The Angry Dad's Guide to Awesome Home WiFi
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- Tired of the family complaining about sketchy wifi? Dave takes you on a tour of a large UniFi installation and reveals the secrets of his WiFi success. Covers topics ranging from AP selection to VLAN partitioning, fast roaming, handoff, band steering, and more!
UniFi Dream Machine SE: amzn.to/3Lf3e0g
UniFi Dream Machine (Small): amzn.to/3mK0uyN
UniFi UAC Pro Access Point (WiFi 6): amzn.to/3UQAcav
8-Port PoE Switch: amzn.to/3Ldn9g5
24-Port PoE Switch: amzn.to/41DCYCi
48-Port PoE Switch: amzn.to/40oxfzk
8-Port 10G Switch: amzn.to/3LaVBYX - Věda a technologie
See, the trick is to have a house small enough to only need 1 access point.
You can live in your car but you can't drive your house!
@@DavesGarage Uh, you can. They call that an RV :)
in UK / EUROPE that is the case. Because the average house costs the whole family people worth of organs and is small enough to house the whole family like its crowded train ride. Its not with bad intentions. You see, the English did this so they could ease communication with inside the house. They no longer need to shout WTF from the top of their lungs. Because the houses are small everyone will hear you say with a normal voice "I beg your pardon?!" which is much scarier.
@@rohanofelvenpower5566 On the other hand, European houses are more likely to be multi floor or made of reinforced concrete which blocks (especially 5GHz) signals much more than the materials found in most American houses would. Even when I lived in small commie apartment I had issues with signal coverage with one AP.
@@snap_oversteer Yeah, I can confirm this! We have a 3 floor house, and a walls made from brick, the floors from concrete... I have 2 Unifi AP-s (one indoor, one outdoor) and when I use 5G on my phone, I have weak connectivity from both APs, even one of them are 2 meters from me, but I have two walls on that 2 meters...
Yes, VLAN video is needed. Thank you Dave! 👍
Did you mean _WLAN_ ?
@@markusTegelane good one, doublevee lan
Agreed! A VLAN episode would be great.
In the video, it might be useful to cover things like accessing across VLAN and hardening them against common VLAN hopping attacks :)
Yep, I've got UniFi gear too and my main point of buyers remorse has been the unconventional way they handle subnetting and VLANs
A guide on the Ubiquity way to do this would be superb!
It's truly amazing how you manage to point out every important aspect of the subjects you dive in to, time and time again. I hope you realize how helpful this is, perhaps intentionally, but in any way of good use. So, thank you Mr. Plummer!
Thanks! Glad some folks appreciate it!
Monetized video.
I’m an angry dad. I’m questioning the algorithm and its desire to fulfill my needs.
@@DavesGarage The answer to slow wifi is to plug directly into the router. 😂
As a farmer, mechanic, and tech person with some programming experience I love your channel! ALL your videos interest me from the lessons in computer history(got my first pc in '93), programming, your garage, your truck and light mods, and showing us how your home network is setup. It's only slightly out of reach for most but gives us a glimpse into what we may be using eventually or parts we may want to copy ourselves. Just keep showing us around and how you do things as it all contains very valuable lessons/information. Even though I fully grasp most everything you've discussed I still feel I've learned something by the end. As mentioned, you explain things along with all the hiccups you encountered doing it yourself. This is how I try to explain things to others but it is underappreciated in most cases and seems like a waste of my breathe at times. I appreciate the way you do it. It feels like accelerated learning. Have a good one!
Great video! A couple of clarifications: Band Steering usually works by ignoring Probe Requests in 2.4 GHz. When a client sends Probe Requests in 2.4 GHz, the infrastructure will ignore them X amount of times, causing most clients to only see the 5 GHz APs. It works... but can cause devices in 2.4 GHz to take longer to associate.
Fast Roaming works by speeding up authentication when a client roams. Basically, it skips a number of steps in the association/authentication process. As a result, it's not actually seamless, but it is fast enough that the user typically won't notice, or the interruption in their application will be minimal.
Sweet network setup!
Hi Dave. This was a very interesting session. I would appreciate a wireless VLAN tutorial. Many thanks.
plus one'd
Dave, my APs have been fighting me for the last 4 days making my family crazy. thank you again for being punctual on solving my issues that I didn't even realize you knew I was having. Informative and useful as always. and yes, a video on VLANs would be greatly appreciated.
Very clearly explained. I especially liked the last section on VLAN & the importance of segmenting your network.
Fantastic video Dave! After about a year of debating on which solution to go with, I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Dream machine SE, a switch, and two of Unifi access points. It all arrives tomorrow, so glad to see you post this. As always, your content is both informative and entertaining.. Thank you!
I found your channel like an hour ago and I've already learned so much. Thank you so much!
Dave, I greatly appreciate your hard work on making this channel and I would definitely appreciate a video dedicated to VLAN explanation, implementation, and descriptions of use cases.
VLANs are used to create "mini-networks". You use them to separate users and devices into groups. For example, the typical setup are VLANs for a management network (used to literally manage the network and nothing more, like your hardware), your main network for your normal users, an IoT network for non-network hardware devices, and a security camera network. I also have a separate work network that I only have my employer's devices on to separate them from the rest of my network. The I have multiple Wifi networks for wireless devices that need access to those VLANs. There are lots of tutorials on CZcams for this stuff, including setup, for a UniFi system. But hopefully this can get you started.
Yes, please do a LOT more content VLANs. Thanks, as always, for sharing your experience.
A few years ago, my son talked me into buying a brand of router I'd never heard of. Ubiquity makes a brand called Amplifi. I bought the Amplifi router and it's been bullet proof since. Even automatically downloads firmware updates, slick mesh points and it just works. Hat's off to Ubiquiti for solid hardware
Great video! I completely agree about hardwiring APs. In fact, when working ISP tech support I always advised people to hardwire any non-portable devices to alleviate them off their wireless bandwidth, especially in apartments or densely populated areas. It’s amazing how much people rely on Wi-Fi these days, yet they take so little if any time at all to understand it.
Excellent video, you always explain everything in a clear and concise, simple but technical way. Thank you.
Great channel
Love the channel. I'm glad you have grown so much. Been watching for a while now. Definitely would love to see a video on VLANs, even though I already understand them.
Awesome setup, Dave. Very well thought through and executed.
Thanks again Dave. I am a retired IT manager but have been out of the game for so long that I feel literally left behind with today's technology. I actually retired prior to the AdVent of Wi-Fi becoming the standard that it is today. (back in the day everything was hard lined many hours at a punch down block LOL) Your videos are like an advanced refresher course . I enjoy every one of them and to be quite honest they bring back so many memories to those early network/PC days . absolutely, I think you should do a VLAN follow-up.
Really would like to hear more about this VLAN setup. Thanks for the great, easy to follow information.
Great Video Dave, I wish I saw this 6 years ago when I had the exact same issues. I was lucky and stumbled on the Unifi access points, I installed 3 of the long range units and haven't had a single issue since then.
Thanks Dave for creating this video it was exactly the content I was looking for. I’ve been looking into Ubiquity for some time now and your video has been helpful. Thanks again.
Your channel is awesome! Thank you so much for the work you put into this information.
OMG that house! Very nice, Dave.
I use UniFi as well. I had to run cat6 in my house, man that was a job.
I also used the Ubiquiti in wall access points too. So every room in the house has it's own hard-wired ethernet and WiFI access points.
Next up is setting up a media server so I can stop consuming so much data from the outside world.
Been seven months…. How’s the project going.
As usual, another great video! There's always something interesting happening at Dave's Garage! And please my friend, tell us more about your VLANs! Keep rocking! 🚀
Great video, thanks for describing the setup and best practices of UniFi.
so much information. This is the ultimately 'home' deployment as it has elements of SMB network deployment elements. Very well done.
Just a head's up: VLANs alone do not limit access across VLANs. A device on one VLAN could communicate with equipment on another VLAN via any device permitted to forward packets. The exception is guest networks, which have firewalling in place by default to isolate devices connecting to that network. On your non-guest VLANs, you should consider what you need & want, then configure the firewall accordingly.
Another tip: Produce QR codes and flash NFC tags with the connection information for your guest network, then visitors can connect to that network without typing in a PSK and you don't need to leave the guest network SSID open.
Hi Dave. Great Stuff!
I'm sure a VLAN tutorial would be well-received by us all.
btw I hope your back is progressing well.
Hi Dave always a pleasure to listen to you, this one was on point and it hit home, yeah I think I need a refresher on VLAN
Dave, always great videos! Thanks! Please add a video about VLANs.
I have a UDM Pro as well, with 5 APs, 4 in the house and 1 in the sheshed. I love the system. Gotta add one more AP where I have a small deadzone in the most critical usage place, the bath room.
VLAN setup and admin would be a great topic. Thanks for the info and greetings from San Francisco.
My UDM Pro died after 2 years of service right after attempting the latest UnifiOS update. I had a bad feeling about it and waited a while till finally decided to update. It no longer booted, thankfully I still had my old Linksys router which had 8 ethernet ports and I was able to have a functional network while I RMAd my unit. Really enjoyed your video thanks for sharing.
Love your work Dave. Thanks for the content. Cheers from OZ
Thanks for posting this so it's easy to understand. I've got my network setup the same way, but have struggled to explain to others how I've got it configured. I'm a foster parent to teenagers so I try my best to keep internet usage safe including making specific wifi networks that shut off at 10:00 to encourage kids to put devices down and go to bed.
I've been trying to figure out a good way to document my setup to share with other foster families but haven't taken the time to do so. I'll be sharing this with others, thanks
@corymason4818 ... good luck getting teenagers to accept wifi shutoff at 10:00 pm. Let us know how that works out for you ...😀
That was super cool, actually gave me some new insight to home networking apart from just having my modem, and one router to do all the work.
VLANs are an oft misunderstood concept. I really struggled with it when I was trying to get my head around it for my home network and one thing I found is that the ease of deployment seems to be variable between switch vendors.
I'm giving a talk on VLANs and Switchdev next week :)
Thanks for this video. It was very helpful. I’d appreciate a VLAN video someday.
Dave I would love to see an episode about vlans. I was trying to deploy a network at my office trying to use vlans to separate printer and server access to certain clients only. While also offering a guest network, and I still don't understand what to do or how to implement it today. Most forums speak about it like we should be born knowing what a VLAN is. I would love to see an episode with your breakdown on it. As always thank you for your videos Dave!
Dave, you've just described the plight my dad has battled for decades. Me, my mom, and my sisters have bemoaned the poor Wi-fi for years!
Learned a lot from this episode! Thank you! Yes, please do an episode on vlan.
I've been running Unifi gear in my sprawling house (not as large or nice as Dave's though!) since 2018. I can vouch for everything that he has said here. There's also a lot more to it that he hasn't (yet?) covered. In depth VLAN for example.
Great video Dave, I'd love to see a VLAN video. I'm a networking expert but it's always enlightening to see how other people implement VLAN's unique to their own environments.
Nice and classic solution. The disadvantage is the binding with this vendor. We have done quite a few builds with a classic other solution. This solution is Mikrotik for core router and ubiquiti for wifi system, it is this hybrid implementation that behaves extremely well.
I'm glad I'm not alone with my wifi woes. I just bought some TP Link equipment but haven't had a chance to try it out
Love how great your videos are. I think I understand VLANs but I'm sure you have lots to teach me.
Those Unifi wap's and their entire ecosystem is amazing. They do such a good job at not making it completely proprietary and at the same time making it all work together smoothly. The PoE options are also a big plus.
I would definitely love a video on VLAN's. I hope you can make one if you haven't already!
You got me interested in vlans and learning more about networking than I already do
Hi Dave, Another old-timer Bob here. I really like listening to old time tech in your channel. Before I forget, let me put in a plug for more vlan coverage.
I go back to IBM 360 assembler and customized worldwide networking with Pan Am and Avis in the late '60s and early '70s.
I jumped on the mini and micro train while I continued to work with mainframes in the '80s and beyond. I loved windows when it came out, but I grew cold to it after 7.
I'm retired now and I live in Linux. I usually keep a single modern windows machine to run a few windows apps reliably.
Thanks for your channel.
This is great Dave. I light up about 6 acres with 3 houses the same equipment. I have the SE version of the router BUT it’s important that folks understand that all the non SFP+ ports share the same 1gb controller. So I have the SE router connected to fiber to 3 pro 10G switches. Anyhow, thanks for the video.
Thank You this was very helpful. Would love an episode on v-lans.
I've been using a Unifi AP since about 2019, and now have 3 around the house. When I rebuilt my network (then still in an apartment) around 2014, I used a Ubiquiti Edgemax router, but didn't go with a Unifi AP initially. Since I only needed one, I didn't want a system that required a controller, and at that time they only used a special passive 24V PoE mode. So I went through two different brands of APs for a while, which each had various problems (mostly related to either VLANs, IPv6, or RADIUS). Eventually I decided just to get a Unifi after they switched to standard 802.3af, and by that time I had a VM server set up for other applications I could run the controller on.
They've definitely figured out how to dominate the market for small installations that need more professional features. I think the key was pricing the entry level APs around $100 and not requiring dedicated hardware or software licensing for the controller.
Great video! Learned a few things.
Awesome setup and big fan of your videos. That’s the kind of build many of us aspire to. I do think from a security perspective this has a whole lot of information in it, hopefully at least you got new ips as even though you have a few security appliances I would personally not want to share so much so publicly.
Dave, Much respect for the channel, just my kind of content. also much respect for your contributions to Windows OS. i also love ubiquiti gear and have a hardwired network in my house. i fully understand the pain of my children saying dad my youtube kids is offline again, they have no idea what we grew up with!! funniest part for me is when the network or isp goes down and its just my fault. Kids read a book of play a game on the floor not watch a screen. I wish i could get them off the instant gratification, but they are only 7 & 10. Rant over, much respect for task manager it has been a constant help for years of windows troubleshooting amongst other things.
I’m literally sorting ours out and want unifi. Great vid. What a house!
My house is a bit smaller but I am using five Unifi access points. I'm using slightly older (3) UAP-AC-Pro and (2) UAP-nanoHD access points. All of my APs have a 1Gbps PoE network connection. I could easily get away with less but bandwidth and reliability may be hampered. My APs can see nearly 500 other SSIDs in the neighborhood. My APs monitor channels and can de-power the transmission power to limit their range automatically. I have some variability throughout my property but in doing speed tests, the weakest area of my property provides at least 200 Mbps up and down, where most is around 400 Mbps up and down. I do my speed tests using both publicly available speed tests as well as my own speed test server running LibreSpeed. For devices that use WiFi, that should be plenty of bandwidth. If you need better bandwidth, I have plenty of network jacks throughout the house.
I run my Unifi controller (UniFi Network Application) on a Ubuntu 22.04.2 VM. Like Dave, I have separate VLANs for my personal devices, IoT devices, and guests. I also include a VLAN for WiFi purposes for cameras. My camera network though has no direct access to the Internet, as I don't want them to report home to their manufacturer. The network video recorder has access to the camera network as well as another network. I have other wired VLANs for different web services operating on VMs. I don't use Ubiquiti's router though, I instead use pfSense Plus.
Just after you enter my house, I have a picture frame that contains two custom-stylized QR codes. One directs your smartphone to connect with my guest VLAN and the other to run a speedtest with one of my LibreSpeed test servers. For those with devices without cameras, I also have the SSID and passphrase needed to gain access to my guest VLAN, as well as the URL for my speed test server.
Excellent video, thanks Dave.
I had to go with 2 perm access points, and 1 temp one, just for the smoker. The trick was to use the same SSID and put everything on a different channel. No issues.
Hi Dave. Great Video Thank-you very Much. Yes, Please make a video about V-LAN's.
Nice tips given here, Dave.
For optimal performance, signal level should be kept above -67dBm. WiFiman is a good app to track wifi signal for iPhone+Android.
In high density scenarios, where your APs coverage significantly overlap, try to reduce the transmit power to a point where you're keeping good signal and performance.
For the record, some Wi-Fi devices have either poor antenna design, or limited transmit power.
Reducing transmit power will reduce the cases where your devices still indicate 3 bars of signal and yet gets poor performance.
Remember the rule: "WiFi works best when APs whisper and stations shout."
Last thing: making your AP transmitting above 100mW / 20dBm is futile, as a wide range of devices won't be able to send data beyond that power level.
Hardcore advices (don't bother if this doesn't mean anything to you):
- Set DTIM to 3 to optimize power consumption on mobile devices.
- Turn on Multicast optimization, especially if you're using your carrier's IPTV service (country/service specific).
- For 2.4GHz, disable 802.11b rates if all your devices support at least 802.11g.
- Enable 802.11d (world mode) and set your country code (especially if you welcome people from foreign places, or if you live in Europe, this will make the device adjust to your local regulations).
- Set your APs to ignore any signal below -83dBm on 2.4GHz.
- Enable UNII-II channels and DFS if you don't live near an airport or a weather radar (country specific, check local regulations).
There's a lot more to say, but this comment is already getting too long.
Dave, great minds think alike. I'm a fan of the Ubiquiti solution as well. I'm just starting the process of setting up an IOT network and would love to hear what you have had luck doing. I think the specific trickier points to set up are going to be items like... how to Cast from a phone on main network to Roku on IOT network. I'm sure the firewall rules and which rules for typical items are going to be the trickiest part of this!
Yeah, that was my issue too. On a virtualised Pfsense, setup. I now am using an Openwrt setup, but want to "play" on the Pfsense!
@brianfritz575, simple, your phone is an IOT device, put it on the IOT network, or if you prefer to keep it on your main network, just have it join the IOT one when you cast.
Definitely want a van video, would be much more appreciated than I could ever express in words. Thanks for the awesome content.
That setup looks really nice! thankfully my 800sqft home only needs one wireless router in a central location to meet most of my needs.
Yes Dave please give a talk on VLAN
Your mention of do we want a video on vlans is a Yes Please. I’m an IT generalist working my day job but would like to learn more about the ins and outs of vlans for work and home use. That would be great if you can swing it, thanks!
Trying to grasp vlan works/rules tutorials needed. Thanks. Rolly.
a big 👍 to the extras! Great performances guys!
This is a really fun one, great intro!
I too use Unifi. I started with the UDM and once I saw how good it was, I immediately upgraded to the UDM Pro and one AP. Now I have four WiFi 6e APs and three 10G switches. All of my APs are hard wired with meshing turned off. Absolutley love Unifi! But the same for me, it has been almost 2 years now so I also have the original UDM Pro with a 1TB WD Blue SSD and three G4 Pro camera. 77 devices, lol on four separate networks and four separate SSIDs with one being IoT only.
Great tip about isolating all those IOT devices into separate VLANs, plus one for guests. Thank you.
Good video :)
Would like to see the VLAN video, indeed. While I know the basics, it'd be nice to get a more in depth look, and you do seem to have a way of explaining these things in a clear, concise and engaging manner :)
just to say a very intuitive video on networking helped brush up a few things
Great video Dave as always. Your setup is more impressive than my companies. We added ubiquiti Wi-Fi to replace our old WiFi equipment today though, but I don’t see the need for the dream machine.
Great video on the pains of "dad the wifi is down" which any parent has heard.
A video on VLANs would be nice.
I am in the process of doing a ESP32 LED display for the house based on your videos.
Thanks
Ubiquiti stuff is addictive, too... you get used to being able to manage (and more importantly, diagnose) network issues. Also, I would enjoy a video about configuring VLANs.
I'd like to hear more about your Crestron home automation. My experience with Crestron (and AMX) is that only technicians who would for a certified Crestron installers have the tools to configure and maintain the systems. That's definitely a no-go for someone like me who wants to be able to configure a home automation system myself.
Very neat setup. I would recommend getting a cable management box. A piece of hardware you would put in your rack to manage cables.
VLAN sounds like a great video idea! I'd love to be able to strategically expose some internal devices on the net to more than one VLAN, so I can keep a super secure on for just my stuff and stick anyone else on a passworded, but still sandboxed one, while they could still access some internal servers or other stuff.
Cool stuff. Will probably revisit this soon, when I’m ready to upgrade a bit. Thanks!
And sure, a vlan video would be fun. :)
Yes, definitely interested in the VLAN video. I don't have that dream networked home you have but I want to have my server/NAS, cables for all devices, and a better internet connection, but most importantly, make my network better managed than it is now.
Great video one thing to watch for with vlan in unifi depending on how you set them up they may have routes to the other vlan setup by default
Off course Dave, do the VLAN video. From explaining the technology, packet management and how routing is done, to use cases and the angry dad's recommended brand of choice.
Happy to know that I set up basically the same network without the udmpro as I use the software version to control APs installed on a local VM and a HP 24 1G ports with Poe and recently added a microtick 10g switch to handle faster devices and the 5gbps internet box
Yes please on a video about VLANs. I just started figuring out home networking and setting up a homelab, so VLANs would be interesting to play with.
Man you hit a nerve on this one! we had the same issues only we went TP Link and omada controller due to cost but works like a charm! also we used Ubiquity Light Beams to make a connection between our PFSense router and another property 1000ft away. on the other property I built a solar powered job box and attached a pole with an outdoor wifi and the light beam on the property and used golf cart batteries to power it all. No power on my other property... anyway it all worked out and now we have wifi all over our mountain.
TP-Link has come out with a somewhat-similar solution with their Omada line, but I've been using Unifi for several years for my APs (and cameras). The controller's handling of multiple APs is *so* convenient.
It's a beauty to hear a mega sw engineer that knows well the ISO/OSI layers. Great man ! Btw... Every time I lainch now the task manager I have a small lag.... thinking at your video :-) ciao from Italy
Dave, my setup almost mirrors what you explained. I started with the Linksys 54wrt and switched to unifi about 10 years ago. We use the Cisco wireless controller (WLC) at work and was pleasantly surprised at how the unifi controller seamlessly managed the network without much fuss. No dedicated H/W and most settings out of the box just work. I have since recommended/setup the unifi solution for friends and family and almost never receive the "support calls" usually disguised dinner invitation to fix stuff. The VLAN setup is pretty straightforward no CLI or in depth knowledge required - you might want to explain that in a future video.
As always, great content! Would like to see a VLan episode 😄
Great video, great information. Yes, please do dedicated VLAN video. How about your security cameras? Do you (or should others) set up these cameras in a separate isolated VLAN? Thanks for the discussion of newer wifi features such as fast roaming and how Unifi's management features can optimize wifi.
I've done a fair few wireless surveys using the Netally EtherScope, worth the cost. Most problems are easily fixed by fewer access points and better location placement.
Great video as always!
I ended up setting up a wifi 6E mesh network with 4 nodes across the house and it works surprisingly well.
Yes please, Dave. A VLAN episode would be great! Thank you!
I would certainly like to learn more about VLANs. Please do a video on it!
That is another excellent video, Dave. Can you please do one about VLAN? Thanks 😀
Great video! I'd appreciate a VLAN video I find they become quite complicated to understand.
Flex all you want Dave, you deserve it, and your giving back, Thank You! People like you give me something to keep living and to strive for, never give up, never surrender! 😃
Love your channel man.