I got 99 problems but my WiFi ain't one

Yeah I looked at the Draytek line after our conversation, but they don't do cameras, and their APs seem to be twice the price of Ubiquiti if you want ceiling mounted and .ac. I know a camera is a camera, but their software looks pretty decent, it's not an area I've studied too hard though.

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I have a switch question, rather than a wifi question - I have two Ubiqiti 5-port Toughswitches, and I've run out of ports.

Rather than continually adding switches, is it worth just picking up a 24-port job like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123606943450

I can use the Toughswitches elsewhere in the house, which would also mean I can reduce cable run.

I also get to use the 10U rack that I just built...

What is the forum recommended stand alone wi-fi router for a home?

My parents have Virgin cable and the bundled box / router has issues that prevent useful things like Bonjour from working and Virgin won't fix it. So need a separate wi-fi router box doobry.

If you're keeping their modem and just want a Wi-Fi thing only... then an Ubiquiti Access Point like https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-lite/

Switches and very basic and any switch will do.

However the bigger they are and the more traffic that they are rated for, the more they create heat and the more they need cooling.

What you propose works fine. Multiple small switches are equivalent... but I wouldn't be surprised if the rack mountable one has fans and is loud. That would be my only consideration if you have the space to put it.

I can confirm that the Cisco 3750e runs very hot and the fan noise is too much for a house.

I know its not an issue for a second hand out of production switch, but when they were new the warranty was voided if the internal temp sensor every went over 30 degrees. An indication that they might not do so well at home.

If you can find a 3750 (not e) without the POE, the fan noise is a fair bit less but still borderline suitable for home use.

Thanks @Velocio & @Stonehedge

The need for POE is just going to make it hotter, isn't it.

I'm planning on a couple of 120mm fans to vent the cabinet - I suppose I could look into a couple of chonking heat sinks

The HP V1910-24G looks as though it's fanless, which makes me think (/ hope) that it runs cool. Or cool enough to run with a few 120mm fans in the cabinet.

There are definitely lots of options out there, just don't go for a 8 year old enterprise model ;)

Picked up a Netgear FS526T

No POE, so no fan, and (hopefully) less heat. I've a box full of POW injectors I can use for the moment.

For £12.50, it's worth a punt, I reckon.

Ta! What would be the advantage of that, over something like this?

Number of aerials does not mean it's got a better reception. And frankly the quality of Wi-Fi in my opinion isn't just the software that controls the frequency selection and power, but it's the stability of the software over a long period of time, i.e. the allocation of devices connected and the MAC table. Cheaper modems typically require rebooting periodically because their software is pretty buggy, so my focus on Wi-Fi equipment is "Will it run for years and be able to be forgotten about and just work?"... for Ubiquiti stuff that answer is yes.

Ah OK. Ta!

Meraki if you're a balllleeerrrr.

Just looking at my EdgeRouter, it's been 7 months since I last rebooted it.

Saying that, I have had the occasional (rare) issue with my AP. Most recently it packed up over Christmas which meant that I couldn't check my heating whilst I was away. It's always been a bit annoying with the unifi controller only half seeing it, showing it as disconnected and refusing to update firmware.

If you've got Ubiquiti kit on a public network, you may want to ensure port 10001 is firewalled.

https://blog.rapid7.com/2019/02/01/ubiquiti-discovery-service-exposures/

Does that apply to non-password guest networks?

My Draytek had a management port open on the firewall on the WAN out of the box but there aren't any articles talking about it being a vulnerability. Seems a bit shoddy to me, surely a firewall should be fully closed on the WAN out of the box?

Yeah that seems pretty odd to me

What does this mean in layman's terms, for someone who uses a Ubiquiti router and AP at home (no guest network)?

tl;dr Probably don't worry about it too much. Power-cycle your hardware if it has become unresponsive. Make sure you update your firmware as soon as Ubiquiti release a patch (which should be very soon).

On second read of the issue, it's less serious than I first thought (unless you're a website owner and you're getting DDOS'ed). As far as I'm aware, this vulnerability can only been used to launch DDOS attacks, and can't be used to compromise your network (i.e. redirect traffic, modify traffic, scan your internal network for known vulnerabilities, etc). So that's good.

Some Ubiquiti kit exposes port 10001, to be used for service discovery and miscreants have found a way to exploit this service by sending carefully crafted packets. This vulnerability has been actively exploited since the middle of 2018.

The exploit resides in volatile memory, so it's wiped out simply by power-cycling your hardware, but obviously if you've been infected before, chances are you'll be infected again.

The rapid7 blog post details a way of testing whether you're exposed, by sending a special payload of port 10001, but you'll need Linux and testing from inside your network may not give a reliable result.

If you were able to SSH into your router previously, and can't now, that seems to be a pretty good indicator that you've been compromised.

Cheers. My main concern was it being used to compromise my network so that doesn't sound as concerning.

My parents have typical Edwardian house wifi problems, the study can't get a good signal one room away from their virgin route etc.

They wont want to spend out for a mesh solution, so I was thinking more along the lines of nuke the house with RF energy from a proper AP solution, and get a UBIQUITI (and maybe a PoE injector) Which one do I want? They seem to do a few models, that are a bit similar.

EDIT: Just saw @Velocio say further up about the Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LITE, I presume that recommendation still stands?

Recommendation still stands.

However, I have an Edwardian place and an AP and if you've got lots of brick walls you're still going to lose 20db for each wall you go through. A strong AP will help over a weak one, but if you're going through 3 brick walls then it's still going to fall.

The problem they currently have is that the cheapish consumer grade repeater they currently have causes issues where it overlaps with the router. Devices automatically prefer the stronger network, even though its often slower.
I wont be able to convince them to spend £300+ on a good Mesh setup, but I could probably convince them to get a better AP, and then run it a cable from one of the front bedrooms to the landing balcony which is pretty much the center of the house. Does the AC-LITE need an injector? It could be easier to do if its a single cable.