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Comment by xamlhacker | Hacker News Reader

Well I run a TP-link repeater and now thinking of getting something better. Someone know any routers or repeaters with reputation for good firmware?

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The Ubiquity Unifi stuff looks good and not very expensive.

Speaking from experience, it is good. Takes a bit of networking know-how to set it up though, and you still need a router. Their consumer oriented stuff like the AmpliFi is quite excellent too and a bit friendlier.

I use an Edgerouter Lite, a Mikrotik switch and UniFi APs for myself and was so pleased I bought the AmpliFi mesh for my parents.

I have a similar setup, without the switch and the Unifi APs are just excellent. Smooth setup, great range.

So, if you can run a cable, I second Unifi.

Op, if you can not run a cable, maybe look into a mesh network. Repeaters "loose" about half of the bandwidth anyway, a mesh might be good alternative.

If you want to set up an open source enviroment, there is libremesh (http://libremesh.org).

If you just want to buy something, there are products from Netgear (orbi), Linksys (Velo) or Ubiquiti (Amplifi). If you have a Fritz!Box-setup from AVM, you might be able to use their mesh features (site in German, because if you have a FritzBox, you probably speak German ;) https://avm.de/mesh/)

Ubiquiti also has a line of Unifi mesh gear: https://unifi-mesh.ubnt.com/

> Op, if you can not run a cable, maybe look into a mesh network. Repeaters "loose" about half of the bandwidth anyway, a mesh might be good alternative.

Mesh network simplifies setting up many repeaters, but it "looses" bandwidth the same way (unless you connect it via cable/other frequency band) as repeaters.

My entire house uses them exclusively and they’re rock solid (as long as you have latest firmware, adopting old stock can be .... interesting).

Also no need for the cloud controller as you can run t inside a docker and have a fully self hosted solution.

If you don't want to pay $80 for the cloud key and don't want to run the controller on one of your machines, the unifi service can also be set up on a raspberry pi pretty easily.

Is the performance ok? I'd imagine it would be slow as heck

The Unifi controller is a configuration front end for Unifi devices -- data on the network shouldn't be going through it. It might be a little slower to use, though I've never compared it with the cloud key, but for a home setup, that won't matter too much.

Speaking from experience, Unifi is rock solid. I've got 2 Unifi access points and a gigabit PoE switch in my house.

Troy Hunt also had a great article detailing his work with Unifi gear as well: https://www.troyhunt.com/ubiquiti-all-the-things-how-i-final...

Just priced a home network setup. Came to £600

Turris Omnia is nice router with auto update and strong focus on security. https://omnia.turris.cz/en/

Why not use LEDE firmware? It's beats most consumer routers' firmware by a long shot. Search your router's model here - https://lede-project.org/toh/start

If you trust Google, consider buying into Google Wifi mesh routers.

If not, consider eero.

Amplifi HD seems better in terms of range and signal strength.

I've been very satisfied with my MikroTik router.

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