Hi, I hope its appropriate to ask this here, considering this is the most active community closest to this topic (Networking). I am moving places shortly and will need to start from scratch will all networking equipment. Including router and wifi-extenders. Am wondering what the general consencus is around networking gear, what brands are good and homelab friendly? I’ve heard great things about Ubiquity, but know nothing about their products. I do wish to buy a mesh system, as I do have 2 floors and concrete walls in the new place. I am looking for something easy to maintain, yet customizable for when I get more comfortable with playing around with networking equipment.

I have some experience with TP-link + decos, but really dont like their app and default settings. Blocks mullvad.net by default for instance…

If it matters, there will only be 2 people connected normally ~ approx 8 devices or so in total.

  • 2 phones,
  • 2 laptops (wired if possible)
  • 1 desktop comupter (wired)
  • server (wired)
  • Nvdia shield (wired)
  • RaspberriPi (wired)

Am also aiming to buy a 1000/1000 Mbps connection :)

Lemmy know what you would recommend in this scenario, and please feel free to ask about further details if I have missed anything, Thanks as always!

  • Sunny' 🌻OPEnglish
    2•5 months ago

    Would you mind elaborating on what kind of setup you have? What Unifi devices etc…

    • @[email protected]English
      4•5 months ago

      My setup is really high end i just treated it like a gaming pc. Dream machine Pro Max connected to a POE Enterprise 48, that gives 2.5gb network to all the wired devices. Have one u6 pro and one u7 pro access points. Finally a 1u unvr which runs the 10 or so AI-Pro cameras.

    • @[email protected]English
      2•5 months ago

      I run two APs, and a Unifi server running on a thin client linux server.

      I have the U7, and the U6 extender that goes in a wall outlet

      I have a few of their small poe powered ethernet switches, they’re great since I have a poe switch as a backbone I can put it near a group of devices in a room, like consoles, raspberry PIs, etc, and just not have to worry about much setup or powering yet another tiny device.

      Highly recommend unifi devices

      • Sunny' 🌻OPEnglish
        2•5 months ago

        Love this! Is that the Dream Machine Pro at the top? Seems two have space for 2 HDDs so im a bit unsure as the one I’ve been looking at only has 1 slot.

        • @[email protected]English
          2•5 months ago

          From the top:

          • Dream Machine Pro Max - This has two HDDs but I’m not using them. I have redundant internet sources, 1G Cable and 2G Fiber. The dream machine can fail over between them.

          • 2U Patch Panel

          • POE-Enterprise 48 - This is connected via SFP+ 10G to the Dream Machine and is where every device in the network plugs in.

          • UNVR - This has 4x 14TB HDDs and is where the cameras record. That covers more than 2 months of constant recording at 4K on the cameras - which are all connected and powered by the switch. This connects via SFP+ to the switch.

          • Unifi Remote Power - This is like a redundant power source for the switches and stuff so if the power supply failed this would pick up.

          • Unifi Power Strip - everything is plugged in here, you can toggle the ports and stuff on and off which I don’t do.

          There’s a bunch of other stuff in the rack multiple piholes and little intel nuc servers doing stuff. Redundant piholes is a nice addition to the network though once you get going.