This home network eats network packets like Pacman on crack
This setup eats network packets like Pacman on crack
Home networking is a pain. The reason is we, as home users, are left in a void of the market. Somewhere between casual surfer and enterprise is a giant gap.
Grab any home router and the poor thing is actually not a router but a circus act trying to change costumes and perform tricks every second to keep the crowd happy.
Inside your $100 router is actually:
- Modem
- DHCP Server for serving IP addresses
- Router/Switch for routing all that traffic between connected devices and lines
- WiFi
- Firewall
- Potentially home storage applications
- Potentially further IP services for TV and Phone
When you consider that in an enterprise setup each one of those needs has a dedicated piece of hardware you start to understand that the $100 which the market is willing to spend on an all-in-one solution is not a realistic goal and is therefore creating compromise significantly in other areas. Those areas would be performance & reliability.
Your poor little home router is struggling. And rightfully so. It is a mouse expected to carry an elephant. I would argue the same problem even occurs in a $300 performance gaming all-in-one router.
The problem is the void in the market. If you wish to overcome this pain-point and never worry about RAM maxing out again whilst streaming, gaming and routing, never having to reboot your router because the net is crawling or stopped – well, you will have a long journey. Enterprise grade hardware is so damn expensive you’ll be wondering if you actually helped pay for satellites. Just a WiFi beacon from Cisco with the latest speeds will set you back over an easy $5,000. And you need at least 3 pieces of gear to do things on your own:
Modem, Router, Wifi, Switch (If the Router lacks switching or many ports).
And and then you need a Certification and degree just to install the damn thing, called a CCDA. So good luck with that! Operating Cisco hardware is rather challenging for someone not professionally trained and let’s just leave it at that.
Luckily one clever company has come to our rescue. Realising the potential and not failing to deliver. For any tech, nerd, geek, professional working at home, small office, home office I proudly introduce: Ubiquiti.
For a tenth of the cost of Cisco, and the ease of use of any home router. Job Done.
Yes it is expensive compared to an all-in-one, but their prices are affordable when you consider how many crappy home routers you have now tried, how many WiFi extenders you messed around with, how many broke and how often you have to reset your router.
Enterprise grade, for small office prices. Consider the market void filled.
Here is what we are currently running:
Edge Routers
https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-pro/
2 Million packets per second. Beautiful UI control panel, full control over every aspect of your network. Has been rock solid. Load balancing, all the good stuff you expect. Cheap Lite version is less than $70 when you shop around. Not one single reboot in over 2 years apart from software upgrades.
UniFi AC WiFi
https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ac/
Connection speed doesn’t mean the ultimate transfer speeds, however these things are running 1300Mbps on 5Ghz. 3×3 Mimo and even in the far corners of our building, or even outside, we get full speed uninterrupted connectivity. Not one single reboot in over 2 years, apart from software upgrades.
We welcome any opportunity in the future to replace and upgrade other parts of our networking to Ubiquiti.
We have been running this gear for over 2 years now, without a single reboot or skip of a heartbeat. This setup eats network packets like Pacman on crack.
We run gig network cable throughout and have all devices on 5Ghz. Our NAS love the new setup and with a 1Gbps bonded to 2Gbps our many devices never suffer when accessing data cross-network.
One important thing I want to mention – Just because your latest homerouter boasts 5Ghz and over 1Gbps connection doesn’t mean your transfer speeds will beat 2.4Ghz over 54Mbps. You need the infrastructure and beacons to be setup correctly to achieve the most reliable signal where-ever you are. And that is why Ubiquiti wins. They are kings of Wireless and the software needed to manage that job. Just checkout their 24Ghz, 2Gbps, 20Km+ Range hardware! These guys mean business.
Tips and side info:
The lower the frequency the easier it can travel through objects and things like walls. Therefore running 2.4Ghz might yield your best results when looking for long range through your building. Ubiquiti offer Point-2-Point networks with 600Mhz, 800Mhz for this exact reason.
Using a WiFi scanner App on your smartphone is an easy way to analyse your home network to determine which channels your neighbours are using and if there are other networks interfering with your WiFi. Use these free tools to pick and change channels to get the best results from your network. Here is the one we use and trust. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer&hl=en
Ubiquiti also offer home/office automation and allow you to create an environment that is connected and controllable. They also do IP Cameras.
The founding staff of engineers at Ubiquiti used to work for Siemens many years ago on pioneering Wireless technology.