5 ms·

The real solution is to plan for having a low-power access point in every room. Maybe even hidden in the ceiling of every room. Everything gets faster and more

The real solution is to plan for having a low-power access point in every room. Maybe even hidden in the ceiling of every room. Everything gets faster and more reliable when you limit crosstalk. If anything, I’d want my future home to have WiFi-blocking walls and access points everywhere.

HPsquared 3y ago
What happens when you walk around the house?
- eppp 3y ago
  Controllers that support roaming and handoff.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    In particular, 802.11r isn't that hard to support.
  - lxgr 3y ago
    You don't even need a controller for roaming/handoff (although it increases efficiency). Any standards-compliant 802.11 access point will support basic roaming, even across different vendors, since it can be entirely client/station-driven.
- s3p 3y ago
  Hope you weren't downloading a file
  - bdavbdav 3y ago
    It’s more than fine. We have no cell signal (so WiFi calling), 5 UniFi APs. You can walk around the place and you wouldn’t even notice a transition.
  - BenjiWiebe 3y ago
    If downloading a file makes your WiFi calls bad, look into bufferbloat and CAKE.
- gregmac 3y ago
  I have two unifi access points inside and another two outside due to brick exterior walls that blocks most wifi. It seamlessly switches, to the point I can be on a video call on my phone and wander around without any interruptions.
- bdavbdav 3y ago
  It’s seamless
eimrine 3y ago
> The real solution is to plan for having a low-power access point in every room. This is too expensive, how about a correct placement of a one router and refusing to use a vacuum cleaner with spyware? > If anything, I’d want my future home to have WiFi-blocking walls You have no choice since anything except some nasty plastics does this, even wood according to the article.
- vlmutolo 3y ago
  The most expensive Unifi in-wall AP is $170. Even if you had ten of them, that’s only $1700. If you’re building a house, that’s not that expensive for making basic infrastructure work well.
  - Auracle 3y ago
    That $1700 will be somewhat outdated in 5 years, and definitely outdated in 10.
    - wl 3y ago
      The conduit used to run the Cat6 or fiber to those APs will probably still be useful in 40 years.
      - northrup 3y ago
        THIS! The fact that of all the things we regulate in housing construction by codes, and how we’re turning to view the Internet as a fundamental access need, you’d think we’d be more prescriptive with “in order to make maintenance of this communication medium flexible and future proof, all communication cables in homes should be ran in conduit.”
      - madamelic 3y ago
        Yep. When I was growing up 15 years ago, my dad wired the house with Cat6. I am now a homeowner and wiring my house with Cat6. 10Gbps at 55m (180ft) is plenty for residential when the top-end residential internet offerings cap out around 1Gbps. Unless you have a buzzing internal network, you are wasting your money going above Cat6/Cat6a imo. Cat7 is no speed increase over Cat6, only distance and cross-talk improvements. Cat8 is rated at 4x Cat6 for throughput and costs 3x more than Cat6 (~$530 per 1k ft vs $170 per 1k feet). There's no reason to buy a Lambo if the speed limit is 35 mph.
umeshunni 3y ago
That was my solution when we did a remodel of our house. Cat6 and PoE to each room. Unifi Dream Machine Pro in a rack in the garage and Unifi In Wall APs (with ethernet out) in each room. They were easy enough to swap out and upgrade to Wifi 6 when that launched.
yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
All of this is why I had high hopes for LiFi - completely blocked by walls, zero crosstalk, allegedly great performance within each room, and you can run it through lights that you wanted to have anyways. Obviously there are trade-offs, but it really did look like a great solution to a lot of these problems. Unfortunately, I suspect that 1. the trade-offs really didn't hurt, and 2. Wi-Fi is already utterly pervasive and it's almost impossible to get a second standard that's not backwards compatible to that.
sargun 3y ago
I can’t wait until 60 GHz is available en masse, and I can deploy an AP in every room.

HPsquared 3y ago

What happens when you walk around the house?

eppp 3y ago
Controllers that support roaming and handoff.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  In particular, 802.11r isn't that hard to support.
- lxgr 3y ago
  You don't even need a controller for roaming/handoff (although it increases efficiency). Any standards-compliant 802.11 access point will support basic roaming, even across different vendors, since it can be entirely client/station-driven.
s3p 3y ago
Hope you weren't downloading a file
- bdavbdav 3y ago
  It’s more than fine. We have no cell signal (so WiFi calling), 5 UniFi APs. You can walk around the place and you wouldn’t even notice a transition.
- BenjiWiebe 3y ago
  If downloading a file makes your WiFi calls bad, look into bufferbloat and CAKE.
gregmac 3y ago
I have two unifi access points inside and another two outside due to brick exterior walls that blocks most wifi. It seamlessly switches, to the point I can be on a video call on my phone and wander around without any interruptions.
bdavbdav 3y ago
It’s seamless

eimrine 3y ago

> The real solution is to plan for having a low-power access point in every room. This is too expensive, how about a correct placement of a one router and refusing to use a vacuum cleaner with spyware? > If anything, I’d want my future home to have WiFi-blocking walls You have no choice since anything except some nasty plastics does this, even wood according to the article.

vlmutolo 3y ago
The most expensive Unifi in-wall AP is $170. Even if you had ten of them, that’s only $1700. If you’re building a house, that’s not that expensive for making basic infrastructure work well.
- Auracle 3y ago
  That $1700 will be somewhat outdated in 5 years, and definitely outdated in 10.
  - wl 3y ago
    The conduit used to run the Cat6 or fiber to those APs will probably still be useful in 40 years.
    - northrup 3y ago
      THIS! The fact that of all the things we regulate in housing construction by codes, and how we’re turning to view the Internet as a fundamental access need, you’d think we’d be more prescriptive with “in order to make maintenance of this communication medium flexible and future proof, all communication cables in homes should be ran in conduit.”
    - madamelic 3y ago
      Yep. When I was growing up 15 years ago, my dad wired the house with Cat6. I am now a homeowner and wiring my house with Cat6. 10Gbps at 55m (180ft) is plenty for residential when the top-end residential internet offerings cap out around 1Gbps. Unless you have a buzzing internal network, you are wasting your money going above Cat6/Cat6a imo. Cat7 is no speed increase over Cat6, only distance and cross-talk improvements. Cat8 is rated at 4x Cat6 for throughput and costs 3x more than Cat6 (~$530 per 1k ft vs $170 per 1k feet). There's no reason to buy a Lambo if the speed limit is 35 mph.

umeshunni 3y ago

That was my solution when we did a remodel of our house. Cat6 and PoE to each room. Unifi Dream Machine Pro in a rack in the garage and Unifi In Wall APs (with ethernet out) in each room. They were easy enough to swap out and upgrade to Wifi 6 when that launched.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

All of this is why I had high hopes for LiFi - completely blocked by walls, zero crosstalk, allegedly great performance within each room, and you can run it through lights that you wanted to have anyways. Obviously there are trade-offs, but it really did look like a great solution to a lot of these problems. Unfortunately, I suspect that 1. the trade-offs really didn't hurt, and 2. Wi-Fi is already utterly pervasive and it's almost impossible to get a second standard that's not backwards compatible to that.

sargun 3y ago

I can’t wait until 60 GHz is available en masse, and I can deploy an AP in every room.