've got most of my radios now dialed back to a much lower power level, and the network is now super reliable to all the devices in the house. Ubiquiti defaults each AP to FULL power, which is usually way too much for a home environment with multiple APs. If you only have one AP, then ignore this advice... full power is fine. but once you have more than one, you'll find that lower power settings actually improve the network dramatically.

Hope that's helpful... happy to answer any more questions.

-josh
Thanks for that info. How did you setup your guest network? I’m looking for one that allows only access to the internet and not anything else on our network. I found this information, but looks like their are several options. Interested in what you selected. Thanks again for your help.
 
Thanks for that info. How did you setup your guest network? I’m looking for one that allows only access to the internet and not anything else on our network. I found this information, but looks like their are several options. Interested in what you selected. Thanks again for your help.

Watch this video and re guest network(around 13'20) I think it will answer your question. Haven't tried it yet but I will soon.

Kostas
 
Thanks for that info. How did you setup your guest network? I’m looking for one that allows only access to the internet and not anything else on our network. I found this information, but looks like their are several options. Interested in what you selected. Thanks again for your help.
A Guest Portal is, I believe, a way to put up something of a welcome screen for guests, possibly getting their approval to conditions of use, as you might see in a coffee shop, restaurant, or retail store. A Guest Hotspot is a way to charge money for access by guests, like you may see in a hotel. Neither of those are something you'd typically do in a home, unless maybe it would be for AirBnB guests and you want them to agree to rules (or pay money) to get on your wifi.

What you want in a typical home is just a Guest Network, Just enable the Guest Network and choose your SSID and password for the Guest Network. Unifi will automatically isolate the Guest Network from your main network. There will be no way for someone attached to the guest network to see any resources that are connected to the main network. They will be able to get out to the internet ONLY.

I learned this the hard way... accidentally had my own laptop connected to the guest network and freaked out that suddenly i couldn't print or see any of the main devices or get to the Unifi control panel. Momentary panic until I figured out I was on the wrong network in my own home. I've now gone to every computer and mobile device in the house and explicitly forced it to "forget" the guest network so they never accidentally connect to that network, only to the main network.

One other tip - if you intend to put your "smart home" / IoT devices onto the guest network, as is good practice, please remember you can ONLY do this for devices where you control them through the internet, even if you're in the home. So Smart Thermostats (Nest, Ecobee) and most consumer video cameras (Dropcam, Nest Cam, Ring) will be fine on the guest network as you never talk directly to those devices... you access them only through the app which goes out to the internet to talk to your devices via the company's centralized servers. My garage door opener, Simplisafe security system, and. August smart lock all work fine on the guest network. But Sonos systems, my lighting system (Lutron RadioRa2), and my cameras (Unifi Protect and the Unifi G4 Doorbell cam) all require direct communication between the device and your phone/laptop or the Unifi controller. So those had to be registered onto my main home network, NOT the guest network.

Wireless or ethernet-connected printers, and NAS devices, receive information directly from your computers in the home (typically), so those are other examples of things that need to go on your home network, not the guest network.
 
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A Guest Portal is, I believe, a way to put up something of a welcome screen for guests, possibly getting their approval to conditions of use, as you might see in a coffee shop, restaurant, or retail store. A Guest Hotspot is a way to charge money for access by guests, like you may see in a hotel. Neither of those are something you'd typically do in a home, unless maybe it would be for AirBnB guests and you want them to agree to rules (or pay money) to get on your wifi.

What you want in a typical home is just a Guest Network, Just enable the Guest Network and choose your SSID and password for the Guest Network. Unifi will automatically isolate the Guest Network from your main network. There will be no way for someone attached to the guest network to see any resources that are connected to the main network. They will be able to get out to the internet ONLY.

I learned this the hard way... accidentally had my own laptop connected to the guest network and freaked out that suddenly i couldn't print or see any of the main devices or get to the Unifi control panel. Momentary panic until I figured out I was on the wrong network in my own home. I've now gone to every computer and mobile device in the house and explicitly forced it to "forget" the guest network so they never accidentally connect to that network, only to the main network.

One other tip - if you intend to put your "smart home" / IoT devices onto the guest network, as is good practice, please remember you can ONLY do this for devices where you control them through the internet, even if you're in the home. So Smart Thermostats (Nest, Ecobee) and most consumer video cameras (Dropcam, Nest Cam, Ring) will be fine on the guest network as you never talk directly to those devices... you access them only through the app which goes out to the internet to talk to your devices via the company's centralized servers. My garage door opener, Simplisafe security system, and. August smart lock all work fine on the guest network. But Sonos systems, my lighting system (Lutron RadioRa2), and my cameras (Unifi Protect and the Unifi G4 Doorbell cam) all require direct communication between the device and your phone/laptop or the Unifi controller. So those had to be registered onto my main home network, NOT the guest network.

Wireless or ethernet-connected printers, and NAS devices, receive information directly from your computers in the home (typically), so those are other examples of things that need to go on your home network, not the guest network.

I did what you suggested. It does prevent access to anything (e.g. Sonos), but was surprised that running a simple network scanner (while connected to the new guest network) on my iPad showed almost all of my network devices. Must be away to limit even that. Really only want internet access and nothing else. Might need to setup a separate VLAN or device isolation for this or something... Will do some more reading. Thanks. SJ
 
FYI. The Unifi 6 In Wall Access points were offered for a short time today. Wi-Fi 6 is supposed to be ultra fast. I was able to get 2. I will report back if there is any speed difference when connecting to them.
 
I'm a fan of pfSense, personally. You can use any hardware you want, it's super stable, and super flexible.

+1 for Ubiquitti APs, what's what I have for APs as well.
 
I have Luxul personally. ABR5000, 24 port managed switch, and 2 wireless access points across my 1,750 square foot home. I’ll eventually upgrade to Ruckus.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Have completed initial set up of my Unifi network - tweaking to follow later :). Was preparing myself for some set up issues with the UDM Pro, which by some accounts was released with half-baked firmware, and while the internet connection detection step took a few tries, the set up was a breeze. Everything else since - adding access points, configuring networks - has been delightful, and to have such insight into whats going on in my network is a revelation. It's already helped me troubleshoot a traffic issue with my NAS. Early days of course, but looking very good so far and worth looking into for anyone thinking about refreshing their set up. Thanks to everyone on the thread for the advice and tips!
 
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