I just bought myself some new Ubiquiti Network gear... and I LOVE it - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 11:08:46 am
content: I don't normally rave about products, but I will on this occasion.I bought myself a newUbiquitiEdgeRouter Pro, a UniFi 16-port 1Gb POE switch and a 5-pack of UniFi AP AC Pro access points for my home (not that I really need 5 but the price was too tempting to pass up).This weekend was the first time I actually got to sit down and have a good play and configure them and I am very impressed with what they do for the price (total order was just over AUD$2000 fromCity Technology).I think it's the access points that impress me the most. Their performance is just phenomenal. Their range is fairly decent, nothing more than you'd expect from a decent enterprise quality access point, but their performance is just as you'd expect from a cabled Ethernet connection. I have a mixture of new devices (which happily support 5Ghz networks with 80MHz channel width) and older stuff that only works on 2.4GHz legacy networks. These APs handle both, simultaneously, without a drama. Better still, the whole system supports 802.11r (Zero Handoff Roaming) so I can have AP's all over the house (and outside) and client devices will simply roam from one to the other with no noticeable latency/re-authentication issues and the entire system just appears as one single SSID. All I have to do is connect to the SSID 'Home' and the controller and access points take care of the rest.As for the EdgeRouter Pro, it has many features seen in the enterprise Cisco, HP, Aruba and Ruckus gear. I think they are making leaps and bounds with each software update and I feel the potential hasn't been completely realised yet (I would like to see some additional services such as a built-in Ad Blocking, NTP server and RADIUS server).I guess with all these features comes some negatives. If you're expecting a plug-and-play solution for your home like your normal consumer modem/router/firewall/access point devices then forget it. You really need to have a good understanding of how routing and subnetting works. You don't really need to know any CLI stuff (although I did find I needed to SSH into the Router to manually update the firmware as it shipped with a very old version) but decent networking knowledge is a must.Secondly, the AP Pro's require a controller (such as the UniFi switch). I have no idea if they would work on their own as stand-alone access points, but then again, if that's all you're after, then you're better off with some other product. The UniFi controller gives you far more flexibility and visibility over your network. I believe you can just install the controller software on a Windows, Linux or OSX machine and have it do the same thing, but I haven't tested it.Overall, for the price you pay for the Ubiquiti gear, you can't beat them on features. They also look the part and feel rather well built physically (not just slapped together bits and pieces). I'll be installing the AP Pro's on the ceiling and while they are physically larger than the AP AC Lite, they are still relatively unobtrusive (you can disable the glowing LED ring if you so wish).Edit: I also just realised I have the 2.4GHz radios set to 40MHz channel width. You may end up annoying your neighbours if you live in a Wi-Fi dense area as you take up half of the entire 2.4GHz Wi-Fi spectrum in this mode (see attached screen shot).

author: nowlan
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 12:16:40 pm
content: I bought one thinking they were they bees knees, and im sure they are. However, I seem to recall an issue trying to configure mine out of the box. I think it needed java or something. However there was no install disk or drivers. So I couldnt configure the thing, and I didnt have networking, so no internet access. Catch 22. Has sat in the box since. I gave up and drove to local pc shop, and bought cheap ass dlink instead.

author: rollatorwieltje
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 12:34:59 pm
content: I'm using an AP AC Pro, it works without the controller. You only need it to configure it, but the configuration will be stored in the AP itself. I have installed the software on my Linux server, works fine.Be aware they have a habit of advertising features that are actually only available in beta software or are somewhat dodgy. Their Zero Handoff implementation generally caused more problems than it solved. Bandsteering is also quite dodgy for me, several devices would refuse to connect properly when I enabled it.I have just defined separate SSIDs for 5g and 2.4g. When I had a single network all my devices preferred the crowded 2.4g band instead of the quiet 5g band.Stability is great so far, had no issues. 5g range is a bit shitty, but can't tell if that's the AP or just 5g in general. Barely goes through 1 concrete floor. Range of 2.4g is fine.

author: dr.diesel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 12:53:24 pm
content: Ubiquiti provides an Android app for basic configuration without the Unifi Controller.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 01:17:04 pm
content: I find the "carrier routing" and "carrier-class reliability" for a router with 8 GigE ports and a single power supply hilarious. Surprisingly it got OSPF and BGP, but there's nothing about BGP in the manual. OSPF support is basic. Seems fine for a SOHO router. How much did you pay for it?

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 02:55:13 pm
content: I know people who loved the older Ubiquiti 802.11 access points, but gave up on the 802.11ac ones as both buggy and offering quirky coverage. Have they been improved a lot over the last year or so?

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 03:09:17 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on December 02, 2016, 02:55:13 pmThe original, square AC units were based on Broadcom chips. Poor function is expected. They moved back to Atheros.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 06:43:45 pm
content: That's good news. Picking up an AC-LR for myself so I can finally get decent 5Ghz WLAN coverage, replacing 2.4Ghz N that drops more packages than FedEx.

author: kaz911
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2016, 07:32:24 pm
content: Yeahh - old Square UBNT - stay awayterrible...New AC round ones are nice - and with their switches it works really well. Few bugs here and there but all over nice (finally)The square ones are also power hungry and heats up a lot (uses 2-3 times the power of the new ones)

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 01:48:10 am
content: Quote from: nowlan on December 02, 2016, 12:16:40 pmYep, as I said, they aren't designed for the average consumer. I didn't have internet access either (owing to my modem blowing up during a storm) but managed to configure it just fine offline. The only drama I really had was updating the software (due to not having an internet connection). It was a fairly painless process to upload the new firmware file using WinSCP and kicking off the update process via SSH.The switch, router and AP's did take quite a bit of configuring (but that's down to all the various options).Quote from: rollatorwieltje on December 02, 2016, 12:34:59 pmI found a lot of features became available when I updated to the latest software version (3.7.21.5389 as I write this). I personally like the fact they introduce beta features along with their mainstream software (you just get a little 'Beta' icon next to the feature) so it gives you the option of trying these out without resorting to running an entirely beta version of the core software.I've found band steering actually works very well for me. Haven't had an issue. I have mine set to "Prefer 5GHz" (as opposed to "balanced") so while the older devices only connect to the 2.4GHz network anything newer is handed off to the 5GHz network. I just tried with my oldest device that I regularly use (a HP 6710b laptop with an Intel 3945ABG Wi-Fi card) and it connected fine the first time with both band steering and airtime fairness enabled on the APs. I also tried the older Wi-Fi device I had (a HP iPaq h5550) but that failed to connect as I expected; It doesn't support WPA2.Quote from: rollatorwieltje on December 02, 2016, 12:34:59 pmDon't forget though, 2.4GHz and 5Ghz won't pass through concrete. Whatever signal you're getting is what is being bounced around through corridors, doors and windows. The higher the frequency, the less it will penetrate. The 5GHz band is great because it has many more available channels and that part of the spectrum is far less congested. But yes, depending on the type of house, you might need multiple 5GHz APs where as you might be able to get away with one 2.4GHz AP. This is an issue with all access points running at 5GHz.Quote from: coppice on December 02, 2016, 02:55:13 pmI've never used the old square ones so I can't really compare. I just replaced my network gear which was a mish-mash of Aruba and Cisco gear with the new Ubiquiti stuff. I have found the Ubiquiti gear does more than both of my old devices (including being able to set up token-based hotspot with a payment system).Quote from: TwoOfFive on December 02, 2016, 06:43:45 pmI looked at the long-range APs and found it better to go multiple "standard" APs. I find just one AC AP Pro mostly covers my whole house but I wanted the extra bandwidth overall so not every device is talking to a single radio. It helps spread out the load especially when I'm streaming video off my NAS.Quote from: madires on December 02, 2016, 01:17:04 pmYeah the whole "carrier-class" is a bit of marketing wank, but it wouldn't be far off it. I paidAUD$545.60for the EdgeRouter Pro.Quote from: kaz911 on December 02, 2016, 07:32:24 pmYep, I dare say they've made some major improvements. The AP AC Pro is currently pulling about 3.85 watts off the 48v POE port with 8 clients connected. Temperature is as expected for a device like this, I wouldn't say it's particularly warm.

author: Dubbie
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 09:07:33 am
content: I have just built a new house and have done all the networking in ubiquity stuff. Very happy so far. The cameras are really nice too.Sent from my phone using Tapatalk

author: cs.dk
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 09:40:17 am
content: Does anyone have experience with the Ubiquiti Unifi USG-PRO-4 model?I've got a 500/500 fibre connection, and my old SonicWall TZ170 can't keep up, and needs replacement.I can't find any useful realworld performance test of the thing.

author: ovnr
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 10:14:29 am
content: Quite happy with my AP-AC-LR; I'll probably get another at some point. Bit annoyed that they don't seem to publish a signal strength diagram of their units so I could orient it optimally, though. It's all a bit too "well it'll just work! Trust us!" for me.Not very keen on their routers for my own use; they're nice, but at the end of the day it's very much a consumer/low-end targeted ecosystem. I'm sticking with my pfSense box.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 11:55:54 am
content: Quote from: ovnr on December 03, 2016, 10:14:29 amMost makers fail to give good information about radiation patterns for wifi kit. They vaguely say these access points can be wall or ceiling mounted, and stop there. That isn't very helpful for finding a good position. Reflections are such a big deal with wifi coverage that a radiation pattern will never tell the whole story, but it would help.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 12:05:51 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on December 03, 2016, 11:55:54 amTo my knowledge they are fairly similar to other "downward facing" access points in that the radiation pattern is reasonably consistent in a 360 degree pattern from the front of the unit. They are designed to radiate outwards after all. You may need to make allowances for wall mounted units but even still, the "auto channel" mode should take care of that for you. I have 3 APs operating in close proximity to each other and they handle the automatic channel selection well (although I've disabled 2.4Ghz on the third AP as the other two run using 40Mhz channel bandwidth and take up almost all of the usable 2.4Ghz spectrum on their own). I have pre-warned my neighbours if they start experiencing issues with their 2.4Ghz networks to let me know so I can dial it back a bit.The screenshot below is taken from the middle of my house. The two large peaks are my 2.4Ghz networks.

author: kaz911
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2016, 04:45:07 pm
content: I use the 5G "pushover" - run the 2.4GHz at least 2-6 dBm less than 5GHz and then use MaxRSSI function to push the most stubborn Clients away when they get slightly out of range from one AP.And that works quite well - most time even skype and facetime survives changing AP with the AC Pro's now. (I have 3 - 2 in main house and one in my "studio/lab/office")That gives me coverage over 4 main floors and 2 on "studio/lab/office" building. And there is just enough overlap so if one fails they clients can hang on by their nails and connect to one of the others.and I do like pFsense and did a lot of Unix in the old days - but it is now as hard to keep up patching Linux as Windowsso I find the usability of the UniFi routers nice. It is hard to make stupid mistakes there

author: cs.dk
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 10:02:58 am
content: Quote from: cs.dk on December 03, 2016, 09:40:17 amI ordered one today, with some luck i have it on tuesday..I'll return with my experience when it arrives.

author: ANTALIFE
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 10:27:39 am
content: We went to AP AC LITE after our semi new TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND started having WiFi dropping issues. Have been very impressed with the new WiFi router, but that's what you get when you pay a bit extra for industrial tier equipment

author: System Error Message
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 11:42:00 am
content: the ubiquiti edgerouters are actually horrible. They dont offer any benefit over a consumer router other than the fact that it runs a debian based OS. I have one and i dont use it because compared to my mikrotik CCR it just doesnt offer the features i need (more detailed networking control, layer 2 stuff) and just uses too much power for the performance.Ubiquiti edgerouters are very reliant on their hardware acceleration as a selling point. Consumer routers have hardware acceleration too, for instance asus make routers with reliable firmware as well and asus offers auto QoS with gaming and added with RMerlin firmware it becomes almost as good as ubiquiti edgerouters in terms of features and is faster than the ERPRO when it comes to QoS.Ubiquiti's marketing is terrible. Hardware acceleration isnt their strong point, all brands/routers have it now, its the fact that it runs a debian based OS that should be highlighted and not its speed. With mikrotik however even with the CCR it will do multi gigabit speeds with QoS and thats something you cant beat with the ERPRO. Even the CCR1009 is capable of 4Gb/s with QoS. In terms of software routing and vpn mikrotik is ahead of ubiquiti in that.When you look at ubiquiti dont look at their routers, its their worse product, look at their other products instead. With mikrotik dont consider their switches until they get RSTP on the switch chips at least.The ERPRO can do 8Gb/s routing because of it's hardware acceleration (up to 3Gb/s of hardware NAT) and around 200Mb/s of QoS. The ERL will do half of that. Its always entertaining seeing people so excited about ubiquiti edgerouters not realising that they dont offer any benefit over consumer routers other than the OS they run.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 02:19:46 pm
content: Quote from: System Error Message on December 04, 2016, 11:42:00 amWhen decent speed is wanted in a router, there is no real reason not to use PfSense if you can get the hardware. Gigabit Ethernet cards are dirt cheap, and with a box with a load of PCI-E of any sort, you can easily get the best router for cheap (200 bucks for an AM1 based machine?)

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 06:52:58 pm
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on December 04, 2016, 02:19:46 pmI'm a massive fan of pfSense and would actually prefer that as an option. Ideally I'd love to just run pfSense on an Intel NUC but they don't make a dual ethernet model!In any case it was cheaper just to buy the EdgeRouter Pro and have it plug in, ready to go than dicking around building my own machine. A big plus for me is that it's rack mountable, I've already got non-rack mount boxes and converters sitting in my server rack, I didn't want to add to the mess.As for the ERP being "horrible" and "not offering any benefit over consumer routers", I have to disagree with this point completely. I've used many consumer routers and even the more expensive ones are mediocre at best, not just in terms of the software but their construction and overall build quality. Admittedly the ERP has far less features than pfSense and I would like to see UBNT incorporate more features into future software releases. I also find the wording Ubiquiti use when configuring firewall/routing a little awkward when compared to pfSense, Cisco or Aruba but it wasn't too difficult to figure out. I think the biggest thing going against consumer all-in-one router products is their Wi-Fi performance; quite frankly, they suck. My old Cisco 802.11b/g AP outperforms even the consumer 802.11n stuff that I've used.I'm going out on a limb here (as I've never used these products) but I hardly see the point in spending almost $500 for an Asus RT-AC5300 "gaming router" or almost $800 on the Netgear Nighthawk X10. Not only are they both bloody ugly, I'm willing to bet the ERP or pfSense box paired with a good switch and a few UBNT access points will beat the pants off those (and similar) products.I will say this, those consumer boxes are great for those who want a relatively low profile unit that they can plonk on a shelf, expect it to work reasonably well and not have to tinker with settings. I on the other hand want to control every aspect of my network and I have plenty of spare space in my rack to accommodate gear. I also have a 5kW solar system on my roof so the extra power draw from the UBNT stuff isn't really a consideration for me.

author: Fsck
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 07:07:46 pm
content: they have a decent cheap, low power, 10G switch:https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgeswitch-16-xg/

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 06, 2016, 07:01:30 am
content: I'm selling the remaining two AP AC PRO access points that I didn't end up using. Head over tothis threadif you're interested.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2016, 07:15:28 am
content: I'd shoot you up if I lived in Australia, and had money.Yeap.

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 06, 2016, 09:00:00 am
content: I bought a 3 pack of Unifi AP's a while back but only ended up installing one since it covers the whole house, and it's been great. It's "enterprisy" enough that it's more reliable than SOHO gear, but does not come with the high enterprise price tag. I like that it supports vlans too, I have my wifi on a separate vlan as my main network, then also have another separate guest wifi that has an easy password but is restricted from my network and also has limited internet access (only main internet ports like 90, 443 etc).

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 06, 2016, 09:04:37 am
content: Quote from: Red Squirrel on December 06, 2016, 09:00:00 amYeah I think the old square UBNT access points came in a 3-pack. That would have been perfect for me. Unfortunately the new versions are sold only in a single unit or 5-pack.

author: cs.dk
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 07, 2016, 04:34:32 am
content: Got my USG4 yesterday, took me ~15 minuttes to get it up running, opening some ports, etc. Quite intuitive.I have ordered a Cloud Key and a AP now.