This right here. Really curious on multiple floors.

The lack of multi-floor is a major limitation of the design centre at present IMHO. I can understand why they did it from an enterprise vs. home use case point of view, though it seems it would be a relatively easy feature to implement. I'd also love to see a more UK/European style house example - mine isn't this big but is full of brick walls which cause all kinds of problems, especially for 5GHz. In my case signal coverage going through a suspended timber floor is much easier than a brick wall so I've zoned into vertical 'cells' with the APs in the loft space serving 2/3 rooms vertically stacked above eachother.

@@TheSpiv I think the benefit of design center comes from the ability to quickly plot something that might give you the 80% solution. Probably too many variables to account for (I.e. other signal interference) to provide anything practically accurate

I just went through this process for a new 2 story house build and am a bit apprehensive of how things will play out in the real world. I optimized AP placements for each of the floors individually, but don't know how the 2nd floor signal will affect things on the 1st floor. While the APs are not directly over top of each other, they are a little closer vertically than I would ideally like. And since I'm having network drops placed in specific ceiling locations on each floor for the APs, it's not like I will be able to relocate them easily or cheaply if things don't work out like I planned. Just hoping that any interference issues I might run into can be mitigated through configuration changes in Unifi...

@@TheSpiv oh gotcha. Yeah, that definitely makes sense.

You should design each floor independently. Signal from one story shouldn’t affect the other.

@@gaastonsr Thanks, I have a split level house that is quite open and have just put an LR on the second floor ceiling in a stairwell. Should I still try and map each floor independently

@@gaastonsr I know only one single building where the WiFi does not penetrate the extra thick reinforced concrete ceilings and I seriously doubt something crazy like this does even exist in the US. Usually WiFi can penetrate between the floors reasonably well and it is often a good idea to supply a room from above/below. And US houses are known to be built as flimsy as possible.

Start by buying 1 AP and a long patchcabel. Now move the AP around the house and check how each placement affects the coverage, after you have surveyed you simply buy more APs if 1 isn't giving you the coverage you need. I have surveyed similar sized houses where some needed several APs for good coverage and others 1 AP would cover the entire thing. It's a good idea to survey with the weakest device, I've seen instances where my phone had 300+ mbit throughput and other devices barely got 30. I never trust the planner cause I'm the one paying if the final product doesn't deliver

@@britboy70 My single U6-LR basically covers my whole house and garage and porches, but my split-level is very very open. Ceiling of the stairwell is where I put it, from the half-basement to the main floor, and the half-second floor is just above. Works great

I used a Uniquiti Beacon AP in my garage because there is no easy way to run Cat wire to it. I needed 'net access for updates for my two cars. Works perfectly.

I live in a German house go for ceiling mout its much better

@@christianbrandt6710 I believe you. The problem is the UDR, which is relatively far down on a shelf. Directly against a concrete wall. Behind the concrete wall, the first U6-Pro is connected via wireless uplink. No 50cm between them, mounted directly at the same height, so that the connection cross-section is as small as possible and thus the connection must break through as little concrete wall as possible. If I were to mount the U6 behind the wall on the ceiling, the UDR would have to break through just under 2.5 meters of concrete wall, since the direct cross-section from the very bottom to the very top through the wall is the longest. Solution would be no wireless uplink, but direct cabling. Thanks anyway!!!

@@drosselbusch For you Americans, what this guy is saying is "yes" in Germany the inside walls are basically at the same spec as the outside walls. I, too, live in germany, and my inner walls are brick and morter (Bau/build date 1879) and thick wooden doors. This is no bullshit, my inner walls are 20 CM thick and made of brick. Yet I cover my 70 square meter space with a single UAP-AC-PRO. Mounted on the ceiling and right in the middle of my space.

When it comes to mounting any of the unifi "domes" like the U6-Pro, you need to look at its shape. Ubiquiti has said their dome-shaped APs are broadcasting outward in a 180 degree hemisphere from the mounting surface. If you mount one on a wall, anything behind that wall is not getting much of a signal. If you mount it on the first floor ceiling, the second floor will need its own APs. I strongly recommend the ceiling mount option for the best coverage. Keep in mind that load-bearing walls and beams will interfere with and reduce your range, so if you have visible beams supporting the roof or floor above, mount it on the bottom of the beam instead of the ceiling resting on the beam. Hope that helps.

Use nOversight

The Unifi design tool gives you several options for building materials. I'm curious to see if it works well for you

I was curious about the multi-floor as well as I have a 2 story home.

Both of my houses (in NY and FL) have standard wood framing + sheetrock separating the garage from the rest of the house.

I could certainly see this happening! UrAvgConsumer's Wi-Fi problems are infamous among his followers (me included) so this could work out!

Coverage greatly depends on how close your neighbors are. When I lived in a rural neighborhood for a few years I had a long narrow house, 72 x 28. I had good coverage even with bad placement, and only two weak signals from neighbors. The AP was in the master bedroom at one end of the house, the two bedrooms at the opposite end still good coverage. Transfer speed (internal server) was in the 200Mbps range, much faster than our internet. Later we had to the city again. In our apartment, our devices can see over 75 different SSID broadcasts of various strengths. Our signal strength is high everywhere, but so is the signal for a bunch of other SSIDs. It's only a 900 square foot apartment, but the signal from the living room was not usable in either bedroom. I had to buy a second access point and a PowerLine adapter set to get good coverage. One is on the wall between the master bedroom and the living room, and the second is in the second bedroom. The walk-in closet there became my office, but it is bigger than my old cubical. In the living room we get about 25Mbps, but 75Mbps in the bedrooms with the AP. My other pet peeve is that everyone is using super wide WiFi channels so the whole non-overlapping-channels concept is thrown out the window.

@@javaman2883 Yes, we’re in a similar situation. The houses in our development are very close together and I usually see 10 to 12 other SSID’s along with mine. I especially like the ones who rename them with their address.

@@javaman2883 I have seen your problem hundreds of times because my company installs WiFi in condominiums, time shares, & resorts. Select the strongest channel from neighbors and use that for 2.4 GHz with 40M bandwidth. Do same for 5G with 80M bandwidth. WiFi is capable of minimizing interference on same channel, but weak on rejecting interference from adjacent channels. Hopefully your adjacent channel interference has low signal strength. As ISP for select MUDs, I have the luxury of controlling channels to minimize interference, but sadly you don’t.

I am usually pretty good about adding in metric units...forgot this time.

True. UBC code requires a timed fire protection where flammables are present.

You have to do each floor separately and then make best guesses for WiFi bleed between floors. The Design Center doesn't have that capability unfortunately. In my case - I have a single AP up in my attic that basically covers my entire 2nd story.

Based on the description alone, it doesn't sound like you have too many at all, but if wanted to go through the exercise that Chris did in this video, you might find some improvements that could be made or signal strength adjustment. If you don't have any coverage issues though, you might already have it spot on though. I have a small 3 bedroom single level house with single skin timber walls & 1 AC-Lite. I get coverage all through the house & 70% of the yard, it's quite amazing how good the Unifi AP's are.

You'll get better coverage if you mount them on outer walls facing inwards than you will putting them on a ceiling. It's the way the antennas are designed in the unifi AP's

I had the same concern with high ceiling in a garage. Initially I had a access point at 12 feet up on a 3/4" EMT conduit with the access point mounted millimeters away from a 4x4x2" metallic box. Coverage was not good below the access point and up to 5 plus feet away. As a second try I moved the access point to 10 feet above the floor, used 2 inch plastic spacer between the metal box and the access point adapter. Coverage was good below the access point, and great in all of the garage.

Did you install one AP for each floor ?

Or more and turn off the 2.4 ghz

It's up to the individual device...UI steers devices as best it can, but ultimately, the device makes the decision.

Wonderful knowledge Mr Guru..

But as you have pointed out - mobile client devices typically have low transmit signal strength, which is precisely why a single U6 LR blasting at high signal strength may NOT be the right choice for many people. Multiple APs at lower signal strength play nicely with mobile device wifi.

Definitely not for the amount of time you spend in there.

I just looked at it...it's not out of sync.

I also have a deck on the roof which could be considered another level

They are meant to be mounted on the ceiling, facing down. There are mounting brackets you can get for putting them on a wall (maybe a 2nd story wall?), but what they do is basically give you a flat horizontal surface on which to mount them facing down.

Although they are designed for ceiling mounting, depending upon your house setup, a wall mount can work as well if not better - you need to experiment and measure the actual signal strength in each orientation. Ceiling mount for open plan offices - absolutely. But most houses are not at all like an open plan office, and certainly in my house I found better coverage in 2 place through wall mounting after I checked the delivered signal strength.

If you choose the right walls you'll probably find that you get better results putting it on a wall facing inwards that if you put it on a ceiling.

There's a lot of focus in the WiFi industry on speed. To get those gigabit speeds on 5Ghz, you do need to be pretty close, like in the UI simulation. A usable connection will be a much larger area. With the focus on speed, you don't want the consumer getting one AP, then complaining that they only get 100Mbps in their bedroom. Is it still usable internet? Yes. Is it the gigabit speed promised on the box? No. By having the customer get two APs, their devices will be relatively close to the AP more of the time, and get those faster speeds they are paying for.