The end of Good Old-Fashioned Wifi

Blanket your home in enterprise-grade wifi

Lars Plougmann
Jul 30, 2017 · 3 min read

For many years, our family enjoyed a fairly standard internet setup: A wifi router located next to the cable modem and ethernet connections to our iMac and the tv. It worked well for years, but three trends were pushing the limits of this setup. Our internet provider kept making their affordable internet connections faster, with synchronous gigabit within sight. A growing number of IoT (internet of things) devices were being deployed in our home. And a network scan showed that our neighbourhood is riddled with 2.4 GHz networks; more than 50 of them overlapping with our property.

I work at home most of the time, so a fast, stable internet connection is a priority, preferably on the 5 GHz band to minimize interference with neighbours — and the microwave oven. We also wanted a setup where we could isolate IoT devices from computers on the network.

Research turned up promising mesh wifi options such as Eero, Google’s wifi system, and Netgear Orbi. Not only do these options help distribute the wifi signal to every corner of the house, they also offer additional options for managing your wifi (such as shutting off your kids’ wifi network at night).

However, the demands we put on our internet connection resembles that of a small business just a couple of years ago so I also investigated enterprise style solutions. That’s what led me to Ubiquiti’s Unifi, a range of network devices with enterprise specs and near-consumer pricing.

Given the layout of our house, three access points (wifi antennas) made sense: One in the home office, one at the other end of the house, and one mounted in the ceiling at the center of the upstairs level. I went with the Unifi UAP-AC-PRO model ($130). To connect the access points, the choice was the $190 8-Port 150W Unifi switch which also powers each access point through the ethernet cable. That meant freedom to place the access points anywhere I could run a length of ethernet cable, regardless of whether a power outlet was nearby. This was especially useful for the access point mounted in the ceiling. I added the $120 Unifi Security Gateway (often referred to as USG) which works as a router and firewall. While not strictly necessary, I bought the Unifi Cloud Key ($80) so that I could manage the network from any computer or from my phone.

A quiet Sunday on the home network

The components are fanless, and on most of them you can change the setting to switch off status lights once you are happy that everything is working. It took a day and a half over the new year’s holiday to install everything, including running cables in our attic space. I had to learn a lot of new stuff, and to this end the YouTube channels by Crosstalk Solutions and Willie Howe were extremely useful.

This approach is not for everyone. The cost is only justified if you have a heavy dependence on wifi such as a work-from-home scenario or lots of IoT gear. It also requires getting familiar with basic networking concepts and spending time setting up your SSIDs and VLANs. If your cabling is not already in place, you’ll have to break out the drill. And in my case, I had the pleasure of building a mini rack for the switch in our closet using Lego.

The new network keeps getting better, as many modern gadgets do when new firmware releases are made available. The result speaks for itself: Our house is now blanketed in fast and robust 5 GHz wifi, benefitting both work and play.

Lars Plougmann

Written by

technology optimist who prefers the scenic route

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade