Good AP with AC for 120$?

[albert hansson]

So I am to set up a new network for my house and workshop. The easiest way for me is to show you how I think it should be:

The right part is my workshop which is about 20x20m and about 8m to the roof. As you can see I want to have one ap in my house and one in the workshop. At the moment I just got an ADSL connection, but I might install fiber soon and all the cables are cat6. I've been thinking about getting the Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC Lite. But I'm not sure about the performance of it and if it's worth the price. Also, are these omni directional APs any good to have in a house with alot of walls and such?

The router in the basement is an Netgear R7000 running DD-WRT.

The price for these AP's is quite high though and I'm wondering if I really need them for my application. All that I want is a Stable, fast, ac capable and sleek looking AP. Ubiquiti came to mind beacuse it's one of the few enterprise brands I know of, but perhaps there is something better out there? I've set a max price of about 120$ or 100 Euro for each AP. The Lite fits that budget but the LR is a bit to much.

 

[Trip]

The real benefit of Unifi is its client handling, centralized management and mostly seamless extensibility when needing to add multiple APs to extend coverage over a wide area. If all you need is an AP or two to fill in coverage gaps, as your picture and description above suggest, then I don't really know if it will be able to flex the bulk of its muscles in your use-case. It is a slick system, though, and if you do choose to go with it regardless, I think you'll find it to be as stable as you require.

You might want to consider just purchasing the best range for the dollar in an AC all-on-one wifi router, then running it in access point mode, either on stock firmware (if it's as bug-free as possible), or third-party firmware if necessary.

If $120 is a soft limit, I'd go up to $180 and just do another R7000 since you're familiar with the platform already. If you'd prefer to stay lower, then perhaps an Archer C7 running OpenWRT for $90.

 

[L&LD]

A quick search didn't give me a good feeling about finding Ubiquiti AC class AP's at the price you want. Although the 'lite' version is cheaper, I don't feel that it is cheap enough considering it is only an AP.

But for around $100 each, I would recommend full routers instead. The RT-AC56U is a rock star with the right firmware. And with a little searching, you could find these at much lower prices than the Ubiquiti 'lite' version you're interested in now.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-378-55-3_hgg-final-mod.26524/page-2#post-199549


Based on the same hardware as an RT-AC68U, the smaller (2 internal antennae) 'AC56U is the most powerful and least expensive router that will run RMerlin, john9527's and hggomes firmware forks (the best firmware with stability, features and performance this side of custom coding one yourself).


The Ubiquiti AP's are not as fast as consumer grade routers. No option to re-use them in the future for anything other than AP's, require a server (or at least an always on computer) to use their better features.

While there are positives for enterprise level hardware, there are just as many negative too for home use.

A couple of RT-AC56U or RT-AC68U (even 'refurbished') would be my recommendation for you.

 

[albert hansson]

A quick search didn't give me a good feeling about finding Ubiquiti AC class AP's at the price you want. Although the 'lite' version is cheaper, I don't feel that it is cheap enough considering it is only an AP.

But for around $100 each, I would recommend full routers instead. The RT-AC56U is a rock star with the right firmware. And with a little searching, you could find these at much lower prices than the Ubiquiti 'lite' version you're interested in now.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/asuswrt-merlin-378-55-3_hgg-final-mod.26524/page-2#post-199549


Based on the same hardware as an RT-AC68U, the smaller (2 internal antennae) 'AC56U is the most powerful and least expensive router that will run RMerlin, john9527's and hggomes firmware forks (the best firmware with stability, features and performance this side of custom coding one yourself).


The Ubiquiti AP's are not as fast as consumer grade routers. No option to re-use them in the future for anything other than AP's, require a server (or at least an always on computer) to use their better features.

While there are positives for enterprise level hardware, there are just as many negative too for home use.

A couple of RT-AC56U or RT-AC68U (even 'refurbished') would be my recommendation for you.

Yeah, but I've used Asus routers before and had quite a bad experience with them so I don't trust them. I would just buy 2 more R7000 and install dd-wrt on them beacuse I love the one I have, but I bought mine on a sale for about 100 euros, now they cost around 160 euro here which is way to expensive.

But I only need the AP part, isn't there any AP's for like 40-50 euro that are good?

EDIT:

I just moved my router down to the basement and went up to my second floor and I still get a decent signal strength up there, Could I perhaps just get an extender and place it on the first floor instead of buying an AP?

Out in the workshop I am in no need for any high speed really and I got an old Netgear DGN 2200 which I could use as an AP out there. What is the difference between an extender and ap? An extender just extends you current wifi whilst an ap can act as a whole other wifi network?

 

[L&LD]

Yeah, but I've used Asus routers before and had quite a bad experience with them so I don't trust them. I would just buy 2 more R7000 and install dd-wrt on them beacuse I love the one I have, but I bought mine on a sale for about 100 euros, now they cost around 160 euro here which is way to expensive.

But I only need the AP part, isn't there any AP's for like 40-50 euro that are good?

Which Asus routers and how long ago? DD-WRT doesn't give the best performance even compared to stock firmware (at least on Asus models) because of inferior, third party drivers used.

For your last question? Short answer is no. At least none that I would spend money on for a single / narrow use product.

 

[Shelbrain]

I would not recommend the range extender instead of an access point since in my testing the thoroughput was cut in half. A wired access point will give you the most reliable solution for your needs.

 

[Nullity]

NewEgg had the Asus RT-AC68P for ~$110 recently.

 

[albert hansson]

For 2 years ago I used the RT-AC56U with built in modem and it's been utter crap.

Ok, but I need either an AP or a router which can be set as an AP.

As I'm buying for my company, it has to be a swedish shop so I don't have many models to choose from sadly. But buying a router and then installing some third party firmware isn't something I can do beacuse of guarantee issues.

 

[sfx2000]

Linksys WRT1200ac has been sighted recently at $129USD...

 

[L&LD]

For 2 years ago I used the RT-AC56U with built in modem and it's been utter crap.

Ok, but I need either an AP or a router which can be set as an AP.

As I'm buying for my company, it has to be a swedish shop so I don't have many models to choose from sadly. But buying a router and then installing some third party firmware isn't something I can do beacuse of guarantee issues.

The Asus models with a built in modem begin with DSL (not RT) and using those with ISP supplied firmware would be 'utter crap', I'm sure.

Flashing firmware is not a cause for 'guarantee issues'. Even if you do have issues, you can simply flash back the oem firmware if need be.

I think your reasons for not testing an Asus router (RT-AC series) today are no longer valid.