Ubiquiti - UniFi Express 7

You can use the Express 7 as a tabletop AP very easily. I got 3 and run them like that.

Unifi Express 7 while technically a router can be used as a mesh to either another Express 7 or a Dream Machine 7. Not the cheapest route.

I bought 3 for a mesh system in a 3100 SF trac home. Only unboxed and setup two of three. With two just downstairs the coverage was really weak and the speeds were low. After tinkering with them for a week I sent all 3 back. They couldn't out perform the TP Link XE75 Pros, or TP Link BE63's. Tested Eero 6 and finally settled on a two pack of the Asus BT10's. Two BT10's both downstairs cover our entire home, garage and large backyard. Wasn't impressed.

Unfortunately no I wouldn't. I have been slowly converting friends and family over to ubiquiti just because it works with no issues once set up and has better management/expansion/upgrade options. Instead of the eero maybe look into either the dream router 7 or express 7 as a starter. If you want something easy to set up and drop in place those are the two all in one solutions. Otherwise the cloud Gateway Ultra with an ap (and poe injector) is the next step up I would recommend.

Don’t listen to him. He doesn’t know. A Unifi Express 7 cost 179€ and include the Wifi AP, the Unifi controller (brain) and connect to your modem. This is all you need and much cheaper that two Deco 50 !

Sorry it wasn’t obvious. Anyway the important fact is that he only need an Unifi Express 7 and it’s damn cheap to step in the Unifi universe of good reliable internet like no other that hypnotise all their clients for life.

He doesn’t need two AP, he said it clearly. Unifi provide the most stable wifi network for IoT of all the AP on the market, even with one VLAN, even in mesh configuration. On top of this you can setup dedicated IoT VLAN and dedicated IoT SSID, use their new object oriented policy management (unique on the market) for the most complex IoT setups. They went that far to have little icons for every gadget on the market in their interface. I know a bit or two, I have +200 IoT devices in my home from Apple, Switchbot, Aqara, Logitech, Eufy, Hue, Govee, and numerous exotic brands. I have been through hell with solutions from Apple, Orbi, Peplink, Meraki, Eero, Huawei and many many more. And only since I am rocking on Unifi I can open my Apple Home app with not a single device error ! At 179€ the Unifi Express 7 is, by far, the best solution for OP and a damn cheap ticket for discovering the “Apple” of networking.

UniFi object policy management allow you to easily pick devices and create group of them that are accessible by your kids (mobile, switch, laptop, smart tv, …) then control (block with optional schedules) access to classes of websites (ex. porn), groups of applications (ex. Social media), specific websites (lol) or specific apps (TikTok). I use it with two teenagers (one study computer sciences, the other polytechnic) and it resisted their hacking tentatives until today. On top of this there is an optional subscription that allows to use Cloudflare to go even further in granularity.

Absolutely. Get and try it for a week. You can always send it back if it doesn’t fit your need. But I am 100% that you will fall in love with Unifi, like all of us.

Believe me, I tried them all. Unifi is the best, easiest, fastest, most reliable solution for Wifi. You can start with a simple Unifi Express 7 : https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/products/ux7 Warning, you may end up with a home full of Unifi products and a beautiful rack.

I would return the dream router get the Unifi express series either the regular or the 7s. put one in the cupboard and put another in the house they mesh.

The express is designed to mesh with other expresses. Ive installed a few for people that wiring is not an option.

Yes they can he was asking about a router. The expresses are meant to be meshed together like the tplink decos.

Mesh will have a potentially hard time with the concrete, wifi simply doesn't penetrate - so mesh will be problematic - placement would be key, the satellites need to have a good signal from the base to work well. You might get away with it by placing them near doorways etc. Many people use ethernet along the base of the walls, over doorway frames etc. and wire access points. Mesh systems do have the advantage of a central controller for the access points, so if you can wire them, your wifi experience would be a lot better. I am not a fan of Netgear, TP-Link Deco is popular in this sub, as is Eero (but there's the fact that it's Amazon and has a semi-subscription model. If you want to be a little more spendy, Ubiquiti UniFi has a great interface and good quality that should last. The UniFi Express models have a built in AP and can be meshed. The Cloud Gateway Ultras would be ideal with multiple access points placed around. (I am a UniFi fan) Asus is also mostly well thought of. I think the TP-Link Deco line would be the most affordable choice.

>I want them to be connected in to a seamless mesh network for seamless roaming. So, "mesh" has become an obtuse word in home networking. It's really just wirelessly uplinking to access points when cable can't or won't be used. Seamless roaming is built into wifi, it's not something that is only available in mesh systems - marketing hype has steered the understanding that way. You could set up three access points independently, with the same parameters (SSID, passphrase, security method) and your clients will roam amongst them as needed, seamlessly (meaning, no intervention required by the client to move). What mesh systems do bring is a unified management of access points which allows for certain enhancements to improve roaming (sometimes known as "fast roaming"). It's not super beneficial to home networks, but it's there. So if you're not buying a mesh system, using Ubiquiti UniFi or Omada - which both have a central "controller" - will provide those same features (and arguably better in some ways). Both of these are "prosumer" - a large step up in quality and features. Avoiding "the cloud" is maybe a good thing or maybe bad. With UniFi, you can set up access points standalone with an app that communicates directly with the hardware. Or, for a better setup, you would need the controller which allows more control and statistics. You also need to set up a userid with them, but you do not have to manage your network via, or have it connected to them - you can run it standalone. There are some benefits to the cloud access such as remote access to your controller. I run a full UniFi stack and it's been super reliable and easy to work with. I have a Dream Machine Pro, 5 switches and 4 APs. Since you mentioned PoE also, that's the way to go. I have my setup on a UPS, and everything is powered by a 16-port PoE switch. If the power goes out, everything keeps working off the UPS. The remote switches are also PoE powered, which is quite nice. Edit: spelling and some minor clarification

Just so you know, mesh doesn't bring roaming to wifi - any APs set up with the same authetication configuration (SSID, passphrase, security method) will allow wifi clients to roam amongst them as needed. Mesh uses what setups like Ubiquiti UniFi and commercial networking hardware use to allow *faster* roaming. UniFi would be my recommendation. It doesn't matter what your brother in law thinks.

UniFi - reliability, self-hosted, no cloud, no subscriptions etc.

UniFi has all the blocking and other features that you'd want. I have not tried it but it now also has ad blocking. At this point, I would never change. It's easy to maintain and upgrade etc. If something does fail, it's pretty simple to replace the component and keep moving. It's got a lot of enterprise type features that I like.

In consumer world - Asus and TP-Link are the better choices. Eero is great hardware has a subscription model for some needed (IMO) features. I would avoid Netgear, D-Link and Linksys - they are not what they once were and have subscription models, sometimes poor support, and varying reliability and quality. You could also consider gl.Inet Flint devices if you're looking for an all-in-one router, they have gained a very good reputation. I agree that a better choice than any of the above would be Ubiquiti UniFi and TP-Link Omada is also decent - it's different than the consumer gear. Reliability is one of the major points of these prosumer setups. I've been running UniFi for 7 years, it's great.

Ubiquiti UniFi, your IT guy is right. It's stable and reliable. The configuration is pretty easy, and once you've configured your network, you merely plug in access point(s), adopt them, and they are part of your network. The UDR7 (which is what I assume you are considering) has an internal AP, so you've got one AP already with it. Just add what you need. Mesh is just wirelessly linking APs. You can wirelessly uplink to UniFi APs, but you'll lose some speed from them when doing so.

Uniform UX7s ensure no weak links in your mesh. Saving on AP costs now can cost you in performance later.

You’ll need to buy piecemeal, I’ll leave required equipment below for what I’d do. https://store.ui.com/us/en/products/u7-lite https://store.ui.com/us/en/products/ux7 https://store.ui.com/us/en/products/usw-lite-8-poe You’d only need about 1 UX7 and 1-2 U7 Lites. I’d do 1 U7 Lite and see how that performs, you can scale up easily if needed.

First, mesh is bad without a wired backhaul ( [https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/189h7um/mesh\_wifi\_much\_slower\_than\_main\_router/](https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/189h7um/mesh_wifi_much_slower_than_main_router/) ). Just something to know going into it. You really should have all of your APs (access points, the things that send out the Wi-Fi) wired back to a central or "home" controller. If your home has coax or ethernet already run, then get non-mesh wired APs instead. If you're getting mesh, I would look at the Ubiquiti UX7. They are scalable, small, have Wi-Fi 7 at a reasonable-ish price, and can easily do all of the things you mentioned except custom firmware. Not sure what the need is for point 4 in your case.