
Ask HN: Home Wifi Routers - markwillis82
After spending a few hours resetting my Virgin Media router to find out I cannot change the DNS servers, I&#x27;ve decided it&#x27;s time to invest in some new hardware.<p>Can anyone recommend a good wifi router that has good wi-fi coverage but also a good admin experience, i.e. for setting up dns&#x2F;dhcp&#x2F;routing (Ideally if I can make a few devices not have internet access but be on the LAN that would be perfect)<p>Thanks
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starbugs
If your budget allows for it, I'd recommend getting a Unifi Security Gateway
(USG) along with a Unifi AP AC Pro or AP AC Lite depending on your Wifi needs.

My experience with these Ubiquiti Networks devices has been great so far. The
APs are extremely stable and it's easy and reliable to extend Wifi networks by
adding new devices later if needed. Also, I personally prefer one device doing
one thing, i.e. having the AP not do the routing. The USG will act as a DHCP
and firewall in this setup.

With regard to the admin experience: With the Ubiquiti devices, you don't have
an admin interface on the device. You use a controller which runs on a client
or server that you already have. The controller software is sophisticated. You
could run it on a docker host on your NAS or on your local laptop or desktop.
This way you can manage the whole network without having to rely on one
device.

* Unifi Security Gateway: [https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-routing/usg/](https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-routing/usg/)

* Unifi AP AC Lite: [https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lite/](https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lite/)

* Unifi AP AC Pro: [https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-pro/](https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-pro/)

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msh
The most annoying thing about unifi is that you have to host their management
interface somewhere (could be a rpi or something), so the devices does not
have a webinterface where you can manage them.

You can install it on your personal computer, but you loose some functionality
and you would only be able to configure the devices from that specific
computer.

Thats holding me back from going with unifi wifi even if I am very happy with
their edgerouter series.

Unfortunately I cant really find good competitors to unifi in the same price
range.

~~~
summadat
What you’re looking for is the CloudKey. It is the local Controller and can be
accessed via “the Cloud” if needed, but not mandatory. I tried running the
Java controller on my Mac, it worked but sucked. Having an independent
dedicated piece of hardware is worth every penny IMO.

[https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-cloud-
key/](https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-cloud-key/)

~~~
msh
Yeah, but that's another device to pay for unfortunately.

~~~
summadat
To each, their own. In my case, the ease of use was worth every penny. If I
take my hourly rate and apply that to how long I spent trying to setup a
controller on a raspberry pi, then I could’ve bought 2 or 3 CloudKeys.

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matt_the_bass
I’ve recently switched to the Google WiFi Reuters. I have to say they are
pretty easy to use and work great. By default they send usage data to google
but one can disable that.

They have pretty advanced setting if desired though by default everything is
vanilla.

Though I recommend them, They do _not_ offer some devices LAN without WAN.

