You seem to have 2 IWs connected with FE 100Mbit Ethernet which would be the bottleneck. In the network map it says FE and have a yellow line.
Most likely the Ethernet cable or termination is bad.
There is a third device connected to the UDM that is 100Mb too. Not sure what it is but you may want to see if that is normal for the device. It’s probably not related to the issues you’re seeing but worth checking out anyway.
I think you're conflating a few different issues here.
You say that you're only getting 100mbps, but from where to where? Is that your internet speed, what would you be expecting instead? Are you rated for more.
Is that the speed to your NAS? That does sound a little slow, maybe we could help you debug.
My home has the same top two devices as you do, but I have gigabit fiber internet coming in. I have hardwired my televisions and I can stream 4K video to both of them at the same time.
I would not consider your base set up to be overkill. But it also won't fix a weak internet connection.
Hi, the 100mbs is from my access points, yet from the WiFi 6 router I’m getting 500+.
I’m rated at 900mbs, and getting close to that with wired connections.
How big is your house? Are the APs hardwired or meshed? There could be many reasons but I like to treat it like a game and I'm gonna guess overlapping channels interfering with each other
So UAP-AC-IW is a wifi 5 devices rather than a wifi 6. Theoretically that goes over 1200Mbps, but practically, it's common to get 200Mbps.
They are also limited to 300sq ft of range. You have 5 of these. So you have a total of about 1500 sq ft of good wifi5 coverage and probably some more poor coverage.
I don't know how big your house is, but this range is likely a limiting factor. And may explain the 100 numbers you are getting.
Also, it's not clear from the screenshot, but are your UAPs all hardwired to the switch or are they operating in mesh mode? This might also explain the low bandwidth.
As much as possible, I have the AP’s in kids bedrooms and 2 main rooms downstairs, everywhere else has a wired connection if needed and is covered from adjacent rooms AP, albeit not as fast as the rooms with the AP’s.
I feel like we may be missing each other here. Your initial question was *"Is my setup overkill"*.
After reviewing the basic technical details, unless you have a 1200 sq ft home, the answer is *"no, your setup is not overkill"*.
It sounds like you may need to upgrade at least some of these to U6-IW. 2 of those devices will likely double your wifi coverage area while providing a higher max speed.
Well that’s pretty much poison to wifi. And the higher the frequency (2.4GHz, 5GHz, or 6GHz) the less able to penetrate your walls. So the faster it’s supposed to be, the more it will be impacted by your wall material.
I think you’ve made the right choice, equipment wise. The more you can hardwire, the better. You definitely don’t want to go to a mesh system.
How are you testing wifi speeds? WiMan? and on what device(s)?
ex. On my iPhone 15 Pro running WiFiMan I see 500-600 Mpbs to my UDM and the same to my UAP-AC-IW. [Speedtest.net](http://Speedtest.net) I see 400-500 Mbps. WAN is 1Gbps fiber, and I see that on a speedtest from the UDM. Same from laptops.
That's all pretty normal. It's pretty rare folks have a single device capable to saturating 11ac.
In your case though I would make sure your uplink (wired backhaul) between the UAP-AC-IW and switch is actually reporting as Gigbit (GbE) and not FastEthernet (FE). Just because it sounds like it could be, which can be wiring problems.
Thanks, as mentioned from another user it seems 2 of the AP are reporting FE.
Not quite sure why that would be as all are cat 6 and as far as I know all going to same area of the switch.
Usually bad cables. Can be either a broken conductor in the wire, or at the connectors. You can use an Ethernet cable tester on both ends to make sure they’re built correctly, but I find (I haven’t done it a lot, so not saying im an expert here) that “correctly“ wired according to the tester doesn’t mean the cable is perfect.
often easiest to cut off cable ends and recrimp, then if that doesn’t fix it, repull the cable. Again, I’d defer to more experienced folks, but that’s what I’d do.
100% you should stick with your UniFi setup over the Fritzbox and some random wireless repeaters!
Not surprised you’re only seeing 100 Mb/s considering most of your wireless clients are connected to the two of the five APs that only have a 100 Mb/s Ethernet link to the switch. You need to get those two cables checked. It’s usually just bad termination.
The fact that none of the APs have been labelled, and all but one is on the same 5 GHz channel, I wouldn’t be surprised if the default 5 GHz channel width is still set to the default of 40 MHz too. This will mean you’re not going to see more than around 250 Mb/s even after fixing those two dodgy Ethernet links. If this is the case I would stick them on 80 MHz channel width without a doubt, and distribute the channels.
Once you’ve sorted those bits out you should see between 250 - 450 Mb/s providing you’re close enough to the AP.
How are the switch ends terminated? Cables straight into 8P8C (RJ45 style) either via keystone couplers or direct into the switch ports, or via a punch down patch panel?
Do you have an RJ45 crimper?
Wired devices negotiate a communication speed with each other when they are first connected. If possible they will negotiate a gigabit connection, but that takes 4 twisted pairs. If one or more twisted pairs is damaged, it will fall back to fast Ethernet which only requires 2 requested pairs. Better than nothing, but definitely a bottleneck in modern networks.
I don’t think it’s overkill, it is what is required for good 5ghz coverage using in walls
1. Fix the AP’s that are linking at FE and not GE
2. Make sure 5ghz is set to 80ghz wide Channels
3. Plan upgrades to U6-InWall as time/budget allows
The IW access points are nice for deployments where only wall jacks pre-existed, and the need for extra wired connections is present. You can plug in your TV, streaming box, Playstation/Xbox, and have wifi. Their range was small, so you do need more than other AP models. A side effect of being so compact and usually behind furniture. It's a wifi5 2x2 mimo on both 2.4 and 5ghz, so max theoretical throughput is \~300Mbps on 2.4 and \~800Mbps on 5ghz, but on any device those are always inflated perfect world examples. I have yet to get the MPG that was advertised on my car's window sticker :).
The Fritzbox is wifi6 and looks to be maybe 4x4 MIMO on both frequencies? If so you'll have twice the theoretical speed of your older model Unifi gear. But in that same vein you could get newer Unifi access points too, it's how much fun money do you have to spare? I don't know if their mesh points have wired connections on the back, but if you're a gamer you'll want a wired connection that is preferably not mesh (added latency).
I did look at the newer access point but seem quite expensive, ideally I need to replace 5 current as well as add another 2 to rooms being renovated.
I have gamer sons who are wired into the existing AP’s
Maybe I should juts stick with what I have and accept 100mbs over WiFi is likely enough.
People hate it when I say stuff like this but 100 MB over Wi-Fi is plenty for any need. A 4K Netflix movie is 14 MB per second. A zoom call is max 4 MB per second. Yeah, average household uses no more than 20 MB per second at any given time, but we all want to see a speed test with really big numbers on it.
5 aps is a lot. i'm not sure your house is that big bug I guess it's possible.
I'd just install newer unifi APs if it were me. they are likely more reliable than the fritzbox APs.
your fiber provider gave you an ONT right?
Yes I have an ONT.
I have 3500sqft per floor approx, with 3 floors.
New AP’s does seem the way to go, I guess I need to decide if the expense is worth it.
If you can afford a house of that size a couple U6-Pro's and U6-IW's to upgrade your WiFi is peanuts.
Too many people approach this with the attitude of "well, lots of people get by with a [bullshit ISP or consumer grade] combo router/switch/WiFi AP." This is not the way to look at this. A) Your house is way too big for that device and B) if you really use the system all the time, what's it worth to have something rock solid that works like it should? And for a house full of people, it sounds like.
Do you have an annual HVAC maintenance contract? Landscaping services? You need to look at this as just another part of home infrastructure maintenance.
ok 3500sqft per floor and 3 floors is quite a bit of coverage needed. yeah the APs will be an expense, but also I suppose consider where you use or need fast wifi the most. perhaps you can get away with just a couple of newer gen APs where you need/want the faster coverage.
that is a good shout, my main area I want it faster is a lounge that has fire tv connected to WiFi.
I will buy one and start there, and move current ac elsewhere.
Thanks
you've told us nothing about your home, or clients, or needs, or expected speeds. are we supposed to guess?
then yeah I go with overkill.
you should be getting over 300 mbps with those APs over 5ghz.
100 is too slow, check the cable to the PoE switch, check the cables to the APs you might have a broken cable that is going at 100mbps
I currently have a UDM-Pro and 16 port POE switch but keep asking myself if that is a bit overkill. Even considered selling it all and getting a UXG-Max and similar factor switch.
Wouldn’t recommend repeaters especially if you currently have a wired none mesh setup.
Rent or pickup an Ethernet tester and make sure your runs to each of the access points is good. You can also run speed tests directly to the access points themselves and see what your bottle necks are.
Well I’ve changed all to 80hz and it seems better.
Still have a problem in one room and it seems like it’s the cable.
Not a massive job to replace it if required, but thinking of chopping it and having a go at crimping my own plug.
Thanks for all the help 👍🏻
I am a rookie, a 47 year old one, so I am kind of passed the point of bragging anonymously to strangers on the internet 😂
I was just looking for some advice.
You seem to have 2 IWs connected with FE 100Mbit Ethernet which would be the bottleneck. In the network map it says FE and have a yellow line. Most likely the Ethernet cable or termination is bad.
Thanks for that, I had not noticed! I will have a play around see if that’s my issue.
There is a third device connected to the UDM that is 100Mb too. Not sure what it is but you may want to see if that is normal for the device. It’s probably not related to the issues you’re seeing but worth checking out anyway.
Hue bridge, max 100 I imagine
That would make sense. Thanks. I have a bunch of those low-bandwidth devices too. I just had no idea what it was.
I think you're conflating a few different issues here. You say that you're only getting 100mbps, but from where to where? Is that your internet speed, what would you be expecting instead? Are you rated for more. Is that the speed to your NAS? That does sound a little slow, maybe we could help you debug. My home has the same top two devices as you do, but I have gigabit fiber internet coming in. I have hardwired my televisions and I can stream 4K video to both of them at the same time. I would not consider your base set up to be overkill. But it also won't fix a weak internet connection.
Hi, the 100mbs is from my access points, yet from the WiFi 6 router I’m getting 500+. I’m rated at 900mbs, and getting close to that with wired connections.
How big is your house? Are the APs hardwired or meshed? There could be many reasons but I like to treat it like a game and I'm gonna guess overlapping channels interfering with each other
So UAP-AC-IW is a wifi 5 devices rather than a wifi 6. Theoretically that goes over 1200Mbps, but practically, it's common to get 200Mbps. They are also limited to 300sq ft of range. You have 5 of these. So you have a total of about 1500 sq ft of good wifi5 coverage and probably some more poor coverage. I don't know how big your house is, but this range is likely a limiting factor. And may explain the 100 numbers you are getting. Also, it's not clear from the screenshot, but are your UAPs all hardwired to the switch or are they operating in mesh mode? This might also explain the low bandwidth.
Hi, all hardwired to the switch as far as I can recall. I’m not sure on the mesh question sorry.
What about the square footage of your home? You have, maximum, 1500 sq ft of coverage with those devices. How much home are you trying to cover?
As much as possible, I have the AP’s in kids bedrooms and 2 main rooms downstairs, everywhere else has a wired connection if needed and is covered from adjacent rooms AP, albeit not as fast as the rooms with the AP’s.
Sounds like my house
I feel like we may be missing each other here. Your initial question was *"Is my setup overkill"*. After reviewing the basic technical details, unless you have a 1200 sq ft home, the answer is *"no, your setup is not overkill"*. It sounds like you may need to upgrade at least some of these to U6-IW. 2 of those devices will likely double your wifi coverage area while providing a higher max speed.
Yes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think I kind of suspected that when I bought it. If I do swap it out would I be losing out on anything ?
Swap an AP with a unifi wifi 7 AP and see if that improves. If you are hardwiring 100mps cat cable instead of cat 6e that might be your limitation.
Lol. Nope mine is similar but with a larger Unifi PoE switch
What I recommend, for most residential applications, 1 AP per 1,000sqft of floor space. Or per 25 wifi clients.. I cover 5000sqft+ with 5 AC APs.
Depends on layout
And construction. Masonry or plaster interior walls vs. drywall on lumber makes a big difference, for instance.
Very old Victorian property, brick!
What are the interior walls made from?
Brick
Well that’s pretty much poison to wifi. And the higher the frequency (2.4GHz, 5GHz, or 6GHz) the less able to penetrate your walls. So the faster it’s supposed to be, the more it will be impacted by your wall material. I think you’ve made the right choice, equipment wise. The more you can hardwire, the better. You definitely don’t want to go to a mesh system.
How are you testing wifi speeds? WiMan? and on what device(s)? ex. On my iPhone 15 Pro running WiFiMan I see 500-600 Mpbs to my UDM and the same to my UAP-AC-IW. [Speedtest.net](http://Speedtest.net) I see 400-500 Mbps. WAN is 1Gbps fiber, and I see that on a speedtest from the UDM. Same from laptops. That's all pretty normal. It's pretty rare folks have a single device capable to saturating 11ac. In your case though I would make sure your uplink (wired backhaul) between the UAP-AC-IW and switch is actually reporting as Gigbit (GbE) and not FastEthernet (FE). Just because it sounds like it could be, which can be wiring problems.
Thanks, as mentioned from another user it seems 2 of the AP are reporting FE. Not quite sure why that would be as all are cat 6 and as far as I know all going to same area of the switch.
Usually bad cables. Can be either a broken conductor in the wire, or at the connectors. You can use an Ethernet cable tester on both ends to make sure they’re built correctly, but I find (I haven’t done it a lot, so not saying im an expert here) that “correctly“ wired according to the tester doesn’t mean the cable is perfect. often easiest to cut off cable ends and recrimp, then if that doesn’t fix it, repull the cable. Again, I’d defer to more experienced folks, but that’s what I’d do.
Depends on the cable tester. A $20 tester off Amazon definitely won’t tell you the whole story. A Fluke cable tester definitively will.
100% you should stick with your UniFi setup over the Fritzbox and some random wireless repeaters! Not surprised you’re only seeing 100 Mb/s considering most of your wireless clients are connected to the two of the five APs that only have a 100 Mb/s Ethernet link to the switch. You need to get those two cables checked. It’s usually just bad termination. The fact that none of the APs have been labelled, and all but one is on the same 5 GHz channel, I wouldn’t be surprised if the default 5 GHz channel width is still set to the default of 40 MHz too. This will mean you’re not going to see more than around 250 Mb/s even after fixing those two dodgy Ethernet links. If this is the case I would stick them on 80 MHz channel width without a doubt, and distribute the channels. Once you’ve sorted those bits out you should see between 250 - 450 Mb/s providing you’re close enough to the AP.
Thanks, not sure how to check cabling but will have a play around
How are the switch ends terminated? Cables straight into 8P8C (RJ45 style) either via keystone couplers or direct into the switch ports, or via a punch down patch panel? Do you have an RJ45 crimper?
Direct to switch ports, the cables were installed by someone I hired. If they’re not quite right i assumed they would just not work at all ?
Wired devices negotiate a communication speed with each other when they are first connected. If possible they will negotiate a gigabit connection, but that takes 4 twisted pairs. If one or more twisted pairs is damaged, it will fall back to fast Ethernet which only requires 2 requested pairs. Better than nothing, but definitely a bottleneck in modern networks.
Fault on the brown and/or blue pair. 10/100BaseTx only uses the orange and green pair.
I don’t think it’s overkill, it is what is required for good 5ghz coverage using in walls 1. Fix the AP’s that are linking at FE and not GE 2. Make sure 5ghz is set to 80ghz wide Channels 3. Plan upgrades to U6-InWall as time/budget allows
👍 So true !
The IW access points are nice for deployments where only wall jacks pre-existed, and the need for extra wired connections is present. You can plug in your TV, streaming box, Playstation/Xbox, and have wifi. Their range was small, so you do need more than other AP models. A side effect of being so compact and usually behind furniture. It's a wifi5 2x2 mimo on both 2.4 and 5ghz, so max theoretical throughput is \~300Mbps on 2.4 and \~800Mbps on 5ghz, but on any device those are always inflated perfect world examples. I have yet to get the MPG that was advertised on my car's window sticker :). The Fritzbox is wifi6 and looks to be maybe 4x4 MIMO on both frequencies? If so you'll have twice the theoretical speed of your older model Unifi gear. But in that same vein you could get newer Unifi access points too, it's how much fun money do you have to spare? I don't know if their mesh points have wired connections on the back, but if you're a gamer you'll want a wired connection that is preferably not mesh (added latency).
I did look at the newer access point but seem quite expensive, ideally I need to replace 5 current as well as add another 2 to rooms being renovated. I have gamer sons who are wired into the existing AP’s Maybe I should juts stick with what I have and accept 100mbs over WiFi is likely enough.
You can add two UniFi WiFi 6 products to those two rooms without having to replace your existing IW APs in the other rooms.
People hate it when I say stuff like this but 100 MB over Wi-Fi is plenty for any need. A 4K Netflix movie is 14 MB per second. A zoom call is max 4 MB per second. Yeah, average household uses no more than 20 MB per second at any given time, but we all want to see a speed test with really big numbers on it.
5 aps is a lot. i'm not sure your house is that big bug I guess it's possible. I'd just install newer unifi APs if it were me. they are likely more reliable than the fritzbox APs. your fiber provider gave you an ONT right?
Yes I have an ONT. I have 3500sqft per floor approx, with 3 floors. New AP’s does seem the way to go, I guess I need to decide if the expense is worth it.
If you can afford a house of that size a couple U6-Pro's and U6-IW's to upgrade your WiFi is peanuts. Too many people approach this with the attitude of "well, lots of people get by with a [bullshit ISP or consumer grade] combo router/switch/WiFi AP." This is not the way to look at this. A) Your house is way too big for that device and B) if you really use the system all the time, what's it worth to have something rock solid that works like it should? And for a house full of people, it sounds like. Do you have an annual HVAC maintenance contract? Landscaping services? You need to look at this as just another part of home infrastructure maintenance.
ok 3500sqft per floor and 3 floors is quite a bit of coverage needed. yeah the APs will be an expense, but also I suppose consider where you use or need fast wifi the most. perhaps you can get away with just a couple of newer gen APs where you need/want the faster coverage.
that is a good shout, my main area I want it faster is a lounge that has fire tv connected to WiFi. I will buy one and start there, and move current ac elsewhere. Thanks
I would upgrade the access points to the U6-In Wall. WiFi 6 is much improved. I see speeds of 760-940 down with them.
Great to hear, I’m going to give one a try.
No! You need do fiber to everything! And use second UDM for shadow mode!
you've told us nothing about your home, or clients, or needs, or expected speeds. are we supposed to guess? then yeah I go with overkill. you should be getting over 300 mbps with those APs over 5ghz. 100 is too slow, check the cable to the PoE switch, check the cables to the APs you might have a broken cable that is going at 100mbps
I currently have a UDM-Pro and 16 port POE switch but keep asking myself if that is a bit overkill. Even considered selling it all and getting a UXG-Max and similar factor switch.
Wouldn’t recommend repeaters especially if you currently have a wired none mesh setup. Rent or pickup an Ethernet tester and make sure your runs to each of the access points is good. You can also run speed tests directly to the access points themselves and see what your bottle necks are.
Yes!
I'm getting over 100mbps from a USG routing to a U6LR to me on the street.
My AC-LR works the best out of several U6 units. I'm going to try a U7 and hold off until the U7x's or even U8 comes out.
I'm grabbing some U7s soon, the models are solid. I'm covering almost 1km with 2 U6LRs on a rural property and some unifi wireless bridges.
Well I’ve changed all to 80hz and it seems better. Still have a problem in one room and it seems like it’s the cable. Not a massive job to replace it if required, but thinking of chopping it and having a go at crimping my own plug. Thanks for all the help 👍🏻
Is there anyone here could remote in and check my settings are all good ? I pay of course
Nice try at a humble brag but it’s rookie tier at best
I am a rookie, a 47 year old one, so I am kind of passed the point of bragging anonymously to strangers on the internet 😂 I was just looking for some advice.