Home Wifi Setup Opinions

I use 2x UAP AC Pro at home and the same at work. Coverage is fantastic in a 4000sqft 2 story environment and ~7000sqft single story as well. At home, my units aren't so ideally placed due to the Wife Approval Factor. One sits on top of a shelf. The other simply on a shelf. Coverage is great. The lot is small (0.25 acre), but the back and front yard has great coverage. There is a side yard that is basically as far as possible from both APs. At the edge of the yard, through 2 interior walls and a brick wall, I get a weak signal and dropped a meeting's audio last week while walking around. It's not exactly a part of the yard I go to, but I'd estimate it's 30 yards from the router (straight line)
In the office, I'm properly mounted on 10ft ceilings in wide-open spaces. WiFi there is essentially perfect except for in my furthest exam room which has to run through about 4 metal walls the way it's set up. There are times that I have reduced responsiveness on web pages, but this is intermittent. WiFi printers in the far corners of the office were not getting reliable signal. Office staff's cell phones seem to do fine, though.

I would imagine a single UAP or just the dream machine would be fine for the 1700sqft house, but if you're going through halls that twist/turn to a corner bedroom, so long as that corner is relatively near your 2nd AP, i would imagine you would be happy with it.


Speedwise, you aren't going to get 1gbps down/up. If you have a single device with an optimized router that is line of sight, you'll get 800mbps+. But as soon as any 802.11 b/g/n is on the network, your benchmarks will plummet. That said, the overall performance will work fine, but if you're one that wants your speedtest numbers to look great, that's where the numbers come from. So what I do is separate my less-than-AC devices from the bigger ones on their own SSID which helps.

I do not use a USG, so my use of their controller and software is a bit limited. Actually, I tried to adopt a USG into an existing network at work and can never get an internet connection at all. That's a frustrating story that I'm not done with yet.

We are in the same boat.
I probably would have bought a Dream Machine and tested then added peripheral access points as the need arose, but the device didn't exist yet.

If you have a central location and are buying a built house, maybe consider that approach.

If you're building now, might as well run the wires to where an AP should go should the need arise. Nothing wrong with starting with 2. I don't think you'll particularly regret it, and I can't say a bad thing about the company or their hardware




...except about the damn USG. But I'm convinced I'm retarded and just missing a button here or there.

Thats awesome. A buddy gave me a USG and Cloud Key cause he was having some issues and upgraded to a Dream Machine. I’m waiting to buy a poe switch and an AP for now, but current router seems to be close to needing replacement. Lost 2 LAN ports on it during a close lightning strike last year. I’m hoping for good enough coverage for my shed at the back of my lot and was considering 2 APs to be safe.

From those that have Unifi, do you see performance differences in the AP-pro amd AP-lite?

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From those that have Unifi, do you see performance differences in the AP-pro amd AP-lite?

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I use 4 of the AC-IW and 1 AC-LR (for outdoor). I could have gone with the HD/Pro versions but imo it's overkill for most people. I only use 40Mhz channel width and get very stable 200 Mbps. I could get faster with bigger channel width but then wifi is more susceptible to interference.

Unless you have a ton of devices with heavy bandwidth usage, I'd just get the Lite or LR. You can then upgrade down the road in a few years for a Wifi 6 model.

If you really want to buy a Pro then I'd say get the Nano HD instead. It supports MU-Mimo where the AP Pro does not. Also you can get skins if you need it to blend in with the background better.

The AC-Pro is one of the weather resistant models designed for indoor/outdoor use. It's the right choice for a covered patio. The other models you listed are intended for indoor use only.