Overhauling home wireless infrastructure

One of the recent topics that came up was "Typical number of networked devices in your home".

After looking at this and talking to my wife about the wireless infrastructure she has at her work, I have been thinking about how I could improve my wireless infrastructure at home.

I seem to be churning through all in one wireless routers every other year (at least) and its getting to the point where its time to invest in some decent kit to keep everything running nicely.

As a result, I have been thinking about moving to a Ubiquiti access point with a wired router: https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lite/

What are peoples thoughts? Is there better kit out there that is “relatively” affordable?

I am interested in your thoughts.

Just going off your post on the other thread:

"For a 2 person house, my tally comes in at 32.

We have (not exhaustive):
4 x Lifx bulbs,
5 x wemo switches
2 x ipads
2 x iphones
2 x laptops
1 x imac
3 x Apple TV’s
1 x TV, Blu-Ray, PVR, PS3, internet/dab radio, etc…
and to monitor all the nonsense, a few IP cams as well!"

Whether its worth upgrading will really depending on what you currently have (or have tried using) for your WIFI. 9 of those devices straight away are light bulbs and switches. I don’t believe they would be using up much of your bandwidth.
What is causing you to upgrade every year? Performance? Drop-outs? Signal Strength?
Whether its worth upgrading or not will depend a lot on your reason for looking to upgrade. Unless of course you want a new-shiny to play with then there is no need for justification :stuck_out_tongue:

To be honest @DogKnight , the primary reason is “new-shiny”.

However, there are a couple of factors:

  • Having an independent access point would allow for better placement
    in the house. (ceiling mounted)
  • Installing Enterprise grade access points gives me better scalability should I want to expand the coverage in the future.
  • I have found that the more robust networking hardware I have just works better and with less hassles.

I also want to eventually install items like a Nest Smoke detector (or something similar) and a Nest thermostat (if they ever have AU spec product). There is also the consideration of smart door locks etc… in the future too. I just think that better wireless infrastructure will support the array of IoT devices and any other kit I end up bringing into the house.

I am happy to be told otherwise too. :slight_smile:

I’m building a house and would be interested. I’m wiring it for 4 wireless access points.

1 Like

That sounds cool @Erwin!

The thing I like about the ubiquiti UI is that you can include your house plan in the interface and then map out where your equipment is. Its a nice touch!