New House. Help me set up the best WiFi.

Ahhh yea! I forgot they released this. That an 1-2 APs will give you strong signal all over your house. You'd still need another switch if you wanted to start running hard wires all over.

 

So I THINK there is a 16 port switch there already, I just peeked in there during a walk through and there are cameras plugged into something in there.

 

The Dream Machine is an all in one option that would get you up and running for sure, but it seems a little pricey to me. You're paying for a device that is a router, AP, switch, etc, but if you buy separate APs, then the built in AP in the dream machine is kind of redundant. I'd do like TX Honu suggested and just get a basic router that has no built in wifi. I have a Mikrotik hex router, which is super simple, cheap, reliable and fast, but I will admit that it is also not user friendly at all. There are tons of options out there for a basic, no frills router though.

I have some of my network stuff tucked away in a closet. Here you can see a patch panel for some of the hard wired stuff at the top. The router is the top white box and the unifi switch runs off of it and gives power to my APs. This is not a plug and play solution, so it all depends what you’re looking for. I am often guilty of going over kill on things like this, but I love the results.

 

This is all new to be but I'm looking forward to learning

 

Ive got 3 eero pros (overkill for my square footage but I’m using the Ethernet ports in other rooms) and they’ve been great. No issues with roaming and they’ve been rock solid. They are also relatively compact.

You’d be fine with 2 depending on your bandwidth and coverage desired. You can always add additional down the road. you also have the flexibility to run mesh or wired. Put one on each of the green dots and call it a day.

Depending on your budget you could do the regular eeros instead of the pros but you lose the dedicated antenna for mesh.

 

So I was going to get the Dream Machine not the DM Pro. I know it's still pricey for a router but at least that way I have WiFi right away and can add switch and APs as needed in future. Or would you still suggest a regular cheap router?

 

I think the DM is a good solution for what you have in mind, especially as an all in one starting point. It will also simplify things greatly over piecing together your own solution. Sometimes its well worth paying the higher price for the convenience. I've been very happy with Unifi stuff, so I bet its a nice piece of equipment. I do like the fact that its a router also. That's the one piece of the unifi environment I'm missing and it would bring everything under one software umbrella.

 

So to confirm, UDM over UDM Pro for my less-than-professional uses?

 

Definitely. DM can just sit on a shelf, but you'd need to rack mount the Pro. Also, the Pro doesn't even have a built in AP as its designed to just be sitting off in a closet somewhere. The regular DM is designed more for home/small office use and will be the all in one starting point you're looking for.

 

Cool, that's what I thought. I'm going to order it now. Thanks

 

I would suggest not stacking the routers, I would stagger them on the two floors.

 

I ended up ordering a Dream Machine and will just ad APs as needed