OT: Who's wired their home with PoE wifi?
 

I'm looking to move on from Google mesh Wifi and place PoE wireless access points in 3-5 spots around my home. I'm going that direction as I have easy access via the attic to all parts of the home. I would like to not route ethernet cables to the vicinity of a power outlet, or add additional outlets. So PoE looks like the wise choice.

AFAIK I need:
Powered PoE switch
PoE wireless access points
Ethernet cable

I'm hoping for a plug & play as I'm not looking to manage individual devices via the network, set prioritization, or whatever else can be done.

What would you recommend? TP-Link, Ubiquiti, Netgear, something else?

I haven't wired my house with PoE, but eero now sells a PoE switch and PoE access points. Definitely add eero to your list.

I use eero's wireless mesh products. If you're looking for plug and play and simple management, eero is in a class by themselves.

Also, while you don't necessarily *need* one, you might consider also getting a patch panel. As you read up on wiring your home, you might discover a patch panel makes sense for you, along with a small rack and UPS.

(I considered wiring the house a while back, but dropped the idea and went with a wireless mesh. It's a lot of work and relatively expensive to do hardwiring right. Kudos to you if you take the plunge!)

Poe is just a properly equipped switch (usually) plus normal wires. I have a poe switch which will power other devices, but haven't used it to supply poe yet. I'm pretty sure it's a tplink switch. I really would like to do use it. I ran wire, but not all the way to the attic.

Choose your poison,

Ubiquiti easiest to use, pricier. TP-Link cheaper, firmwares so so, Do not do what I did, OpenWRT on old hardware :hello:, tons of fun for me, spotty wifi for the family.

Go Cisco or Aruba if you do not like pain.

Saludos

Oh my god, I am an old, old, old man!

I have a full network rack in the basement. 24-port Aruba 1930 POE switch, four Aruba Instant-On AP22 access points, patch panel, battery backup, etc. I wired the whole house (a large, 1850's farm house) and set everything up.

The previous Google mesh system was highly unreliable at this scale. The Aruba system is 100% reliable and provides full speed wifi access across a huge area. Highly recommended.

I am happy with Ubiquiti/Unifi
 

I switched to Unifi with multiple PoE switches and APs to cover 3 floors years ago and have zero regrets.


As efuentes said, it's not the cheapest option but it works and management is easy.

Poe showed up when you weren't so old, sorry to tell you.

I really didn't like them for a corporate environment, but Unifi products for home are fantastic, so another vote from me. Its a good product, with good support and its very easy to find their products with solid discounts. Relatively easy to use and very stable.

Quoth the raven, nevermore

Mikrotik
 

I have a dozen or so PoE endpoints, working well for a decade-ish. Three wireless APs, one router, and the remainder cameras. Mikrotik has enterprise capabilities, and most importantly to me security updates for years, but also a quick start mode. Incredible value and forum for support. Watch out for PoE endpoints that don't handshake to the proper Voltage, lest the magic smoke escape. (Electronics run on magic smoke, so never let it leave the circuit board.) :no:

Not TP-Link
 

I work in cybersecurity and I steer clear of TP-Link due to increased security risks.

I went with the following Ubiquiti Unifi for my home network:
Dream Machine Pro
Standard 24 POE switch
3 U6+ WAPs

This setup works great for me. I had ethernet drops run when I built the house, so all my computers and TVs are wired. It's fast, reliable, and I was able to segment the network the way I wanted to.

Do this
 

Agree on UniFi... I have helped a few friends and $500-$1k up-front with a management console and reliability beats 'mostly works' except when someone else in the house needs it and you have to chase the problem. It's a pay now, pay later situation. And ditto on the cheap consumer brands, they don't do proper firmware upgrades and have serious security issues.

Also a fan of Unifi/Ubiquiti, but no reason to over build if you don't need the features. Best explanation of all the devices IMO is this site. https://evanmccann.net/blog/ubiquiti...parison-charts

Dream router $200 (router, wifi 5/6 AP, and four port switch two of which are POE) plus maybe 1-2 more U6+ AP $130 would be my pick for the average home user. Dream Router limited to 1Gb ports LAN/WAN.

I use the UniFi wireless equipment, but their router and switches leave lots to be desired.

There's a literal metric ton of cast off real capable IT equipment destined for the trash that's worth picking up.

Search eBay for a Brocade ICX 6450-24P (or 48P), they're originally $4-5k campus/office grade switches being sold for scrap prices (I paid $80 for my 24P) and it'll run circles around any UniFi switch for 1/8th the money spent. If you want to unlock extra features (mostly just full 10 gigabit speeds on the capable ports), someone has made available licenses that have been free for home use.

Some of the IT snobs out there who cut their teeth setting up networks tell you to never use the GUI, but for home use, set the defaults, turn on PoE for all ports and let it rip.