Ubiquiti Wireless / Wired Network

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11Blade

Member
Aug 8, 2016
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I have a ramshackle low budget network that I cobbled together to cover a 3,000 square foot office, 3,000 square foot warehouse and 5,000 square foot indoor/outdoor loading area all contiguous.

There is a Dell 24 port Ethernet switch with a mixture of cat 5/6 to multiple areas. Incoming connection is a docsis 3.0 cable modem on a business comcast connection.

Currently I have an old ASUS RT-N16 flashed with DD-WRT as the router and wireless hotspot running two vlans. I know its old but money is/was tight but its long in the tooth and will likely die soon.

Attached via ethernet thru the dell switch are two TP-link Wireless routers in WAP mode that cover the warehouse and loading area.

I really want to simplify the management, reduce the number of WAP resets and just run a reliable wireless network with good multi-device throughput (phones, tablets, inventory devices etc)

After some research - I think I can get this whole jerry-rig replaced with a Ubiquiti 5 port POE EdgeRouter and 3 UAP-AC-PRO-US and keep the trusty Dell Powerconnect Switch.

Essentially

Cable modem ->> Edgerouter X (ER-X-SFP-US) -> SFP to Dell 24 port switch
Edgerouter X (ER-X-SFP-US) -> 3X UAP-AC-PRO-US hotspots via POE ports

I think this will keep the whole network intact on the Dell Switch, improve WiFi coverage and be easier to manage with Ubiquiti controller software.

Money as always is tight so I have to do this cheap.

Do any of you suggest other vendors/setups? Am I missing something?

I am also unsure if the ER-X-SFP-US can actually power the AC-PRO wireless spots even though its POE. (My preliminary research says no so I may have to use injectors/adapters.

Thanks for your advice.

11Blade
 

K D

Well-Known Member
Dec 24, 2016
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The I have the ER-X and it cannot power the UAP-AC-PRO or the AC-HD. The ER-X-SFP is basically the same hardware with one extra SFP+ cage. The ER-x supports their proprietary 24v passive POE only.

If you are looking for simple network with no advanced features then I'd recommend looking at the Unifi Line. The dashboard and software is nice. I switched to an all Unifi network for the house late last year and it has been very stable. And now the mobile Unifi software is has feature parity with the web based one and you can do everything with your phone.

Unifi USG (router)-> Unifi US-8-60 (8 port POE switch) -> AC-Pro APs

This should give you a very stable easily manageable network.
 

CookiesLikeWhoa

Active Member
Sep 7, 2016
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The ER is 24V passive, which will not power the UAP-AC's.

The AP's come with POE bricks if you buy them individually. (not the 5 pack does not come with them)

The ER does have more features to it compared to the USG, but will be managed seperately from the AP's. If you opted for the USG you could managed all via the unifi software (easy to keep everything in one area). This will be a pretty big upgrade from your current router, but can require some CLI configuration to get all of the features you may want.

If you ended up going with one of UBNT's unifi switches, you can manage that as well from the software.

Those AP's are incredible though. I have 3 of them and they are just awesome.
 

11Blade

Member
Aug 8, 2016
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Thank you to all who helped in this thread.

I went with a UBNT USG-PRO-4 security gateway/router - replaced my aging Dell switch with a Unifi 24port POE switch and 3 Unifi AP-AC-Pro access points.

Office downtime on saturday morning was 30 minutes in total. Router, Switch and then brought the network back up, took down the WAPs one by one and replaced with these waps.

Those AP-AC-pro access points really work! Covered 6000 sq ft indoors and important portions of the outdoor loading area all for less than 1000 dollars.

many thanks to each of you

11Blade
 
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