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Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Taco Defender
My old WAP (a WRT300N running DD-WRT) finally died, so I did some looking around and found some folks here mentioning Ubiquiti's stuff. I'm tired of loving around with buggy third-party firmware builds, so I dug into the Unifi line and decided to get one of their Pro APs. I'd have gone for a regular one, but the 2.4GHz spectrum in my apartment is kinda hosed:



Anyway, I've had it for a few days, so I figured I could write something up about it in case anybody else is in the same position.

I installed the (free) controller software ahead of time, which is actually only needed for AP setup, statistics gathering, and captive portal stuff. Other than that, the units can just run on their own after being set up with the controller. So, after getting the software installed on my server and configuring the options for my wireless network, I waited for the AP to get here. Once it did, I just plugged it into my network with the included POE injector and it showed up in the controller. After telling the controller to go ahead and manage it, it automatically upgraded the firmware on the thing, configured it, and that was it.

As far as performance goes, it's pretty awesome. As you can see in that inSSIDer shot, there are over 70 APs visible from my apartment on the 2.4GHz spectrum. Even with that, I'm still able to get -20dB from across the room, which is way better than anything else I've ever had. Transfer rates over the 2.4GHz frequencies aren't great (800KB/s to 1.5MB/s), but I'm pretty sure that's because of interference. The 5GHz frequencies here are almost empty and I'm getting way better transfer rates (around 37MB/s; and, yes, that's megabytes, not megabits).

I'll see whether it keeps performing like this, but I'm impressed so far. Setup was easy and it's been rock-solid so far. I realize that even considering a business AP for home use means I'm a massive bell-end here, but even so, it's nice to know that there was something out there that wasn't $1,000+ plus another $1,200 in software or whatever.

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Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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CuddleChunks posted:

We love these things. Any chance we get we borg another customer and bring them into the sweet sweet Unify fold. Yes, Unify *does* have a wonderful plan for your life my child.

Yeah, I've already got pfSense on a Soekris board as my router/firewall and I really didn't want to replace it, which meant I was looking into dedicated AP land. I was expecting to have to find a regular consumer router that I could bludgeon into one again (since most enterprise stuff is way more than I want to pay), but I wasn't looking forward to it. I don't exactly remember what the issue was when I got DD-WRT going on the old WRT300N I'd been using as an AP, but it was something like "WPA2 was broken but WPA worked fine, but only with TKIP enabled" and it took about a day of fiddling to get just right.

So, this time around, I just wanted something that'd work without having to work around weird issues that were never going to be fixed without spending several hundred or more plus a maintenance contract. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there was actually a product that fit the bill.

Kreeblah fucked around with this message at 22:37 on Feb 18, 2013

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Ninja Rope posted:

Aren't the Pro APs rather expensive though? Like > $300?

It ended up being about $250 delivered from Amazon. So, yes, it was expensive, but still a lot cheaper than an AP from another company (and no mandatory support contract to get updates/use my AP at all).

If I were lighting up a house, it probably wouldn't have been worth it to go with the Pro unit, but if I were doing that, I doubt I'd have the crowding issues I do on the 2.4GHz bands.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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titaniumone posted:

I have a mini-ITX system running pfSense, and a Cisco switch. My roommate has an Airport Extreme plugged in to serve solely as a wireless AP. He's moving out, so I'm going to need something to replace his Airport when he takes it with him.

Can someone recommend a good home wireless AP? I don't need or want any routing or switching capabilities. Single port, powerful antenna, wireless N, and simultaneous dual band if possible. (I have no Apple products and we've had a few stupid issues with the Airport so I'm not interested in buying one myself).

I'm running pfSense as well and I've had great luck with a Ubiquiti Unifi AP Pro. I had pretty much the same requirements as you do, but I was tired of dealing with buggy custom firmware on lowest-bidder hardware, so I got one of these. It's pricey, but it's basically been running flawlessly since I got it.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Boner Wad posted:

I have a Time Capsule. I'm not super impressed with its antenna and the distance it has. I'm used to having professional grade Cisco APs in my home that had a further reach. I'm thinking of getting a Cisco 1142 or whatever replaces that but this Ubiquiti has me interested since it is a third of the cost of a Cisco AP.

How's the management of them? I'd rather ssh in or use a web page than run some random thick client. Is that possible? Do you always have to run the "controller" software? Whenever I hear controller I think of autonomous APs that need a controller.

The controller's a web app, but it doesn't need to keep running unless you want to do stat gathering or have a captive portal (the HTTP daemon runs on the controller). If you don't care about that stuff, then you just need to run the controller software when you initially set it up or when you want to change the configuration.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Experto Crede posted:

I'm considering building my own router, partly out boredom, partly to pick up more networking stuff.

What are the standard builds for these? I'd like it to have four Ethernet ports plus an extra for taking the DSL modem. WiFi would also be ideal. I know there are four port Ethernet cards, anyone have experience of these? If I got one, I could get it down to needing just two expansion cards (Ethernet, wifi plus using on board Ethernet for the DSL if it's gigabit capable).

I want to keep expansion card numbers low so it can be smaller and draw less power, which will obviously be a plus.

So, am I being totally unreasonable or is this doable? Anyone who has done this, some info on your hardware would be great.

You could get a PC Engines ALIX board or one of Soekris Engineering's boards and put pfSense, m0n0wall, or the like on it. Personally, I run a Soekris net6501-70 with pfSense hooked up to an HP Procurve 1410-16G switch and it handles my 100mbps connection just fine. I don't have it doing wireless (it doesn't have a miniPCI slot and even if it did, BSD kinda sucks at wireless), but I have a Ubiquiti Unifi Pro for that.

Going this :spergin: certainly isn't for everybody, but I'm happy with my setup and I probably won't have to upgrade for a long time unless I decide I want more ethernet ports or a managed switch or something.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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evol262 posted:

You can, but it's not really FreeBSD, and you can't SSH into it in the same sense that you could SSH into a Debian box and grab whatever you want, unless ports/pkgs are suddenly working on PFsense.

It has a packaging system, but there aren't many packages for it (mostly for things like Squid). The point of pfSense, though, is that it's an appliance rather than a general purpose system. Install it, configure it, and update it once in a while, but otherwise just forget it exists.

Edit: And for the person asking about rolling your own: I've done it and it's not worth it. At all.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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SamDabbers posted:

I like the HP v1910-24G for this. It's web managed and is "layer 2+" which means it can do static IPv4/IPv6 inter-VLAN routing in addition to the usual VLANs, QoS, SNMP, etc. There's also a secret command to unlock the full CLI management interface, basically turning your $250 switch into a $1000 model. HP/H3C uses the same hardware for both models and just software locks the features at the factory.

I know this is from a couple weeks ago, but I've been thinking about getting a new switch for more ports and this sounds like a great way to go. One question, though. Do the things you set via the hidden commands persist across reboots, or do you need to redo them every time there's a power outage or whatever?

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Do you have a gateway set up for your VPN connections?

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Scott808 posted:

At this point the WRT54GL is pretty outdated. Not that it won't work; I was using mine until a month or two ago.

Yeah, the CPUs are old enough that they can't keep up with traffic on connections these days. I think I even had problems with mine keeping up with my old lovely 16mbps connection, but that was a long time ago, so I don't really remember.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Dr. Habibi posted:

So if a WRT54GL is too old, what's a decent Tomato-compatible modern version of it?

Dunno. That was six years ago. I switched to pfSense and stopped paying attention to consumer hardware.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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UndyingShadow posted:

What's the advantage to running pfsense?

I've been thinking about trying it. My internet is getting upgraded to 300 mbps soon and I don't know if my router will handle it well. I was goofing around last night and cobbled together an old Dell with a 2.4ghz athlon X2 processor, 6 gb of ram, and 3 nics. I assume that's enough for effective performance?

It's incredibly stable (some very large businesses rely on it, which you can't say about router custom firmwares), you don't have to worry about which build to run on your hardware or figure out how to flash it over the stock firmware, it has far more features, and it runs on commodity x86 hardware.

6 gigs of RAM is more than enough, and 3 NICs is plenty. The CPU is always going to be the limiting factor (until you hit linespeed on your NICs), but I run a 100mbps line off of a 1.2GHz Atom, so you'd probably be OK.

UndyingShadow posted:

Things I can't currently do but it would awesome if I could do:

1) Run a VPN server. I have a friend living in heavily filtered country. Commercial VPN servers get blocked all the time. I'd like to have all her traffic encrypted and originate from my connection
2) Connect to a VPN server on demand. It would be nice if I could have my entire network connect to a commercial VPN service
3) Run some sort of IDS
4) Log and monitor all web traffic
5) Throttle BitTorrent traffic.

1) Yes
2) Yes, though as a client, it's more used for permanent links, so I don't know how much trouble it would be to enable/disable it all the time
3) You can roll your own
4) Yes, though you don't want to capture all the traffic that goes over the wire due to storage limitations
5) Yes

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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tehfeer posted:

Currently I am thinking of either doing 2 apple airports or 2 Ubiquiti Networks unifi APs. Does anyone have any experience with the ubiquiti devices?

So far, I've had one of the non-LR regular APs, a Pro, and as of just recently, an AC. They've all been rock solid, though the AC is still missing some features the other ones have (zero handoff being the big one). Even hardware upgrades basically come down to just plugging the new one in and telling the controller software to start administering it.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Diametunim posted:

Think I'll be able to squeeze the last bit of life out of my WRT54GL until I graduate? I'd buy a new router but building one sounds like fun. I know I won't have the funds to build anything impressive for a bit.

Mine topped out around 15mbps. That's when I switched to pfSense on an ALIX unit.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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CondoInternet? I'm probably going to be specifically looking for one of their buildings the next time I move.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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It looks like a custom ALIX build. I used an alix2c2 with pfSense for a while until my connection speed got bumped up past where it could keep up. It worked great, though, otherwise.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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internet jerk posted:

What speed are we talking?

I think it started crapping out around 60mbps.

Edit: It's also worth noting that the unit I had was from like 2008, so the pfSense branded one is probably much faster. I'm currently using a Soekris net6501-70, but I'm not 100% happy with it. The boot process takes way longer than it did on my ALIX unit for no discernible reason and it generates way more heat.

Kreeblah fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Oct 13, 2014

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Krailor posted:

Another option you might want to look into is building a dedicated software router using something like pfSense. Combining that with some hardware that supports AES-NI might be able to get you close to gigabit VPN for under $1k.

Pricing is still forthcoming, but this upcoming Soekris board looks promising if pfSense supports it. They claim up to 10Gbps encryption with the integrated Intel acceleration hardware, so it should be totally doable to get linespeed at a gig out of it (again, assuming pfSense supports the Intel encryption hardware).

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Thermopyle posted:

question 1
I've got a Netgear WNDR3600 running OpenWRT and a couple of old Linksys WRT54Gs acting as access points since one router won't get me coverage throughout my place. They're all configured with the same SSID. This works OK, but most devices seem to suck rear end at dropping the weaker signal and connecting to the stronger one. For example when I walk from my bedroom to the living room, my phone hangs on to the 1-bar signal instead of connecting to the router right there in the same room.

Is there any combination of routers/access points that would make clients better at this, or is it entirely up to the clients and there's nothing to be done?

It's pretty much up to the clients, and I'm not aware of any that will drop an existing connection for a stronger one. There are proprietary implementations to have APs hand off connections to each other (by pretending to be one gigantic AP), but that's not something you're going to find in a standards compliant-only AP or router.

Thermopyle posted:

question 2
I don't really want to mess with running a custom firmware on my router anymore. The features I like the most are real-time traffic graphing in the routers web UI, and per connection / client statistics. Do any OEM routers offer those features?

Ubiquiti does with their UniFi stuff (and they actually have the "handoff to other APs" thing going with their non-AC APs (it's still "upcoming" for those)), but those are standalone APs. You'd still need a router of some sort. Personally, I'm going with one of those plus a pfSense box, but that can be kinda pricey depending on the models of things you end up looking at.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Mmmm. Upgrade day.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Krailor posted:

Nice, where did you order those from? Nowhere I look at has stock.

Some Amazon seller. They were selling them above MSRP, but I needed one now for extra coverage, and if I was buying one, I figured I might as well buy a second to replace my first-gen AC AP. I've always worried about the heat coming from that thing.

redeyes posted:

I'm really interested to see what speeds AC devices negotiate with these things. And of course throughput.

I'm sitting in another room with a fair bit of metal and other non-wireless-friendly stuff in between me and the AP I'm connected to and I'm getting a gigabit link via 5GHz with about 250-300mbps throughput. This is also with the AP sitting face-up (basically upside down) on a high shelf in that room. I'm still trying to figure out a good way to mount it correctly, but I'm in a rental house.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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dorkanoid posted:

Thanks :) I'm going for ER Lite + random switch + AC Pro I think; I guess any name brand GbE switch will do these days (can't remember what I've got everything connected to today, but I'll keep using that then).

If I've understood correctly, I can buy more AC Lite/Pro/whatevers later and extend my wifi "seamlessly", or do future APs then also have to be Pro?

You can mix and match AP models however you want. It all just works.

I've been using Unifi APs for about three years now, and they've been rock solid for me. Upgrades or adding a new AP is about as simple as it gets, too. Just plug it in, the controller picks it up, and you tell the controller to provision it. I don't know that I'd use these in an actual business setting (mainly because they don't offer the same level of support that you can get from, say, Cisco), but for home use, they're awesome.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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tonic posted:

I use a PFSense box for my router and have always relied on RRD Graphs to monitor my bandwidth. The other day I upgraded to Pfsense 2.3. It appears the RRD Graph code was rewritten and the majority of features were removed/neutered. The graphs no longer show bandwidth used.

Is there another package that I can install on PfSense to monitor bandwidth? Or 3rd party code I can run?

Looking at the forums it appears they're not going to re-add the feature and downgrading appears to be really difficult :argh:

They actually can, but the way you find it is kind of weird. Go to Status > Monitoring, click the wrench in the top-right, and change left axis to traffic. There's also an RRD Summary package that will go through and add up all your usage for the current month and the prior one, if that's easier.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Here's an interesting problem: gigabit PPPoE on pfSense.

I'm going to be moving to a place soon where CenturyLink offers gigabit fiber service (FTTH, with authentication via PPPoE) for less than I'm paying now for 200mbps with Comcast. I really don't want to use their router or have a double NAT situation, but it looks like pfSense has an issue with PPPoE links that's inherited from a FreeBSD issue where only a single queue is used for receiving data on a PPPoE link. So, this is going to affect the SG-4860 I have if I try to hook it up directly. That bug doesn't look like it's going to be fixed any time soon, either.

So far, my options seem to be:
  • Deal with ~600mbps speeds when I'm paying for gigabit
  • Change to a different router/firewall system
  • Get hugely overkill hardware for pfSense (if I get a CPU with a fast enough individual core speed, I could probably mitigate it that way)
  • Use CenturyLink's hardware for the PPPoE link and then put my pfSense box in the DMZ
Of those, the last one seems the least crappy to me, but I'm wondering whether anybody is aware of anything kind of like a PPPoE "modem" (not really a modem). Basically, something that'll do the PPPoE link (and VLAN 201 tagging for CenturyLink's requirements), and then provide the IP address from CenturyLink over a regular IP connection on another port and not gently caress with my traffic.

Does something like that exist? If not, am I missing any other options here?

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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SamDabbers posted:

If you're not married to pfSense, the EdgeRouter Lite has hardware acceleration for PPPoE, VLAN tagging, and IPv4/IPv6 and can do line-rate GigE forwarding for under $100.

Yeah, I've thought about that (I've been using Unifi WAPs for years, and they've been pretty decent), but I really don't want to replace my hardware. I've got pfSense doing a bunch of other stuff that I suspect would be difficult to replicate on an EdgeRouter Lite (it's terminating my VPN connection and doing split tunnels to forward some of my traffic over outbound VPN connections for getting around georestrictions).

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Naffer posted:

How bad an idea is trying to make your own gigabit patch cables? I have half a spool of 24AWG solid core cat6 cable leftover from my house wiring project, and it seems wasteful to be buying new cat5e/6 patch cables as I've slowly been replacing all of the 100 mbit devices that are connected using cat5 cables.

Is crimping on connectors as miserable (and unreliable) as people seem to suggest it is?

I've done it with cat5e. It's not too bad if you've crimped cables before, but you need to make sure you keep the straightened wires as short as possible (standards call for something like a half an inch, max). I usually straighten them to put into the jack and then trim them down before actually inserting them.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Has anybody here ever wired up a place that didn't have ductwork, an attic, or a basement?

I just moved into a condo that I bought and someday I'd like to wire it up with ethernet, however I'm not really sure what my options are. I have a ground floor unit with neighbors above me and the foundation directly below me, so I don't have any unfinished space to work with, and since I live near Seattle, air conditioning (and forced air in general) generally isn't a thing, so there was never any ductwork installed.

The only thing I can think of would be ripping into the walls and possibly drilling through the studs (depending on what the inside of the walls looks like), but I don't know whether I'm missing any better options and Google isn't really helping. Basically everything I'm finding assumes that you can either go up or down, or through ductwork. Is there any better option for running some cables? Also, would anybody have any suggestions on finding somebody to do the work?

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Internet Explorer posted:

I'd definitely have someone else due the work because IMO that is a pain in the rear end.

Look for "low voltage" cabling companies.

Yeah, I have zero interest in trying to do all that poo poo myself. I'll see what options I have for low voltage cabling companies to see who's around.

Thanks Ants posted:

Pull the baseboards off and have a look around - it's often an easy way into the wall and easy to patch back up again.

That might work. The place came with those cheap apartment-style baseboards that are like an inch tall, though, so if there is any wall access under them, it probably won't be much. Also, how would I get cables around doors if I do it that way?

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Nevets posted:

What kind of foundation? If there's a crawlspace you should have access to it, not sure how you'd get down there on a slab foundation without tearing up your floor though.

Another option if you're willing to spend a little money is to put crown molding all through your house and hide the cable & wall holes behind it. This avoids the doorway problem, you'd just have to fish the cable down from the ceiling to your jacks instead of up from the floor. If you can borrow a compound miter saw and finish nailer you could DIY.

Oh, hiding the holes behind crown molding is a fantastic idea. I was debating getting some anyway, so that pretty much seals it.

Thank you!

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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eames posted:

Running pfsense on a whitebox is a solution for now but they've announced that they want to stop that.

Where have they ever said that? The only thing I'm aware of is wanting to crack down on pfSense being preinstalled (potentially with backdoors) on systems.


Thermopyle posted:

Would a Qotom with a celeron J1900 be powerful enough for gigabit QoS using pfsense?

Also, does pfsense offer smart qos like cake, fq_codel, etc?

They do fq_codel, yeah. It works pretty well.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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stevewm posted:

Our stores have been breaking their own records week after week. We did the same last year.

This year though, we have been selling so much lumber, it is sometimes sold before it even hits the yard. Its insane, never seen anything like it.

Huh. Have your quantities been similar? I know that there's been a global shipping crunch, but I don't know whether that'd impact lumber (and, y'know, compound the buying frenzy) as well. I am curious, though.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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text editor posted:

I was sick of dealing with Ubiquiti's dogshit firmware QA and the security issues so I picked up a new Ruckus R310 on ebay for $130 and it has already been more stable and has a better range than my AC-Lite

I stuck with Ubiquiti for APs and switches for a long time. The occasional firmware or controller hiccup was annoying, but not anything I couldn't just downgrade from. That is, until a controller update took down my entire network, even after rolling the controller version back. It took downgrading, factory resetting everything, and re-adopting my hardware to get back up and running, since I didn't really want to take the time to figure out what the gently caress they did and manually undo it. What I later found out was that that version of the controller (marked stable, and presented as a stable upgrade in the UI) automatically reconfigures APs to mesh wirelessly, even if they're already configured with wired uplinks. Hello, repeated broadcast storms. I started looking for alternative vendors to switch to for my APs and switches at that point.

I just finished replacing my two AC HDs with a pair of Ruckus R710s running their Unleashed firmware, and while it's super overkill for the space I need to cover, I got them at a great price, and they've been awesome so far. Now I just need to replace my switches with something else (I never bothered with their USG, since it always looked terrible to me). I'm thinking maybe Mikrotik, though I'm still looking into what my other options are.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Cenodoxus posted:

Oh drat. When was this? Do you know if they ever rolled that back?

I’m down to just the two APs now, both wired, and I’m having some weird as poo poo intermittent slowness while gaming on WiFi. I use Parsec to stream my gaming PC to my laptop, and I’ll see network latency spikes from ~5ms to ~100ms out of the blue that practically kill my session. I’m on 5GHz in line-of-sight to the AP.

Granted, I’m absolutely a dumbass for trying to stream low latency over WiFi, but it’s so inconsistent that a broadcast storm seems likely.

They never did. They eventually released a version with that fixed, but they never actually pulled the version (6.0.20) that caused it. It was bad enough that people were making videos telling people not to update to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37Bl4yvIwqA

Edit: Ubiquiti's also notorious these days for pushing software from beta to RC to release all within the span of a few hours. So, I can't say I'm entirely surprised that something like this happened.

Kreeblah fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Apr 21, 2021

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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:lol: I just logged into my Unifi controller, and noticed that since I switched out my APs to non-Unifi ones, it's now displaying an ad for them on the dashboard in addition to the UDM ad.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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KKKLIP ART posted:

Are the CommScope Rucuks APs a good alternative to Unifi? A lot about the management side of things has really soured me on Unifi and I am at a point where I am ready to upgrade APs.

I got a couple of used R710s to replace my AC HD APs, and after reflashing them with the Unleashed firmware (it's free from CommScope/Ruckus and has nearly all the features of the regular one, but you don't need a separate controller, don't need a maintenance contract/software license to use/update them, and have a max of 25 APs you can have in the network), they've been pretty good. I used to have drops when migrating between APs with my Unifi gear (I'm guessing something with their 802.11r/v/k implementations), but with the Ruckus APs, I can be connected to a meeting over my work VPN, and it will just seamlessly transfer. Plus the range is pretty great. I'm sure my neighbors hate me, but I can get a usable signal all the way down the block. Their proprietary antenna magic really does seem to do something worthwhile.

There have only really been two downsides so far. One of them has to do with the very latest Unleashed firmware for them (200.9.10.4.233). I was getting kernel panics on it, so I had to use the immediately prior build (200.9.10.4.212) instead. Supposedly, it has something to do with having wifi calling prioritization enabled on that build, so if I really cared, I could try turning that off and upgrading again to test, but I haven't really cared enough to do that since they're apparently working on fixing it for the next release.

The other issue has to do with me living in a condo complex with lots of neighbors. If I turn on the option to have the APs automatically select the best channels to use, they sometimes switch multiple times a minute just due to how congested things are here, which dumps all the connected clients on the AP while that happens. So, unless I move somewhere else that's less congested, I just can't use that feature.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Taco Defender
I don't know that you'll be able to get what you want. You're going to need MoCA 2.0 or 2.5 adaptors, and I dunno how close those are going to get to real-world 1gbps. It's going to be impacted by the specific adaptors and also by your coax cabling/splits as well as any other signals you have on those cables in the same frequencies.

If MoCA doesn't work out, you could also try powerline adaptors. A lot of the same limitations apply for those (affected by noise on the power lines, quality of the wiring and the specific adaptors, etc.), but it's another thing to try if you need to.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Taco Defender

Kreeblah posted:

I got a couple of used R710s to replace my AC HD APs, and after reflashing them with the Unleashed firmware (it's free from CommScope/Ruckus and has nearly all the features of the regular one, but you don't need a separate controller, don't need a maintenance contract/software license to use/update them, and have a max of 25 APs you can have in the network), they've been pretty good. I used to have drops when migrating between APs with my Unifi gear (I'm guessing something with their 802.11r/v/k implementations), but with the Ruckus APs, I can be connected to a meeting over my work VPN, and it will just seamlessly transfer. Plus the range is pretty great. I'm sure my neighbors hate me, but I can get a usable signal all the way down the block. Their proprietary antenna magic really does seem to do something worthwhile.

There have only really been two downsides so far. One of them has to do with the very latest Unleashed firmware for them (200.9.10.4.233). I was getting kernel panics on it, so I had to use the immediately prior build (200.9.10.4.212) instead. Supposedly, it has something to do with having wifi calling prioritization enabled on that build, so if I really cared, I could try turning that off and upgrading again to test, but I haven't really cared enough to do that since they're apparently working on fixing it for the next release.

The other issue has to do with me living in a condo complex with lots of neighbors. If I turn on the option to have the APs automatically select the best channels to use, they sometimes switch multiple times a minute just due to how congested things are here, which dumps all the connected clients on the AP while that happens. So, unless I move somewhere else that's less congested, I just can't use that feature.

Dunno whether anybody cares, but to follow up on this, they just put out a new firmware version (200.9.10.4.243) a couple of days ago to address the FragAttacks poo poo, and they fixed the kernel panic bug in it. Now, I really only have one issue, and it's more an issue of living in a multi-unit complex.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Taco Defender

skipdogg posted:

For 1GB service you need a 32 channel modem. You'll see them called 32x8 or 32 channel downstream.

It's always a good idea to verify that your ISP supports a particular modem before you decide to spend the money on one, ISP support is more important than any other feature. Under the hood all these modems are basically the same broadcom chipset anyway, so brand name doesn't really matter.

In no particular order all these modems are fine: I prefer the SurfBoard for personal reasons, but the MB8600 by all accounts is a very good modem as well and can sometimes be had a little less expensively. I don't have an opinion on the Netgear as I'm unfamiliar with them. That's not saying they are good or bad, I just don't know.

Netgear CM1000/CM1200
ARRIS SurfBoard SB8200
Motorola MB8600

There are some newer more expensive models that claim speeds up to 3 gigs, or have 2+ gig interfaces, but those are almost always right now going to be ISP provided and not worth an average home user buying right now. Surfboard S33, and MB8611

Back when I was on cable instead of fiber, I used an SB8200, and it was fantastic. Somebody on DSLReports did a teardown of it, and it's just beautifully engineered inside.

Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Taco Defender
What non-Ubiquiti switches are people using for multi-gig (1/2.5/5/10G) PoE copper ports? There don't seem to be a lot of them out there, but I'm gonna need a new switch soon for when my ISP starts offering multigig symmetric rates, and I figure I might as well get one that'll also be able to power some WiFi 6E APs whenever I get them.

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Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

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Taco Defender

Cyks posted:

The TL-SG3210XHP-M2 is finally available on Amazon but I’m a little hesitant on recommending it for WiFi 6E APs as it’s only PoE+ and until proven otherwise I don’t see a triband AP with multi gig not requiring PoE++ unless it cuts some corners somewhere.

Hmmm. How loud is it? Where I am now, all my networking gear's in the living room because of space/cooling issues. There's nowhere else that's great to put it here.
I live in a condo with a detached garage, and the assholes who designed this place put the fiber drop in the loving master bedroom closet (I also had to run power to it since there isn't an outlet in there, or anywhere within ten feet of it).

KS posted:

If you have a space where fan noise isn't an issue, ws-c3850-12x48u switches remain weirdly cheap on ebay. Like other comparable models are $4k+ and this is hovering around $1200 for a 48 port UPOE switch with 12 mgig ports and a line card for more 10gig ports. Mine has worked out really well.

Fair warning though, mgig will give you exactly zero benefit in a home environment. An AP will never exceed 1gbit unless you have multiple high perf clients.

Yeah, noise is, unfortunately, a concern. I would actually probably benefit from faster wifi, though, since it's not uncommon for me to be transferring large files to/from work on my work laptop and using my personal laptop for something reasonably bandwidth intensive while I wait for it to finish. I don't plan on swapping out my APs any time soon, though, since I'm happy with my Ruckus R710s, and good WiFi 6E APs are probably gonna be expensive for a while. I'm mostly hoping to avoid having to swap out my hardware more than necessary.

rufius posted:

Those tend to get quite hot and they’re noisy. They’re typically rack mount and expected to be hidden away.

I have a portion of my network wired up on 10G but I’m using SFP+ cages in a MicroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN (https://mikrotik.com/product/crs305_1g_4s_in). It handles all of that well.

Technically, you could put 10G Ethernet modules into it but you’re generally not supposed to put those side by side in a unit that’s passively cooled. You might burn them out.

TL;DR - if you’re serious about multi-gig, look at SFP+ with multi or single mode modules.

My backup plan if I couldn't find something workable was basically that. I've had my eye on some MikroTik stuff for a bit, and an SFP+ switch plus the current version of the S+RJ10 seems like it would cover the data rate part, and I could do PoE injectors for power. It wouldn't be as nice as a switch that can cover all of that, but if I have to go that route, it looks like it'll work just fine.

I will, however, need at least one copper port in the short term for my ISP, though. The network VP recently did an AMA on Reddit, and he mentioned that they're going to do multi-gig copper links from the new ONTs for their higher speed stuff.

Kreeblah fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jun 8, 2021

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