Ask HN: What is your home WiFi setup like? - faitswulff
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PaulHoule
I have three Ubiquti access points covering a 2500 sq ft home. The results are
great but still depend on careful placement of the access points. The wall
between the kitchen and the woodshed has a metal layer on the insulation so I
have an access point in the wood shed that is served by a TP-Link powerline
ethernet and a spare ethernet plug to plug my laptop into when I work out
there in the summer. I will probably have to take it in in the winter when it
gets below feeezing.

Two DSL lines come into the house, are connected to a load balancing router,
then there is gigabit ethernet to a Ubiquti managed switch which can deliver
power to the access points, although I currently use power injectors for all
of them because that's what is convenient.

I have a small Linux tower that runs as a server that runs the Ubiquti
management software and many other services.

I use Ethernet as much as I can but I haven't taken it as far as I could. I've
got the tools to crimp the ends onto Ethernet cables and 1000 feet of solid
core Cat 6 wire and when I master the tools I will cut custom cable runs to
serve more access points straight out of the hub, get the secondary A/V room
wired, etc. Ubiquti makes outdoor access points that would do fine in the shed
or outside the house.

One of my DSL modems has its WiFi turned on and that is one of three devices
plugged into the UPS which ensures that the backup connection and the landline
phone system work through power outages of up to two days.

I also have a SmartThings Hub and a Phillips Hue hub fighting for 2.4 GHz
spectrum.

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ktpsns
Here's a thing: In Germany, Fritzbox Routers are quite popular (made by
[http://avm.de](http://avm.de)). They have excellent software (with a feature
set similar to OpenWRT, but more clean and concise). They support guest Wi-
fi's out of the box and many people I know use them.

~~~
klingonopera
FritzBoxes are terrible, it outright decided to ignore my settings about not
auto-updating.

Unless you're exclusively talking about the GUI/web-interface, the feature set
is nowhere near comparable to OpenWRT.

They are garnered towards novices and users without any IT-affinity.

EDIT: Sure, downvote an opinion that doesn't align with yours.

~~~
ktpsns
The Fritzbox OS might have it flaws, but compared to other commercial SOHO
routers, the software is excellent. And this solely refers to the web
interface and number of features available for all non-techy people while
stille covering many needs of the techy ones. Of course, if you are an expert,
OpenWRT will give you all the flexibility you need. And you know what? It's
easy to flash a Fritzbox with OpenWRT :)

~~~
klingonopera
Which manufacturers offer less on the software side compared to AVM then? All
I can think of are the ones that you're given to by your ISP.

Every other 3rd party router I've come across has at least the same
configurability as AVM's solutions (went with Netgear, D-Link, Zyxel, Huawei,
now TP-Link and happily stuck).

EDIT: Lol, do you work for them or something?

~~~
ktpsns
Lucky you -- I frequently have to deal with routers given by the ISP which are
basically non-configurable. Examples are the Vodafone _Easybox 904x_ (just
tried to put OpenWRT on this box last week and failed after several hours to
get the Wifi running) or the _Technicolor 7200_ which is shipped by Unitymedia
in Germany by default. Both are really bad devices. The companies you are
refering to do in fact better products (both in terms of software and
hardware).

