Advice - Ubiquiti EdgeMax vs Mikrotik for home

[ZoidieKI]

Note: Sorry to write this in English, but my written Dutch is not so good enough to get across my question. No issues at all if replies are in Dutch as my reading is better than my writing .

Pre-face: I have KPN Fiber with internet/tv/phone. Phone is not important as we never use it, only the TV/Internet. Current setup is NTU -> Asus RT-N66U (Custom firmware - Merlin LTS Fork 374.43_44E5) -> Netgear GS108Ev3. Internet/Wifi is running from the N66U and the IPTV's are on the Netgear switch.

The current router, although it served well, is just too old now and if I want to use it for the KPN connection, I need to use custom firmware which has it's own pro's and con's (mostly support related). I'm also having issues with TV, like the playback/tv guide function not working, severe lag online and jerky/freezing TV. I think it would just be easier to change everything out for something newer and easier to maintain.

I'm looking at the below two options:

1st Option
https://www.ui.com/edgemax/edgerouter-10x/
2 x https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lite/ or 1 x https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lr/

2nd Option
https://mikrotik.com/product/rb4011igs_5hacq2hnd_in

I was leaning more towards the Ubiquiti option as I see they also have camera's which is something my significant other want's to put in our new house down the line.

Specific questions
1) Does anybody have any experience with the two options? Can I use either of them without having to have a separate switch for the TV boxes or do you really need them on a switch by themselves? My idea was just to have all network devices connecting to one single device (Except for Wifi on the Ubiquiti option.)
2) Does anybody know how good the wifi strength of the UniFi AP's are and if 2 AP Lite is better than the 1 AP LR? Is the Mikrotik WiFi good enough if it was placed in the meter closet? This is where my current router is and i already have issues getting a good connection when in the furthest away bedroom/bathroom, and I only have 1 floor. In our new house there will be 2 floor to consider.

I'm not considering price too much so if somebody has other idea's which is not too extreme, feel free to mention it.

Thanks for any advice in advance!

Mark

[chickpoint]

1. You definitely can have all devices on 1 network, there are quite some topics on the forums here that can help you with it. As you are planning on using a router from Ubiquiti, you can take a look here into the specific topic: [Ubiquiti & IPTV] Ervaringen & Discussie
2. A rule of thumb for WiFi is that it is better to use more access points with lower power radio's than 1 access point with a high power radio. This way you can always have a good signal on your mobile device, but your mobile device can also send properly back to the access point. With this in the back of our minds I would say I would say that 2 AC-lite are better than 1 LR.

About the camera's I can tell you they can be used with UniFi protect or as a standalone device. I have a G3-flex running which runs pretty smooth for a year now. The only downside is compatibility with the Synology NAS line, which causes some trouble with setting up the camera's. I would have loved to see that Ubiquiti would have started to implement h.265 codec in their new cameras, so recordings wouldn't eat so much drive space.

[Thralas]

ZoidieKI schreef op woensdag 26 augustus 2020 @ 21:51:
I was leaning more towards the Ubiquiti option as I see they also have camera's which is something my significant other want's to put in our new house down the line.

Maar wat heeft de keus voor camera's met je router te maken? Niets lijkt me.

Can I use either of them without having to have a separate switch for the TV boxes or do you really need them on a switch by themselves?

Min-of-meer. Routers hebben altijd een interne switch, en bij dit soort prosumer-spullen kun je het meestal ook helemaal naar wens configureren (bij MikroTik kan dat zeker, bij Ubiquiti vast ook).

Maar: meestal kun je slechts een poort of ~5 kwijt op een (simpele) switch chip. MikroTik zet altijd een block diagram online, daar kun je dat goed zien:

Theoretisch is het dus minder dan een 'echte' switch (als je alle poorten tegelijk 100% belast), in de praktijk merk je daar niets van.

Is the Mikrotik WiFi good enough if it was placed in the meter closet?

Niet doen. Access point hoort in de kamer of verdieping waar je WiFi wilt gebruiken, zodat 5 GHz ook goed werkt.

Verder: een groot aandeel in de keuze is de interface. Ubquiti of MikroTik is een persoonlijke keus.

Qua hardware is de RB4011 veel sneller dan de Edgerouter 10X (ook duurder). Vergelijkbaar model van MikroTik is de RB750Gr3, ik vermoed dat de Edgerouter 10X ook een MT7621A gebruikt.

Als je de router in de meterkast zet zou ik voor wat betreft de RB4011 het model zonder WiFi kopen, en aanvullen met Ubiquiti of MikroTik access points.

[ Voor 5% gewijzigd door Thralas op 27-08-2020 20:20 ]

[ZoidieKI]

Thanks both for the advice. Going to go with the Ubiquiti and two AC Lite AP's.

[laurens0619]

Good choice but have you also considered to use the stock router (experiabox)?
Unless you have certain requirements the standard setup (especially with iptv) is quite good

[ZoidieKI]

It was fine initially, but WiFi was very poor. After having my N66U with, what i consider, far superior wifi, i just don't want to use their router again. There is also only 4 ports on the experia box, but i need to have 5-6 in the new house alone for wired, plus 2 for the TV boxes. I could run a switch behind the router, but i was going for as few devices as possible and i like the idea of one system for everything instead of 2 or three different brand devices with their own logins etc.

[laurens0619]

@ZoidieKI so you need a better wifi accesspoint, in that case the ac lite is a good choice.
If you like to tweak, replacing the router is a nice project. However in my experience with iptv, it requires some maintenance.

I also had a seperate edgerouter in the past instead of my experiabox but this often resulted in iptv issues. For me the benefits of a separate router were limited so i removed it and back to experiabox + ac lite, very happy now

[ Voor 4% gewijzigd door laurens0619 op 06-09-2020 07:24 ]