Ignorant dev here: why would I want to buy custom hardware when whatever off-the-shelf 2013ish netgear/linksys router I have can do port forwarding and max out my connection?
The main advantage is following the UNIX philosophy (albeit in a limited manner). The security gateway does NAT, VPN and firewalling, the APs do wireless and the switches switch packets. The CPUs can't get overloaded with other tasks.
I don't think I'm anything like an average user though. I have over 20 devices on my home network continually and 100Mbit fibre to my home - though with my new gear I could increase that to 800Mbit.
My Mikrotik and Netgear both regularly shut down when I max out my Internet connection. I've had days where I've had to manually restart them numerous times trying to push large docker images to AWS.
They both have spotty upnp implementations, which I need to work because there are game consoles in this apartment and upnp is necessary to get them online reliably. The Mikrotik's AP is pretty terrible. Doesn't even span a small 1BR in Seattle.
Netgear's models are notorious for being vulnerable to stupid exploits even after numerous hacky patchy series.
The most handwavey one: I find consumer routers just sorta need to be replaced every few years.
I spent less doing the whole Unifi thing recently than I've spent on routers and such in the last 6 years. I don't think I'll be needing to replace this gear any time soon, and Unifi isn't really custom hardware at all. They non-rack mount stuff is relatively affordable if you're willing to make a moderate investment.
Which AP do you have? They sell many, which vary greatly in transmit power. Some (like the RB951G-2HnD) support up to the legal maximum of 30 dBm, but most (like the cAP lite) run at 20 dBm. The notorious RB951-2n (my first) ran at only 15 dBm, which is underpowered.
The 20 dBm models are designed to be used in a multiple-AP scenario, e.g. one AP per room. They definitely won't span multiple rooms, by design. (This is for several reasons, both to properly segregate client devices onto separate APs, and to ensure TX power parity between the AP and devices, which often operate in the 17 dBm range.)
I've run exclusively MT for years and never had one lock up under load. What model do you have and what sort of bandwidth are you talking about? I regularly run 200+ Mbps transfers to/from my NAS (across a wAP ac) and never have trouble. (I did once own a hAP ac that would – after an electrical event that destroyed some other equipment of mine – reboot occasionally.)
By separating the router and wireless APs you also get the ability to place multiple APs throughout your home for improved signal.
for me it was because
- it could not max out my connection: it was maxing out a 70Mb/s on a 100Mb/s connection
- those off the shelf routers do not support vlans, and I like so segment my home lan in stuff I trust, and stuff I don't trust.