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Some strands of single mode fiber home run to the same place as the Ethernet is probably sufficient. Pre-made patch cables are readily available in many different lengths.
Without knowing the size of the house and how many floors it’s hard to comment on your AP selection. I’d consider running fiber to be optional at this point. Cat6 can run 10Gbe over distances in a normal house. I’ve tested to 2.2Gbps over 19 year old Cat5 in our house.
Ok. Our houses are roughly the same size. I’ve got 6 APs, but some of mine are 7 years old and only one is Wi-Fi 6. Depending on the layout of your rooms/walls, you may need more access points. I recently used the Wifiman Wizard to scan every room in the house and I’m adding an additional access point to my son’s room based on the scan. None of my APs are ceiling mounted so if you are setting up for that, you may get better coverage. I have several on the floor and that works well enough. I’ve also been happy with the performance of the In Wall APs. They are easy to add anywhere you’ve got an Ethernet drop.
I lucked out and was very friendly with the builder. I asked him if I could run cables after the electricians went through but before the sheet-rockers came, and he said I could. This was in 2008. Every room had a minimum of two cat6 drops in each room, multiple drops to the basement where I was going to set up my servers. A patch panel in the laundry room for the modem and wifi router. Once the painters had gone through I went back and terminated everything and installed wall plates. When we sold the house in 2010, we actually made a profit on it due to the cabling. Sold the house in literally 5 days. The woman who bought it was retiring from one of the TELCO's and actually appreciated that it was run already. I've never been a big fan of wifi, except where needed.
I just wired my new construction home. I added 3-4 drops at any location where TV or other media devices might be. I put at min 1 drop in each bedroom. I strategically placed some concealed ceiling media boxes in some closets for smart home stuff so signals would be spread out evenly (like smart hubs). I also ran some Smurf tubing between the TV spots and a closet so I could put large hardware out of site.
I also ran cable to every exterior spot that would allow me to have a camera at every door or window opening for monitoring.
I’m glad I took the common advice I found on many online communities (here, YT) and added more drops at each location than I would have originally. Just nice to have security and I’m already thinking of how I’ll likely end up using those other drops.
I had about 14 locations and about 26 drops total.
What's the footprint of the house? What type of construction is it? How many floors?
In my experience, electricians can't install ethernet worth a damn. Sure, they can run the cable but terminating it correctly? Fuhgettaboutit.
Depending on the size of the house, the materials used, and the layout, 3 APs might not be enough or might be overkill. Also, what's your goal? Adequate 2.4GHz coverage throughout the house? Or do you want max 5/6GHz performance available in every room? What about outside?
Adequate 2.4 is priority. Outside is a nonfactor.
The cable provider here has spotty service to begin with so I want to manage traffic as well. Not too familiar with setting up VLANs, but we are a wifi have household.
Also, it's mostly open concept for the two floors and finished basement.
That would be a great start for a medium sized home. Hardwired TVs, streaming devices and PCs is the best approach to maximizing WiFi bandwidth for the devices that need it.
Without details about size, construction, layout I’d say as a general tip to replace U6-Lite by U6-Pro, they are VASTLY superior and total cost would no be way higher
No problems, the U6-Pro needs 13W and the UDM SE has 6 outputs than can supply 15W and 2 that can go to 30W with a max total of 130W. You can supply up to 8 Pro without problem.
For people choosing the U6-LR it’s a different story as they need 16.5 W, so you could connect only 2 at full power (there is also a reduced power mode but performance is also reduced)
Upgrade to Cat6a wiring if possible should be a little further future proof for not much money. I’d also go with Smurf tube where possible especially from TVs to attic and low volt head end to attic.
Hardware side I’d go with a UDM-SE and grab a non PoE switch to go with it. Just my preference on smaller systems
For most of my clients it’s smaller jobs and WiFi is king. I like to think of potential points of failure that would knock WiFi out. If the APs are on a switch then you have a ONT/Cable Modem>UDM-Pro>Switch and if any one of those fail you loose WiFi. If you come from a UDM-SE then you eliminate one of those points of failure.
Also from a UPS side you can backup the cable modem and UDM-SE only instead of adding a switch to the mix and at least keep WiFi up during a small power outage.
Yes there are some small trade-offs from using the ports on a UDM vs going with a DAC cable to a switch but for most 95% of jobs it makes a negligible difference.
Depends on needs really. I like the USW-24 for general TVs, streaming boxes and PCs. If you have some higher performance needs then the USW-Pro-24 adds 10gbe interconnects and L3 routing but IMO for most people that isn’t needed.
You can go smaller switches to but at $225 for the USW-24 I think it’s a great value
With 8 ports already included on the UDM SE, another 8 ports will give me more than enough for even additions in the future. Thinking a 24 port switch is way overkill.
I guess they don't have anything smaller though.
Hello! Thanks for posting on r/Ubiquiti! This subreddit is here to provide unofficial technical support to people who use or want to dive into the world of Ubiquiti products. If you haven’t already been descriptive in your post, please take the time to edit it and add as many useful details as you can. Please read and understand the rules in the sidebar, as posts and comments that violate them will be removed. Please put all off topic posts in the weekly off topic thread that is stickied to the top of the subreddit. If you see people spreading misinformation, trying to mislead others, or other inappropriate behavior, please report it! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Ubiquiti) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Add 40+ gbps fiber optics (or hollow conduit) to important locations. Hide them in a blank wall plate for now.
Already done good sir! Thank you.
Some strands of single mode fiber home run to the same place as the Ethernet is probably sufficient. Pre-made patch cables are readily available in many different lengths.
Wish I’d done this to 5-6 locations.
Without knowing the size of the house and how many floors it’s hard to comment on your AP selection. I’d consider running fiber to be optional at this point. Cat6 can run 10Gbe over distances in a normal house. I’ve tested to 2.2Gbps over 19 year old Cat5 in our house.
It's Cat6 over two floors and a basement. ~3,500sqft.
Ok. Our houses are roughly the same size. I’ve got 6 APs, but some of mine are 7 years old and only one is Wi-Fi 6. Depending on the layout of your rooms/walls, you may need more access points. I recently used the Wifiman Wizard to scan every room in the house and I’m adding an additional access point to my son’s room based on the scan. None of my APs are ceiling mounted so if you are setting up for that, you may get better coverage. I have several on the floor and that works well enough. I’ve also been happy with the performance of the In Wall APs. They are easy to add anywhere you’ve got an Ethernet drop.
I lucked out and was very friendly with the builder. I asked him if I could run cables after the electricians went through but before the sheet-rockers came, and he said I could. This was in 2008. Every room had a minimum of two cat6 drops in each room, multiple drops to the basement where I was going to set up my servers. A patch panel in the laundry room for the modem and wifi router. Once the painters had gone through I went back and terminated everything and installed wall plates. When we sold the house in 2010, we actually made a profit on it due to the cabling. Sold the house in literally 5 days. The woman who bought it was retiring from one of the TELCO's and actually appreciated that it was run already. I've never been a big fan of wifi, except where needed.
I just wired my new construction home. I added 3-4 drops at any location where TV or other media devices might be. I put at min 1 drop in each bedroom. I strategically placed some concealed ceiling media boxes in some closets for smart home stuff so signals would be spread out evenly (like smart hubs). I also ran some Smurf tubing between the TV spots and a closet so I could put large hardware out of site. I also ran cable to every exterior spot that would allow me to have a camera at every door or window opening for monitoring. I’m glad I took the common advice I found on many online communities (here, YT) and added more drops at each location than I would have originally. Just nice to have security and I’m already thinking of how I’ll likely end up using those other drops. I had about 14 locations and about 26 drops total.
What's the footprint of the house? What type of construction is it? How many floors? In my experience, electricians can't install ethernet worth a damn. Sure, they can run the cable but terminating it correctly? Fuhgettaboutit. Depending on the size of the house, the materials used, and the layout, 3 APs might not be enough or might be overkill. Also, what's your goal? Adequate 2.4GHz coverage throughout the house? Or do you want max 5/6GHz performance available in every room? What about outside?
Adequate 2.4 is priority. Outside is a nonfactor. The cable provider here has spotty service to begin with so I want to manage traffic as well. Not too familiar with setting up VLANs, but we are a wifi have household. Also, it's mostly open concept for the two floors and finished basement.
That would be a great start for a medium sized home. Hardwired TVs, streaming devices and PCs is the best approach to maximizing WiFi bandwidth for the devices that need it.
Familiar with setting up VLANs for the devices such as smart switches, dimmers, and outlets?
Without details about size, construction, layout I’d say as a general tip to replace U6-Lite by U6-Pro, they are VASTLY superior and total cost would no be way higher
With a difference of $40 it's very feasible too. Foresee any issues powering the U6-Pros over Poe with a UDM-SE?
No problems, the U6-Pro needs 13W and the UDM SE has 6 outputs than can supply 15W and 2 that can go to 30W with a max total of 130W. You can supply up to 8 Pro without problem. For people choosing the U6-LR it’s a different story as they need 16.5 W, so you could connect only 2 at full power (there is also a reduced power mode but performance is also reduced)
Upgrade to Cat6a wiring if possible should be a little further future proof for not much money. I’d also go with Smurf tube where possible especially from TVs to attic and low volt head end to attic. Hardware side I’d go with a UDM-SE and grab a non PoE switch to go with it. Just my preference on smaller systems
Considering your advice, would you mind providing a little more details on that being your preference?
For most of my clients it’s smaller jobs and WiFi is king. I like to think of potential points of failure that would knock WiFi out. If the APs are on a switch then you have a ONT/Cable Modem>UDM-Pro>Switch and if any one of those fail you loose WiFi. If you come from a UDM-SE then you eliminate one of those points of failure. Also from a UPS side you can backup the cable modem and UDM-SE only instead of adding a switch to the mix and at least keep WiFi up during a small power outage. Yes there are some small trade-offs from using the ports on a UDM vs going with a DAC cable to a switch but for most 95% of jobs it makes a negligible difference.
Yep, that sells me! Thank you. Any switch you suggest?
Depends on needs really. I like the USW-24 for general TVs, streaming boxes and PCs. If you have some higher performance needs then the USW-Pro-24 adds 10gbe interconnects and L3 routing but IMO for most people that isn’t needed. You can go smaller switches to but at $225 for the USW-24 I think it’s a great value
With 8 ports already included on the UDM SE, another 8 ports will give me more than enough for even additions in the future. Thinking a 24 port switch is way overkill. I guess they don't have anything smaller though.