Unifi

The Ubiquiti U6 Long Range access point makes a bold claim right in its name. After deploying a single ceiling-mounted unit in a 4,000 square foot two-story home, that claim holds up—complete coverage across both floors with no dead spots, handling approximately fifty devices without complaint. Previous access points produced spotty coverage in corners and struggled through walls; those problems simply don’t exist with this unit. The UniFi integration is seamless, roaming between multiple APs is invisible to connected devices, and WiFi 6 efficiency keeps everything stable even when the household is actively streaming, video conferencing, and transferring files simultaneously. Just don’t mount it on your bedroom ceiling—the blue status LED is bright enough to disturb sleep.

The Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro represents a significant step up from consumer networking gear, offering enterprise-grade features in a package that’s actually manageable for technically-inclined home users. After three years of continuous use, it’s proven itself as the backbone of a demanding home network running four VLANs, approximately fifty devices, nine cameras through Protect, and automatic WAN failover. The centralized management interface handles both networking and Ubiquiti’s camera system from a single console, replacing what would otherwise require command-line configuration or separate tools. The cloud login trend and occasional UI hiccups are annoyances worth noting, but they haven’t undermined three years of reliable operation. If you’re comfortable managing VLANs and understand why IoT devices belong on a separate network, this delivers.