Recommendations for remote installation - fiber, bufferbloat, and AP

[gee_one]

I am looking to optimize my parents set up, but they are relatively far away, so I want to make the installation as simple as possible. I don't expect that they will do any maintenance on their internet connection at all. I plan to do the upgrades the next time I visit.

They have 100/100 fiber, so the connection speed is decent. The quality and bufferbloat is another story. Everything is wireless and they have about 10 devices total, including a smart TV for streaming video.

They also have a Ubiquiti UAP-LR as a stand alone AP. It currently broadcasts the same network and password as the ONT/router. The last time I was there, I did notice that the AP only has a 100M link, so I think either the POE cable is bad, or there is a configuration issue. I didn't play around too much with the AP, but I will probably reset it/reconfigure it when I am there next time. I think I really only need stand alone mode, especially since it is the only AP and it has enough coverage for their place.

My plan is to install a downstream router after the ONT to handle the bufferbloat. Here are the options that I came up with, but I'm looking for other ideas..

Option 1:
Flash openwrt on the Ubiquiti AP and use that dhcp, routing, bufferbloat. I'm not 100% sure that I have a flashable model. M/N is UAP-LR. The ONT would only handle the upstream internet connection. The AP would be the only wifi connection. This is probably the "simplest" setup, as long as the AP is flashable and can handle 100M of traffic and SQM at the same time.

Option 2:
Add a router after the ONT to handle SQM/bufferbloat. Leave the AP as an AP and the only wifi connection. The ONT would still only handle the upstream connection. I have an old netgear r7000 that would work. It won't provide wifi, so I don't need the radios to work, only dhcp, routing, and SQM.

Option 3:
Any other ideas?

Questions:
I am leaning towards option 1, as long as the AP can be flashed and can handle SQM and the traffic at the same time. Does this sound reasonable? I think the AP is more powerful than the r7000, so I think this will work, but I won't be able to test it until I go there, and I don't want to be surprised. Are there any significant differences with the UAP-LR AP running unifi vs openwrt, especially in terms of performance?

[mk24]

The UAP-LR is 2.4 b/g/n only and its Ethernet port is 10/100. Its not sufficient hardware for this application.

If everything is wireless and within range of a single AP, a single AP running OpenWrt connected directly to the ONT could work. But it will need to be a better AP.

[gee_one]

Thank you!!! You just saved me a lot of time trying to "troubleshoot" and fix the 100M connection.

Do you think the U6-LR would be suitable? I didn't realize their AP is so out of date. It's in a really good location, so I wouldn't want to install another AP in a less than ideal location. I think it would look too weird to ceiling mount a home router.

[mk24]

Yes that is a good choice and well supported. The U6-LR requires 48 volt PoE, so you will also need to replace the 24 volt injector that was running the old AP.

[dtaht]

Wire the TV, if possible.

I really wish more ONT's supported hardware flow control. Some may. In which case no SQM outbound would be needed, just fq_codel and BQL running native.