Introduction

I um’d and ah’d for weeks on end about purchasing a Google WiFi setup for home, on the surface it offered a powerful and integrated system that would blanket my home in delicious AC WiFi, it’s simple setup and set and forget nature would make life easier and fit in with the growing Google ecosystem already in my home consisting of several Pixel devices, Google homes and Chromecasts. I had read and watched a few reviews that applauded setup and ease of use but they either didn’t comment on or shrugged off its mediocre range and performance, so giving myself the benefit of the doubt I decided to get more serious and go down the UniFi rabbit hole and I’m glad I did.

Mesh Mesh Mesh

I never liked wireless, It’s a necessary evil don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to walk around my home, phone tethered to an Ethernet socket, but for anything even semi serious a good old Gig-eth connection is unbeatable, especially for game streaming a la Nvidia Shield or Steam link. So what Google WiFi promises is that their hubs will interconnect using an extra mesh radio (This is important as bandwidth isn’t sacrificed) to offer a smooth connection wherever they reach, the access points all broadcast on the same SSID so your phone doesn’t know the difference and is supposed to seamlessly roam to the strongest signal.

The difference with UniFi is that instead of the backhaul being done by a Mesh radio, you’re using good old fashioned Gig-eth. It’s worth mentioning that the UniFi AC Mesh Pro does have similar wireless mesh functionality but I’m not using it here. So with that said I was happier to accept a solution that reduced the dependency on the fickle mare that is wireless.

The Environment

Prior to this I was using a Zyxel access point that had similar enterprise credentials, it was placed slap bang in the middle of my home on the 1st floor landing. It would just tickle the Ring Doorbell, unusable in the car on the driveway but just enough to trick your phone into connecting to it so it would annoyingly turn off your mobile data and leave you stuck with loading pages. The orangery was another dark spot, with it being built against the external wall the Zyxel would struggle to penetrate into there to the annoyance of my partner who wanted to use the dining table as a work space.

With this in mind I came up with a plan, the AC Pro would replace the Zyxel on the landing and the Mesh pro would go outside on the garage wall right next to the orangery, The garage was cabled with Cat6 on day one to supply a CCTV camera and in anticipation of future shenaniganary such as this. This setup I thought, would allow a strong signal indoors on one foot and on the other great coverage in the orangery and in the garden on the rare occasion we get to enjoy the Great British weather out there, god forbid we’re disconnected whilst doing so.

I made a mistake. But it’s not the worst mistake I could have made, I greatly underestimated the power of these devices, the AC Pro alone would have reached the orangery. The Mesh Pro now serves the garden, the orangery, the garage, 10 of my neighbours and the woods 200m from my house. Serious stuff.

Setup

Ubiquiti kindly include everything you need to get going, even the POE injectors. The AC Pro fits to a wall or ceiling with the included brackets and the Mesh pro to a wall or a pole with the included mount. I had a hole already on the landing so I put of the new bracket and away that went. With the mesh I drilled through the brick and made up a cable, mounted that and off we pop.

If you buy the cloud key controller or use the application for a server you’ll be in the same boat as me, otherwise you can use the app or specific web pages to set up individual AP’s but you’ll miss out on the UniFi system.

The interface is wonderful and intuitive, even in a home environment, it’s not exactly as dumbed down as your ISP supplied router but the functionality is streets ahead. Current client connections, statuses, throughput, everything a data nerd needs. Settings can be applied to all the APs in the group at once and with the advanced settings turned on you can do things like steer clients onto 5Ghz to keep 2.4Ghz free.

I’m really only calling out the tip of the iceberg here, the feature set is vast.

Day to day use

I set it and then forgot it, it’s really bomb proof. Roaming is seamless, connection is unshakable and throughput steady. It’s almost as if my phone is tethered to the wall with an Ethernet and my faith in WiFi is restored. I even had a go with Moonlight on my tablet to stream the Witcher 3 from my PC which I can now do in my garden or presumably in those woods I mentioned earlier for total immersion… My phone even connects in the car on the driveway and my first world problems have slipped away.

Conclusion

If you can stomach the cost and like a bit of messing about with setup and networking then anyone can integrate this system into even a simple BT Home Hub type house. If you have trouble areas and black-spots then this is the nuclear option. If you can cable them up this system is infinitely scale-able as far as I can tell and a couple of Mesh APs will even bridge your mansion to your pool house if you’re so lucky without the need for a cable.

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Product Links

Mesh Pro

AC Pro