Ubiquiti - UniFi Dream Machine Special Edition

You would want a cloud gateway of some sort. The UDM Pro Max or SE are solid choices. You will want a PoE switch if you start with the Pro Max since it has better specs, but doesn’t offer native PoE ports. Then you will want APs of some sort. WiFi 6 or WiFi 7…often the latter requires more power, so the SE might not have enough power for many WiFi 7 APs. The Pro APs are nice and the U6-Mesh is a nice table top AP. The product names are sometimes misleading, so read the specs…or ask here.

You can easily do this with Ubiquiti UniFi gateways. Often we create a different SSID for IoT and just turn on 2.4GHz for that SSID. Turn off 5GHz etc.

I'd suggest looking into Ubiquiti UniFi. Since you have wiring available, it would be ideal. Look at the Cloud Gateway Ultra or Max as the router/controller, and add switches and wifi APs as needed/possible. You'll get a single-point-of-management interface for all the hardware. The Dream Router 7 is nice in that it has an AP built in if that's needed. The Dream Machine rack mounted hardware is also great, it may be overkill for you though.

UniFi, hands down. I don't know what you consider "similar nonsense", - prosumer and a lot of business will use a controller that manages the configurations and statistics. The Cloud Key is a somewhat older implementation of the UniFi setup where it performed as the controller and an NVR for cameras. They've split that off - you can get gateways (router/controller) that does not have the video incorporated any longer. The "cloud" in some of their hardware doesn't mean it's run from the cloud or whatever, it's simply part of the model name. You can run it all standalone without being tied to their servers (though it's pretty convenient at times). Similarly, they have "mesh" in the name of some of their APs - but all of them can be wirelessly uplinked. It's a matter of them associating through marketing to the massive consumer "mesh" marketing. But it's still prosumer stuff and uses the same controller as the rest. My favorite feature is reliability. It's been rock solid for me through 6 years (I've moved through three upgrades and it's just stable. I love it. Look at the Dream Router 7, UniFi Express models, and Cloud Gateway models for some pretty darned good home solutions. The Dream Machines are great also, they are rack mount though and tilt towards having the video features. Should you choose one of the simpler offerings and want to go video later - there are standalone DVRs - including the Cloud Key+, which is still popular - that you can add. There is other prosumer gear, but Ubiquiti UniFi and TP-Link Omada are the only ones I know of with the unified management.

UniFi, hands down. I don't know what you consider "similar nonsense", - prosumer and a lot of business will use a controller that manages the configurations and statistics. The Cloud Key is a somewhat older implementation of the UniFi setup where it performed as the controller and an NVR for cameras. They've split that off - you can get gateways (router/controller) that does not have the video incorporated any longer. The "cloud" in some of their hardware doesn't mean it's run from the cloud or whatever, it's simply part of the model name. You can run it all standalone without being tied to their servers (though it's pretty convenient at times). Similarly, they have "mesh" in the name of some of their APs - but all of them can be wirelessly uplinked. It's a matter of them associating through marketing to the massive consumer "mesh" marketing. But it's still prosumer stuff and uses the same controller as the rest. My favorite feature is reliability. It's been rock solid for me through 6 years (I've moved through three upgrades and it's just stable. I love it. Look at the Dream Router 7, UniFi Express models, and Cloud Gateway models for some pretty darned good home solutions. The Dream Machines are great also, they are rack mount though and tilt towards having the video features. Should you choose one of the simpler offerings and want to go video later - there are standalone DVRs - including the Cloud Key+, which is still popular - that you can add. There is other prosumer gear, but Ubiquiti UniFi and TP-Link Omada are the only ones I know of with the unified management.

Function split 👍👍👍 One Unifi Cloud Gateway Fibre, along with a U7-Pro hanging from the ceiling being powered off the CGF's POE+ port.

Look at the speed you want to support and the technology you have. Unifi is great if you want 1Gbps and that’s all. Most their offerings struggle with faster speeds and any type of IDS and IPS enabled when on a PPPoE network. Due to this I switched to Firewalla and couldn’t be happier as my ISP is PPPoE and my UDM SE couldn’t go 1.2Gbps when I was paying for 2.5Gbps. My Firewalla hasn’t had an issue yet with full speed and IPS fully enabled as it’s rated to 10Gbps. I’ve heard good things about the new Unifi Fiber but I’m not switching back.

Ubiquiti UDMSE coupled with some UniFi WiFi 6E/7 access points (PoE)

This. We have a UDMSE with 5 access points around the house. There’s not a dead spot on my property.

I have unifi with a udmse and 3 wifi 7 access points. I ran 16 cat 6a runs, 3 for aps and a 4th soon. I ran them from the attic down to the crawl space and then over to the garage. I have a 12u raxck mounted on the ceiling innthe garage and the router and two servers in there. Fiber modem is in the living room with a direct run to the garage rack. Fiber is glofiber, 2.5gbps symmetrical. My pcs all have 2.5 gb nics or better. All our tvs have direct ethernet. I get 900+ mbps on wifi on phones and stuff. Its amazing. Also all my aps are power over Ethernet. I have a patch panel with couplers in the attic and crawl space, so I can drop 8 more runs pretty easily. And another patch panel with couplers in the garage. All shielded. I build the servers myself, theyre just 2u cases with consumer micro atx boards in them. One us an 8700g cou, one is 7959x, and one is 5950x. Its my homelab for work. My internet is faster than when im on azure vdis... One ap is in the upstairs haul, the 2nd is in my kitchen, and the thirds in the garage, 4 will go on the deck. All ceiling mounted. Took me many weekends to run all this.

I am in the minority here: but I'm super disappointed in mine. Coming from Eero Max 7. Best speeds I can get from it are 850/800. Eero maxes out my gigabit connection. And the range comparatively is also bad. Upstairs on my eero with my laptop on wifi 700 I can still damn near max out my gigabit. The dream machine itself barely gives me 300. So I thought: ok, 4x4 on 6ghz isn't fair vs 2x2. So I direct wired an Wall AP7 upstairs in the same room I test from... and at best I can get 650/600 on 6ghx/Wifi 7. I think I'm giving up and returning the Unifi equipment. I ABSOLUTELY HATE the eero and that I'm limited to an app for it and no real control. But I can't give up 30% performance even with dedicated AP's upstairs and downstairs. :(

Buy a decent router and get the pppoe settings from Sky. Connect that router directly to the Openreach modem. I use a Unifi Dream Machine as I have IP cameras.

I’d just get a dream machine for the base station. E7 is pretty overkill it’s for enterprise. Also you probably don’t have any devices that support Wifi7 but I understand if you want to future proof.