Unifi Wireless Planning and Tuning

[@damyanmp]

Fairly new to all of this, just set up my first Unifi deployment 3 weeks ago. New home, so I decided this is the right way to do it. I was challenged by a very narrow multi-level property. Multiple access points were the way to go. 3 main stories, and 1 basement. For now, I'm not worried about the basement and that would be the easiest place to add an AP. For each floor, I ran a drop assuming they will be all needed, but I only installed one nanoHD on the top floor, and one InWall-HD on the 1st floor they are on opposite ends of the house. I also had the foresight to install the nanoHD on top of the staircase that only has a glass railing. So far I have connectivity everywhere with pretty good speeds tldr wasn't sure how to deal with multiple floors; ran 1 drop for each floor; ended up installing two access points and seemed to have worked

[@MatthewOrres]

What did you do with drops you didn't use? What's a way to retain the wire but keep it hidden?

[@damyanmp]

@@MatthewOrres I was able to hide one of the cables in a closet with decent enough service loop. You can also terminate at that point

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

⏱️ Timestamps ⏱️ 0:00 UniFi WiFi Network Deployments 2:24 UniFi Access Point Placement 2:39 Speed VS Connectivity 4:20 WiFi and RF Interference 6:30 WiFi Channels Planning 8:05 Choossing Channel Widths 9:55 Configuring Minimum RSSI 12:00 The Settings We Use for Business 13:00 UniFi WiFi AI Auto Tuning WiFi Roaming Video kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZeXiah9gJmBa7M What is Channel Bonding & WiFi Performance Tests 20MHz vs 80MHz ( UniFI VHT80 vs VHT20) kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKmbkImmlJZ0bMk Client Project Planning: How We Keep 700+ Bowlers WiFi Signals Out Of The Gutter With UniFi kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmS6eomhhNmrmZY Ubiquiti Project Followup: How Reliable are the 283 UniFi Access Points & 12 Switches we installed? kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaebqJKmodKMis0 help.ui.com/hc/en-us/sections/360008076994-UniFi-Network-Tips-Tricks

[@adamrkimber]

You've got a typo there in the word network! Ha ha Your network's wonky!

[@SeanChYT]

I had everything set to Auto first too, and then I found out all 5 access points used the same WiFi channel, even after drawing the map with walls and correct AP locations and doing channel scans on both bands. Also the 2.4GHz transmit power was always WAY too high making sure none of my devices ever connected to 5GHz. I ended up lowering the 2.4GHz transmit power and setting custom channels and now everything works great. Also the Auto-Optimize Network default setting didn't work at all with 4 of my Dell Laptops with Centrino 1030 chipsets. They were always disconnected automatically after just a few seconds. Turning that setting off, fixed the issue immediately. Maybe the defaults are good for you, but not in my case. Very happy with Unifi after 2 years uptime with 0 issues.

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

Happy to hear you got it all tuned and as I said in the video, start with auto and change only as needed to get things working.

[@justinknash]

TIP: Turning on fast roaming and BSS transition helped my home setup greatly. Previously clients upstairs were favoring the downstairs AP even though the TX rate was like 150Mbps (when upstairs clients connect to upstairs AP TX rate is well over 1,200Mbps). I was always battling to get clients to connect to the right AP when I had fast roaming and BSS transition off. Now, all clients seem to be correct.

[@pengtuck]

I had the same problem. Turning fast roaming helped.

[@andyrandy0815]

Same experience here, even when fast roaming in beta state it seems handing over between APs is not as easy for many devices at it seems

[@tubastud06]

That statement: "So much of the consulting work we do is getting people to set things back to auto..." is such a true statement. Letting the device figure out what is best is sometimes the easiest money I've ever made.

[@Wahinies]

Except for that auto optimize option. That setting is the debbil.

[@jolson5448]

So true unless someone knows EXACTLY what they're doing.

[@patrickwilliams7210]

Great vid, but a few notes (you knew that was coming). So you are spot on by saying leave off minimum RSSI, but I just want to point out one of the main issues with minimum RSSI. Deciding which AP to go to is ultimately left up to the client, so you can deauth them, but the client might try and reconnect to the AP multiple times, which results in a slow hand off process AKA a 'stick node problem'. Also, auto channel does have one big issue worth mentioning. The issue I reference is that ubiquiti auto (and I believe a lot of vendors) prefers the least crowded channel, rather than the one with the best SNR/interference. So you could have a barely utilized channel selected that also has very low SNR, leading to poor wifi. Even in low bandwidth scenarios that can still be impactful, especially if are using something UDP dependent.

[@nojyeloot]

If we didn't already have an MSP, I'd be calling you. Really loved this video. Solid, pro and enjoyable. Great work guys. TY for this.

[@guyot1979]

Helpful! I like your keep it simple approach to settings. Lots of opportunity for trouble when getting too deep into fine tuning.

[@jammyb2008]

Perfect timing! Was researching this this morning to fine tune some sites. Thanks Tom. Merry Christmas 🎉👍🍺

[@FrankQCMTL]

Set everything to Auto and call it a day :)

[@jammyb2008]

@@FrankQCMTL nah. Not helpful. Site with 3 APs has been on auto for the past 2 months. My brief look at it showed even with meshing enabled two units were on the same channel on 2.4G and 5G. So it needs a bit of fine tuning on the channel front IMHO.

[@JimtheITguy]

Real world experience is so undervalued a lot of the time, people read a few comments and get terrible advice by changing away from defaults then start screaming how terrible Unifi is, video is well worth the watch, also stability over performance every time, if you have solid stability you will get good performance

[@bobz5]

Curious if you've test the wifi6 ap's? I've received a few and haven't tested yet.

[@ajayasthana2217]

thanks for sharing knowledge over your platform . i have been watching your videos as a home user and installed a all unifi network system with 10 APs in my large house in chennai India , multiple switches UDM pro etc . all configure self with your help 👍.thank you . Always look for your new video .

[@drbjee]

DO A DETAILED HOME SETUP VIDEO PLEASE. THANK YOU

[@jeffreygarrett1952]

I was actually just searching unifi tweaks and saw a Lawrence video. Clicked and then noticed it was 21 hours ago lol. Perfection

[@mobilephone4045]

It would be super cool to have a measurement mode where we could use 2 AP's to measure a wall and automatically plug the numbers into the designer. Here in Spain, 99% of internal walls are concrete block with stucco. We need a lot more APs in our designs than stick frame construction. I will walk around the main spaces with WiFi analyzer and manually set channels and transmit power so at least one AP is on a clear channel in each location. I would also like to see a lower cost 5GHz only AP, as sometimes I will turn off a 2GHz radio and just use to extend 5GHz in a space because 2.4 goes through the wall but 5 had no chance. We also have the luxury that most of our villas are in rural areas where, when we turn the radios off, every channel is totally clear and we have 3 perfect channels to choose from over the entire site.

[@lordgarth1]

Yea. I need to do this soon. I just left everything at default and threw in six ap pros around the house. Thinking with wifi 6 I may go with an in wall in each bedroom, a pro in the garage and great room and something for the back yard. I’m surprised I’m not having issues with just throwing them up but it’s been very reliable and fast.

[@JGnLAU8OAWF6]

One thing to remember is that they scan at the point of install so they can choose channel that is really busy at some other point.

[@fu4616]

Not just point-of-install, they should scan every time it boots. Still the same issue though.

[@b00m3rh4nd_sol]

Ah the ole "don't fix it if it ain't broke" approach - I like it :D

[@gizmo9987]

If it's not broken I usually take it apart so when it does break I know how to fix it.

[@jamess1787]

The problem is that unifi has been broke a lot in the past. Hence why people are looking at tweaking settings.

[@mattthomas7872]

Thanks for another helpful video Tom! I was interested to see if you would discuss AP transmit power level settings and how that comes into play with the "more is better" philosophy. Is transmit power one of the parameters the Unifi AI adjusts or is it one Lawrence Tech tends to tweak for proper coverage overlap?

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

Works on auto the majority of the time

[@confirmhandle]

I was testing a residential client's new orbi, that thing was fast, 600 down on a one gig lan. I noticed that all three units use the same channel, very wide like 120mzh. Very impressive. 72 devices connected.

[@kjeldschouten-lebbing6260]

I still just use 20mhz (2ghz) and 40mhz width channels. Works fine for 99% of usecases. But wifi placement is always an art-form and often people look at you like your a magician if you talk about wifi planning XD

[@randleqgod]

I noticed that when I started playing around with the nano hd channels, my devices stopped seeing each other on the network. Once I turned everything back to default, I had no issues. Seems like the default settings are good enough for home use.

[@tearblastgaming7186]

Did you end up doing the video regarding Home WiFi planning and configuration you mentioned on this video? I'm getting my house built and trying to plan how to layout the access points in conjunction with the ethernet outlets I'll have for wired devices. Would love to hear your knowledge on that. Thanks!

[@nodave77]

Thanks for all these helpful videos! Looking forward to a home user style video.

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

Thanks

[@robmin5153]

Can you set the height of the access point in the planning tool to a separate height from the building, assuming you have a mounting pole higher than the building on the property?

[@thomasrowe8306]

Enjoyed the vid... again. Just curious, in the bowling alley (seems to be a high traffic/user environment) why are you using 40Mhz channel width? Seems that 20Mhz would be potentially better to handle interference, etc. and still give reasonably good performance to client devices. Going through an analysis now for a larger user environment I'm working on and always looking to understand different thoughts/ideas. Keep up the great content.

[@warhammer73]

Please do a video on home network deployment. I am abandoning the consumer grade off the shelf choices for a better solution - prosumer/enterprise - and would love to see some ' how-to' get up and running. Some general things I don't know - how many APs do I need? Where do I put them? What advantage does a pfsense/opnsense box have over a router from unifi? etc....

[@alexandrosvezyropoulos2344]

i need help. i want to install a new unifi on a 2 stories building (3 rooms each side by side) and i want to put it at a point where all 6 get wifi. at first i thought i put it outside on a pole. looking at the 6 balconies thinking that the best point since there its glass. but on the upper floor it was bad

[@jabarirouff]

Wanted some advice for school networks. School mostly have solid walls between classrooms and about 30 students per class. Should I used wifi 6 lite or pro in each class?

[@GlauberSchwaab]

Got to this video just now. Could u tell me how do u use wifi planner inside de controller? what your are using is pretty different from Unifi Design Center.

[@tdsviper]

What is the program you use where you can map out where and how many AP's to use. My neighbour just bought a new house and i want to put in Ubiquiti. 2 levels with a attic and a garage. House is around 60x20 feet. Brick outer walls, wood floors and mostly wood inner walls. I'm thinking 1 AP in the garage and 2 in the house.

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

Just the tool built in to the UniFi system

[@tdsviper]

@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS thank you, with a bit of digging i found it. Works pretty well. Only thing a can't figure out is the way the AP's behave with vertical buildings. The building is more rectangle then square. And a garage at the back of the house. I think i'm going with 3 LR's. 1 garage, 1 ground floor and 1 in the attic.

[@shokowillard]

Adding more APs really helped 👍

[@t0kinl3lunts]

Would like to have heard about transmit power as I read that auto=max isn’t always the best. Good video tho. Looking forward to the home network one too.

[@andyrandy0815]

When meshing APs on long distance, of course more is better. When providing wifi for example in a school, best would be one AP per room, but with low or medium signal strength, so there is less noise from the neighbor APs. Of course with 5 GHz and more available channels less an issue than with 2.4 but also on 5 GHz you don't wanna have sticky clients from neighbor rooms occupying air time by increased amount of dropped packages. If the sender (AP) is stronger than the receiver it pretends the receiver (eg cell phone) having a great connection (hey, I have 5 bars on my wifi strength), but if the receiver can not get its packages back to the AP it leads to frustration. More signal strength not always better, esp. not in dense areas. I remember a situation with nearly 100 wifi APs reachable, but even I was sitting 5m away from my own one, there was so much wifi noise it was hardly possible to work.

[@TechdoLiberal]

Thank you for this information, really helped me to stop worrying about the settings :D

[@BobSutterfield1]

I'm not such a big fan of leaving everything on the default settings, and letting it run with Auto. In a small campus network (14 UAP-nanoHD and 3 UAP-AC-M) with Auto running its scan every 3am, it rarely went 2 nights without making at least a dozen channel changes. The "WiFi AI" doesn't exhibit much "I" - its results are nearly indistinguishable from random thrashing. It doesn't learn or improve over time because it doesn't gradually converge on anything. When someone says "Hey I wanted to mention, yesterday when I was in (whatever location) I had four bars of Wi-Fi but everything ran really slow and my battery drained really fast" you won't be able to go to that location and take measurements to understand what happened to them. The best you'll be able to say is "Try it again some other day, it will certainly be different and it might be better." That's not a well-engineered, purposeful system that delivers high value by unobtrusively supporting the users. It's roaming wild and free, unmanaged and unpredictable.

[@VictorMo]

What's the best ubiquity to use in the house ...my walls I kinda thick and I have two long range ubiquities

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

The LR works good, keep adding more devices until you have coverage.

[@VictorMo]

@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS thanks

[@gerrymaddock9234]

For the inwall HD, do you need to enable wireless uplink (uplink connectivity monitor) etc?

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

No

[@haitiankid4lyf]

what software do you guys use for initial floor plan?

[@ph0t0experience]

Was curious myself, it's inside the unifi controller software :D and you can just uploade any existing floorplan and set up everything in there.

[@haitiankid4lyf]

@@ph0t0experience yeah doing this for my home and do not have an existing floor plan ended up using this software called sweet home 3d to generate initial floor plan saved it as an image and uploaded to the controller

[@Bob_too]

I often find as I move across areas within the building, my phone or laptop stayes connected to an AP where I was previously, but now only has a weak signal and becomes a slow connection. Are there ways to improve the ways a Client connection roams to a new nearer AP ?

[@logikgr]

There should be a setting for how weak a signal the AP will tolerate before it boots the client to a different AP. What APs do you have?

[@saritshull3909]

Have you come out with the home use video yet? I looked but didn't find one

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

Not yet, but it would be much the same

[@christianbrandt6710]

Is it possible to turn off the radio signal during certain times? Like a schedule

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

I think so, it's under WLAN schedule

[@christianbrandt6710]

@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS Thank you :) Just wanted to make sure before planning with Unifi prodducts

[@stevedowns8601]

I wish more people preached the managed by exception approach. I see way too many forum posts and videos of people blindly recommending AP tuning settings.

[@nimdy2012]

I have three AP Lites in my home. 2.4Ghz set to channels 1, 6 and 11, and 5Ghz set to 36, 40, 48. I have a lot of smart home tech (lights, sockets, cameras etc) that still use 2.4Ghz and have the odd device that drops off the network and has trouble reconnecting to one of the three APs. Would the WiFi AI help me at all and do all clients get disconnected from the network when the scan is carried out at 3am?

[@ZNotFound]

Question about the Unifi Access Points. Are they directional or is the signal sent equally in a sphere around the access point?

[@charlescc1000]

They are somewhat directional. I don’t know the exact details but there are diagrams showing the strongest signal strength direction on the UBNT website. In brief - (using the standard ceiling APs as an example) you want the blue light side facing the clients- not the mounting side. In addition to this- it sends the signal strongest in the direction of the edge of the AP- out horizontally. This is why mounting the APs on the wall is not considered best practice. My explanation isn’t the best as YT comments don’t support diagrams. The diagrams on UBNT website are very good

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

It varies based on model and they have them all listed out here help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005212927-UniFi-UAP-Antenna-Radiation-Patterns

[@charlescc1000]

@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS Antenna Radiation Patterns! I knew there was a word for what I was describing but clearly I did not know the proper terminology. Thanks Tom

[@acesidewinder]

Not to shill for Unifi. But I have always lived in several Apartments for over 10 years. Went through so many $200 Linksys/Netgear consumer router/AP boxes. Always fought trying to get a good WiFi experience with all my neighbors having different APs with different settings. Pretty much worse case scenario. I purchased Unifi a couple years ago, left everything on Auto. Never had to mess with it since. Unifi just freaking works! Nothing more to be said. Didn't know about the Unifi AI. May explore it just out of curiosity.

[@Seb123]

Yaay, thanks i was waiting for this.

[@dfitzy]

Where's the home wifi video promised @ 11:08 ?

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

Not done yet

[@osmanmustafa599]

I have manual channel 1-6-11 in our school with 1800 Users for the Google Meet or Zoom communication, Tried auto but get lags in communication most of the time

[@confirmhandle]

Why VHT40mzh only, no 80 ? New routers are now running 120mzh.

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

Businesses care about better connectivity over bandwidth.

[@confirmhandle]

@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS Thank you

[@MorriSpecial]

i have a 10 room accommodation for students and wondering if its worth install in in each room lite wifi 6 version, there are steel beams and brick walls, what would you recommend

[@JonneyReay1968]

Great Video thanks. How did you draw your floor plan?

[@blackrockcity]

There are scenarios where "more" access points are NOT better. If you have a few UAP-ACs in a line, connected via wireless mesh, clients connected to the AP nearest the router will have 12x the throughput of clients connected to the middle AP and 25x the throughput as clients connected to the furthest AP. This is a limitation of how the WiFi AC protocol works given the number of beams the APs support. You get a ton of overhead traffic clogging the mesh according to other forums I've read. The clients at the end of the line will negotiate slow data rates. That's where the multiple beam HD APs might help (I don't have experience with those)? I think WiFi 6 should solve this network overhead issue too. A budget solution is to try to make your network a spoke and hub topology with the router in the center. This minimizes the number of hops. And/Or you can hardwire all of your APs with a home run back to the switch...which is not always physically possible.

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

We always hub/spoke hardwire all AP's back to switches

[@me-it-cat]

OK. But what if you have to use 2.4GHz and only 1, 6, 11 channels don't interfere with each other. How to add more AP? We have a warehouse 180x90m (590x295 feet) and 8 AP in there. Usually people use

[@GabrielRodriguez-um8fi]

Sure I can say that Cisco Meraki is great but my customers love when I install Unifi products. I'm doing a major upgrade at my home using Unifi #win

[@Enonymouse_]

i'm doing another upgrade at the home with switching and ap's now that new unifi are slowly trickling out of the RnD que.

[@alonzosmith6189]

I have 3 floors in my home with 5 FlexHD APs the power set to low. No issues to report

[@shadow.banned]

That stadium image is hilarious.

[@shadow.banned]

Surely, their antennas have gotta be stronger than that...

[@stokley121]

You have some great videos man, subscribed.

[@ronkote]

I just discovered your channel and content and I have great interest. I have a hard time seeing since I watch on iPhone 12 Pro. I really think you need to screen record lower resolution for mobile users.

[@chucksw1]

Does Unify have a Wifi6 AP ? Which one?

[@luca35821]

yes they do, the Unifi 6 Lite and the Unifi 6 Long Range

[@marfnl2]

Soo where is the link to the unifi docs?

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

top pinned comment

[@adriancadman916]

Great simple video, thanks

[@GabrielBoehm]

The word "Just"! I heard you way it in the same tone I do. In terms of can't we "Just" put the AP in the hallway. Working in an MSP I hear this thinking a lot, internally and with clients, it is usually a sign of something not being considered or something being minimized. It's my trigger word to start looking for what has been missed.

[@ifuoto8815]

what version is your unifi management ?

[@LAWRENCESYSTEMS]

6.0.41

[@ifuoto8815]

@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS Thanks bro, I heard the version 6 is problematic, I assume the problem has been solved by now

[@ifuoto8815]

@@LAWRENCESYSTEMS One more thing, what is the maximum length of POE cable from switch to UAP would you recommended?

[@JBSessionss]

@@ifuoto8815 100 meters.

[@Kjaywest]

I have a 1,500qf house & I have 4 AP’s. I thought it was going to be overkill but have metal ducts. In my house & not all of the range work.

[@drinkyt398]

Can you please hire me! I would work for free!! I'm a Networking Student and would love to learn from you. You are such a great teacher and explainer. I would give my liver just to know half of the things you do. :D

[@АлексейКузнецов-ъ7ю8з]

The whole point in 15 minutes - put everything in auto mode.

[@err_kk]

Thank you sir for this invaluable information.

[@andyrandy0815]

So mean...

[@randallsalyer]

Thanks for the great information

[@EthanSeville]

Just slap AC pro everywhere x3. haha I have 2 ac lites at my house one at one end and one at other (about 15m house)

[@devalopr]

Unifi 6 review coming?

[@mikescott4008]

Very useful as ever.

[@andreavergani7414]

Great explenation. Ciao

[@wicked_observer]

What I want to know is why can I only get maximum 400mbps on a unifi AP AC when a Netgear or Asus consumer device will give me 700ish?

[@dheijnemans]

Because those consumer devices focus mainly on speed, so the factory defaults are tuned to that. Unifi and other pro brands are geared towards high numbers of concurrent connections and signal stability. 400 is not the limit of the device, it's the bandwidth you get when using the default settings for channel width etc.

[@mrpcakes]

i thought the rule of thumb was to not use 2.4 auto as 1,6,11 is best and doesn't overlap ...

[@MGPackers]

I have 3 and my house is around 4000 sq ft. It has an addition. Lots of interference

[@jamesclarity1077]

MANAGE BY EXCEPTION

[@JohnCookNet]

Good topic. Tx

[@JBSessionss]

Damn, my boss asked to deepdive and check all the (interesting) UniFi settings and report to him. It's gonna be a short meeting I guess :D

[@Enonymouse_]

Most of the settings are buried in the unifi controller itself in settings > advanced tab, those concern the use of USG - Wired & Wireless Network profiles for ACL, EGR etc.

[@Chris-op7yt]

so your typical work has very little to do with typical home usage, where video streaming, gaming, work from home, emails, browsing internet and video security systems, makes up most of the average day.

[@demandoflife7900]

we are buy 8 unifi-pro access point and controller based configuration. now is problem local getaway loss. per AP 70 user connected. Please provide Solution.

[@mindshelfpro]

Can you do a video on OpenWISP please? I have 3 OpenWRT Wireless APs for years on my network and only now getting to configure VLANS. What centralised controller/managed system can I use to administer all the OpenWRT devices in a network? Also more OpenWRT content such as pfsense+OpenWRT "managed" switch+OpenWRT "managed" AP please. Thanks again for your great videos!

[@maxflight777]

Skip the first 4 minutes🤦‍♂️

[@DrPeril]

7 minutes in and dude is still humble defense-bragging... we get it, you know your stuff and the comments don’t, move on🙄

[@Crazy--Clown]

Haha to all the Fiddlers