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HOTSPOTNETGEAR ORBI VS UBIQUITI AMPLIFI[ WWW.TECHLIFE.NET ] [ 09 ]
to the router at 5m. All of which is to say,
this is the best mesh networking system
we’ve seen. It’s wonderfully easy to set up
(the kit actually comes setup for you — you
generally just have to plug it in) and certainly
more capable than the AmpliFi as a router
— though that’s not saying much since the
AmpliFi is a particularly poor router. It has
USB ports on both router and satellite and
full support for routing features with
web-based router management.
If there’s one significant criticism of the
Orbi, it’s that you only get one satellite in the
kit — and, right now, there seems to be no
way to purchase additional satellites
independently in Australia. We could find
no local retailers that sell them. They are sold
in the US, on Amazon and at other retailers,
but that means you face the expense of
importing them, on top of the already high
expense of the base kit.
Other than that, however, it’s a near perfect
solution for people looking for a proper
mesh network with seamless roaming and
top speeds.
UBIQUITI AMPLIFI MESH WI-FI SYSTEM
Not only does the Ubiquiti AmpliFi look hella
cool, with its white cube design and a visual
display of network speeds, but it’s also one
of the most elegant mesh solutions available
for the home.
We looked at the Mesh Wi-Fi system,
a kit that contain both the AmpliFi HD
Mesh Router and a pair of AmpliFi HD
Meshpoints, which are antennae/extenders
that plug directly into a power socket and sit
flush with the wall. You set up the router
wherever your internet comes in, then place
the two Meshpoints where you need to extend
coverage. Both the router and the mesh point
support 3x3 MIMO up to 1,300Mbps, and the
router also has four gigabit Ethernet ports
(but no usable USB ports).
Setup is unique. A supplied app actually
uses Bluetooth to talk to the router and
Meshpoints, providing a load of speed and
network diagnostic information. We really
loved how easy it was to get running with the
supplied app, and the app is great for getting
current diagnostic information — it’s highly
accessible and easy to run.
However, we’d be leery of using the HD
Mesh Router as a primary router. It simply
doesn’t have many of the more advanced
tools found in other routers. Forget DLNA,
USB storage, parental controls, QoS, NAT
control and the like. There isn’t even a web
admin console for the router — it’s all
controlled entirely through the app,
which doesn’t give access to the many of
the tools an experienced router owner
might expect. Thankfully, you can set it
to ‘bridged’ mode to turn off routing
functions — essentially it becomes a
Wi-Fi access point.In addition to the testing directly to the
router with no Meshpoints plugged in,
we also tested the network with a Meshpoint
placed at 10m from the router and 5m from
the test station. The results were good,
but not great — a problem likely caused by
the fact that, unlike Netgear’s Orbi, there’s no
dedicated backhaul channel on the AmpliFi.
It uses the same channel for repeating as
for receiving, which limits its bandwidth
the same way many range extenders do.
The result was 28.3MB/s, less than half the
speed of connecting directly to the router
at 5m — but it was still a step ahead of
directly connecting to the router at 15m.
From a technical standpoint, the Netgear
is unquestionably the better solution,
with its cross-band design offering much
better throughput from satellites. However,
if aesthetics are important, and if you want
something that can be set up easily with an
app, the Ubiquiti is still a pretty awesome
solution. It’s certainly a step up from using
range extenders, but you still probably want
to have a separate dedicated router.WINNERAPPROVED
AWARDNOT ONLY DOES THE UBIQUITI
AMPLIFI LOOK HELLA COOL,
WITH ITS WHITE CUBE DESIGN
AND A VISUAL DISPLAY OF
NETWORK SPEEDS, BUT IT’S
ALSO ONE OF THE MOST
ELEGANT MESH SOLUTIONS
AVAILABLE FOR THE HOME.4UBIQUITI AMPLIFI
MESH WI-FI SYSTEM
Router with two
extenders, $ 550 ;
router only, $ 250
amplifi.com
CRITICAL SPECS
Wireless: 1,300Mbps
802 .11ac & 450Mbps
802 .11n (using 3x
MIMO); WAN ports: 1 x
Gigabit Ethernet; LAN
ports: 4 x Gigabit Ethernet
NETGEAR ORBI UBIQUITI AMPLIFI
MESH WI-FI
SYSTEMNETGEAR ORBI UBIQUITI AMPLIFI
MESH WI-FI
SYSTEMNETGEAR ORBI UBIQUITI AMPLIFI
MESH WI-FI
SYSTEM
5M, SAME ROOM 5M, SAME ROOM 15M, DIREC T TO
ROUTER15M, DIREC T TO
ROUTER15M, W IT H
ME SHP OINT/
SATELLITE 10M
FROM ROUTER15M, W IT H
ME SHP OINT/
SATELLITE 10M
FROM ROUTER
39.3 59.4 14.2 22.2 36.8 28.Mesh network performance (in MB/s)