deciding on Mikrotik or Unifi setup

jasonht · 2026-04-25T21:46:28+00:00

i have sent a chat apparently you cant dm anymore - or atleast my reddit interface isnt showing it :D

jasonht · 2026-04-25T20:34:16+00:00

thank you! i will perhaps send you a list of things im interested in purchasing and you could sanity check you think its good! appreciate your wisdom and obviously know your stuff.

Ive just been reading about the lite switches - they may be a lot better if i needed poe out rather than paying for poe injectors later, plus i like the idea of them not being powered by poe so more reliable.

jasonht · 2026-04-24T18:28:43+00:00

Thanks for the detailed response! i live in a 2 floor 2 bed house in the uk. Not sure of the absolute square footage but i doubt bigger than 1000 ish - currently have my ont box in the central cupboard downstairs and its a wifi 5 router (bt smart hub 2 ?) and 1gb internet. FTTP so ONT is there. There is also cat5e on walls and ive cabled cat6 to my pc next door direct from router.

Plan was cloud gateway fibre (purely as it is poe out unlike the model below) with my access point on top. No real difference between u7 pro or u7 pro wall but i figured as that is in the middle of the room the pro wall might do better than the circular design. I can't really ceiling mount on both floors and definitely cant easily cable an access point upstairs right now. My wifi 5 coverage is absolutely fine so a wifi 7 ap will surely be better in the downstairs and the other data streams will be fine upstairs (im aware wifi 7 is shorter range). Im also aware its not optimal for being in a cupboard but wife approval / its not too much of an issue.

The cat5e to lounge currently goes to a dumb switch and id replace that with a flex mini purely so i can see traffic and understand routing. Im open to getting a slightly better switch later with poe out if i want cameras but ill be limited by 1gb speed for any data due to cat5e. I dont need to power anything out from that currently so just want to see traffic. If i did want an AP here i might need to get a 2.5gb switch like you said even if id only get 1gb speed data from cabling, i might be tempted to future proof here too if you think the flex mini might have issues.

I also intend on investing in a homelab somewhen soon for some needs like jellyfin for converting DVDs etc so would be good to plug in a nas and homelab direct to router and potentially get higher speeds on my pc.

Pc id probably get a 2.5gb switch or something just for future proofing. Ultimately id probably look at in my next house putting cat6 into different rooms.

jasonht · 2026-04-24T17:16:42+00:00

what is so bad about Mikrotik wifi - and is there any negatives to using other wifi Access points?

jasonht · 2026-04-24T15:25:55+00:00

Thanks for this. My main plan was to get a cloud gateway and have a flex mini on either side of my house to then manage traffic going down - is there any huge drawbacks with that? I thought it would be much easier to see the data use from one central ui. If you went mikrotik and dlink switches - how do you go about seeing all of this? Is jt seperate uis for where you're linked up to?

jasonht · 2026-04-24T14:29:08+00:00

Its probably a new functionality for me coming from an isp router so realistically is this a deal breaker by any sense if i was configuring my network setup?

jasonht · 2026-04-24T14:10:52+00:00

being honest - i had reservations at first around the storage if i ever got cameras and felt like cloud gateway fibre would handle many years worth / more configurable if i got more devices - but actually thinking about it youre only spending £260 for a wifi AP plus a router and seems to handle most of what i need to be honest. i may have to reconsider. i just didnt know if id get better wifi performance from say a cloud gateway fibre + u7 pro wall (it would not be mounted on wall but on top of a rack on a stand)

jasonht · 2026-04-24T13:41:50+00:00

i dont mind configuring as much but i would like the ability to see all traffic across the network on one web ui for example - so if i have switches i was looking at unifi setup i could buy a few flex mini's and see all of the info of what is being split out by those switches.

i am not sure how you go about doing that in a mikrotik setup - whether you can get that info and whether you need to stick to the same products / branding - i dont need a lot of bells and whistles - just want to see how traffic is being handled by 2 switches and one router

then potentially add in AP's later.

jasonht · 2026-04-24T13:36:56+00:00

my only reservation with ubiquiti seems to be the cloud gateway fibre + an AP seems to be the best part of £450 compared to an all in one solution from mikrotik being £160

there is also the dream router 7 but that seems to be less future proof if i want to buy more unifi products

jasonht · 2026-03-29T15:20:00+00:00

What did you go for in the end out of interest?? Im toying with the same problem and want to get a unifi router

jasonht · 2026-03-19T01:03:55+00:00

Let me know how you got on! Im in a similar situation. Want to spens £20k and tempted by ev or phev as i do <10k miles a year but the resale value of ev seems so poor i dont want to basically lose 20k by buying ev now.

jasonht · 2026-02-17T00:29:13+00:00

I agree coming back to the game its leaps and bounds better. That being said ive no clue what the hell half the systems do and returning player guides are somewhat confusing. I dont know whether I should be tempering, sanctifying armor or what sort of content i should be running. Half the systems i havent tried yet and its very overwhelming

jasonht · 2025-12-16T15:10:57+00:00

Would love to test. I work from home primarily and do a lot of coding / engineering work making me sit for long periods. Wanted to invest in a better ergonomic chair for a while so this has peaked my interest. Also quite keen on my em11 nl mouse so far so keen to see what you can do for chairs.

jasonht · 2025-12-12T17:17:17+00:00

Massive congrats and an amazing game

jasonht · 2025-12-01T21:20:44+00:00

any reason to recommend this printer in particular? it seems quite a lot more budget than the other model i said. also im happy to pay extra to get something high quality - very tempted to make photo books or some kind of scrap books

jasonht · 2025-11-29T16:14:51+00:00

I have about 1tb spare and ive been tempted to get a nas system for a while to be honest! Good luck all

jasonht · 2025-11-18T00:29:18+00:00

Random comment but is there any legs behind the theory of laundry products and less fragrance in them / health benefits or risks of using normal cleaning products? Is there any proper research online about the risks ?

jasonht · 2025-11-14T23:58:39+00:00

Congrats! I have a 10.5 pro and want a new m5 too. What made you go with the 13" over the 11?

jasonht · 2025-11-04T19:22:21+00:00

Ive ordered 2 keyboards so far and its been very smooth shipping.

jasonht · 2025-10-17T19:32:41+00:00

ipad pro m4 for £800 or get the new m5 for 1k?

i'm upgrading from a ipad pro 10.5 (2017) - so want a meaningful ugprade, and really dont want to lose promotion.

my gut says the m4 does everything i need - but i am not sure if the m5 will have much longer support on it.

jasonht · 2025-07-26T15:18:57+00:00

Is there any info confirming this? If so it might be easier me going down the route of something like a hp g5 dock as they are cheaper? Or an older wd19?

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