Please Help Review My Network Setup

• 

  kfp187 on 04/01/2023 - 14:53

  +1

  If you have the money… go with ubiquiti.
  Why don’t you just get some rooted Gen 2 Telstra Modems. Have your main one and the others as a booster. You have a built in switch and access point! Plug a few devices at once. Because you can hard wire having wifi 6 may not be a huge deal.
  If you want wifi 6 and save some coin and running ethernet backhaul get the TP Link Deco X20 or X55 or along those lines…

  • 

    steff on 04/01/2023 - 15:37

    Thank you for more options to think about. I will research into the Telstra modems - I hadnt considered reflashing. Much appreciated.

    During my search I read about potential vulnerabilities with TP-Link here , which was another reason why I though ubiquity was better suited. Thank you for providing another option to look at.

• 

  avoidfullprice on 04/01/2023 - 15:04

  +1

  Your home layout will be more relevant than your network topology diagram

  Also unclear in your current network diagram what is connected over wifi and which channel (2.4 Ghz or 5Ghz). You might not need new equipment to solve your current problem

  • 

    steff on 04/01/2023 - 15:46

    yes, that makes sense and apologies for not adding it in the description. The house is a 2 storeys and the nbn point is at the front of the house, which is why the wifi is very weak where the family room is (at the rear side, approximately 18m from the front conenction point).

    There's around 25 devices in total:
    2 hardwired desktops which are fine
    2 laptops and 3 mobile phones (we manually switch between 5ghz if we're using them closer to the router or 2.4 if we need to move further away)
    the rest of the devices are all on 2.4 - 1 printer, 3 nest smoke alarms, 1 TV, and others are some downlights and table lamp bulbs throughout the house)

    • 

      avoidfullprice on 04/01/2023 - 17:31

      Unless your ethernet patch panels to the rest of the house are located at front of the house, what you can do is relocate your router to somewhere central to the house, and route the fttp connection to where the router is.

      • 

        steff on 04/01/2023 - 20:18

        yes unfortunately the patch panel is located in the front (garage wall) right next to the fttp box

• 

  AndyC1 on 04/01/2023 - 15:09

  +1

  The ubiquiti dream machine looks like it's an wifi5 AC device and not wifi6 AX device. This could be an issue in the long term as wifi6 AX devices are newer.

  I would try to stay away from POE if you can as it will prolong the life of the router as it will not have to supply the POE.
  I would check out the netgear switch to see how it performs under heavy load (check out reviews) as some old/cheap GB switches skimp on the silicon and therefore cannot handle the throughput when multiple transfers are occurring.
  I am assuming you do not need VOIP as a number of the routers at the high end seem to not have VOIP support.

  As for which modem make sure you read the reviews to ensure that the router can handle the throughput (file copies from one PC to another while other users are downloading etc etc).

  • 

    steff on 04/01/2023 - 15:54

    Thanks for mentioning about the Wifi 5 AC and 6 AX points - I will research more into this as I didnt consider this..

    The netgear switch is GS516TP which I got from a work collegue about 3 years ago. It's a bit of an older model but its been solid so far but great point about the performance under heavy load as I didnt really consider this either.

    And yes, no VOIP necessary as we use our mobile phones.

    • 

      AndyC1 on 04/01/2023 - 16:05

      +1

      I went through this when I moved from 4G broadband to HFC and the specs say it's an AX4567, but that is only valid for testing in a EMC test cavern. Real world testing is what you want.

      Good to hear the switch throughput is good.

      I have seen reviews where the modem has GB NICs, but the max sustained throughput is 600MB in reviews. I have also seen where transfer a file between two ports on the router and using higher than a 100Mb NBN connection (aka 250 and above) causes speed degradation on both throughput.

      As per a post above the 25 devices can also be a problem with some device, like what you have now. Optus support will say it should work, but based on past postings when I was using the Optus 4G broadband you definitely need to upgrade as from memory it starts to have issues with 10 or 12 devices connected via WIFI.

      • 

        steff on 04/01/2023 - 16:31

        Yes exactly. Optus says it should work but it really doesnt IRL. I'm glad to hear it's not just me with optus hardware

• 

  apple2016 on 04/01/2023 - 15:19

  +1

  I would suggest to get a UTM instead of an edge router if budget permits.
  Your proposed setup looks good but just be aware of that Ubiquiti Dream Machine lan ports are only 1GE. This can soon be a limitation in case you want to upgrade the AP to U6-Enterprise.

  • 

    steff on 04/01/2023 - 16:15

    Apologies but what is UTM? Could you please share a link so I can read a bit more about it?

    Good point about the 1GE max. It's a want vs need problem when/if gigabit becomes affordable but you're right - considering the initial outlay it would be nice to have that box checked

    • 

      apple2016 on 04/01/2023 - 18:53

      UTM -Unified Threat Managment. Its a network security device (firewall, AV scanner, anti spam, threat blocking etc). Similar to antivirus , they also need an active subscription to keep updated. Do keep in mind that all the security scanning is going to impact the throughtput bandwidth. Some examples are sophos, fortinet, untangle etc. UTM's are advised if you indend on having more IOT devices.You can just google "utm for home network" for more info.

      • 

        steff on 04/01/2023 - 20:19

        thats awesome, thanks very much. I'll definitely read up on this

• 

  macfudd on 04/01/2023 - 20:39

  I run a bit of Unifi gear mixed with other stuff and I’ve found it really easy to use. Few thoughts I had.

  From your diagram it looks like you are running the U6 Lites off the UDM? Is that meant to be off the switch as I don’t think the UDM has PoE ports? I could be wrong though.

  I didn’t sweat the 1gig max stuff. We have fttp with a great internet plan, files flying around our network with a dedicated backup freenas pc and dedicated Plex PC etc. But there’s only 4 of us so I think we’d struggle to be network limited. Plus $1500 switches and $600 AP’s are too much for my wallet.

  Lastly, just be aware that having non-Unifi devices on your network is…a little annoying. You’ll find yourself looking at your Unifi network map screen and thinking how wonderful it would be if everything was visible and managed from the one spot. But stay strong or you’ll find your wallet much, much lighter.

  • 

    steff on 04/01/2023 - 22:07

    yes, the UDM has 2 poe and 2 non-poe ports. and 100% the 1gig maxis a nice to have, not really a need to be honest.

    did you find it hard to initially configure the non-unifi gear? I always thought it was a must to have ubiquity given how heavily they market their interface.

    • 

      macfudd on 05/01/2023 - 10:18

      +1

      My non-Unifi stuff is just acting as dumb switches behind the tv’s where i wanted more network ports. There wasn’t any config needed as all connected devices have the same rules. I do have another non unifi switch similar to yours that will need some setup but I have to get some security cameras first so it’s not hooked up.