Re: What is best for a house on three levels?
YMMV. but, here are my rules. ive done many a wireless install over the years for customers.
currently using Ubiquiti Unify UAP-AC-LR access points (for low density client requirements, such as a residential house) . these are bonkers powerful. ive had whole house coverage off of just one, however, when you have more than 1 AP you have 1 seamless network providing you do some research. you need to use different channels for each ap, turn off mesh (if you have cat 5 backhaul), turn off wireless uplink, set min rss values, turn the power to what is appropriate for the cell size. also disable the wifi on whatever shit router your isp has supplied you with
ok, i know there was some hoohar about the ap's phoning back telemetary stuff - im ignoring that for the mo. you could use ruckus/cisco instead. if you believe that they dont phone home and also are worth the premium
the best way to do backhaul to connect these to your router is by cat5e or 6 of course.
if you cant, you might get away with powerline. in this case i use solwise 1200mbs with mains filters. they dont always work due to peoples wiring.
the AP's are PoE, so you dont need to have power source handy.
the thing is, you can put these in your loft.
if you can get just one cable from your router to your loft, up an external wall for instance,then through the soffit under the eaves, you are laughing. you probably have a power socket in the loft anyway, or maybe a lighting circuit, then you can put a small poe switch in there to run however many AP's you need, or you can do PoE from next to your router if needs be. heck, run 2 or 3 cat 5 cables, its all the same labour really to run 1 2 or 3. you'd need a very wide house to need more than 2 or 3 in the loft.
mine are in the rafters in the loft. the ac-lr's are so powerful that they penetrate through the ceiling of my 1st floor, into the first floor, through the floor, and into the ground floor. i get about 80 Mb/s on the ground floor, some places its worse, some better. my source is 300mbs. on the 1st floor i get 300mb's on wifi. 80mb's downstairs is enough to do anything streaming wise. i could have put these in the ceiling of the first floor but after testing with them in the loft i couldnt be arsed to move them. i could also get better coverage by tweaking but again i cant be bothered.
it really works. well worth a look. ive installed these in many houses now, with much success. one seamless network, no messing about with duplicate (well, fake really) ssid's from different access points , or different networks for different bits of the house. the AP's talk to each other and kick your device form one to the other automatically when you reach the limit fo their range(needs tweaking though with min rssi) ...it really is great.
as has been mentioned, repeaters are shit , mesh can be usefull but its not desirable,
Biting the hand that feeds IT
