Ubiquiti - AmpliFi Alien Wifi Router

I switched from Amplifi mesh to Linksys mesh several years ago and have been very happy with it. I put a tp-link ER605 switch/router in front of it to provide the vpn connectivity and boost my throughput.

I have a 2 nodes ASUS XT12 with a dedicated wifi6 wireless backhaule. The 2nd node is 2 stories upstairs (bricks walls and wood ceilings) and I can use the full 1Gb/s internet speed provided. Before I had a ubiquiti amplitude. Coverage was ok but the max speed I’ve got was 500 Mb/s. The asus is expensive but works really well. In my situation the 2 nodes are communicating at 2Gb/s. The nodes have also 2,5Gb ports. So attaching wired devices allows to communicate really well.

I had a TP-Link BE85 setup before this and returned it because of constant disconnects which is a known issue with them. I felt like their speeds were higher than Eero but the disconnects and the complexity of three separate SSID’s versus a single one made Eero a better choice. Prior to that, I owned an AMPLIFI Alien setup that I really liked. One of my units started having issues and needed replaced after several years. AMPLIFI has decided not to continue supporting the Alien product anymore so that was stuck on WiFi 6. Before the AMPLIFI setup I owned a Linksys Velop system and it was absolute trash. I don’t think there is a such thing as a perfect mesh system because if there was I would have bought it. That being said, I am sharing the same frustrations as you with the recent firmware updates.

Amplifi is on sale. It is a mesh network for home by Ubiquiti. Includes a router and two wireless AP’s. I have installed dozens of these and they work great. It is on sale for around $170.00. Usually it is $350.00. I just did one a few weeks ago. Now their whole house has no issues with wifi.

Look up Amplifi mesh by Ubiquiti. i have installed it in fairly large homes? i have one client who owns about ten Sonos devices scattered over three floors in a 12,000 sq ft house. We had to add a couple of extra wireless access points but he said it works perfectly now. That was over a year ago.

I still run an old Amplifi

I had the UniFi Amplify Alien mesh system and it was ok, but like the other posters said, it’s 1000x better to go wired even if just to one other spot. I upgraded to a dream machine and a few APs and it’s night and day now, especially if you have friends or kids who do a lot of WiFi gaming.

What is your budget for such a device? I am currently running the Amplifi Alien (which is Ubiquiti's high-ish end consumer router), but was planning on replacing it with a Protectli Vault. I actually bought a V1210 (2x 2.5G ports, Intel CPU/NIC, ~$240), and installed OPNSense on it, I just haven't switched it out with the Alien yet. Or, you can use an old desktop PC that you may already own. Probably not the best from a power draw standpoint, but you could load OPNSense on that, toss an Intel-based multi-port NIC on there, and see what it means to really run your own router. You could do the same hardware-wise, and just install Proxmox and then OpenWRT on it as a virtual machine. There's more fiddling involved with getting the nic(s) passed through, but it allows you to test with hardware you likely already own or can purchase second-hand for cheap.

I have two aliens and they are the best and most reliable routers I’ve ever had.

Amplifi Alien bridged to Opnsense on Protectli hardware.

Amplifi Alien. Yes, it's a bit old. But rock solid. Runs my entire HomeKit system (about 70 devices) with no issues at all. Unifi is also a great option too.