Hi, I hope its appropriate to ask this here, considering this is the most active community closest to this topic (Networking). I am moving places shortly and will need to start from scratch will all networking equipment. Including router and wifi-extenders. Am wondering what the general consencus is around networking gear, what brands are good and homelab friendly? I’ve heard great things about Ubiquity, but know nothing about their products. I do wish to buy a mesh system, as I do have 2 floors and concrete walls in the new place. I am looking for something easy to maintain, yet customizable for when I get more comfortable with playing around with networking equipment.
I have some experience with TP-link + decos, but really dont like their app and default settings. Blocks mullvad.net by default for instance…
If it matters, there will only be 2 people connected normally ~ approx 8 devices or so in total.
- 2 phones,
- 2 laptops (wired if possible)
- 1 desktop comupter (wired)
- server (wired)
- Nvdia shield (wired)
- RaspberriPi (wired)
Am also aiming to buy a 1000/1000 Mbps connection :)
Lemmy know what you would recommend in this scenario, and please feel free to ask about further details if I have missed anything, Thanks as always!
Stay with TP-Link. Ubiquity done some strange things recently.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| AP | WiFi Access Point |
| DNS | Domain Name Service/System |
| PoE | Power over Ethernet |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer, for transparent encryption |
| TLS | Transport Layer Security, supersedes SSL |
| Unifi | Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand |
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I have been using ubiquiti for years, and I would strongly caution against using them. They are forcing some devices to sign on to ubiquity cloud and synchronize with their cloud services, and are forcing those sign ins to use MFA. I really miss the ubiquity from 2020, where it was all local. Next time I upgrade my gear, I will probably not buy an ubiquiti router/gateway.
Also the upgrade process from Usg to dream router was awful. Also they don’t let you run unifi in docker with a dream router, you are forced to run it on-device.
I really miss the ubiquity from 2020, where it was all local.
I was definitely leery of Ubiquity for that reason since before 2020. Even though back then it could all be local, I feel like pushing people to the cloud was already well-established as being a thing.
My criteria for routers and wi-fi access points up to this point has basically been “can run OpenWRT and is relatively cheap,” so I’ve settled in on TP-Link. I’m still running on an old Archer C7 from a decade(?) ago and would like to have something that fits in my rack for aesthetic purposes, though, so my next router might be a 1U DIY x86 machine running OPNsense instead.
I have an all Ubiquiti setup and only use local accounts for everything. UDM Pro, 2 8 port switches and 2 APs, U6Mesh and another older AP. One of my accounts had me turn on MFA but every device still let’s me use a local account with a password and ssh key. Do you know what devices are forcing that?
I would never use their firewalls/gateways, but their switches are pretty good for the price and their APs are decent (although tbh after 3 generations my next AP will likely be an enterprise Aruba).
That said, I still use Unifi in docker, everything is up to date, and nothing is requiring a sign-in to the cloud. Am I missing something? If it’s just the firewalls, then I’m not surprised since I’ve never been remotely tempted to use them, but it sure isn’t all of their devices.
I’m currently having a good experience with MikroTik. I think their products provide a good combination of features and pricing. There are a “CRS317-1G-16S+” and a “CSS326-24G-2S+RM” in my rack and I have my eyes on the “CSS610-8P-2S+IN” as a efficient little POE switch.
I haven’t used Ubiquity, so I can’t compare these two brands.
For APs I’m currently using TP Link Omada with a selfhosted Omada Controller and for Routing, DNS, Firewall and stuff I use OPNsense.
Look into OpenWRT supported devices with mesh network. For example, get a couple of used Netgear R7800 for example, and you got yourself a neat setup. This guy has step by step tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4A0kfg2olo
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=t4A0kfg2olo
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
