Spec me router and access points.

Soldato
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I currently have the house wired for CAT 6 in most room and have Virgin 500mb bband coming in. The Super hub 3 WiFi isn't very good so i have it turned off with the SH3 still doing the routing through a 24port switch and two BT Home Hub 6s providing wifi in the house and the garage as APs.

I want to upgrade and just use the Virgin SH3 as a modem with a new Gateway router and a couple of access points (WiFi 6 if possible). I've been looking at the different options from running a TP link AX6000, or a RAX80 and would like to go the separates route.

That's why I am asking here because there is a wealth of experience. I looked at the USG or edgerouter 6 but have been put off by the age of them with the USG being made obsolete later this year.

The house is around 3000 square feet including the garage/office down the bottom of the garden, what do you guys recommend? I am happy to spend around £350.
 
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I'd get UniFi APs and a pfSense router, you can run it off most hardware, plenty of small boxes available, it's easy to configure and will do everything you are likely to need.

That's how my setup is with VM Hub in modem only mode, works perfectly.
 
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Cheers for the replies. I wasn't originally looking at PFsense but looking around it seems to be a good option and there's plenty of guides to setting it up. I already have a T20 micro server so have just bought a dual intel NIC for it and once that arrives i'll try setting up another VM on the server and put PFsense on that.
 
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Is it possible to run two Ubiquiti AP so they both have the same WiFi id or do I need a Unifi controller to do that?

Any UniFi kit needs the controller. It won't function otherwise. You can run it on the PFSense box or as a VM or on your laptop. You can get a cloud key too, but meh. If it's a once in a while config, set it up, take a backup, then forget about it.
 
Associate
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Any UniFi kit needs the controller. It won't function otherwise. You can run it on the PFSense box or as a VM or on your laptop. You can get a cloud key too, but meh. If it's a once in a while config, set it up, take a backup, then forget about it.

UniFi APs don't need the controller to function. They need to be set up, but this can be done as a one-time only task using the UniFi Network app. The controller running 24/7 just gives the pretty graphs etc.
 
Soldato
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What's the best option for the APs now then? I have PFSence setup on my router and its working flawlessly so far, still using the old bt routers for AP wifi points at the moment. I have about £350 to spend on this and would ideally like wifi that moves from house to garage without different SSIDs. Am I right in thining a cloud key with two to three Unifi APs would be the best and easiest option. Or can PF sense run the controller itself so i only need the APs on POE network ports? Can they mesh incase I can't get a network point down the garden?
 
Soldato
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I have a Protectli box running PFSense and the UniFi Controller (there's a UniFi Controller FreeBSD script that allows them to run in parallel). I then have a UniFi switch to provide POE(+) to my UAPs which I've run Cat6 cable to through existing wiring conduits in the house (fished through). You can create as many SSIDs as you like but they all "roam" unless you explicitly say you want them to have different SSIDs. In the controller you assign the APs to a SSID but the default is "all"
 
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Any UniFi kit needs the controller. It won't function otherwise. You can run it on the PFSense box or as a VM or on your laptop. You can get a cloud key too, but meh. If it's a once in a while config, set it up, take a backup, then forget about it.
Not true, infact lastest firmwares you don’t even need a controller to set up an AP you can use use the mobile app to setup the AP then leave alone. The controller is nice to have but certainly not needed
 
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