A couple years ago we moved into a really charming 1920s house in Connecticut. We were so excited to find such a unique home instead of a cookie cutter colonial. But soon some unpleasant realities set in. The walls had essentially no insulation so the three story home was expensive to heat and cool. The electrical outlets were nearly all old two prong receptacles, so normal grounded plugs did not fit. But most problematic for a tech nerd: the walls were plaster on metal lath, meaning each room was essentially a faraday cage! How to wire up the house for good WiFi in the age of work from home? To answer that we have to delve into wireless networking.
Mesh networks vs wired access points
Let’s review some often misunderstood networking terms.
- A modem is a device that converts a digital internet signal to an analog signal (eg fiber optic, coaxial cable, or phone line) and vice versa. (Short for modulator/demodulator)
- A router is the interface between two different networks, such as the public internet and your local network.
- A switch allows you to connect multiple devices to the same local network.
- A wireless access point (AP) provides WiFi access to your local network.
Many consumer devices provide more than one of these functions, making for confusing marketing terminology like “wireless router”.
Mesh Networks
Mesh WiFi systems like Eero provide a simple way to serve WiFi over a medium sized area. One device is connected directly to the internet, acting as a router. It serves as a first wireless access point, and also streams data to other Eero devices which serve as auxiliary WiFi access points. This allows one to extend WiFi range beyond the reach of a single access point, provided these auxiliary devices get good signal from the central device. These are consumer devices so their range and speed are limited, and they have simplified interfaces so they may not be for the aspiring network nerd.
Wired Access Points
Wired access points are the gold standard for large, complex spaces like office buildings and college campuses. Even in medium-sized spaces they are the best way to maintain the maximum WiFi speed. Several access points are all wired separately to a switch, itself connected to a router or integrated in a router. Many switches can supply power over ethernet (PoE) so the access points need not be placed in reach of a power outlet. In fact ethernet has such a long reach that the access points can be placed virtually anywhere in your home. The cables may be routed through the attic basement or even along the exterior of the house. This obviously takes little more effort then plugging in a couple of Eeros, but the performance and control is greatly improved.
Ubiquiti gear
Ubiquiti is a nerd-famous networking gear company catering to the pro-sumer and enterprise markets. They have an Apple-esque design aesthetic, and also Apple-esque prices. Unfortunately they too have introduced some confusing marketing terms: their Cloud Gateways, Dream Machines, and Dream Routers are all some combination of router, switch, firewall, and network software. Some also have an integrated WiFi access point. I’m sure all of that stuff is great, but IMHO it’s unnecessary and overpriced for a home network. Ubiquiti’s WiFi access points are their real gems, and they can be connected to non-Ubiquiti routers and switches in “standalone” mode. Further, Ubiquiti offers their Unifi network software for free and you can run it on a home server (eg, Raspberry Pi) or your laptop for monitoring and configuration. It does not need to run continuously.
The Unifi network software is sleak and powerful. It lets you monitor network usage, and easily optimize configuration to improve performance. You can adjust channels, bandwidths, transmit powers, SSIDs, VLANs, and more. You can even mesh to an AP that you can’t reach with ethernet, though I don’t recommend it. I host the network application on a Raspberry Pi, then connect to it with the Unifi iPhone app using a VPN when I’m away from home.
How to set up standalone access points
Setting up standalone Ubiquiti access points with self-hosted network software is not as turnkey as setting up a 100 % Ubiquiti network. It took some Googling combined with trial and error to figure out, but it’s completely possible and fully supported. And it’s a great way to learn about networking…
us I will assume you want to run the Unifi Network Application on a Raspberry Pi, though you can run it on a Mac under Docker with minimal modifications to these steps.
1. Assign a fixed local IP to the Raspberry Pi
The Pi must be assigned a fixed local IP address from your router. First find its MAC address by running ifconfig eth0 | grep ether.
Set your router to assign a fixed IP to this computer. For my TP-Link router, the config page is at 192.168.0.1, then I browse to Network > LAN > Address Reservation, click Add, then enter the Pi’s MAC address and the IP to assign it.
2. Set up Unifi Network Application
Set up the Unifi Network Application in Docker using this image from LinuxServer.io . See my configuration here
Build and run the Docker image on the Pi, then from your laptop open the Unifi application in your browser at https://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:8443
, where XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the Pi’s IP we assigned earlier. Choose to set up as a new system. Once you are logged in, click Settings > System > Advanced, and check “Inform Host: Override,” and enter the Pi’s IP.
2. Set up the APs
Connect all APs to the PoE ports on your switch. After a minute or so they should boot up and be assigned a IPs by your router. We need to find these IPs by opening the router’s DHCP client list on its confg page, then matching the MAC address printed on the back of each AP. We need to SHH into each one to configure it to talk to the Pi. If the AP is brand new, its SSH username/password is ubnt/ubnt. If it has been used before, hard reset it by holdind the reset button for >10sec, then connect with ubnt/ubnt. Once connected over SSH, run
set-inform http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:8080/inform
where XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX is the IP of the Pi.
3. Adopt the APs and set up Wireless network
Your new APs should now appear in the Unifi Devices tab of the Unifi Network Application. Click the link next to each one saying Adopt.
Phew, the hard part is over.
4. Set up a WiFi network
Left as an exercise.
References
https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/r0dh9p/unifis_advanced_wifi_settings_explained/