Choosing a WAP

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Kyuki

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Dec 22, 2011
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I'm looking for a WAP that is below the $150 range. My home is in the middle of a 28 acre orchard, and I'm looking to cover my house and the general outside area (deck, driveway in front of house, backyard, etc) with WiFi. I've tried the WiFi on normal routers, etc. but they can't reach properly. Any suggestions? :)
 
Could you tell us what routers you've already tried?

What is the square footage of your house? How many floors, etc?
 
I've tried a D-Link DIR615, LinksysE1200, and the one I have with ISP, Cisco DPC3825.
One floor, about 2300 sq.feet (I think).

Also planning on putting in a pfSense box, so a router isn't needed. Just a WAP.
 
Have you considered using more than one WAP, maybe including an outdoor model? Trying to cover such a large area, including a transition from indoor to outdoor, with a single WAP is going to be problematic at best.
 
Give a look at these guys. I have set up several of these, some with external 2 ft antennas, others with stock, and have had outstanding results. In one case, i covered a retreat center with several big multi-room log cabins across several acres. Full network / internet access to the farthest corners (several log walls in between outside walls as well). In that case i used a 1-watt with an 18 or 24 inch exterior dipole.

http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/networking/1-watt-router.php
 
I have unifi and the coverage is pretty solid. with my old supposedly high end DGL-4300 I used to barely get a signal in the top floor of my house (router was in basement) With a unifi pro my entire house is covered with good signal and a ways down the street. I actually bought a second long range unifi but so far have not needed and thus have been too lazy to run the ethernet up to the attic. But I do suggest 2 or so APs because even if the AP has plenty of power the devices you connect to it will not always.

The most messed up part about unifi is their controller software, but if you can get that running then its really easy to work with.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
Have you considered using more than one WAP, maybe including an outdoor model? Trying to cover such a large area, including a transition from indoor to outdoor, with a single WAP is going to be problematic at best.
Click to expand...
I have, yes. :)
marley1 said:
Unifi with multiple AP
Click to expand...
Thanks :)
r00k said:
Give a look at these guys. I have set up several of these, some with external 2 ft antennas, others with stock, and have had outstanding results. In one case, i covered a retreat center with several big multi-room log cabins across several acres. Full network / internet access to the farthest corners (several log walls in between outside walls as well). In that case i used a 1-watt with an 18 or 24 inch exterior dipole.

http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/networking/1-watt-router.php
Click to expand...
Looks pretty good.
rudy said:
The most messed up part about unifi is their controller software, but if you can get that running then its really easy to work with.
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Interested in UniFi.
How is the controller software messed up?
 
Kyuki said:
I have, yes. :)

Thanks :)

Looks pretty good.

Interested in UniFi.
How is the controller software messed up?
Click to expand...

The unifi controller software isn't messed up. Its actually pretty damned good as controller software goes. Easy to install and configure.

I have one unifi in my 2100sq ft house and it covers everything without a problem. Its not even the pro version with more radio's. Great little AP's
 
The UniFi software is not messed up. You need to use the "beta" version to utilize the UAP-Pro APs.

I suggest using a UAP or two inside and a UAP-Outdoor for your outside area.
 
Langly said:
The unifi controller software isn't messed up. Its actually pretty damned good as controller software goes. Easy to install and configure.

I have one unifi in my 2100sq ft house and it covers everything without a problem. Its not even the pro version with more radio's. Great little AP's
Click to expand...

Which one are you using, the long range one or normal?

The pro's are dual band, which the normal ones aren't I believe.

Thanks,

G.
 
I have the standard UniFi and LOVE them. And I don't have any problems with the controller software, so IMO it's not messed up. It runs full time on my WHS VM.

One issue with using long range (Higher Power) AP, is just because your device can hear the AP doesn't mean the AP can hear the device. So unless you have the ability to put in higher power wifi cards into your devices, a high power AP may not be best.

You'll probably be better served with several UniFi ap's spread out. And unelss you are really certain that 5ghz is going to be a tremendous help to you, it's probably not worth spending the $200+ for just one AP when the standard AP's are just $70 or so.
 
The Unifi controller software did not run on my computer (a pretty bog standard windows 7 x64 machine) You can search the internet and find tons of posts where people claim the same. Now I am a more than average tech user so if it does not install and run with no work for me its not right. I had to download the latest version, of which I could not find it on their website, you had to goto the forums and look for. And to this day it only runs in my admin account on my computer when I run it as an admin.

I have used thousands of programs in my day and anyone worth a damn just installs and works without and special needs. If someone does not have internet access, which could be very likely for someone installing a new network they might have been screwed. Obviously this does not happen to all machines but they definitely need to work on their software, it should run in a standard account without any special privs on all windows machines and the software on the DVD they send with the WAPs should install fine and work fine.
 
I'm a big fan of the D-Link DAP-2553. Exceptional reach for the pricetag which is around $135 depending on where you shop.
 
The Unifi controller is kind of wonkey in windows.
By default it installs to the logged in user's directory and will not run as a service.
It can run as a service however it requires some extra work to get it going. The directions for running it as a service are as clear as mud and are different depending on where you look.
Once it is working I really like the controller and the AP's
 
Some versions of the Unifi controller are crazy. The most fool proof way to run them is to install Windows XP mode into your windows 7 install and install the Unifi controller in the virtual OS. It will run flawless. Ubiquiti said they will fix the controller issues within the next year (although I thought they already did).

Cheers,

Mackintire
 
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