[SOLVED] Ubiquiti unifi Access points okay with an 8 year old Asus router?

fobos8

Commendable
Nov 30, 2019
114
2
1,585
Alright guys

I have a couple of Asus RT-N66U routers that I've been using for home wifi for the last 8 years, I unit as a router and the other as an access point.

The house is 250 sq metres (2690 sq foot) downstairs and 150 sq meters (1610 sq foot) upstairs. We have 4 wired PCs, 4 wifi laptops and various mobile phones. At any one time there could be 10 users in the house.

Everyone moans about how crap the wifi is so muggins here has to sort it out!

My plan is to use Ubiquiti Access points spread out around the house (probably 3 or 4) linked via ethernet to one of the Asus routers.

My main question is can I get by with one of the old Asus machines as a router or should I be using something more up to date ? The Asus routers have 4 x Gigabit Ethernet and I don't plan to use them in wifi mode.

Are they up to the task? In the current configuration about once a month, I have to reboot them as we lose wifi.

Going forwards I don't want to have to keep rebooting the router.

Thanks in advance, Andrew
 
Solution
Almost any router can do gigabit wan/lan speeds. They use a special feature that allows the NAT function to be done in hardware rather than having the CPU chip do it. You have to be somewhat careful though some feature on the router like firewall or parental controls require the cpu to see the data so it can not use this NAT hardware accelerator. Now if you mean the traffic going lan/lan. Internally the lan ports are acting as a unmanged switch. Like almost all switch you can now buy these run what is called non blocking wire speed. It means every port can send and receive 1gbit of traffic all at the same time.

Having to power cycle a router generally means there is a hardware issue. If it is just the radio chips with...
Almost any router can do gigabit wan/lan speeds. They use a special feature that allows the NAT function to be done in hardware rather than having the CPU chip do it. You have to be somewhat careful though some feature on the router like firewall or parental controls require the cpu to see the data so it can not use this NAT hardware accelerator. Now if you mean the traffic going lan/lan. Internally the lan ports are acting as a unmanged switch. Like almost all switch you can now buy these run what is called non blocking wire speed. It means every port can send and receive 1gbit of traffic all at the same time.

Having to power cycle a router generally means there is a hardware issue. If it is just the radio chips with the issue you likely will have no issues. All you can do is try it and see.

Be careful too much wifi is in many ways worse than too little. You are going to have massive overlap in your signals. The device may not connect to the proper AP and you may get data interference between the AP. The ubiquiti products though have feature to help. You should be able to adjust the power down so you get as little overlap as possible.
 
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Solution

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
Alright guys

I have a couple of Asus RT-N66U routers that I've been using for home wifi for the last 8 years, I unit as a router and the other as an access point.

The house is 250 sq metres (2690 sq foot) downstairs and 150 sq meters (1610 sq foot) upstairs. We have 4 wired PCs, 4 wifi laptops and various mobile phones. At any one time there could be 10 users in the house.

Everyone moans about how crap the wifi is so muggins here has to sort it out!

My plan is to use Ubiquiti Access points spread out around the house (probably 3 or 4) linked via ethernet to one of the Asus routers.

My main question is can I get by with one of the old Asus machines as a router or should I be using something more up to date ? The Asus routers have 4 x Gigabit Ethernet and I don't plan to use them in wifi mode.

Are they up to the task? In the current configuration about once a month, I have to reboot them as we lose wifi.

Going forwards I don't want to have to keep rebooting the router.

Thanks in advance, Andrew
UniFI APs will identify the Asus WIFI signal (I would recommend disabling the Asus WIFI) as a rogue access point. You will have to whitelist it to prevent the annoyance alert.
Multiple UniFI APs require tuning when used together. They are not plug and play for optimal usage. You want unique channels on each one. Don't use 40Mhz 2.4Ghz channel width. Turn DOWN the transmit power. Start by reading this -- https://community.ui.com/questions/New-Starters-Basic-Settings/124afadc-3e30-4e25-9121-7387fc3dc912
 
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Sign up for Ubiquiti Early Access. They have a DREAM router that pops in and out of stock for $79. This provides routing, wifi and a UNIFI server all built in to run your access points. Considering it acts as a wifi router for the price, you're better off buying 1 less access point and buying this to replace your Asus router instead. https://eu.store.ui.com/products/dream-router-ea

How fast is your internet from your ISP?

The Ubiquiti software should allow for SQM(FQ_CODEL) which is a more advanced QOS traffic shaping algorithm, but at the cost of CPU power. It's most likely on capable of about 300mbps using this QOS algorithm. But with that many computers in the house, it's worth it to share the ISP bandwidth equitably. If your internet plan is faster than that, you can use the normal QOS modes for full gigabit speeds, but they don't really do all that much, just like in other routers.
 
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