Which wifi would be better?

[Tiz68]

Ok, so I just recently purchased a house. For the upcoming install of my new network I purchased a netgear nighthawk R7000. Here is a link... http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00F0DD0I6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1409204364&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40 Well come to find out when I actually got into the house the previous owner left his set up and said I could have it. It consists of an edge router lite erlite-3 router from ubiquiti. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CPRVF5K/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1409204448&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40 The wifi is achieved through the unifi AP. Specifically this model... http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004XXMUCQ/ref=pd_aw_sims_1?pi=SL500_SS115

My biggest question is which one should I go with? Should I keep his set up and return the nighthawk? Or will the nighthawk be faster than the unifi? And if it is faster is it enough of a difference to justify the price. Oh and I will be using comcast 50Mbps internet with this hardware. So will my internet even be able to put out enough for the netgear to justify paying the price instead of keeping the current set up? Thank y'all so much in advance for the help! I really appreciate it!

Oh and on the current set up on my iPhone wifi I get 23Mbps throughout the house and outside I get 15Mbps.

 

[abailey]

The Ubiquiti gear is pro level stuff. I use the Edgerouter Lite and the Ubiquiti AP at my house. The catch is the equipment is not easy to set up and maintain. If you have a decent understanding of networking and routers it is much better than SOHO stuff. The problem is if you do not have this understanding, then you could leave your network exposed to risk because it is not set up correctly. For instance, the EdgeRouter. It comes with no configuration on it. You have to go in and set up the interfaces, set up NAT, set up the firewall and rules. If you don't set them up correctly, you could leave your network exposed. Ok as far as the Ubiquiti AP. It is much better than a SOHO AP but the one you liked to is only a 2.4Ghz model. The Nighthawk R7000 is dual band, so it can do 2.4 and 5Ghz. If it was my network I would certainly want 5Ghz. A 5Ghz AP from Ubiquiti will cost the same or more than the Nighthawk router.
So to make a long story short, if you are in to networking and routers and want to learn the Ubiquiti then the Ubiquiti gear will give you much more control of your network and give you many more options. If you just want a good wireless router and don't care to learn about networking and routers, I would go with the Nighthawk.

 

[christinebcw]

You should be able to test these in your house for the best answer. I assume that the WiFi module is ceiling mounted and in a central location? I'd probably do testing by using the Nighthawk in a central location and then test against dead or slow zones.

 

[Tiz68]

Thanks abaily that was very useful. I didn't know they made a 5Ghz version. That was one of the reasons I was thinking of keeping the nighthawk. I wanted 802.11ac on 5Ghz. What I'm thinking I might do now is keep the set up and when I feel the need to upgrade get the 5Ghz version of the Ubiquiti AP. This one came free with the house already set up so that'll save me $200 right now of I do that. And as for the set up, the original owner owns a security company so that's why he has this system in the home and he already has it set up. I'll need to do some research on it but I think I should be able to manage the maintenance.

How much of a performance increase do you think I would get out of upgrading to the 5Ghz AP? If it's negligible I will just save the money and keep what I have for now. If it would be a huge difference I might consider getting it sooner.

Christinebcw, I thought about testing both to see which one would be faster and better overall, but the nighthawk isn't opened yet. It's still sealed in the box and I'm debating if I should just leave it that way haha. It'll be much easier to return or resell if need be if it's unopened. And the AP is actually in our master bedroom closet along with the entire set up with the modem, router, POE switch, etc. It is ceiling mounted and the bedroom is basically center to the house so the coverage is pretty decent. If I do end up getting a new AP I think I would definitely move it's position to get better coverage. If I keep this set up I think it's pretty good where it's at.

 

[christinebcw]

"Yes, better left unsealed" is the good answer not to test it. But jeez... it's sitting RIGHT THERE. Beckoning. Calling out... "test me! test me!"

Are you REALLY a Heap-Big-He-Man to resist that?!! I of course don't have to suffer that loss of pride. I can be a girly-girl and give in. ha ha...

As for returning it... I think Erin Brockovich said it best. "They're boobs, Ed."

 

[Tiz68]

Hahaha trust me, it's killing me to leave that beautiful piece of hardware all wrapped up nice and tight just sitting there!

 

[christinebcw]

I knew it! I knew it! C'mon - be a wuss. GIVE IN!!

(And then report back.)

By the way, a woman's closet, full of coat hangers - a GREAT source of interference!

(I of course wouldn't know about such a thing. It's just a wild guess on my part.)

 

[abailey]

Thanks abaily that was very useful. I didn't know they made a 5Ghz version. That was one of the reasons I was thinking of keeping the nighthawk. I wanted 802.11ac on 5Ghz. What I'm thinking I might do now is keep the set up and when I feel the need to upgrade get the 5Ghz version of the Ubiquiti AP. This one came free with the house already set up so that'll save me $200 right now of I do that. And as for the set up, the original owner owns a security company so that's why he has this system in the home and he already has it set up. I'll need to do some research on it but I think I should be able to manage the maintenance.

How much of a performance increase do you think I would get out of upgrading to the 5Ghz AP? If it's negligible I will just save the money and keep what I have for now. If it would be a huge difference I might consider getting it sooner.

Christinebcw, I thought about testing both to see which one would be faster and better overall, but the nighthawk isn't opened yet. It's still sealed in the box and I'm debating if I should just leave it that way haha. It'll be much easier to return or resell if need be if it's unopened. And the AP is actually in our master bedroom closet along with the entire set up with the modem, router, POE switch, etc. It is ceiling mounted and the bedroom is basically center to the house so the coverage is pretty decent. If I do end up getting a new AP I think I would definitely move it's position to get better coverage. If I keep this set up I think it's pretty good where it's at.

What are you using the wireless for? Is it mainly surfing the internet or do you have alot of transferring files between machines? What speed internet connection do you pay for? Is your house located in a neighborhood where there are many other houses? If so how close are the houses to yours?

 

[Tiz68]

Our wireless is used mostly for internet use. We don't really transfer files at all between machines. At least nothing obvious I can think of. We pay for comcast 50Mbps internet. And yes we are in a fairly new neighborhood with houses all around us and are pretty close together. When I pull up wifi on my phone at home I usually see 3 or 4 other wifi options on my list.

 

[Tiz68]

And when I do a speed test on my iPhones wifi I get 23Mbps inside and 15Mbps outside. The reason I use my phone is because we just moved and I don't have the laptop out yet.

 

[abailey]

The 2.4Ghz AP you have should be set to 20Mhz channel width, and it sounds like it is. With other houses around you should not set the channel width on 2.4Ghz to 40Mhz. With 20Mhz on that AP the max link rate is going to be about 130Mbit/s with actual throughput of about 35Mbit/s max. On mine, even with a laptop I usually get around 25Mbit/s so your 23Mbit/s sounds about right. In a crowded neighborhood with 2.4Ghz that is about the max you can hope for. To get better, you would need 5Ghz. On 5Ghz you could use a channel width of 40Mhz with a max link rate of 300Mbit/s or about 105Mbit/s actual throughput. All of this is wireless N that I am talking about. You can get even faster with wireless AC. This assumes that some of your devices are able to use the 5Ghz band.
You may want to take a long look at adding a 5Ghz wireless N AP to your setup but personally I would not pay for wireless AC right now as it would not give you much advantage over 5Ghz wireless N and you will pay a premium for AC.

 

[Tiz68]

Wow thanks a lot abailey! That helps out tremendously! So say I would get the 5Ghz wireless n that could get 105Mbps throughput, would I need to increase my 50Mbps internet in order to receive that functionality? If so, it would probably be best for me to keep what I have now correct?

 

[abailey]

Wow thanks a lot abailey! That helps out tremendously! So say I would get the 5Ghz wireless n that could get 105Mbps throughput, would I need to increase my 50Mbps internet in order to receive that functionality? If so, it would probably be best for me to keep what I have now correct?

Since you mainly use your wireless for internet, I would base my speed off of that and not try to make my internet speed keep up with my network speed (or wifi speed). You have paid for 50Mbit/s internet and currently about the best you are going to get is 25Mbit/s because of your wireless speed. Now if you connect a wired device to your router, you would be able to get the full 50Mbit. So if most of your devices are wifi then I would either add a 5Ghz AP (if some of your devices can use it) or maybe look into paying for a lower internet speed, closer to 25Mbit/s so you are not paying for speed you can't use.

 

[Tiz68]

The devices we use for wireless are mostly our phones, a laptop, and an iPad. Phones are for general internet searching, iPad a few games with minimal speeds needed, and the laptop mostly for school work; my fiancé is a teacher. Our desktop which is used for online gaming is connected via Ethernet and our tv which is wired with Ethernet as well and is used for streaming from netflix.

So to sum it up really, I'm guessing keeping the 50Mbps plan would be good for the wired devices and the 25Mbps I get for the wireless devices will suffice for now. If I need more speed for those devices an upgrade to 5Ghz will do me good. Probably keeping with Ubiquiti since that's already the set up in action and it seems to work pretty good and is around the same price as others out there. And that will help increase my wireless speeds without even upgrading from the 50 Mbps plan?