Which UniFi access point should I get? Also layout question.

[TwistedHelixis]

I need buy some UniFi access points, but its a little confusing which would be best.

 

The school currently have a mix of the old AP and AP pros, but they are very very old and much newer better versions are now out.

 

I need them for 8 classrooms. There are 4 ground floor rooms in a line and the other 4 rooms are sat directly above. There are stairs in the middle of the building which splits the building in half, so 4 rooms on one side (upper and lower) and 4 on the other. Hope that makes sense.

 

If you take one of the sides, I have 1 access point in the lower left class and one in the upper right, the other side has the same.

 

All pupils have their own Chromebooks and the old access points are really struggling. Today one of the teachers said that only half his class could access the videos he was sharing.

 

Each class has about 30 Chromebooks and the teachers laptop that needs to connect.

 

I was thinking of getting UniFi6 Pro, but notice they also do a few others like the Access Point AC Pro

 

This is a link to their website. https://eu.store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-wireless

 

Hopefully someone could take a look that better understands the differences and could post back what you would suggest we purchase.

 

Also, does my AP layout seem OK?

[mrwoberts]

A brief answer based on my own upgrade a year ago in the summer.

We put a nanoHD in every classroom, 22 overall. Put the firmware on 6.0.x and currently, the controller is at v5.

The nanoHD's seem sufficient and we've had no real problems once we found a firmware that wasn't too buggy!

 

Had a staff meeting in the main hall the other day with over 50 staff present, all accessing Teams and some streaming, and the hall nano coped just fine - minor delays.

 

I'd imagine the APs you're looking at would be far more substantial than the nano's, but I'd definitely recommend putting one in each room if you can - you can tweak the power and preferences to accommodate each neighbour...

[mullet_man]

We are a secondary and went all AC-PROs and for the most part they have been good but found that when we have two classes of laptops close together so accessing the same AP or large staff meeting that the pros just can't cope with anything over 40ish connections so would definitely go for the HD variety as you just dont know what will change in the future.

 

If we keep Unifi I'd definitely be looking at the HD versions for our next deployment.

[Rob_D]

Definitely go one AP per classroom if you've got student 1:1 devices. I believe the Unifi APs can auto-negotiate if you've got a controller installed somewhere.

 

For a deployment of your size, it might be worth looking at Aruba instant-on. When I looked they were a bit cheaper than the Unifi PROs for a similar spec.

[FN-GM]

Definitely go one AP per classroom

 

I would be careful. I inherited a school when I worked in the MAT. It had issues with the WIFI and had an AP in each classroom. I removed many so that 2 classrooms shared an AP and it resolved their issues.

[DGardiner]

I would be careful. I inherited a school when I worked in the MAT. It had issues with the WIFI and had an AP in each classroom. I removed many so that 2 classrooms shared an AP and it resolved their issues.

 

if you play with, the global power settings on the recent firmwares (check the exclusions as any aps added prior to the update where that was added will be there by default) Set 2.4ghz to low and 5ghz to medium seems to have ours running great and put an end to things hanging onto access points.

 

Obviously you cant rely on bleed over as much but its eliminated all in class connectivity issues for all of our unifi schools

[Cat_Jam148]

We have 30 across the site, with 1 in each classroom.

 

With UniFi, getting the power levels and channels right is a must

 

I've found alternating between the 'wide' channels for 2.4ghz (1,6 & 11) & 5ghz helps a lot when APs are in close proximity

[hallb15]

The structural design of the building will have a big impact on wifi performance, which makes it hard to accurately predict what the best configuration is for your needs.

I would suggest you do your own wifi survey using a laptop and something like inSSIDer so you can see with your current setup where the weak points are and plan for extra APs in those areas.

An AP in each classroom may turn out to be overkill.

You could buy just one new AP and try that out in a few locations to work out how many you will need and in which classrooms.

 

As an example, we have two buildings and the newer 'temporary' building has much thinner walls than the old building so we use the Lite version in that building and the Pro version in the main building.

 

If you follow the advice in the DfE Wireless Networks Standards document, you should be installing WiFi 6 standard APs.

 

I use 4Gon for purchasing UniFi equipment as they offer the best pricing and their website is updated regularly so their stock levels give you a good idea of availability - which has been an issue recently with UniFi kit.

[gszech]

There are 70+ UniFi APs in our school. Half of the school is using Nano HD and we migrated other half to U6-PRO. The long term plan is to go for WiFi 6 models as per DfE recommendations.

 

Here are some things to consider when deciding on APs

1. NanoHD comes in with smaller mount compared to U6-PRO. U6-PRO mount is compatible with previous larger size UniFi APs so replacement is much easier if you are already using large UniFi APs.

2. NanoHD coverage is not great. It's not bad and it works with 1:1 AP per classroom setup, but we ended up installing more NanoHD APs in odd small offices where our old WiFi solution could reach the odd places. This added up to the total cost and more APs.

3. NanoHD is using WiFi 5 standard, so you are stick with older technology. Eventually the school will end up with new laptops that will use WiFi 6, but your APs won't support the new standard.

4. NanoHD is classified as 4th Generation Device, U6-Pro is their 6th Generation Device that also comes with new chipset. In the future you might be limited with some new functionality. Also it's worth noting that U6-LR is classified as 5th Generation Devices which, that's why we ended up with U6-Pro (better chipset).

 

In terms of performance we had exams with 60 x Chromebooks being used in one room on NanoHD and U6-PRO and everything was working fine.

[Aprice]

I'd suggest U6 Pro's for all new Unifi installs, partly as the DFE now suggests all new installs should comply with the AX standard.

[Rob_D]

If you're going for Wifi6 access points, then I'd throw the Aruba Instant-on APs into consideration. When I looked (back in the summer), the Aruba units were coming in slightly cheaper than equivalent specced Unifi ones.

[mrwoberts]

I'd agree with the comments suggesting Wifi6 models. In fact, if I had to quote now for an upgrade I would consider U6-Pro, U6-LR, or U6-Lite

 

Take a look at this article on this subject. Very detailed and informative - he has other articles that may also help you with Unifi-related stuff

 

https://evanmccann.net/blog/2021/1/unifi-ap-guide

[Mr.Ben]

We are buying the U6-LRs at the moment because they are available and support 4x4 MU-MIMO, unlike the equivalent instant on Aruba devices. (Which are only 2x2).

[KK20]

unifis are odd ducks, you need to pick a firmware that works for you, we had issues with ipads not getting DHCP and needed to play with firmware. We really do fear "install this patch for a 0 day fix" as it rarely works first time, but they are cheap.... We have a mix of around 20 ACLR, 10 AC lite and 10 ac pro. The lite are ok but dont cope well with more than 30 devices (chromebooks and ipads mainly). The ACLR are ok but suffer a lot from "weak edge connection" i.e. devices that hold onto the weak signal for ages without seeking a stronger signal - we ended up lowering the power (negating the point of LR), however these cope with better density so we purchase these instead of nano's. The pro's are great, better density but again we needed to tune the power down so devices seek better signals quicker.

 

As others have said, we tuned our 2.4 really low.

 

Get one unifi, get it powered in each room and do a site survey around the location. Yes this will take time but it saves just plonking them randomly. Due to our school construction (mainly stone) I found mounting them VERTICALLY worked much better - my WIFI goes "up and down" through the wooden floors rather than "side to side" for some areas, then in higher density classrooms they are horizontal. As for heatmapping, we did this manually using wifianalyser and walking around the room eyeballing it - simple "red, yellow, green" marker on a map. We didnt pay for something like netspot.

Edited November 3, 2022 by KK20

[gszech]

We ordered some U6-LRs, but returned them when we find out that they only offer WiFi 6 on 5GHz.

The U6-LR offer 4 x 4 MIMO on both 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies, but they only deliver WiFi 4 on 2.4Ghz.

This website compares all the details: https://evanmccann.net/blog/2022/5/u6-pro-and-u6-mesh-review

[KK20]

you need to have a fairly specific 2.4 set of clients to make 2.4 ax worthwhile. Do you have a lot of 2.4 ax devices and no legacy devices? You are also aware that legacy devices connecting to an ax 2.4 will slow down as those are parked whilst the OFDMA 6 clients are serviced, it isnt a pipeline. Coupled with the fact that ax isnt any faster then it is questionable as to why anyone would invest in 2.4ax clients at all. I would be interested to see a usage case though (2.4 mesh with multi stream channels where there is too much stone to have acceptable 5ghz maybe? ). I know from personal experience here that heavily metalled eco glass and stone walls EAT signal. So much so, I can sit with a ubiquiti mesh on one side of a window and lost connectivity 1m on the other side! That job meant I needed to drill and get the 3 ladder extension out for that one.

 

One thing I did forget to add is that most unifi saucers have a mushroom shaped radiation pattern https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005212927-UniFi-Network-AP-Antenna-Radiation-Patterns this helps place them if you can visualise them in a room.

Edited November 3, 2022 by KK20

[TwistedHelixis]

After playing with one 6 pro from another school, I will be putting in 1 of the 6 Pro discs into each room, with both the 2.4 and 5ghz turned down to low, but with the 5ghz set as the first hit for clients.

 

Just wish they were in stock.

 

Thanks for all the help and pointers, its been very handy.

[KK20]

softcat have 30x U6-PRO and 2914x U6-LR in stock if that helps.

[gszech]

We bought out ones from Amazon Business, sometime ago they had very good discount on the U6-PROs.

[TwistedHelixis]

Was going to fill out the form on softcat, but they have a marketing box that you have no choice but to tick before you can submit the sales form. I really don't like being forced to sign up for junk mail, just for a quote.

 

Ill check out Amazon Business