Ubiquiti - UniFi Express 7

My recommendations for short and simple stacks, for Ubiquiti - a UniFi cloud gateway ultra, UniFi lite 8 POE switch and U6+ APs for WiFi. Controller is built into gateway. For Alta labs, route 10 router, s8 Poe and AP6 or AP6 plus APs. They have a free cloud controller or you can buy their controller device. If you want to go TP link route ER7206 for router, OC300 controller, TL-SG2008P for switch and EAP610 for APs. You can skip the OC300 and go with a free software controller on a desktop. The controllers are to get a unified view of the network and configure them.

It would be multiple products and it's very customizable based on your needs. Going to be comparing to the Pro Deployment which is $699 No Wiring but only need WiFi? Dream Router 7: $279 2x U7 Pro + 2 POE injectors: $408 Total: $687 Need at least 1 ethernet ports near the mesh AP? Dream Router 7: $279 2x Unifi Express 7: $398 Total: $677 Have at least 1 ethernet port wired and need both multiple ethernet and wifi? Dream Router 7: $279 Unifi Express 7: $199 U7 In-Wall: $149 Total: $628 It's a whole ecosystem of devices meant to work together and you can continually expand or replace as units get old. Eeros and Orbis would require replacing the entire stack when it comes to upgrading. With a Unifi setup you can pick and choose which components you want to replace, usually you keep the gateway/router and swap out the Wireless Access Points.

Ah, yes, if you want a no headache router with everything under the sun plus ids/ips, this is the way.

You can easily do this with Ubiquiti UniFi gateways. Often we create a different SSID for IoT and just turn on 2.4GHz for that SSID. Turn off 5GHz etc.

Pretty much any consumer router made in the last 10 years will work, but id recommend the unifi express (149.99) or unifi express 7 (199.99), I would go with the unifi express 7 as its a bit more value and is more future proof, Unifi routers also have great IDS/IPS. And then an 8 port unmanaged gigabit switch, pretty much anything will do the trick as long as it says gigabit and has at least 8 ports.

I recently switched to Sonic fiber and have had good luck using a UniFi Express 7. It utilizes the 10G coming out of their box, without the full cost of the higher-end Ubiquiti gear.

I think the second one would have to be a UX7, as UDR7 cannot operate in AP mode

I'd consider the [UX7](https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/cloud-gateways-wifi-integrated/products/ux7) (if only you don't need more ports) or [UDR7](https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/cloud-gateways-wifi-integrated/products/udr7) \- WiFi7, reasonable price, good specs, nice and intuitive interface. For me personally 6GHz is a must in a crowded environment - shorter range means less interference. So I'd stick to 6E or 7. You can scan your apartment to check how many networks you have in range.

UX7 is a great little beast, much better than its predecessor. If you don't need the ports of UDR7, UX7 is a great choice. Still, I'd get the UDR7 for the Protect support. You might want to add a camera or two some day. The PoE budget is nice also if you need a switch later on.

Mine is a bit overkill for most situations, I have a cloud Gateway Ultra, u7 pro, 2 switch lite 8s, u6 extender, and an Ap-ac pro for an area that the others don't reach. I still run an opnsense firewall and a pihole as well for dns. BUT if you just need something simple an express gateway is enough for most people, and you can add additional ap's to it if needed as well. It is slow but for how little you have to actually log in and change settings after it is configured it doesn't matter. I set my parents up with an express and two additional ap's and they've had zero issues since as well.