BEST WiFi Optimization Settings!
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- Опубліковано 26 кві 2022
- WiFi optimization is a subject I get asked about a lot - in this video, we're going to cover the method that I use to approach any wireless deployment. We'll discuss various aspects of wifi optimization such as AP placement, channel width, channel selection, and transmit power.
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Wi-Fi sends signals out in a 3d notion, not 2d. I wish that these programs/sites that use layouts would be in 3d instead of 2d! it would show more correct signal propagation... especially for people that have multiple levels in their homes/buildings.
Ubiquity is a US company and in the US they have not yet mastered the art of building multi-storey houses. This is why they only offer 2D.
Agree - this video is great for the basics, but its hard to understand the radiation patterns of an AP mounted on a basement ceiling, or 2nd floor wall.
I agree that would be nice but right now all you have to do is import a flat image and generate the plan scale. To do what you want, unless you had your house in a raw/universal 3D format (which maybe 0.01% of people do), you'd have to design the house in whatever 3D modeler the program included. Sure, you could make a simple version of your house, but the issue is on the development side (the developers would end up spending 95% of their time designing a 3D modeler and maybe 5% of their time on the actual network optimizer tool, lol).
@@geraldh.8047 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Not only that. You should also be able to change the orientation of the AP as in most houses they are against the wall rather then the ceiling. That has a big impact on the heat map as well.
In my situation with 3 floors and floor heating on the ground and 1st floor... I've chosen to position the AP under the top of the stairs going from ground floor to 1st but I placed it against the wall so the transmission pattern is spreading to all floors rather then just the ground floor when I would have attached it to the ceiling (or underside of the stair).
Because of this I have strong/good signal strength throughout my house with a single AP Lite.
At one of my neighbors I've still a good signal while at my other neighbors I'm on the shadow side of the AP. For fun I've tested it as well with the AP being in a horizontal position and then at both my neighbors the signal was less.
To both neighbors their are 2x 10cm concrete walls.
About time someone took the time to truly explain how to tweak your Unifi APs. Thank you Chris!
I just wanted to thank you for this video! I have a lot of neighbors with 2.4GHz networks so mine was almost unusable. I changed the channel width to 20MHz and not only the 2.4GHz network became usable, but the 5GHz also gained a bit more coverage (don't ask my why). I'll definitely apply this setting to my future network setups.
I absolutely adore that even though neighbouring WiFi names are blurred on the list, they show up as soon as you hover over the graph.
Missed concepts: How to handle two floor homes? How to handle AP orientation? How to debug devices hanging on to the wrong AP (AP switching). Also in the case for your example where there was only one offending (competitor) AP, maybe a bit of checking power at different corners of home to plan your channels around the general direction they are broadcasting from. Hate for your channel one to be nearest thier channel one of you can easily test and plan to avoid the condition in just two minutes.
Good info on the video. One thing to mention with Unifi is to disable Wireless Meshing when directly wired to a switch. Had to figure that out the hard way because my U6-LR kept trying to search for a wireless mesh connection even when hardwired.
Been waiting for a video like this a long time. Thanks for this video.
Thank you for the video. I would love to see someone do a multifloor video - I have 3 AP's on the first floor, 1 on the 2nd, and 1 on the 3rd.
Thanks, I really appreciate your coverage of the Unifi products, I use them extensively in my consulting business.
Thank you for this video. Watching it now as I have been trying to resolve wifi performance issues. Made changes as shown in the video. Very well explained and helpful.
Exactly what I was looking for with my (too many) APs in my Unify smart home. Love all your videos, very helpful
Excellent tutorial, I will look into those WIFI adjustments, I’ve been having problem setting up my second AP. I’m having poor performance from. Your videos are always very informative.
Love the flipper in the background
Nice vid Chris! Have you played with the RF Environment tool ? Click on an AP, then go to Insights, RF Environment, You will see an expanded view of all the WiFi channels and their utilisation/noise. Clicking Scan Channels will then take the selected AP off the air (you can do multiple scans on different APs simultaneously),for about 5 to 10 mins, to scan the WiFi channel spectrum, and then report back on the utilisation, and interference on each channel, with nice graphical representation. I've found it quite useful when selecting which channel to set my APs to. This may also make a good video too !
Great video Chris, best explanation I have seen on this subject.
After reading other articles, I am going to follow your suggestions in this video. I am using 5 Ubiquiti U6-LRs in a 6000sqft house.
Damn man you always explain these things so well, love watching your videos. Thanks for everything you do.
OMG finally, thank you I have been looking for a video for this setup.
Thank you so much for this video. I've been trying to figure this out for a school that I work at with over 70 AP's and having issues with coverage where clients don't hand-off to a closer AP as expected. I'll give this a go and hope for the best.
I've always had that issue with Unifi, and it drives me crazy. I can be in a totally differnt building standing under an AP, and my devices choose to keep a zero bar connection.
Excellent video. I learned a lot. As a note, it's important to have your access points on the correct bandwith for your devices (smartphones and laptops etc) as many devices ONLY work with a 20 Mhz channel and won't connect on a 40 Mhz channel at all. I use a 40 Mhz channel for a wifi bridge between two buildings for example where no client connections are required.
A big thank you, from the Netherlands.
Learned a lot and have some to do now!!
Can you do another one of these that covers a multiple storyhouse.
Every floor should have Ethernet wiring and at least one access point in a central location or room that needs fast wifi. Covered.
@@Cypeq it's a bit more complicated than that. Say you have a 3-storey house. On the second floor, the AP may well overlap with the ones on floor 1, and, just the same, the AP on floor 3 might overlap with the one on the second floor. It will be even more complicated if you have multiple aps per floor. Channel juggling will become a large problem, if you want to set them manually to reduce interference.
Great video and very informative. How about a follow up covering multi level properties?
17:00 would still rec the opposite actually. move tx power to lowest. if running into handoff or coverage issues, then increase in increments.
That's what I should try to figure out my switching issues. Problem is, I want WiFi far from the APs, but don't want issues when close to several.
Your video was very helpful. Thanks!
I so need to learn from this! Thank you!
Good video thanks for sharing. Love the Star Wars shirt!
This is VERY useful, thank you!
Hey Chris, I live in a small rural town and I set all my 5ghz ap's to DFS channels and have had no problems. The nearest airport is 15 miles north. I also use Unifi and when I run the wifi insights I get a lot of 2.4ghz channel interference but very little 5ghz interference. LIke you said, the 5ghz doesn't propogate as well as the 2.4ghz.
Great video. Concepts simply and clearly explained. I can’t fault anything you said, Your videos really helped me get my Ubiquiti wireless admin certification. Thank you Chris!
Really great walkthrough! Thank you so much.
Do you ever use the RF-scan function?
The best videos on Unify Systems. Great and clear explanation. I would be interested on some comments on ceiling mounting versus wall mounting. Is there any difference?
Thanks for this video. I'm just waiting on the EAP690E HD from. TP-Link to come out and I'll be putting 3 in my new house. This was really helpful
So as I was tweaking I found Enable Minimum RSSI which you do not cover in this video. As this is not a one size fits all setting you should discuss this setting. Basically it kicks a device off of an AP when the signal gets low to force it to find a stronger AP. In a multi AP setup this could help prevent devices from getting stuck on the old AP...
Pretty good video overall. The one thing you may want to revisit is Tx Power settings. It all starts there actually and it is determined primarily by the weakest client devices you will need to support in the network and the gain of the antennas in the AP. Once you have that, then you can go ahead and figure out number of required APs and proper placement. This means that more often than not you'll be either entering custom Tx power values or using one of the pre-defined ones, but never "Auto". Also it would be good to keep in mind that when it comes to UniFi there's nothing "auto" in the Auto Tx power setting.
Most Wi-Fi problems related to roaming, sticky clients, and the like usually can be traced back to inadequate Tx Power settings. Hope this helps.
I was going to leave a reply about this as well before I read your reply. I have really bad experience with "Auto" setting on Tx Power settings in general, as leaving it on "Auto" will leave too many clients clinging onto an AP because the signal quality is "too good" on the neighboring AP. However, from professional experience this can seldom be completely fixed with TX Power settings alone. You'll need to play around with "Min. RSSI" in order to get "the perfect roaming" (if that exists...)
@@Cyndariel Proper Tx power settings and the right AP placement should be enough most of the time, but I agree in that it will not always be perfect. Min RSSI is problematic in my opinion.
Look for "Wireless LAN Roaming FAQ" in the UI Community. I explained a bit more there.
@@Cyndariel I'm confused with what you are saying with a neighboring signal being too good. Probably what I deal with when I go down to zero bars but my device won't switch to the AP right above me. Is that what you meant? And how do you fix that?
Another issue I have is where my IP calls glitch out while standing 10 feet from an AP, 30 feet from another through a wall, and 60 feet from another through a couple walls. I'm not sure if my device is roaming between them or what. I can't figure out that issue. Any suggestions for those scenarios?
@@JacksonCampbell the best way to refer to what he’s talking about is signal saturation. If the signals coming in very loud (saturated )from the AP, the device won’t connect to it. Sort of like going to a concert and it’s so loud you cover your ears and it doesn’t sound good or makes you want to leave. I hope that makes sense.
I’d like to see some more advanced discussion on the minimum RSSI options. I’ve had issues with devices hoping back and forth between APs causing connectivity issues.
You have too much power going to your APs. Lower the TX power and disable the lower tier connection speeds from your bands. This will stop your device from having too many nice connection options. Unless you use a mesh wireless then this is expected. But your device wont do the hopping, the system will move your device without it knowing.
Quick note on the BROADCOM_GUEST_0_3 ssid:
I had this same SSID appear seemingly randomly. However, I have found that this is a Comcast business modem issue that persists when a silent error occurs after turning off the modems built in wifi radios. You should try factory resetting your modem and it will go away.
This only happens with Comcast business modems in my experience. I’m not sure why and even Comcast doesn’t have any answers but I found that factory resetting solved the issue! Hope this helps!
This will be fun for my 50+ U6-LR deployment…..
What about different floors? I have 1 in my basement, 1 outdoors in the eve of my garage 2nd floor and 1 in the office inside right in front of a window. I'm trying to reach inside and my yard entire yard.
Beamforming technology (e.g. Ruckus wireless) - this is the answer to all your wifi needs. You don't need many access points, much power, sensitivity or channel exclusivity if you use a directional adaptive radio.
Very helpful! Thx!
Chris do you ever turn off all but one access point when checking the environment for interference? The interference in the garage may not be the same as the interference in the living room, I guess
Hi Chris, I've been following your series for setting up the udm pro. It has helped me a lot; thank you and excellent work! Quick question, I'm setting up APs around the house, would it be possible to name the wireless network with the same SSID and password of the existing wireless network these APs are replacing? The idea (if this is possible) is to avoid the trouble of reconnecting all my smart devices to a new wireless network (i.e. smart switches, alexa, door bells, smart hub, etc.) and tricking them into believing the wireless network is the same or in other words, nothing has changed. Will appreciate your comments!
hi Chris, always great video for years, speaking specifically to UniFi is there value in a the nightly channel optimization automation?
Thanks for the info. Just a suggestion, for future videos, try using dark mode for better viewing or not it's your channel. Great video.
Very nice video. Thanks😊😊
What about in 2 or 3 story house? Would it be okay to have an AP in the basement then another one in the main living room (on top of the basement AP)? Or can I just use the AP that it is sitting in the basement?
One thing I would add is minimum RSSI! I have found this to be extremely useful, especially in Apple environments as they are sticky and will hang on to an out-of-range AP like it's the last internet connection on earth.
I find the opposite. Better to adjust transmission power down to accommodate instead. Min rssi tends to kick clients off unnecessarily.
I've been a UniFi owner for long and have set up multiple networks already in the past. One thing that I still cannot explain with UniFi is that when I do exactly as explained in this video, so I examine the spectrum and pick channels based on theoretical knowledge, the WiFi quality is always unreliable and unstable. From the spectrum analyzer all looks optimal, but in reality it isn't. Until I saw many professional UniFi installers on UA-cam vastly mention to go with auto channel and transmit power selection. At first I still didn't want to believe this would be smart and went with auto channel and manual power. Still a mess. Then I budged and went with auto for both. Have never had such awesome and stable WiFi ever before. It's perfect. Weirdly enough from the spectrum analyzer it looks a mess. It places multiple access points controlled by the same UniFi controller in the same site overlapping each other. From theory what I see totally makes no sense but in practice it works better than ever before. Never could explain this to myself, let alone anyone else. Has been working flawless for two years already like this.
Great tutorial on using Insights on the UDM SE. I had not really looked at that prior and now makes perfect sense. Will re-calibrate all my wifi now and quit this auto channel hoping!
What about "Nightly Channel Optimization" option ?
If I’m running channel width 80 MHz on channel 44 does that mean I could infringe on DFS channels or is the width purely related to the channel you are on? I’m still trying to get my head around the channel widths and if it’s purely related to the channel that you have selected (in my case 44).
Very interesting. A lot of info to consider. Thanks for sharing.😎⛏⛏🔥🔥
I have two access points walls mounted as the ceiling is too high to get to.
Works alright but had to turn RSI limit to about -70 so devices transition to the correct access point
This Very good Video for WIFI design
Question: If we already set the Channel without interference with the all of our AP and our neighbors AP. but in view month letter there are new AP form our neighbor that use the same Channel with us, in this case do we need to change our AP Channel again.
What is the advantage of the Auto Channel. is this feature will change our AP channel automatically when our AP sensing interference channel ?
Next question when the channel is change automatically. Do client (PC. notebook) that already connected to the AP will have lost connection and then reconnect with new Channel ?
I'm running a Ubiquiti Cloud Key Gen2+.
All of my Ubiquiti APs (3 at on location on the farm and 2 at the other location on the farm) have "Nightly Channel Optimization" toggled on.
Does this do the same thing as manually setting channels?
@Crosstalk Solutions, I have my APs set up like your on my first floor of my home. I also have a fourth on upstairs middle of the house. What channel you suggest I use if my first floor uses 1,6,11 for 2.4Ghz?
Hello, Crosstalk Solutions, thank you for the demo, very good idea in terms of setting up wired APs on a flat area, I understand that this is a simple way to explain and see the benefits of placing the APs across the rooms, etc, but would you make an example of how to place three or more devices in a 5 story building for example, instead of horizontally example as that is the only ones I see in UA-cam I haven't found an example in which the location is a building with different floors. I look forward to the next video and thanks again.
Question. What program would you use to put in building plans. Have a church building that is probably a 100 ft long by 50 wide. We have a hard time with wifi coverage. Would like to figure how many access points to get to cover it. Can take photos even. Our TPlink router will not cover the back. Our Soundcraft Ui12 mixer has problems. Any help appreciated.
I love it…… I just new to this brand and I am losing my mind to optimize it… I will try your advice, I have in a small hotel about 40 Access points, I should go through each one? Or there is a way to group them!
Good video. Solid name for a UDM Pro
I have a lengthy two-story brick home. My Wireless Router was setup in the back of the house and the signal was a bit patchy when you got to the front of the house. To fix this, I initially set up a second WAP (wired) in the front of the house.
However, the issue I had, was the mobile devices could still see both access points. So, after walking in the front door, the mobile device would logon to the closest and strongest WAP (the one at the front of the house), but then wouldn’t move over to the second access point when you went to the back of the house, even if the signal was much stronger.
Someone had suggested using the same SSID and Password for multiple WAPs, which I tried. However, that didn’t seem to work too well. What’s your thoughts on a setup like this?
So, in a situation like this, would it all be down to your TX power? If so, how weak does the signal need to get, for a mobile device to drop one WAP and reconnect to another? In addition, would there be a dead zone between the two WAPs?
I ended up fixing this issue with a Mesh Network, which seems to work quite well. However, you were advising not to use a Mesh Network, unless it was really needed, due to some of the throughput of the Mesh Network being used to wirelessly connect up to other WAPs.
Could we have a wired Mesh Network, and then use the Mesh technology only for the user’s Wi-Fi? Hopefully, this could then allow the WAPs to hand off users (similar to a Mobile Cell Network) when there was a stronger/better signal available. Or am I still not understanding how a Mesh Network works?
Covers well all the basics. For complex installations (like 6 to >100 AP, multiple levels construction,....) you could do a video about Power Output (in fact 'Auto' = max) / RSSI / Interference reducing (not clear from Unifi what it does). Also interesting is the changes by placing the AP vertically or horizontally (radiation diagram are not a 360 sphere) - even sometimes horizontally 'upside down'. Also if your customer has a really fast internet (fiber optic >500 Mb/s) you must use 80 Mhz channels in 5 Ghz, otherwise you're pretty limiting bandwith. In your exemple I would personnaly add a 4th interior AP to have better 5G coverage and at least 1 outside (or 2 or 3 depending on the outside zone of your property) - I like to have >-65 dBm everywhere, I'm not at all satisfied with some -75 dBm. I mostly have customers with 600 Mb/s or 1000 Mb/s and I try that they can have >200 Mb/s anywhere. 1Another factor is that in Europe 90% of inside walls are brick / concrete / block and almost never wood / placo / .... so much more attenuation between rooms. And today all windows / sliding outside doors are with double or triple layers with a metallic coating between layers - you open terrasse door and you have a good signal outside, you close it and signal disappear (at least 20 dBm below).
Thank you for the great work!
I'm not sure what part of London you live in but my walls are made of paper mâché. I am literally the "if walls could talk" guy.
@@Blackfeet Well, I'm not in London, not even in UK. Living mostly between Ibiza (yuppie!) and Brussels (Beurk!).... Inside walls are usually minimum a 'grey concrete block' of 20 cm thick, sometimes filled with cement (and sometimes iron poles as well). Old typical houses in Ibiza have walls of 60 to 100 cm thick (yes, up to 1 meter!) and there absolutely nothing pass, you need an AP in every single room
What are your findings about the "changes" of vertical vs horizontal vs upside down mounting options? Id love to hear more
Thanks for the video. I've been using the setting "Nightly Channel Optimization" thinking it was doing the work of picking the best channels to use. Do you not recommend using that setting?
I would never use auto for power. auto in Unifi used to mean Max. Has that changed? I use low for 2.4 and medium for 5. I also thought you would discuss RSSI etc?
Great video. I'm a few weeks away before I start purchasing my Unifi bundle. Quick question...? Once you have the access points setup and installed. How do you set up them so you don't have to join a new wifi every time you travel around the house closer and further to access points? Thanks!
Question, so as your walking from one side of your house to the other, does your phone automatically connect to the closest/strongest access point? I have a 2 story house and I have unifi access point on the first floor and one on the second floor. How do I know if when I’m on the first floor if it’s connect to that one and not to the one in the second floor. If I make any sense
Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to switch my UDM Pro back to classic mode, to get access to Insights. I've looked in Settings for the button to disable the new mode, and it doesn't look like it's there anymore.
Why do you not use the antenna "scan channels" feature under Insights to asses which channel to use? I would have thought that would provide finer grained adjustment than the clobal WiFi Scan feature....
how can i set up UAP-AC PRO to my laptop because the new laptop now different port type C connector and HMDI, USB type i need to buy another connector for set up this single unit
I would like to know how to have the best signal coverage on a 2 floor house. Is it possible using Unifi floor plan?
Hey, good video! I've got a question: On my UniFi Controller I cannot choose any channel over >140 in the 5GHz spectrum. 140 (DFS) is the highest option I get in the drop-down list. Any idea why is that? Can it be a country-specific setting?
Hi, great video. I have a story and a half house with a basement, how do you plan for access points across floors?
If I am doing a large exterior installation, a trailer park, how do I judge how hi I should turn up the output power?
You missed the *testing* phase. For example, many houses have a lot of forced air ducts, which interfere like crazy, and you aren't always completely sure exactly where they are. You may need to move an AP to avoid having ducts shadow your signal.
I mounted my AP on the bottom side of an air duct, just to avoid them. I live in a single floor condo, with air ducts at the top.
May I ask ? Why dial in the channels ? I’m curious
Does the Ubiquiti “auto” channel function not work ?
The newer unifi controller Can do Channel optimization. Is that enough to activate that or would you still explicit definere channels?
curious. wouldn't leaving channel on auto allow the APs to change channels that it sees as more free based on scanning surrounding APs? And I had assumed that if my surroundings change, leaving the radios on auto would allow them to self adjust to the changes.
Hey can you explain also the thing that if you go further away from the 5 ghz that it automatically turn over to 2.4ghz
What is the "outdoor mode" for in the settings for the AP? I have never seen this and it appears it is a new feature.
Do you recommend the "nightly channel optimization" for offices or even homes? What does it exactly do and is it good at its job?
Usually unifi have good algorithm for selecting channels. So mostly I just set it at auto and in most cases everything works well.
Great Video + the knowledge you give in mesh video let me understand my mistakes i've done on my site & my custommers sites. So many thants for that
One more issue i'd like to undersand. I plan to buy mower robot as ambrogio, what needs to hve wifi in the garden to create map and do its job. Unlees i saw your video i was thinking the best is ONE 2,4ghz cannel on whole garden to provide one network to the robot, but now i have a question if the robot will understand he is still in the same wifi network, when 3 access points i need in my garden are set up on different channels? probably yes but please describe it why he will understand :) i'd like also to understand ths :)
BR
Whats the difference between HE80 and VHT80. I see my AP all have VHT or HT and the number but in your video and others I have seen they show HE and a number?
Very informative video!! Unfortunatly here in the Netherlands I cannot choose anything above the 140(DFS), so, channel 165 for one of the AP's is not possible. Is this different per region? What is the best alternative ?
Hi Chris. We have an Access system between our church and the minister's house were the router is situated. We are trying to install a card reader paystation. Although the paystation can log on to the Ubiquity nano, it cannot access the internet. If we take the paystation near the router, bypassing the nano system, the paystation which, uses an Andriod based tablet, logs onto the internet.
My question: Is there a timeout function on the nano setup which is not giving the Google Andriod time to log onto the internet. Thanks for all your informative videos on the Ubiquity products they have been helpful.
Could you please do a video on how to set up a VPN on a UniFi home network with a UDM? Thank you
Any reason not to use auto for everything? Channel and tx power?
I know this video is several months old now. How well does the feature work now that auto scans and will change the configuration based on the scan results?
I'm curious about a couple of settings on the Dream Machine--if the network is set to auto optimize, will it provide better coverage self-managing? My 2.4 area is pretty congested, but 5 GHz is almost like a ghost town.
Does the channel make difference between different floors? I mean, if I use the same channel but in different floor.
nice video, but what if devices are being moved around the space, like a doc's office with tablets/ipads, will having the APs on different channels make the hand off drop out?
I live in a rural area with several users on Ch. 6 at 20 MHz and two on 1 at 40 MHz. I use two AP Lites in my home now and wonder if I should change to 11 just to keep me separate. Not an issue but wondering. Nobody has any traffic in the 5 GHz area. Very good info for a novice tinkerer. ;)
On the insights screen, I have 77 scans, (I noticed that you have 46). When I press the next page, the WiFi results change significantly. It appears the results are related to those 25 that are shown. Do you know of a way to show the total results of the 77 (46) AP's using the Unifi tool?
Any thoughts about using the RF environment scan within each individual AP? The overall insight page you show is for the entire network but shouldn't the selection be on an AP by AP basis based upon what the more immediate environment is around it?
The Broadcom Guest is coming off the Comcast CBR. You need to factory reset the modem to get rid of them.
3:11 Do you know any channel analyzer for iOS? Seems pretty hard to get one that doesn’t require an external dongle, which is of course completely in the way of Apple doing things, as they do with headphone jacks, but it’s pretty annoying, when the hw is already in the phone….
Morning, how do i disable internet to some of my clients who have not paid for their subscription from nano m5 series?
Export channel scan. Does Unifi have a means of exporting the channel scan information besides just taking screen captures.
Does anyone know what the 125 AP devices (first row) at 2:39 means? Does the mean it currently sees 125 AP's, or it has seen 125 AP's over the timespan of the day?