I recently moved into an apartment with a lot of concrete. After I renovated it and connected it to the internet, I quickly realized that a Wi-Fi router, even a good one, couldn't handle it.
The apartment is arranged lengthwise and is crossed by three retaining walls. And, more importantly, we are talking about a relatively new use case: three people entering video conferences often simultaneously. After a week of testing, we found that metal reinforcement + Teams + Zoom it was too much for my wireless network.
I have a Digi Fiberlink 1000 subscription on fiber optic. Through the standard router from Digi, the actual speed measured on Wi-Fi was about 40Mbps down/20 Mbps up. Not bad, but beyond the walls the net was unstable. I then tried with a router D-Link, which reached about 60Mbps down on Wi-Fi. Higher speed, better coverage but, again, big fluctuations. In short, we had the same internet as on the subway 15 years ago, that is, only in the main stations. We called them Piata Debaralei, Drumul Frigiderului and Calea Baii. So for the moment we had to improvise. The child and the wife stayed on Wi-Fi and I managed as much as the 4G allowed me.
After searching online and asking friends, the solution came from Coding. Their proposal: Ubiquiti AmpliFi, a router that comes with two APs that can be plugged into outlets around the house.
Until now, a router meant a box of LEDs or a kind of robot spider with oversized antennas. I would install it in a corner when I was painting and forget about it for ten years. Ubiquiti AmpliFi is a paradigm shift. The router seems to be the child of a tablet and an Italian espresso machine. And I don't say that by chance. The device seems to be a combination of easily accessible technology and carefully crafted design. Plus, I've heard that children of flowers tend to be smart. Let's see if that's true.
On page product, Ubiquiti urges me to „show off my router with pride, because there’s nothing left to hide.” I’ve never wanted to display a router on my living room dresser, but I’ve never been thrilled with classic routers hanging in the hallway either. The Ubiquiti AmpliFi looks good, and if it gets rid of an „eyesore,” so be it. But it’s still going to sit in the hallway.
A much more important advantage for me, however, is the user interface. The touch display on the router has several screens that show the total data volume, instantaneous traffic, number of clients, IP, status of ethernet ports and more. The strong point, however, is the phone application, which allows for detailed network configuration. What caught my attention:
An important difference from the classic solution of signal amplifiers is that the mesh network created by AmpliFi has a single SSID throughout the house. All clients connect to a single network. Wherever they move around the house, they are picked up by the router or the APs in the respective areas. Also, each AP in the mesh network can function as a relay for another AP, located further away, unlike most amplifiers, which need a direct connection to the router.
And we come to the initial problem, stable speed.
After moving the APs around a few places in the house, I think I found a winning layout. With the Ubiquiti AmpliFi I got over 80 Mbps download in the most problematic room. The AP is about three meters from the router, behind two reinforced concrete walls. Even aaa, video conferencing, streaming, Netflix, YouTube in 4K, downloading on Xbox have been going without interruptions for a few days. At the moment, I can say that I have a connection that allows the whole family to work or study from home.
More details about mesh vs. Extender.
Description the multi-stream system used by AmpliFi.