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Consultation for choice of devices!

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P3ta

New Around Here
Good to all, I write this post because I need help with the options to buy the necessary devices for my network, in the living room I would need a router and Wi-Fi connection (either well integrated into the router itself or with an access point), and then a couple of access points wired around the house.

I have all kinds of devices including an 8-port switch and a Synology NAS with the possibility of using the IEEE 802.3ad protocol or also known as "Link Aggregation".

The Internet connection we have at home is 600/600 symmetrical fiber.

I am a network administration technician so I include models that I understand require a little more training to configure them than the range of home devices.


Options:

Router: Mikrotik RB4011iGS + 5HacQ2HnD-IN
Access points: Mikrotik cAP ac

Router: Mikrotik RB750GR3 / RB760iGS + Mikrotik cAP ac
Access points: Mikrotik cAP ac

Router: Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X / 4 + Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR
Access points: Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR

Router: ASUS RT-AC88U with Asuswrt-Merlin
Access points: to be determined

Router: Netgear Nighthawk R7000
Access points: to be determined


Of course I am open to more options.

Greetings and thanks ;-)
 
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Asuswrt-Merlin on supported devices is OK, but you won't get any support here for hacked XWRT.
Do you have the above devices or you're planning to buy? Other options possible?
 
Asuswrt-Merlin on supported devices is OK, but you won't get any support here for hacked XWRT.
Do you have the above devices or you're planning to buy? Other options possible?

Good, I really put those firmwares because they are the ones that I have been seeing on the forums, I do not have any of those devices, I am planning to buy a router and access points and I am open to more models, regards.
 
I have replaced 2 Asus AIO routers with pfSense router and Omada WiFi. SNB members recommended, good reviews, etc. The components after the router are TL-SG108PE smart switch with PoE, EAP245v3 APs with PoE and Omada controller OC200 with PoE. About $350 with 2 APs. Nice and clean setup, works good, similar to UniFi performance. Surprisingly quick roaming, perhaps better than UniFi. 802.11k/v/r all supported.
 
Don't use MikroTik for your wireless: No MU-MIMO, no 802.11k/v/r, no airtime fairness, ...
 
I have replaced 2 Asus AIO routers with pfSense router and Omada WiFi. SNB members recommended, good reviews, etc. The components after the router are TL-SG108PE smart switch with PoE, EAP245v3 APs with PoE and Omada controller OC200 with PoE. About $350 with 2 APs. Nice and clean setup, works good, similar to UniFi performance. Surprisingly quick roaming, perhaps better than UniFi. 802.11k/v/r all supported.

Thank you very much, I'll take a look at those devices.
 
At this level you can buy a Cisco RV345P router and 2 Cisco WAP581 wireless APs. This is everything you need for a large home. You do not need to buy a controller key and the software is built-in. POE+ is built-in and the switch is built-in. This will be a very simple setup.

The RV345P has enough POE+ power to run both wireless APs and a few security cameras.
 
I can buy it for around $6xx something. I think it is better. Three years from now lets revisit this question.

If you would have bought one these when they came out you would have saved a lot of money buying many routers and equipment over the years until now plus lots of future left.

This is a good solid product well supported.
 
This is a good solid product well supported.

No questions about it. I would buy it for business use any day. The OP is asking for @home equipment. My concern is the router part. It's far from SG-5100 or similar Protectli hardware. With Protectli type routers you have a choice of OS. OP is a network tech, may want to play with it more. Why stick to what Cisco has to offer? There is pfSense, OPNSense, Untangle, Sophos, Ubuntu out there. I would separate the router from WiFi part.
 
Now that you got me thinking about cost I think you can buy a Cisco RV340 router, Cisco SG350-10P, and 2 Cisco WAP581 wireless APs for about the the same money. I just bought a Cisco SG350-10P used for $150. So total cost is around $6xx also. This will give you layer 3 switching which will be a much better setup. L3 switching is more difficult to configure but it is worth it.
 
At this level you can buy a Cisco RV345P router and 2 Cisco WAP581 wireless APs. This is everything you need for a large home. You do not need to buy a controller key and the software is built-in. POE+ is built-in and the switch is built-in. This will be a very simple setup.

The RV345P has enough POE+ power to run both wireless APs and a few security cameras.

Thank you very much, the only downside is that the devices of the Cisco brand escape me a little budget, for that reason I put more or less the previous models of Mikrotik, etc.
 
No questions about it. I would buy it for business use any day. The OP is asking for @home equipment. My concern is the router part. It's far from SG-5100 or similar Protectli hardware. With Protectli type routers you have a choice of OS. OP is a network tech, may want to play with it more. Why stick to what Cisco has to offer? There is pfSense, OPNSense, Untangle, Sophos, Ubuntu out there. I would separate the router from WiFi part.

In effect, the installation will be at home, but I am looking for the devices to be somewhat better than the typical home range models. Since I am a network administrator I have already worked with Cisco devices and command line, so I have no problems testing Mikrotik, Ubiquiti devices, etc.
 
I've been researching this recently as my RT-AC87U has lost its Merlin support and my conclusion was to get a pfSense box.

I'll soon be getting a Qotom mini PC from Aliexpress with a Celeron 3865U that can route Gigabit easily and do about 330 Mbps OpenVPN, add 4 GB of DDR4 RAM and a 120 GB SATA SSD from Crucial for a total price around 190 euros at current rates. If you need more VPN speed or an IDS/IPS you could get an i3-7100U or better instead of the Celeron.

I'll be reusing my Asus router as an AP but if I had to get new APs I'd look at a TP-Link AP like the EAP225 or 245.

Edit to add that you can try pfSense on Virtualbox or VMware and see how it is like. You also have other options like OPNsense that is a fork of pfSense, I've tried both on Virtualbox and I like pfSense more. Both have active community forums and are fully open source and based on FreeBSD. pfSense will add WireGuard support soon while OPNsense has already got it.
 
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