People often ask me what I would install for them, and my honest answer is usually "the same thing I run at home". So instead of another client story, this one is about my own network. It is not a lab and it is not a showroom. It is the network my family uses every day, and the one I work on all day long.
The Short Version
Here is everything, before I explain why:
- Router: MikroTik RB5009
- Wi-Fi: two UniFi U6 LR access points
- Controller: UniFi controller running as a VM on my home Proxmox server
- Internet: a 2000/500 Mbps line from my ISP
That's the whole list. No all-in-one box from the provider doing five jobs badly, and no rack full of equipment either.
Why MikroTik for Routing
I like to keep routing and Wi-Fi as two separate jobs, done by two devices that are each good at one thing. For the routing part, the MikroTik RB5009 is my choice. It is a small box, but it comes with a 2.5 Gigabit port and a 10 Gigabit SFP+ port, and that is exactly the reason it makes sense on a 2 Gbps line. With a router that only has gigabit ports, half of the speed I pay for would simply be left on the table.
The other reason is RouterOS. It's not the friendliest system for a beginner, I will admit that. But once you know it, you can do pretty much anything: firewall rules exactly the way you want them, VPN, queues, proper routing. You get a level of control that consumer routers just don't give you, at a price that is still very reasonable.
Why UniFi for Wi-Fi
MikroTik is great at routing, but for wireless I prefer UniFi. When it comes to access points it is a very high quality brand. In the U6 series, the U6 LR (Long-Range) is in my opinion one of the best models you can buy. The short specs:
- Wi-Fi 6, dual band
- 5 GHz: 4x4 MU-MIMO, up to 2.4 Gbps
- 2.4 GHz: 4x4, up to 600 Mbps
- 350+ clients and around 185 m² of coverage per access point
- PoE+ powered, so it's one cable per AP and nothing else on the ceiling
- Uplink: one Gigabit Ethernet port
That last line is its only real weak point. The radio side can deliver more than a gigabit, but the access point is connected to the rest of the network with a 1 Gbps port, so that is the ceiling for everything that goes through it. On most internet lines you would never notice. On a 2 Gbps line you do, at least on paper.
I use two of them at home. One good access point in the middle of the house sounds enough on paper, but walls don't read datasheets. With two APs the signal is strong everywhere it needs to be, and devices move from one to the other without anybody noticing. That last part is the whole point. Good Wi-Fi is the kind nobody at home ever talks about.
If You Need More Than a Gigabit Over Wi-Fi
For higher speeds my recommendation is the U7 series. These are the Wi-Fi 7 models, and the one I would point you to first is the U7 Pro XGS. A few details about it:
- Wi-Fi 7, tri-band (2.4, 5 and 6 GHz)
- 5 GHz: 4x4 MU-MIMO, up to 8.6 Gbps
- 6 GHz: 2x2 MU-MIMO, up to 5.8 Gbps
- 500+ clients and around 160 m² of coverage per access point
- Uplink: one 10 Gigabit Ethernet port
The 10 Gbps uplink is the important part. With this access point the cable is no longer the limit, and a multi-gigabit line can actually reach your wireless devices.
A word about 6 GHz, because that band is where Wi-Fi 7 really shows off. It is the right choice when you want performance with no compromise, but it has one condition: the space has to be free of obstacles. 6 GHz doesn't like walls at all. In an open room, with the device in clear sight of the access point, it is fantastic. Put a wall or two in between and the advantage is quickly gone, and your devices fall back to 5 GHz.
One thing to plan for: it needs stronger PoE. The U6 LR is happy with PoE+, but the U7 Pro XGS requires PoE++ and can draw up to 29 W. So before you buy it, check that your switch or injector can deliver PoE++, and that the port is fast enough to make use of that 10 Gbps uplink. Otherwise you have paid for speed you can't use.
And if you need maximum performance in a really large space, like a big open office, a hall or a venue with a lot of people, UniFi also has the E7 series. Those are the enterprise models, made exactly for that kind of job. For a home or a normal office they are more than you need, but it's good to know there is a step above.
The Controller Lives in a VM
UniFi access points are managed from a controller, and you have a few options where to run it. I didn't want one more little device on the shelf, so mine runs as a virtual machine on my Proxmox server, which is on all the time anyway.
This has some nice side effects. Before any controller update I can take a snapshot, and if something goes wrong I'm back where I was in a minute. Backups are handled together with the rest of my VMs. And if I ever need to move it to different hardware, it is just a VM, I move it and that's it.
One thing worth knowing: the access points keep working even when the controller is off. The controller is there for configuration, updates and statistics, not for passing your traffic.
The Real Test
Talking about speed is easy, so here is an actual result from this network, taken on the same day I'm writing this:
1,892 Mbps down, 515 Mbps up, and a ping of 3 ms. On a 2000/500 plan that is about as close to the advertised numbers as you can realistically get, and it tells me the router is not the bottleneck.
That number is the line and the router. Over Wi-Fi the U6 LR is in the path, so I ran two more tests the same evening, a few minutes apart.
First one is from my mobile phone, and on purpose not against a local server but a remote one, in another country:
837 Mbps down and 412 Mbps up, to a server that is not even in the same country. That is pretty much everything the gigabit port on the U6 LR can give.
The second one is from my MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro chip, also over Wi-Fi:
733 Mbps down, 458 Mbps up, and a ping of 6 ms. Is that a problem on a 2 Gbps line? For the work I do, not at all. It is more than enough for anything I need, and the full 2 Gbps is still there for the network as a whole, so several devices can be busy at the same time without slowing each other down.
Not Just at My Home
This is not something I only tried on myself. Together with my team I have implemented UniFi access points in combination with different MikroTik router models for dozens of clients. A large number of hotels, venues where a lot of people are in one place at the same time, and serious companies such as insurance companies. But also smaller shops, cafes, offices and so on. The router model changes depending on what the place needs.
What doesn't change is how the MikroTik routers behave. They have proven to be very robust, durable and reliable. You configure them properly, put them in a rack or on a shelf, and they just keep doing their job for years.
In the end the hardware is only half of it. The other half is how the network is planned and configured: where the access points go, how the networks are separated, what the firewall allows. Get that right at the start and the network becomes something you simply stop thinking about.
When did you last run a speed test at home, and did the number look anything like the one on your bill?