Is the Ubiquiti AmpliFi HD Mesh Router Worth It?

timps on 01/11/2021 - 22:51
Last edited 01/11/2021 - 23:04 by 1 other user

We've got a fairly long house, and the NBN comes in at the far end. And wifi coverage is pretty mediocre down this end of the house.
I'm currently using an Ethernet over Power adapter to send it through the wires, and getting about 42Mbit. Which feels crap considering it's about 600mbit where the NBN comes into the house.

So I was eyeing off the Ubiquiti AmpliFi HD Mesh 3 pack with the actual routers. So I can have ethernet to plug into for non wifi devices down the other end of the house.

Does anyone have any experience with these?
Is it really going to mesh between one another and get a full 1300 mbps on the second or third hop?

We've got a LOT of wifi devices in the house. There's a couple of tv;s, 3 ipads, 3 laptops, consoles, steam link etc.

This pack is the one:
https://www.mwave.com.au/product/ubiquiti-networks-afir3au-a…

Interested in thoughts, experience etc.
Thanks!

Computing Ubiquiti Wireless Router

Comments

  • omguleh on 01/11/2021 - 23:01
    +1

    Yes, i have the AmpliFi router with 2 mesh points and its covering my whole house (32 squares) and backyard without breaking a sweat.

  • caitsith01 on 01/11/2021 - 23:19
    +1

    I have a big, two storey house with solid brick internal walls and I am about to get rid of my almost new Amplifi + mesh point and get something better. I have found the reception is great in the 5-10 metres near each device but horrible in other rooms, and really horrible upstairs.

    This (expensive) setup replaced an old Asus RT-AC68U. The Asus had much, MUCH better range than the Amplifi even WITH the meshpoint running (and, according to the app, being appropriately positioned).

    I have a wireless dual channel bridge hooked up to my TV/console/etc in the living room due to issues running wiring in that part of the house. That setup ran at very high (gigabit plus) speeds with the Asus and now crawls along at 50-150mbs in exactly the same position relative to the Amplifi.

    I also have some Lifx lights outside which had zero problems with the Asus but now have a lot of trouble staying connected with the Amplifi.

    The other problem is that the Amplifi seems to really struggle with too many clients. I have maybe 20 Lifx lights inside, 10 outside and then maybe another 10 wireless devices around the place. Again, the Asus had zero problems with this but the Amplifi really struggles, sometimes dropping connections to devices quite close to it or seeming to pause for 2-3 seconds when a device tries to use the network. E.g. my Google home has gone from snappy to very slow on the Amplifi.

    I should add that these issues are not interference from other devices based on careful selection of channels etc.

    So, in summary, my personal experience is that if you have a big house or lots of devices, the Amplifi + mesh solution is worse than a single router with better range (at half the cost). Obviously that's just my experience.

    Edit: I should add:

    Is it really going to mesh between one another and get a full 1300 mbps on the second or third hop?

    Absolutely not, in my experience. You have to choose a 'backbone' channel (2.4 or 5GHz, not both) which means either limited speed (2.4) or flaky reception (5). I have found that with the mesh point positioned perfectly according to the Amplifi app it consistently gets much worse speeds than the primary router. See e.g. here:

    https://community.amplifi.com/topic/4971/slow-mesh-point-spe…

    https://www.reddit.com/r/AmpliFi/comments/aeyl24/slow_speeds…

    • Twix on 01/11/2021 - 23:43

      I had no Wi-Fi reception problems with multi level properties. The difference for me is not having internal brick walls.

      • caitsith01 on 02/11/2021 - 00:02
        +1

        Fair enough - I guess the other thing I draw from my experience though is that like-for-like the Asus was way more capable. It was better on basically every level except simplicity of setup and looks (which I do like on the Amplifi HD). But same house, same placement, much worse performance is disappointing from such a pricey product.

        • Twix on 02/11/2021 - 17:08

          Look up the Asus ZenWiFi. It has all the Asus settings and a clean design.

          • caitsith01 on 02/11/2021 - 22:31

            @Twix: Mmmm, after my poor Amplifi experience I am not keen on anything that doesn't have large, visible antennae!

            • Twix on 02/11/2021 - 22:45

              @caitsith01: I wouldn't worry about it. Wireless access points don't have visible antennae and they cover large spaces.

              • caitsith01 on 04/11/2021 - 09:53

                @Twix: Hmm, not sure I agree. It's physics, in the end.

                I have now acquired an Asus RT-AX88U with four massive antennae on it and the coverage is 10x better than the Amplifi mesh system, for what it's worth. For less than I paid for the Amplifi HD + mesh point, too.

                • Twix on 04/11/2021 - 10:05

                  @caitsith01: Sure but it can be done. RT-AX88U is a solid router and the 8 LAN ports are a bonus.

    • timps on 02/11/2021 - 12:20
      +1

      Thanks for all the details!

      We've currently got a RT-AC87U which was amazing in our old place (L shaped house, router close to the centre). But here it's a long rectangle and the NBN comes in at the far corner of the living room, office and master bedroom.

      I was hoping the ethernet port on these would let me connect wired to the PC down here. Fast wifi everywhere else, and get me 2,3, maybe even 500 Mbps at the desktop.
      Sounds like that's unlikely to be the case.

  • Twix on 01/11/2021 - 23:20
    +1

    I have deployed a few of these and no complaints. They are capable of Gigabit ethernet on nbn and limited to around 430Mbps on Wi-Fi 5.

    Unifi and Amplifi are two different platforms by Ubiquiti. Choose only one platform. With Unifi you can go to town on setting up a dynamic DNS, IoT VLAN, DPI and so on. About the most you can change on Amplifi is IPv6 and port forwarding.

    • NGPriest on 01/11/2021 - 23:27
      +1

      I'm using the Unifi route at the moment.

  • chumpychops on 02/11/2021 - 00:07
    +1

    I had the Router only for a while and rather than buy a mesh point, bought another router to expand my capabilities Indivitually, the price wasn't that different.

    I do like it. I'm somewhat tech but not full on, so the ease of setup on a mobile app is great.
    It's reliable and easy to troubleshoot, however one of my routers seems to have issues but I'm sure the situation that occured would brick many a router. I literally lost power during a firmware update and while the unit still works, the light and display are permanently on (you can normally turn them off)
    No amount of updating and resetting has fixed the issue, so I'm just living with it.

    Would I buy again? Yes.

    • timps on 02/11/2021 - 19:36

      Thanks for sharing your details too.
      I was just considering the 3 router pack. Felt like more flexibility than the router and 2 mesh points, and a little more throughput.

  • johnwarburton on 02/11/2021 - 06:15
    +1

    If you own the house, get a sparky to run CAT 6 from where the NBN comes in to half way and fully down your house for an Ethernet back haul https://help.amplifi.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006826048-How-…

    Wired always beats wireless if you can

    John

    • timps on 02/11/2021 - 12:14

      Yeah that's what I'd love to do. We're renting though.
      Might have to just ask them about us paying for a sparky to put a cable run in for us. Couple of patch points on the wall will be pretty invisible.

  • avoidfullprice on 02/11/2021 - 20:58

    What model of Ethernet Powerline you using?

    • timps on 03/11/2021 - 15:03

      TP-Link AV1300 3-Port Gigabit Powerline Starter Kit.
      Gigabit is not accurate. But it's a long distance down the house, and it could be doing the best it can under the circumstances.

      • avoidfullprice on 04/11/2021 - 17:25
        +1

        Yeah, to get only 40Mbps out of this is pretty shat. Hope that mesh system will improve speed around your house.

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