Excellent explanation of the network channels and widths. So often I see people online just say "it's different for every site - just figure it out" when asked how someone logically decides what settings to choose, which is terribly unhelpful. Your video is great thanks!
Update: Applied the rest of the steps for the 802.11 Rate and Beacon Controls and now my devices are connecting to closer APs instead of all jumping on ones much farther away!!! This is so awesome..thanks!!!
Step 1. Never mount your access points as shown in the thumbnail. You will be shooting 50% of the radio power straight into the ground. I see this often for home builds because it’s easier to mount the AP on a wall rather than the ceiling, but it totally kills the range of your AP. Great video though - very detailed and explains how to choose the correct channel selection based on design. Cheers!
I recently deployed a UDM Pro, 3 UAP-HD-AP’s, and 2 FlexHD’s in a 19k sq ft home. So far working well but I have been keeping a close eye on it to make sure it is working well due to a high SLA expectation. Is my first large scale deployment. Thanks for the useful tips
I really want to kiss you... I had waaaaay over complicated things and this really broke it down for me. Thank you for the time in making this. I've been frustrated for a year.
Very useful video. Good to see straightforward suggestions! I'd love to see a continuation of the way you made this video for the rest of the Unifi controller. For example, how about a video on just LAN settings, and another video on just WAN settings and another on routing/firewall, etc.
Well done review. I used to tune a lot of the same parameters on Cisco WLCs and it was nice to have recommendations and explanations for Ubiquiti settings. There are a lot of people offering "expertise" on networking but a lot of them either don't give a clear explanation or really don't understand how WiFi, Ethernet, etc. work.
Appreciate the insight, I'll be installing A UDM-pro and three nano APs into my household fairly soon. I'll make sure to keep what you said in mind when I go to configure them.
Something else to consider with the 5GHz channels - channel 36 is 5150 MHz, channel 161 is up somewhere around nearly 5800MHz. That means your channels are nearly 1GHz apart. Similar to the difference between 2.4GHz and 5GHz, that means channel 36 is going to have a lower maximum speed/bandwidth and better obstacle penetration, whereas channel 161 will give higher speed but less obstacle penetration. A different of 700 MHz is fairly significant. This applies to 2.4GHz as well, just not to the same extent. That means you probably want to prioritise channels 1 (2.4GHz) and 36 (5GHz) in the part of your home with most walls and fewer devices (perhaps bedrooms or near the back wall of your home where you want to sit outside?), and channels 11/161 where you have fewer walls but more devices (perhaps your living room) It doesn't *really* matter, but the difference is noticeable in some scenarios and when you're installing multiple access points, it seems like it makes sense to optimise channels for the location
The upper radio frequencies versus penetration at 5ghz occurred to me yesterday. I've got one AP AC LR. A small house and mostly Ethernet to computers. Mobile devices such as iphone and ipad using wireless. One very old laptop with wifi analyzer software on it. The rest of our computers are running various Linux distros. Lawrence Systems has a channel on here that frequently discusses pfSense and Unify hardware. Per a couple of his videos I created a vlan for IoT devices, Anything that might not be all that secure. We have two. An Echo and Ring doorbell. The Ring is the only 2.4 ghz device. Being outside the AP even at 2.4ghz is marginal in the summer. So even though I don't like extenders I installed a TP Link just for the Ring. Been working fine. Other than creating a "crapwifi" vlan network the configuration for the AP is pretty much as installed. I disabled the 2.4ghz radio when I installed the extender. A couple of days ago I ran into something I thought unusual. I changed the channel on 5ghz from auto to 36. It was already on 36. Checking out the crapwifi network with an ipad noticed that it kept disconnecting at a 3 second rate. All the apple devices would do it. But the extender, Echo, and laptop no issues. Only an Apple problem and only on the vlan wireless network. Not the wireless lan network. Back to auto and problem goes away.
This is a very good summary on the best options with UniFi. One point of clarification is that a UniFi Wireless Instructor recommended the use of "Block LAN to WLAN Multicast and Broadcast Data" for all GUEST network SSID's.
This helps save on precious airtime, worth turning on for guest networks for sure. However on general home networks, they can cause problems with certain cast devices. Thankfully you can whitelist these in unifi.
This is true for Guest networks. They don't really need that feature. I mention it for compatibility as a lot of devices rely on broadcast/multicast data between the WLAN and LAN to function. This happens a lot with things like chromecasts or mobile diagnostic equipment.
Just got my APs and ER12! I have my APs setup working with my old Dlink router....next step is replacing the Dlink with the ER12.....I have 2 APs, 3 switches in separate rooms, and then about 4 more direct connections at the router for hardlines elsewhere. Any advice or things you learned? Setting up the APs were simple compared to my old TPlinks....
Excellent video. Also you can try to set RSSI if you have sticky devices when AP signals are overlapping. It's proven to be a handy feature when it comes to roaming.
Hi, Thanks for these on UniFi really helping me understand my home network, adding a USG next and will look at all the settings you suggest, the AP info is most helpful
The Long range access points don't transmit at higher power. They extra range is in the better antenna. The antenna being more efficient can transmit the same amount of power further. It also means weaker signals will be picked up by the better antenna.
So if I have a MacBook that keeps dropping periodically, I should bump my 5Ghz to 80? According to him, I should drop it to 20 if I’m having reliability issues.
I've had newer mac minis not even connect to VHT80 even when it was steps away(and instead connecting to a far away radio with very limited signal strength and barely any connection...same issue with windows based Dell laptop). Changing to VHT40 resolved it and made things much more stable.
Excellenmt video's Mr Toasty! FYI Tom (Lawrence Technical Services) recommends leaving the channels etc on Auto. Makes sense with Multiple Unifi devices, not so much if you mix-n-match.
Hey man, found your channel today, great info. I've been struggling with a lot of little bugs in my wifi. I just installed a DM Pro last weekend, along with 2 FlexHD's and 2 USG-Mini switches. Wifi has been very glitchy. Your video had the best explanation I've found of what some of those settings actually do, and how they interact.
A couple months ago the client tab page shows my laptop s tx rate capped at 144 Mbps when connected at 5 GHz band. I tried different troubleshoots but no clue, even resetting the APs. A couple days latter I finally figured out it was because the DFS, and I live in a suburban area. So I am glad that you mentioned to exclude them.
You're right on the Dynamic Frequency Selection DFS. It is used for weather radars etc. Every AP has a built in "scanner" for detecting a radar and it will never use a freq in that range if it detects it, hence why the 2.4GHz signal is always first to show and it can take up to 10mins for a 5GHz SSID to be seen. But, the sweet spot on 5 GHz is ch100. It has to do with the output of the WiFi signal. Below ch100 the max output is 200mW (milliWatts) and above ch100 it is 1000mW or 1W. a 5GHz channel has different freqs then just 5000MHz, ch100= 5500MHz, ch144= 5720MHz. A physical property of a wave is: it impairs the higher the frequency is. So, the higher in channel you go, the signal will not carry as far. Use the auto DFS on your AP to see if ch100 is clear, it's usually the one it picks first.
Unfortunately not all devices that support 5ghz wifi support DFS channels. One needs to be aware of this or else moving to a DFS channel can cause some devices to completely drop off the network (or switch to 2ghz) while others work just fine. For example, most of the Amazon tablets we have work fine on non-DFS, but go dark on DFS channels while our phones are just fine (I only have 2ghz wifi available for IOT).
Great video… I can’t believe you have 1180 clients with score of 100:) Hope you can do a video on MDNS as for the life of me I can’t get this feature working properly across multiple VLANs
Cannot agree more on not use DFS channel. Tried it once, iperf tested the Mac connectivity, super satisfied with the speed, none of my neighbors were using those channels, feeling made the right decision and the test work paid off! A few hours later: all devices from Google Nest lost connectivity silently, any devices with Google or Nest brand does not support DFS band.
Yes, not all clients that support 5ghz band, support the DFS channels. I ran into this with Amazon tablets and their early generation smart speakers when I tested DFS channels. Certain Amazon devices immediately dropped off when the channel was set to the DFS range, while other devices continued working just fine.
Good video, BTW setting DTIM to 3 resolves Apple devices connecting to the network. Sometime you might get invalid password when trying to join an Apple device to a UniFi network. By setting this value to 3, you will resolve this issue. The DTIM is how the AP (wireless router) warns its clients that it is about to transmit the multicast (and broadcast*) frames it queued up since the previous DTIM.
Overlapping Channels are a problem on 2.4GHz only, but take into account your local situation also. 1, 6, 11 are great if there is no other interference, but if you have a lot of WiFI networks around, if you have 2 AP's in your house, you may be better with using intermediate channels. Just try to keep your two access points 6 channels apart if you can. If you are using 40MHz bandwidth on 2.4GHz, then all bets are off with overlapping channels. DFS channels ar channels that are not guaranteed. Your AP may move to a different channel if a RADAR comes on, so do avoid these when you can for sure. Totally agree with that.
Thanks Toasty for this video. We have Unifi at home since 2017. In August the system suddenly slowed down and dropped connectivity, especially if you moved around the house. Lots of people working from home, so this was not acceptable. Was about to chuck out the Unifi as some say it is a nightmare to fix, but when it works it is fantastic. Have put in some of the changes you suggest, so let's see how it goes!
It's best to do a wireless survey to get an understanding of what is going on, too many people fiddle with settings without a good understanding of the actual problem. Any devices that are stationary and use a lot of bandwidth or are latency sensitive should be hardwired. I have >70 TCP/IP devices in my home and have no issues with Unifi, but all the desktops, game consoles, security cameras, and streaming devices are hardwired, wifi is reserved for phones, tablets, chromebooks, and IOT switches.
@@Zeric1 Thanks! I'll work on this. Don't have much energy as we were hit with Covid! Ended up in an ambulance to hospital... Might get a tech head to look at it as I'm only a dabbler...
@@BarryOGrady Sorry you were affected by Covid. We've been holed for the most part and have escaped it so far, but know several people who got it. I'll be happy to try and answer any questions on Unifi or networking, I may not be an "expert", but am quite knowledgeable and a tech head.
@@Zeric1 - had to take time out! Tired all the time... Thanks for the offer. We have 6 APs on the controller. Upgraded the controller to 6.0.43 today. Turned off (plugged out) one of the APs as it is close to one other. System still not good. It seems you can connect but when it comes to bandwidth, you get 1Mbs when you are not right close to the AP. Uplink Connectivity Monitor off. Advanced settings off. I wonder should I just revert all APs to auto settings (auto channel and auto power)... Luckily the Apple TV is fed by a homeplug so we will survive!
@@BarryOGrady For me setting the AP channels manually works better. I use different SSIDs for 2.4ghz and 5ghz. My 5ghz devices don't even know about the 2.4 network, reserving the very crowded and noisy 2.4g for low bandwidth IOT devices. Band steering should also accomplish this, but I prefer to enforce myself with separate SSIDs. As far AP power, I have all of mine set to low. This, along with setting "minimum RSSI" improves the chances that the client device will handoff. I use 20mhz channel width for everything, that's plenty fast for streaming to portable devices and improves the network overall. I only use (on 5ghz) 36, 40, 44, and 48 as these have the best compatibility with 5ghz clients. On the controller I use the classic settings, not the "new settings" as there some things that I couldn't do in the past on "new settings" but I'm sure this is improving with each release. I have advanced settings turned on, and have minimum data rate control set to 12Mbps on both bands, and CCK rates disabled on 2.4ghz since I don't have any 802.11b devices. "Auto-Optimize Network" is disabled, having it on gave me poor performance as it made terrible choices on channel selection and bandwidth for my APs. Uplink connectivity monitor is disabled. I was hosting my controller on Windows, but just migrated it to a docker container in a linux VM on a XCP-ng server I've been working on. 6APs is a lot for a typical residential setting, but how many one needs depends on the configuration of the building and construction materials used. Only getting 1Mbps is indicative of a problem somewhere, rather it's in your configuration, AP placement, neighboring interference, etc is hard to say. A methodical Wifi site survey is important to understanding what is happening.
I watched this video and it was very well explained. My only comment is the information provided on selecting channels for each AP. In the video you sat that channels 1, 6 and 11 for 2.4 Ghz are non interfering channels. The for the 5Ghz you sat that there are the following channels 36, 40, 44, 48 and 149, 153, 157 and 161. If I look at my setup I only see the first 4 channels, 36, 40, 44, 48. The 4 additional channels 149, 153, 157 and 161 are no available for selection within my config. Do you perhaps know why this is the case? The rest of teh information is very good and clear, even more clar than what unifi support provide. That's where I learnt how to set up my AP and wifi network. As an extra, what are your thoughts on teh unifi dashboard, and have you implemented any other dashboards that provide better visibility and the dashboards are more versatile. I found two solutions. The first was exprting the data to zabbix using unifi-proxy (I could not get this one to work because of issues with the unifi templates) the second was exporting the data to grafana using unifi-poller. that is an exceptional soultion. Works like a dream. Thanks Lawrence
Hello fellow European. Those channels are only allowed in USA/Canada. In Europe they are not allowed because of something called the ISM band. For Industrial, Scientific and Medical purpose only.
DTIM settings other than 3 drains MacBook batteries while they are asleep. Example, set to 3 over night say 10 hours goes from 100 to 99% set to default over the same period will drop to 80%. I figured that out when I went from Asus device to Ubiquiti and noticed. I switched back to the Asus and the issue went away so I started looking at settings and this was different so I changed it on the Unifi and the issue went away.
thanks for the great video, you brought me up to speed with everything. I have one question though: what happens in a multi floor configuration with ? Say, what would you do if you would 3 identical floors of what you drawed, one on top of eachother? what would you do with the channnel overlapping between floors? Talking about a solid concrete floor.
Solid concrete definitely dampens the signal a substantial amount. However, what I try to do with multiple floors is to stagger the channel. It's very hard (if not impossible) to get these perfect... but this is what I generally try to do. Hopefully it makes sense. Floor 1: AP1(Ch1) - AP2 (Ch6) - AP3 (Ch11) Floor 2: AP1(Ch6) - AP2 (Ch11) - AP3 (Ch 1) Floor 3: Ap1 (Ch11) - AP2 (Ch 1) - AP3 (Ch 6) You have to take into account both the neighboring APs on the same floor, as well as the AP directly above. This layout is assuming the APs are placed in the same location on each floor. The best way would be to use a spectrum analyzer to see which channels are actually interfering the most, but this would be a good starting point for the design.
RF scan is helpful, but the best thing to do is a full wireless survey where one walks around the property with a portable device analyzing your AP(s) signal and the neighbors signals on both 2ghz and 5ghz.
@@KavanMavati An RF scan is fine if you have a single AP and you are just trying to find the best channel. A wireless survey does much more than that, and is very much a part of a professional installation. There is no other way to determine what a client will see through out the entire coverage area. It's also is the best way to determine how many access points are needed and where to locate them. It involves not only the portable testing device, is also utilizes APs mounted on a tripod that can easily be moved to test different placements. I have a feeling we are talking about two different things.
@@Zeric1 well I am aware of the other benefits the wifi analyzer. We are talking about wifi channels, Dosent matter how many Aps you have, been an IT for so long the matter fact I seen Aps in busy environments set to auto that's operate better than a manual. There is so many tools out there can do the job its all personal preference.
@@KavanMavati We were talking about somewhat different things. You are _only_ talking about setting the channel, I was going beyond that to determine coverage area. Sometimes different channels work better in different parts of the same building which can lead to needing multiple APs. Even if a single AP is all one is going to have, a wireless survey is still helpful in optimizing the placement, but it's not particularly needed to set the channel as auto should do fine with that.
would be awesome if you did an updated one. with dozens of firmware and features updates and new hardware/wifi6 and where stuff is in the controller changing, it would be super helpful
@@chadmarkley thanks! After not so successful attempts on implementing a smooth network I bought the Ampfli system. I’m really impressed with the coverage and run time. Only downside you don’t have the control like other systems.
@@reallythatcrazywtf ha! I've run Amplifi at home for years and you are right, it is amazing. Thing is, just this weekend I've moved to full blown Unifi simply because with 6 kids doing school from home and not being able to see under the hood, I can't troubleshoot Amplifi! I needed to be able to get to the bottom of issues when they pop up. But yes, Amplifi rules in performance, simplicity and reliability
For the 5Ghz, it shouldn't be using the same channel for all three APs? Specially when using MESH techno ? And this is not a good idea if you are using the MESH techno to disable the wireless uplink :) The main AP has to be only on "downlink mode" when all secondaries APs have to be in "uplink mode" ...
I have a question for you...I run 3 UniFi® HD In-Wall throughout my home and my 4th AP is in my basement which is unfinished and there I run UniFi® AP AC PRO. My in wall units have no problem switching off from unit to unit depending on where we are in the house. When we go into the basement, we rarely switch off to the basement unless I reconnect what ever device is down there (i.e. smart phone). I even have a ring pro chime that is located in the basement but it typical connects to the AP in my kitchen instead of the basement. My question is, do you think my system is not switching off because the basement AP is a different device than the other AP's in my home? If not, do you have a hunch what the issue might be? If not sure, do you know the best place to find an answer? Apparently there is not much customer support on this system via Unifi. TIA
how to manage an Arlo security camera setup in a home network with UAP, edgeswitch and edgerouter?...as Arlo a bit of a pain since cant change wifi and it hops onto closest strong 2.4ghz channel. also should put it on separate subnet/vlan and clamp down bandwidth? only have 100/20 from isp.
Hey! Thank you for this video. It's helped me sort out my issues in my house. I have two NanoHD AP's, and I feel like they are constantly fighting each other. What is the issue with overlapping? I have meshing enabled, does this affect it at all?
Hi, I appreciate this video, it's helpful to compare against my notes for quite high density installs. Would you consider doing any updated version of this video at some point, now that a lot of the features you mentioned are in the production build of Unifi devices? I'm particularly interested in port isolation and multicast and broadcast control. I've been using port isolation where all my APs are connected to an access layer switch, and the network is suffering particularly high broadcast and multicast traffic, particularly when a lot of devices come online at once, for example a few dozen iPads or laptops. But I'd be interested to know your thoughts. Many thanks for the video.
Thanks for the comment. I've considered updating this video, but I actually struggle myself with fine-tuning the newer features. I have some pointers I could put into a video, but I feel like I'm a bit behind in my own ability to leverage and understand the newer changes.
Great video and timely. Thanks! Video request: if you have a network which regularly saturates the WAN how do you figure out and resolve it in UNIFI if faster internet is not available.
Smart queues if you have the edgerouter or usg. A better option than smart queues : If you want to share your limited wan bandwidth equally among users, you need flexible limiters in opensense, pfsense redd.it/3e67dk or openwrt with cake + additional settings in cake. openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/traffic-shaping/sqm-details Once setup, bandwidth will be shared equally, for example a 100mbps could be shared 50/50, 25/25/25/25, 33,33,34 etc. No single user like a steam update or torrents will hog all the bandwidth. On a practical level the above method is way more useful than any qos setting or smart queues.
The question is what is causing the network to saturate the WAN, then possibly bandwidth limit that client or clients. Just how low is the bandwidth? if you have at least 50mbps, that is workable for most situations with some management of the resource. Sure it's cool to say one has 1gbps symmetrical, but the truth is very few people really _need_ that. I have 150mbps which is more than I really need, but it is nice to have reasonably fast downloads. 50mbps can support 3-4 devices streaming at 1080p simultaneously along with a more devices doing web surfing. When going to 4K streaming, it does get tighter on 50mbps, and will likely only support 2 devices simultaneously with some other light network usage. Streaming for most households is the biggest legitimate consumer of bandwidth.
I know this video is more than a year old, but less than half of the options you mention in this video is in my current settings interface. Did they update it to make it simpler or what happened?
You're not wrong. They updated the interface and it looks a whole lot different than when I made this video. I have an entry on my to-do list to re-create this using the new interface. However, in the mean time, my video (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xnC8srOCuR8.html) covers the different interfaces and the issues I've had with them.
This is really great. Is there any issue in me making a home network using the UniFi Switch Lite 16 PoE (feeding from an ATT router) and an array of UniFi 6 Lite APs. Ive got firewall in my ATT router (with WiFi turned off). Thoughts on this?
I have a home in the country that has an upper and lower level. Both are 1500 square feet and are about eight foot elevation difference. We spend time equally on both levels. Would access points be more effective on the ceiling of the upper or lower level or mixture of both? I was thinking two U6Pro to start with and possibly a third one later if I am missing coverage. For years I have gotten by with just a wireless router and now have a Netgear Orbi with two satellites where one satellite the wireless backhaul has failed and works only wired. I’ve had more problems with the Orbi than we do at our school with access points.
Generally, it would be better to have a mix, but every environment is different. I personally have two APs for a two-story house. One on the east side of lower level and one on the west side of the upper. That seems to work best for me, but YMMV.
@@ToastyAnswers Thanks! I have my UDM Pro, USW 16 Lite and two U6 Pro access points installed upstairs and downstairs and I have not had any coverage issues, even in my attached garage I get signal.
On the latest controller setting what do you recommend for the Minimum Data Rate Control? There is now just a check box for Auto which removes settings sliders for adjusting them or if you turn off auto then you adjust the rate controls per radio.
I haven't actually seen the "auto" setting for this. I typically set the data rates to 9mbps for 2.4ghz, and 12mbps for 5ghz. This very much depends on the density and other network factors, but these are the settings I start with.
I'm not really sure. I believe the channels will disable automatically if radar is detected. As long as you don't experience any issues while using DFS channels, it's safe to assume there isn't radar in the area. I have not been in an area with radar so I can't confirm if this is how it works.
Usually it's motion sensor doors (they use radar) at a grocery store for example. Ever notice it messes up your radio signal when you are in front of them? Same principle (sort of) but if you walk around with a radio and get bad reception in places, chances are there could be the same interference that disrupts wifi signal radar or otherwise.
Really really awesome video Just one question , I use home automation wifi simple devices that only work on 2.4 are they going to be ok with unifi AP`s will they keep connection ? your thoughts
They should be fine, but these devices are affected more by some of the topics I cover in this video. What I mean is, the optional features are more likely to affect these and you probably want to lean more towards the "compatibility" end of the spectrum when working with them.
Great stuff. Question- Ever since I set up my Unify network (which seems to be working fine with one WAP), I have not been able to log into the Unify controller. Is there a solution for this or do I have to reset and start over. Thanks.
Hey great video breakdowns, so easy to follow. Not sure if you will still get this but here it goes. I've set up an Edge rounder X with unifi AP AC LR. It's working great, but I've set it up on one laptop and I need to set it up on another laptop. I've try but it looks like it will reset it up and I dont want to loose any of my settings. Not sure if this makes any sense. Thank you in advance
Thank you! There are a couple ways you can do this. You can download a backup of your controller and restore it to the new location. You will have to make sure that both have the same version installed (best to update the current controller to the latest version before moving). However, using this method you will need to manually change the device's "Inform Address" once you have the new controller up and running. The other way is to setup the new controller and then export the site from the old one. You can do this through the new menu and it will "move" your devices to a new controller and retain your site settings. I haven't personally used this method.
