Posted: 11/30/2025 7:19:21 PM EDT
All of my equipment is outdated and some wiring was damaged due to the builder's carelesness, so I'm itching to spend a ton of money on stuff that is likely way overkill for what I need but, dammit, I want it.  I'm looking at Unifi equipment for a few reasons but I really like that it's a series of solutions under one brand; routing, NAS, cameras, etc. My situation is not exactly optimal but I'm hoping to make it work. I have a 2-story house. I currently have everything set up in a way that would make any IT guy cry and throw things. It's a mess. I want to add a few access points but I am hoping I can get away with only doing them upstairs. Is this just asking for headaches? I have pretty much full access to the attic but I don't have any good way to run new Cat 6 cable to the downstairs without cutting holes in the walls and ceilings and I would really prefer to avoid that if possible. I'd spend more money on access points to avoid cutting the sheetrock. Any thoughts? The damage is a couple runs of the original Cat 5 have broken pairs in them. I'm guessing from being a bit too enthusiastic with the staple gun. I found this with a tester after not being able to connect to the internet using the wired ethernet in the bonus room and another room. |
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Really depends on what your goals are, how the house is laid out, and what type of materials are involved. If you want good 6ghz coverage you need more AP's. Unifi is not good for having one AP and trying to blast it over an entire house. People come from ASUS type routers/AP's that transmit at really high power and then complain their Unifi AP's aren't as strong. Unifi is better with more AP's spaced apart especially if 6ghz is something you want good coverage with. You also need to be prepared to tune them to get the best performance for your layout. If you just stick them on auto and leave them alone they'll work but they're really designed around people who have some knowledge or willing to experiment with setup. |
I'm not the one REEING, motherfucker! -FCSD2162
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I have a Unifi network in a 1600 square foot house with a main floor and a basement. I need 3 AP's for good 5 GHz coverage--two upstairs at opposite ends of the house, one in the basement main space. A single AP can cover the whole house in the 2.4 GHz band but that's simply not the case with the newer 5/6 GHz standards which absolutely hates walls. I only have 2.4 GHz enabled on one AP to reduce interference. Do you have a chimney space running from the basement up to the attic? That's how I ran CAT6A from my network rack up to the attic so I could ceiling-mount the upstairs AP's. They have some meshable AP's, too, but I've never used them. I don't trust mesh Wi-Fi much. I have a Cloud Gateway Fiber as the router, a 16-port PoE switch for a core switch, and U7 Lites for the AP's. Plus some hardwired CAT6A jacks in strategic places, and a 10 GbE SFP+ DAC running from the core switch to my home server. Definitely a bit overkill. 
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I'll try to answer the points that have been brought up so far. I have zero knowledge of Unifi/Ubiquiti stuff but I am willing to spend the time to learn. I imagine the learning curve can be steep but I don't mind devoting the time to experimenting and getting over those humps. The construction is nothing remarkable. Wood and drywall for the interior. Carpeted floors upstairs. As much as I would like to avoid having to cut holes in the sheetrock to make this happen, I think I've come to accept that it will be required at some point. Such is life. I have coax in the house but it's the builder wiring and I am trying to get away from all of that and start as fresh as possible. There is a gas fireplace insert but it doesn't run far enough up the wall to act as a chase for any wiring. Plus, its location would make it less desirable. The current plan is to have the equipment in an interior room approximately 30' from an exterior wall. Cat 6A is what I plan to run. It may not be truly futureproof in the longest-term sense of the word but it will last me more than the time I plan to live here. The next owner can run their own network cable if 6A isn't up to their standard. I may go the route of uploading a floorplan to see what they say. I know they;ll probably recommend more than the minimum but I have no illusion that this will be a cheap endeavor. I'm willing to pay for good quality and to keep any cameras away from Ring, Wink, etc. If I want to get frisky with the old lady on the front porch, that's no business of Amazon or Google. (GD thread refererence for those who don't know; my porch is a bit too small for that kind of party)Thank you for all the input so far. 
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| My previous house was two-story and no easy way to run Ethernet between floors. I ended up with the cloudkey and switch upstairs where the cable modem was (previous owner had the cable company terminate the drop there). For downstairs, I had an UAP that only did 2.4ghz and used 5ghz as a wireless back haul to the upstairs UAPs. The downstairs UAP ethernet port was used to connect my office via wired switch. It worked well even the limitations on wifi. I don't think the current UAPs have that second Ethernet port anymore. |
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Unifi is actually really easy to use for a basic home setup. Most home routers have slow, buggy dog crap for management interfaces. Unifi is not that at all. It's actually fun to use and setup. It has some really advanced stuff, too, and it's pretty easy to use the advanced features if you have some good networking experience. Worlds easier to manage than the bloated overpriced enterprise crap from Cisco and HP, but with a pretty similar feature set. |
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I've now dipped my toes into the pond of Unifi. Dream Machine SE and a U7 Pro AP should be here today. I'll be adding a switch, NAS, cameras, G6 doorbell when it's released, and more APs over the next 2 months. I've got 1000 feet of Cat 6A ready to be run throughout the house and a buddy has a really good sheetrocker to do the patches. As I'm typing this, I got the update that the stuff was just delivered. The carnage begins Friday.
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take some good pics. im in the same boat as you were. trying to decide what I want to do as far as equipment. house is nearly built and i was smart enough to at least run some CAT6 both inside and out. now I gots to figure out how to get all this hooked up without giving up my only kidney left after building this house. 
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You could always run conduit on the exterior of the house to get where you need to go. Do a run of fiber from a switch on one floor to another switch upstairs. Then run cat 6A from the upstairs switch to the APs via the attic. ETA: I’m making the assumption you have a basement, which may not be the case. |
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Originally Posted By nominion: You could always run conduit on the exterior of the house to get where you need to go. Do a run of fiber from a switch on one floor to another switch upstairs. Then run cat 6A from the upstairs switch to the APs via the attic. ETA: I’m making the assumption you have a basement, which may not be the case. I'd rather not have internet than run conduit on the exterior of the house. No one else may notice but I would. It's not that it is a bad idea; it's that I would be miserable seeing it. I like all my wires hidden out of sight and organized. In the spirit of overkill, here's a bit of an update. So far, I've run 2 drops into the master bedroom, 2 drops into the office/bedroom 3, 1 run to one of the 2 upstairs APs (U7 Pro). I intend to run drops for 4 exterior cameras tonight and tomorrow. They will end in a loop of cable for the moment. I haven't ordered cameras yet and I'm still unsure of which ones I will end of up with. Some of the new stuff looks nice. I do plan for two of the Unifi 180 cameras (1 front, 1 back). I am about to head back into the attic to run a drop to my son's room. The rest of the week I expect to be figuring out how to get the Cat6A to the front door for the G6 Pro (whenever I can get one). The rack will be a Dream Machine SE, Pro Max 24 PoE, UNVR (4-bay) and UNAS Pro. For the cameras, I'm leaning towards the G6 Pro doorbell, 2 G6 180s, 2 G6 Domes and 2 G6 Pro domes. This will be getting its own dedicated 20-amp run from the main panel and a UPS 2U. If we're going to burn some cash, let's set that shit on fire for real. The biggest downside to this project is I am finding all kinds of shit the builders did that was wrong and/or dangerous. I have started wearing knee pads in the attic after I found a 2x4 nailed between the trusses that has a half-dozen nails sticking up. I'm glad I found that with the side of my shoe rather than my palms or knees. I also found one truss that is broken or just not attached. I haven't investigated it yet but that's on this week's agenda. |
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Originally Posted By TigerinFL: take some good pics. im in the same boat as you were. trying to decide what I want to do as far as equipment. house is nearly built and i was smart enough to at least run some CAT6 both inside and out. now I gots to figure out how to get all this hooked up without giving up my only kidney left after building this house. @TigerinFL I haven't been taking pictures. I don't want to drag my phone in the attic and have to worry about dropping it or crushing it. Plus, my attic is pretty tight to move around in due to all of the ductwork everywhere. Pictures would be insulation, duct, roof. Not really all that great. I also don't have an account for hosting pictures and I haven't renewed my Team membership in a couple years. If anyone cares enough about this project to buy me a membership, I'll take pictures of everything and the kitchen sink. My list of materials so far is.... - 12' of glow rod - cheap stud finder (no I didn't scan myself and make the dad joke) - drywall saw - 500' roll of string - 1" tape for attaching cable to glow rods - Coors Light (87 of them so far, probably) - Klein RJ45 crimp tool - Klein wire jacket cutter If you have some Baofeng radios, this is a perfect time to break them out so you aren't having to yell every time you need your downstairs person to do anything. It's funny how annoying it is having to yell "feed me more cable!" or "stop pulling!" If you're on iPhone 14 (I think that's the model, it's my wife's phone. I'm poor and have an Android) or later, check to see if you have LIDAR capability on your phone. Unifi's Design Center will let you upload a scan of your house and it's absolutely awesome! It will even show you furniture to a pretty good degree. You can move your APs around to get an idea of what kind of coverage you'll get with 2.4, 5 and 6Ghz APs. It's not perfect but it certainly removes a LOT of guesswork. You can virtually build out your rack, see wi-fi coverage and camera coverage if you want to add them. Very handy. 10/10. Would recommend to a friend. The fact that you ran cable means you've taken most of the hard work out of everything. If you have any questions for me, the absolute wrong person to ask, I'll be happy to try to not give you bad advice if you need it. |
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Originally Posted By baxt3r: @TigerinFL I haven't been taking pictures. I don't want to drag my phone in the attic and have to worry about dropping it or crushing it. Plus, my attic is pretty tight to move around in due to all of the ductwork everywhere. Pictures would be insulation, duct, roof. Not really all that great. I also don't have an account for hosting pictures and I haven't renewed my Team membership in a couple years. If anyone cares enough about this project to buy me a membership, I'll take pictures of everything and the kitchen sink. My list of materials so far is.... - 12' of glow rod - cheap stud finder (no I didn't scan myself and make the dad joke) - drywall saw - 500' roll of string - 1" tape for attaching cable to glow rods - Coors Light (87 of them so far, probably) - Klein RJ45 crimp tool - Klein wire jacket cutter If you have some Baofeng radios, this is a perfect time to break them out so you aren't having to yell every time you need your downstairs person to do anything. It's funny how annoying it is having to yell "feed me more cable!" or "stop pulling!" If you're on iPhone 14 (I think that's the model, it's my wife's phone. I'm poor and have an Android) or later, check to see if you have LIDAR capability on your phone. Unifi's Design Center will let you upload a scan of your house and it's absolutely awesome! It will even show you furniture to a pretty good degree. You can move your APs around to get an idea of what kind of coverage you'll get with 2.4, 5 and 6Ghz APs. It's not perfect but it certainly removes a LOT of guesswork. You can virtually build out your rack, see wi-fi coverage and camera coverage if you want to add them. Very handy. 10/10. Would recommend to a friend. The fact that you ran cable means you've taken most of the hard work out of everything. If you have any questions for me, the absolute wrong person to ask, I'll be happy to try to not give you bad advice if you need it. thanks for the info. i think what I am going to do is run two wireless wi-fi extender between my detached garage and house (about 50') and then add an access point in the garage and should be good to go. |
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Originally Posted By baxt3r: The rack will be a Dream Machine SE, Pro Max 24 PoE, UNVR (4-bay) and UNAS Pro. For the cameras, I'm leaning towards the G6 Pro doorbell, 2 G6 180s, 2 G6 Domes and 2 G6 Pro domes. This will be getting its own dedicated 20-amp run from the main panel and a UPS 2U.
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Originally Posted By Saker13: You will not need a dedicated 20A circuit for that setup. I have the following on a regular shared 15A circuit, mostly lighting and one other outlet, rack is in my laundry room:
Normally, I would agree with you about not needing a dedicated 20-amp circuit, but...the housecleaners have some hot rod vaccuum cleaner that sounds like it's sucking the downstairs of the house up while they are upstairs. My computer, at idle, can't even be on when they run the vaccuum. It trips the breaker that the rack would plug into. I figure if I'm going to run a circuit, I may as well do 20-amp. The price isn't that much higher. And overkill is fun.
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If anyone is keeping up with the progress, there has been some. I've run dual drops to my office, the master bedroom and my son's room. I also ran two drops in the bonus room. I have one U7 AP wired and mounted in the bonus room. This should cover most of the upstairs with 5Ghz WiFi if the Unifi Design Center is to be trusted. Tomorrow is when I begin the drops for the doorbell, living room TV, cameras and 2 downstairs APs. The doorbell and APs will be the most difficult of the interior runs. The camera(s) in the front of the house will be more than a real PITA. I'm also considering having the attic insulation re-blown since I've trampled down so much of it. I figure a top-off will probably be sufficient. |
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Nice. I think it's all about the size and design of the house if you can get away with just a couple access points upstairs. I have a 6K ft² house that's kind of in an "L" shape. I tried to do two access points on the upstairs ceilings...it worked okay. Lots of dead spots. I finally ended up doing what you're doing and added some in-wall access points downstairs and outdoor ones. Now I have 8. LOL. But, I have full coverage everywhere in my house. Attached File |
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I run a mix of Edge and Unifi stuff in my network. ER12 with its on-board switch set up to serve IoT clients. Three of its ports go to APs - one in the basement office area and the other two on the main floor. One of the SFP ports feeds our "work" LAN switch. It has two APs fed via PoE and only trusted systems are permitted to connect - no kids, lids or space cadets, please. The other SFP port feeds an ES-8 which in turn feeds an ES-16. Only hardwired clients permitted on this network - no APs attached. A Cloud Key connected to one of the IoT switch ports allows me to manage the APs. Switch and router management is done via WebUI or via Console connection. As others have pointed out, in the Unifi world it's necessary to deploy more APs to get good coverage. I don't mind as my U6 and U7 IW units have additional Ethernet ports that I can connect to. This has proven handy. |
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Well, I'm thoroughly past giving a damn about cutting holes in the wall. I'm just Leroy Jenkins-ing that crap now. Trying to use a glow rod to go through two top plates (bottom floor and top floor to attic) was going to drive me towards evil things. To make matters worse, where the run comes out into the attic is right under the OSB decking the air handler is on. A 6" hole saw took care of that problem nicely. I've now got one run from the On-Q panel where the fiber modem(?) lives and I am about to run the second for a POE++ Home Assistant control panel that will maybe be installed in the future. If I do install it, I don't have to more cable. The wall for the laundry room and the wall for the bonus room where I am making my runs are offset from each other by about 18". That necessitating cutting the laundry room ceiling and making a mess that will take more than flowers and some good sweet lovin' on Valentine's Day for her to get over. I've now blown through 670' of overkill cabling (Cat 6A, for those who are just tuning in) and I haven't even started the run for the doorbell, cameras or, downstairs APs (Design Center makes it look as if I will need 2 of them for good 6 giggidy-hertz coverage. I've got a boatload of time and money into this project so far and the spending isn't even at the halfway point. I'm maybe at 25%. But, think of all the savings from not having to pay for Ring anymore. Remaining to be purchased are: - U7 Pro XGS APs (3) - NAS Pro 8 - G6 180 cameras (4) - G6 Pro Entry (I don't need the Pro but it has a screen )- Unifi NVR (maybe) - power wire so this is all on a dedicated circuit - Home Assistant panel and all the accoutrements - Cabinets for the rack to live in - Cooling for said cabinet (possibly AC Infinity 4" inline fan(s)) - Sheetrock for repairs - Paint - Prayers my wife never reads this thread and figures out how expensive all of this stuff is - Hard drives for the NAS (4 to 8, depending on which I go with) I'm now off to the attic for the last run of the day. |
| Make sure your rack has room for that UNAS Pro 8. It is a deep unit. I went with the UNAS Pro since the Pro 8 wouldn't fit in my rack and the Pro 4 would be a tight fit. It didn't hurt that the Pro was on sale for Black Friday.... |
Who, What, Where? Call Sign, Snowball
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Originally Posted By Saker13: Make sure your rack has room for that UNAS Pro 8. It is a deep unit. I went with the UNAS Pro since the Pro 8 wouldn't fit in my rack and the Pro 4 would be a tight fit. It didn't hurt that the Pro was on sale for Black Friday.... I did wind up going with the 7-bay UNAS Pro after realizing how big the 8 really is. I got the UNAS Pro and 3 U7 Pro APs in last week and I have not had time to mess with anything. I'm having to quickly study for the FAA Part 107 test I'm taking this Wednesday. I'd planned to take it but certain events bumped up that timetable by quite a lot. I'm hoping to get to where I can have everything hooked up in the next few weeks. |
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I'm in the process of getting things set up today and it's actually not as bad as I thought it might be. I've read some horror stories of people having troubles. So far, none. I'm pleasantly surprised about the coverage of the U7 Pro APs. Even the 6Ghz signal is better than I expected it to be. I've only installed 3 of them. I still plan to install the 4th. Sadly, I'm not going to have much time for the next month or two. I cheaped out (lol) and grabbed a couple 4TB drives just to get me up and running. I'll add larger HDDs as the budget allows. Those things are crazy expensive and probably not going to get any cheaper. I thought I would post an update so this didn't turn into a safe thread. |
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Originally Posted By baxt3r: The damage is a couple runs of the original Cat 5 have broken pairs in them. I'm guessing from being a bit too enthusiastic with the staple gun. I found this with a tester after not being able to connect to the internet using the wired ethernet in the bonus room and another room. Cat 5 actually only uses two pair of the four that is in the cable. If your wires have two good pairs you could put new connectors on each end of those wires to put the good wires into the active parts of the connection. The other 4 wires/pins are used in gigabit connections, for POE, and other functions, but not needed for basic 10/100 ethernet. So might be a simple workaround. example: https://www.cablingindfw.com/ethernet-cable-pins-4-5-7-8-guide/ FAQ’s Do all Ethernet cables use pins 4, 5, 7, and 8? No. In ordinary Ethernet cable wiring installation services, 10/100 Mbps (Fast Ethernet) cables use only pins 1, 2, 3, and 6. Pins 4, 5, 7, and 8 are unused unless a Gigabit Ethernet or Power over Ethernet (PoE) capable cable is used. The installation of a data cable may be facilitated by an expert in the field to determine whether your network needs such pins, depending on your speed and power requirements. So the fix if you do not need POE or gigabit is to identify two good pairs and put connectors on with those pairs in the 1/2 and 3/6 pins. |
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Originally Posted By Gamma762: Cat 5 actually only uses two pair of the four that is in the cable. If your wires have two good pairs you could put new connectors on each end of those wires to put the good wires into the active parts of the connection. The other 4 wires/pins are used in gigabit connections, for POE, and other functions, but not needed for basic 10/100 ethernet. So might be a simple workaround. example: https://www.cablingindfw.com/ethernet-cable-pins-4-5-7-8-guide/ So the fix if you do not need POE or gigabit is to identify two good pairs and put connectors on with those pairs in the 1/2 and 3/6 pins. Well, now you tell me.  I've already run new Cat6A to everything in the house except for the living room TV. I might be able to knock that out tomorrow. This project started as unscrewing the mess the builder made but turned into futureproofing. And I'm okay with that. I picked up a few new skills along the way. Can't ask for much more than that. Even if a simple connector swap would have fixed it, I'm still happy I took on the project. |
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This might be an old post, and you may have already achieved your goal, but I'm running a UniFi Dream Router 7 with one AP right next to it in the basement of my three-floor townhouse. The AP (AC-HD) is set to 2.4 GHz 4 4 (DL MU-MIMO) I've turned off 5 GHz and dedicate it to all of my IoT devices, so it's a bit of a balancing act for what I'm trying to achieve. All of our computers are hardwired with Cat6a Ethernet, since I was able to run the cables through the walls with several of Unifi USW Flex Mini switch. It works great with no complaints even the wife is happy, which makes my life a little easier |