Multiple Wifi APs - can they use same SSID and handoff the max signal automatically?

[92saturnsl2]

Needing to install about 3 or 4 access points throughout our building at work, lots of square footage to cover. Ethernet/POE will be available at each location.

I'm aware of mesh routers that handoff automatically to the AP with the best signal and this is sort of the setup we would like. So if someone is walking through the shop and signal is weak on the current AP, ideally it should connect to the strongest signal automatically. And for ease of use, having same SSID for each.

I'm looking at the Ubiquity U6-LR and U6-Pro line of APs. If I buy multiples of these (or another similar brand), would it work the way I am imagining? If not, can anyone suggest a solution? Thanks in advance.

 

[Skippy722]

Ubiquiti does say you can mesh the AP’s so that should work fine. Otherwise I think you’ll run into handoff problems if you set it up as 4 separate AP’s using the same name and password, in my experience devices tend to hold onto the weaker signal longer than they should and whatever black magic they do for mesh setups helps with that.

 

[wwillson]

I have a lot of experience with Ubiquiti. They do fast roam VERY well, as in so well that I can't tell when I roam from one AP to another when on a VoIP call. You have to turn fast roam on, as off is the default. Ubiquiti does mesh, but please don't use it, frankly any mesh sucks in terms of added latency and lowered throughput. If there is any way possible, run an Ethernet cable to each AP, you will be glad you did. Install APs fairly densely and use 5Ghz spectrum, orders of magnitude less interference, which will make your life supporting the network much simpler.

[edit] Yes, you can use the same SSID for all APs even between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. I use two different SSID, one for 2.4 and one for 5, because I want to prevent clients that I prefer to use 5Ghz from jumping ship and going to 2.4Ghz. If you don't want the complication of two SSIDs, then use one SSID for both frequencies and enable band steering to prefer 5Ghz, it works very well.

 

[92saturnsl2]

I have a lot of experience with Ubiquiti. They do fast roam VERY well, as in so well that I can't tell when I roam from one AP to another when on a VoIP call. You have to turn fast roam on, as off is the default. Ubiquiti does mesh, but please don't use it, frankly any mesh sucks in terms of added latency and lowered throughput. If there is any way possible, run an Ethernet cable to each AP, you will be glad you did. Install APs fairly densely and use 5Ghz spectrum, orders of magnitude less interference, which will make your life supporting the network much simpler.

[edit] Yes, you can use the same SSID for all APs even between 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. I use two different SSID, one for 2.4 and one for 5, because I want to prevent clients that I prefer to use 5Ghz from jumping ship and going to 2.4Ghz. If you don't want the complication of two SSIDs, then use one SSID for both frequencies and enable band steering to prefer 5Ghz, it works very well.

That sounds like the ticket. My concern is getting close to the switchover point, say on a mobile device, on many setups there will be a momentary loss of connection such that you’ll drop a call or get a network error while browsing.

Sounds like this shouldn’t be an issue if implemented correctly. Plan is to run POE to each AP.

 

[haggler]

If you install them without mesh system, you can still get it to work correctly. What you have to do is make sure the overlaping APs broadcast on different channels, and then adjust the power output on each so there is no gap in the coverage.

 

[haggler]

Needing to install about 3 or 4 access points throughout our building at work, lots of square footage to cover. Ethernet/POE will be available at each location.

I'm aware of mesh routers that handoff automatically to the AP with the best signal and this is sort of the setup we would like. So if someone is walking through the shop and signal is weak on the current AP, ideally it should connect to the strongest signal automatically. And for ease of use, having same SSID for each.

I'm looking at the Ubiquity U6-LR and U6-Pro line of APs. If I buy multiples of these (or another similar brand), would it work the way I am imagining? If not, can anyone suggest a solution? Thanks in advance.

You also might need a controller to set that up, i.e. some sort of machine that runs their controller software like a raspberry pi or even a windows machine. They also have a cloud controller service I believe. Locally I only have one AP but I run the controller on my htpc thats always on.

 

[wwillson]

If you install them without mesh system, you can still get it to work correctly. What you have to do is make sure the overlaping APs broadcast on different channels, and then adjust the power output on each so there is no gap in the coverage.

Ubiquiti is controller based, just let the controller do it's job and see if you can tweak anything after a couple days. I think you'll find there is no reason to mess with the channels. As far as power, let the controller set the power, the setting you want is auto. I learned the hard way not to try to manually set the transmit power. If you set it on high, your APs end up screaming at the closer clients and they don't like to be screamed at.

 

[wwillson]

They also have a cloud controller service I believe.

Yes, buy the cloud controller, unless you love running Linux servers

 

[haggler]

Ubiquiti is controller based, just let the controller do it's job and see if you can tweak anything after a couple days. I think you'll find there is no reason to mess with the channels. As far as power, let the controller set the power, the setting you want is auto. I learned the hard way not to try to manually set the transmit power. If you set it on high, your APs end up screaming at the closer clients and they don't like to be screamed at.

im out of date, thanks for the info.

 

[OVERKILL]

Yes, buy the cloud controller, unless you love running Linux servers

Yep.

Another option are the HP Aruba InstantON AP's, which cluster and support fast roam but one of the AP's becomes the controller (they were this way with the previous Instant series too, but not cloud managed) and they, like Ubiquiti, are very cost-effective. You just manage them through your phone cloud app, ridiculously simple and very good for smaller deployments.

 

[JustinH]

Isn't that the functionality of wifi-6?

Basically the device picks one network and the network broadcasts in 2.4 and 5ghz simultaniously, and gives the device whatever signal is optimal?

 

[wwillson]

Isn't that the functionality of wifi-6?

Basically the device picks one network and the network broadcasts in 2.4 and 5ghz simultaniously, and gives the device whatever signal is optimal?

No, it's been available in previous versions of WiFi

 

[mattwithcats]

Linksys Velop Mesh, Tri Band….

Bonds two 5 GHz 867 Mbps bands, and one 2.4 400 Mbps together…

Velop Mesh WiFi System, Homekit Router, 3-Pack (White) | Linksys | Linksys: US

Enjoy full-strength WiFi in every room of your home with the Velop Mesh Wifi System. Homekit-enabled. 3-Year Limited Warranty. Free ground shipping on US orders.

www.linksys.com

Whole Home Mesh WiFi | Linksys: US

Shop our selection of products such as Whole Home Mesh WiFi at Linksys: US. We provide fast and reliable solutions made for home, business and enterprise.

www.linksys.com

 

[wwillson]

Linksys Velop Mesh, Tri Band….

Bonds two 5 GHz 867 Mbps bands, and one 2.4 400 Mbps together…

Velop Mesh WiFi System, Homekit Router, 3-Pack (White) | Linksys | Linksys: US

Enjoy full-strength WiFi in every room of your home with the Velop Mesh Wifi System. Homekit-enabled. 3-Year Limited Warranty. Free ground shipping on US orders.

www.linksys.com

Whole Home Mesh WiFi | Linksys: US

Shop our selection of products such as Whole Home Mesh WiFi at Linksys: US. We provide fast and reliable solutions made for home, business and enterprise.

www.linksys.com

ugh

The world doesn't need more crappy implementations of mesh. The world needs more properly designed wifi networks with the proper number of APs for good coverage.

 

[OVERKILL]

ugh

The world doesn't need more crappy implementations of mesh. The world needs more properly designed wifi networks with the proper number of APs for good coverage.

Yup, exactly. I cringe whenever I see this junk, lol

 

[Rand]

If you install them without mesh system, you can still get it to work correctly. What you have to do is make sure the overlaping APs broadcast on different channels, and then adjust the power output on each so there is no gap in the coverage.

Mesh can be used 2 different ways. with wireless backhaul and with ethernet.

If you say avoid mesh what are you calling an

Ubiquiti network with 3 ap's on ethernet backhaul with same SSID (that is mesh right?)​

Confused.. maybe just a language/terms issue?

FWIW the roaming is excellent on my home unifi setup with 2 unifi 6 ap's 1 lite and 1 LR

 

[wwillson]

Mesh can be used 2 different ways. with wireless backhaul and with ethernet.

If you say avoid mesh what are you calling an

Ubiquiti network with 3 ap's on ethernet backhaul with same SSID (that is mesh right?)​

Confused.. maybe just a language/terms issue?

FWIW the roaming is excellent on my home unifi setup with 2 unifi 6 ap's 1 lite and 1 LR

Mesh is the ability for an AP to communicate to the root with wifi, instead of Ethernet. You can have single hop mesh or multi-hop mesh. The more hops, the higher the latency and lower the throughput.

WiFi 6 Mesh Systems Linksys (Cisco) vs ORBI (Netgear) and 2 node vs 3 node (boy have I got Questions)

too many wifi points can also cause issues. you need them spread out enough. Yeah, you need to really test out the location before deciding how many is needed

bobistheoilguy.com

Having two or more bands on the same SSID is just letting each radio broadcast the same SSID. No biggie and doesn't affect performance in any way.

 

[haggler]

Before mesh consumer systems were popular, I think it was common practice to just deploy multiple APs with the same SSID (each ethernet) on different channels and adjust the transmit strength. I always thought of mesh as using the wireless uplink, where as using ethernet at each AP was not "mesh." Semantics, I guess.

 

[Rand]

so i should uncheck this?-- still occasionally a noob.
All APs are hardwired and powered by a unifi dreammachine pro.
Anything else I should consider changing?
Does it even do anything if they are all hardwired?
Currently using 1 lite and 1 LR ap(s)

 

[92saturnsl2]

Are the Ubiquiti units to be installed on ceiling only? What we're trying to do is cover our shop floor with adequate Wifi, as each workstation will now have a tablet that employees will use to access drawings and a new scheduling/inventory/tracking system. One section of the building is probably 24' roof height, the other 18' or so. It would be much easier for us to mount these to the exterior building columns (it's a standard prefab steel building with exposed columns), but it would be mounted vertically by doing this. Installing on the ceiling wouldn't be impossible but trickier and more labor intensive to get the ethernet cable there.

I estimate the building length from one side to the other is approx 400'. We're also looking to broadcast Wi-Fi into our loading area (which is outside the rear of the building) as far as possible, which I thought one of the Unifi LR would be fine for, mounted on that side of the building. Any ideas on how to best cover these areas, number of AP, etc? The nice thing is the whole inside of building has little or no obstructions, it's all open space.