New Home Construction
New Home Construction
I’m planning a new home build and want the strongest possible WiFi throughout the property. I’m evaluating whether the setup I’m considering is too complex or if it fits well. My house is two stories, about 1300 sq ft on the main floor and 1500 on the second floor, with no basement—just a crawl space. I’ve been looking at Ubiquiti UniFi products and have a list of items I’d like to use, but the costs are rising. I need a seamless connection everywhere inside and even outside the house. Here’s my idea: a central hub like the Dream Machine Pro with a Switch 16 PoE in the garage or home office as the main Access Point on the first floor near the kitchen or living room. On the second floor, place an Access Point nanoHD in the hallway, right in the center of the bedrooms, plus an Access Point-in-Wall unit in my office for a stronger signal there. I’ll also add doorbell intercoms inside and exterior cameras—five interior and three exterior—each powered via PoE so they feed back to the NVR in the Dream Machine. This arrangement should give me reliable coverage no matter where I am. Since I’m new to UniFi, I want advice from someone who’s used these systems before. Let me know your thoughts!
I don't think it's too much to say, though I'm not the most experienced with UniFi solutions. They work well on paper, but they fall short when it comes to working across devices—especially with cameras in the ecosystem. Once you dive deep, things get pricey and performance isn't great. Honestly, if I had a choice, I'd pick another brand. Right now, finding solid alternatives to the Dream Machine Pro for a strong edge VPN router is tough. The market has shifted, and options like pfSense, MicroTik, or Sophos are more common.
A specific tip: unless you're using Cisco, HPE Aruba, or Rukus, try to keep your WAPs in the same performance range. Mixing them up can lead to connectivity problems. I personally like having a WAP at home and another similar one for my garage—similar setup for the garage WAP too. For coverage, I used two versions of my larger 3-stream WAPs for the garage and basement.