Unifi nanohd Vs ac-pro

[tj2419]

We've been testing some different wireless vendors and decided to go with Unifi but I cant decide between the nano-hd or the ac-pro access points.

 

Do you think we would get much benefit from the mu-mimo of the nano-hd or go for the ac-pro? The ac-pro has the better rates at 2.4Ghz but slower at 5Ghz.

 

Any advice would be gratefully received.

[m25man]

We've been testing some different wireless vendors and decided to go with Unifi but I cant decide between the nano-hd or the ac-pro access points.

 

Do you think we would get much benefit from the mu-mimo of the nano-hd or go for the ac-pro? The ac-pro has the better rates at 2.4Ghz but slower at 5Ghz.

 

Any advice would be gratefully received.

 

Watch Von Nagy’s section in this webinar from the 5 min mark in this video...

https://youtu.be/W90bVlzKfLo

 

WiFi is client driven, not AP driven.

To much money is spent on APs that never get used or are configured wrongly.

 

The thing with Unifi is that it’s so cheap in comparison to some it’s hard to actually waste your money.

Never the less, you can still set it up so badly there’s no advantage gained.

[mavhc]

Pity they used terrible wifi to record the presentation. It is 1.5 years old, and the revolutionwifi blog seems to have died about the same time, odd.

 

First find out what your current hardware supports. And what you're planning to buy. https://www.wi-fi.org/product-finder

 

In general the problem in a school is density and capacity, you want to have 100% coverage but minimal overlap between classrooms, esp if you're on multiple floors. At least on a single floor you'd have a max of 8 other classrooms around you, N/NE/E/SE... but if you have more on top or below, or worse, both, there's not enough channels.

 

Perfect solution would be 1 AP per classroom, with walls that stopped interference from the classroom next door. 5GHz is lower range, so better.

 

My laptop does 802.11ac 5GHz 2 spatial streams.

 

https://unifi-nanohd.ui.com/ shows the nanohd is better than the ac pro in multiple ways, doesn't need PoE+, has more MIMO, has MU-MIMO. It's wave 2 ac.

 

Much better for multiple users at once, assuming your laptops have 802.11ac 5GHz.

 

A 4x4 MU-MIMO AP can send data to 4 laptops at once, so is 4x faster overall

[mdrabble]

When I replaced our WiFi back in February I opted for the NanoHD with the view of over x number of years devices will change and improve and take advantage of the NanoHD features.

[chazzy2501]

As I kit out our school with refurb laptops there are no Wi-Fi AC clients, this is why I've opted for the AC Pro as it has a stronger 2.4ghz offering. 3x3 vs 2x2 also a lot of "value" devices still only operate at 2.4ghz

@mavhc you can limit an APs output instead of shielding a room I have the facebook wifi for our 6th form at just 3db so it only works in the common room and is suppressed by the walls. (Meraki device though) That and the pupils don't complain that they can taste metal as they walk by it jk

[mavhc]

AC Pro is only faster on 2.4GHz if you have a 3x3 device to connect to it though. Which you don't.

[chazzy2501]

most of my laptops have an Centrino Ultimate N 6300 that does indeed support 3x3 https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/59474/intel-centrino-ultimate-n-6300-dual-band.html

 

some do have the 6020 though.

 

EDIT:

 

I did upgrade a single 640 G1 to an Intel Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 a 2x2 AC card, it connected at a higher speed but transferred files at identical speeds. (single AP used, same laptop) This may improve though if many laptops were using it.

Edited June 10, 2019 by chazzy2501

[mavhc]

Fair enough. Got to have the aerials to support it I guess.

[mavhc]

Looks like your wifi card has to support TxBF (transmit beamforming) for MU-MIMO to work, although that existed in 8021.n days, even the intel 2x2 ac wifi card I have in this HP laptop doesn't support it.