*** Official Ubiquiti Discussion Thread ***

Soldato
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That makes sense and I guess it depends on the install scenario.

My cameras are all external and I kept with fairly simple. I wired into either the patch panel in the loft or directly into a switch in the garage. You are pretty much free to run as much cable as you want in those two locations.
 
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On my training they told us to run the camera termination to a surface mounted box near the camera and run the last bit between our termination and the camera with a patch cable, not because it’s better, but because if you ever need to move the camera in future you just change out the patch cable for a longer/shorter one. If you terminate directly into an RJ45 plug at the camera, you’re basically stuffed.

I assume that’s what the OP has done, they just don’t want to be bothered making short patch cables. If they made their own, I don’t suppose they’d have an issue with anti-snag hoods etc.
These are for new cameras. You are correct though, I can't be bothered to make my own patch leads. Ordering leads from Ubiquiti is expsive if you only need a few due to the delivery charge. Hence the ask.
 
Soldato
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UCG-Ultra working nicely, but prob going to get rid of the 2nd unit as I can’t see me replacing pfsense for it at another family install.

Been offered a refund credit on the Express, so will potentially take them up on that and look at an alternate AP.

I have spare at home
FlexHD
U6-IW
U6+
U6-Lite

So may gift one to family member as replacement and order 1/10Gb SFP+ module.

U6-Mesh I’d like to get, but would need a PoE injector and budget pushing on. NanoHD does perform well elsewhere in the bungalow.
 
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Soldato
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Ok, just to revisit a previous post. I've confirmed we're moving into a new rental on the 3rd May, have signed up for Starlink and i'm fed up with relying on OEM routers. I'm just going to plough on with the Network equipment i want to use for our house, and that way all our devices are connected and it should just be a case of plugging everything in when we finally move into our house build and not have to reconfigure everything (Except maybe some additional AP's)

From the last posts in here, i said i was going to get the Dream Machine SE. It seems ideal, however i'm now wondering if only 8 ports is enough, and then if i'm buying another switch anyway does it make more sense to buy something else instead?

House layout below,
JKUXpSS.png



The "Lavadero" is effectively the Utility room and will be housing the Solar battery storage, so the aim is to terminate all cabling to this room.

The plan i think would be

Lounge - 2 ports
Bedrooms - 3 ports
Home Office - 4 ports (Not on above plan - Separate building)
Not sure if i could get away with a single AP in the centre of the lounge area, or whether it makes more sense to have 2 in the house?


Then this is the general plot size. The Terrace will be facing the pool. The red box is my office/garage. Distance will likely be 50-100m from the main house

7iGoxFA.png



I'm probably looking to have 3 cameras to try and capture most areas. Then will also have an intercom/video doorbell at the gate entrance (where the grey "drive" hits the green boundary fence. The builder has this included, but if i could integrate into Unifi ecosystem it'd be handy.

Then i've got my Hue hub, and a few other hubs which will be in the utility, along with likely a Rpi for Network music streaming. Then i'm unsure how many AP's i'll need outside. One will definitely be needed on the terrace/pool area and realistically that's the only part where wifi would be needed. The plan would be to run cables to the Home office. Is it daft to run 4 cables, or should i just run 2 (for redundancy) and use a switch in that building?

That takes me up to around 20 ports being required. The Dream Machine only has 8. So unsure if it's better to use a smaller Gateway with a switch, or grab a small 16 port switch to add onto the Dream Machine?

Guess the decision is
(Price in Euros)

pVG2xV0.png


Option 1 doesn't offer NVR functionality and presumably offers worse performance from a routing level, but is that worth €250


Worth mentioning a few other things

1 - Solid wifi/networking is the priority here
2 - We have quite a few google devices/other IOT devices. Although i'd prefer a single network so that control isn't annoying with my phone being on a different network to the units.
3 - My network knowledge is limited - Previous discussion however discussed VPN routing for specific devices/websites which i like the idea of
4 - Budget is open to get the best functionality for home use
5 - Happy with Unifi cameras, but equally willing to look elsewhere such as Tapo/Eufy, but that would mean i need potentially better external wifi coverage depending on placement. Depending on this would depend whether the DM SE is worthwhile i guess as depends whether i need NVR functionality.





Loads of questions. Feel free to tell me to go buy a Deco mesh, to save you all future hassles :p
 
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Soldato
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So, since the UDMP-SE arrived I have noticed protect was in a boot loop, despite me never having activated it, I just figured it had no storage or camera, so that probably wasn't surprising. Today I found out that it is indeed a problem after I added storage and a doorbell (stop laughing.... I bought the stupid doorbell because it's about the only camera in the range that makes any sense at all for me). I added the drive, it formatted, but protect just kept looping, even after a restart. Google suggests this is a known issue and has been so for every major version of protect ever from the various forum/reddit posts, but the fixes ranged from RMA to logging in via SSH and manually fixing it. After reading umpteen different takes on this, I found the simplest was to just remove Protect and reinstall it.

1. Enable SSH & set a password - this doesn't need to be massively secure, you'll be disabling it afterwards (if not, use keys or a decent password).
2. Login and 'apt purge unifi-protect' to remove Protect - confirm (Y) when prompted.
3. Click install from the main UI and it'll work again.
4. Remember to disable SSH.

Hopefully this helps someone in the future :)
 
Soldato
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Think i've settled on the DMSE route, just seems to make most sense. Now have got into my own head that it makes sense to spend a bit extra on the U6 Pro/Mesh.

The Mesh makes sense as it could just sit on a worktop, but then i think if i'm building from scratch and can ceiling mount the Pro in a decent location then does it make more sense to do that as it has less surface clutter.


EDIT - Got out my head. Went for the DMSE and U6 In Wall. The In Wall seems to make more sense, and i can mount it discreetly. Worst case, it'll be ideal in my office to provide Wifi and also a few ports for my latop etc and I'll be needing more units in the future, so if i decide a mesh works better than i can just re-arrange where things are.
 
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RSR

RSR

Soldato
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Just had a reply from Ubiquiti:

"Hi RSR,

We appreciate your patience. Our development team has investigated the issue and identified it for resolution in one of the upcoming versions. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work to implement the fix. We don't have a set timeframe right now, but we recommend keeping an eye on the community.ui.com/releases page for updates.
Best,
UI Support
Ubiquiti Inc."

Looks like I may have found some bugs with 2.5Gb connections on the UDM SE / UDW
 
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Soldato
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Posts
7,273
Think i've settled on the DMSE route, just seems to make most sense. Now have got into my own head that it makes sense to spend a bit extra on the U6 Pro/Mesh.

The Mesh makes sense as it could just sit on a worktop, but then i think if i'm building from scratch and can ceiling mount the Pro in a decent location then does it make more sense to do that as it has less surface clutter.


EDIT - Got out my head. Went for the DMSE and U6 In Wall. The In Wall seems to make more sense, and i can mount it discreetly. Worst case, it'll be ideal in my office to provide Wifi and also a few ports for my latop etc and I'll be needing more units in the future, so if i decide a mesh works better than i can just re-arrange where things are.
A few random thoughts:

Unifi doesn't have to be all or nothing, you can mix and match to get the best results depending on your needs. For example, I use Deco mesh and a U6 Pro because mesh works well for me, but I need wireless VLAN support which Deco can't do, if I wasn't using VLAN, I would happily still be fully Deco. Switch wise I really like the Aruba 1930's as Unifi's pricing/features just don't make sense for me, and depending on the week you'll either find a UDMP-SE or a uSFF or desktop running OPNSense/OWRT/Untangle doing my routing.

By the time you deal with everything else, the 246 euro difference on this is going to look like a rounding error. You then need to consider if you can get a better NVR for similar money and are happy with the simplicity/limitations of Protect over say Hikvision/Dahua which do some very capable camera's for similar or even less money with full colour night vision/on camera processing etc. but better NVR's do tend to cost more, and that's before you add storage and camera's.

The UDMP SE has decent PoE support, single point of failure on the NVR HDD, but that's not uncommon in the lower end from any manufacturer, but the total combined uplink capacity between all of those RJ45 gigabit ports and the router is 1Gb, so all of them share that if going 'off switch' or if you have access to a faster than gigabit WAN connection in the future. It's therefore best suited to low bandwidth PoE devices such as camera's etc. That leaves the SFP+ port to connect to a switch, it's 1/10Gb, so you can either buy a switch that's 10Gb (SFP+) capable, or accept a gigabit uplink limitation again (obviously not a problem now with Star Link), or use an S+RJ10 module for 1/2.5/5/10Gb over copper in the future.

The Standard 16 is a horrible spec for the money. It's woefully under powered for a PoE switch (42w max over 8 ports upto PoE+) and again limited to gigabit uplink, the former is important, the latter won't be for now, but is worth keeping in mind that other options exist that are cheaper and offer way more power. A new Aruba 1930 24 port PoE+ is 195w of PoE+ and retails under £350 with 4xSFP+ (10Gb) ports, it's under £250 if you only want 12 PoE+ ports (195w) 12 non PoE and 1Gb SFP uplinks. that makes a Standard 16 PoE at £286.80 inc VAT (obviously I can't suggest where from as i'd break the rules and you're in Spain anyway) a questionable choice - do you even need a managed switch? If not and you still want Unifi, consider an Ultra.

I prefer fibre to copper for inter-building runs, in the UK it's the easy option to comply with regs (likely different in Spain) as it's non conductive, inexpensive, durable, not subject to the same distance/interference concerns, optics are cheap, as now are mixed media switches to break out from fibre to copper. What it absolutely won't do is PoE, so whatever is on the other end would require an injector or a PoE capable switch. This can get messy depending on the goal though and copper is easy/cheap.

While I would always run two cables to each room point, 4 to the office seems like an odd choice unless they are 2 pairs in different locations in the room? You can always plug in a switch for more ports, down side is single gigabit uplink, up-side is any traffic just on the switch is not going to be impacted.

AP wise it depends on the type of construction, you don't generally expect great results after more than one solid wall, so the 1-2 AP's inside is probably a buy one and see situation. I don't know Spanish building regs and all the construction I have seen is usually solid walls, so i'd assume the worst.

If you do go fibre on any of the runs, the cheap Chinese mixed media switches are great to break out to 2.5Gb copper and about £25-40 depending if you want to wait a week or have it 'tomorrow' over here, i'd imagine it's similar in Spain, optics can be cheap and DAC's are great for shorter runs/uplinks.

Curve ball on wifi - I quite like Deco mesh for the simplicity/money (I run both a U6 Pro and Deco's at home), but if you want to set a specific channel, you can't and it won't do VLAN and only guest and main SSID, that said extra port(s) and wired backhaul with decent hand-off handling and you can get 2-3 units for the cost of a U6 Pro.
 
Soldato
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@Avalon Thanks that's really thorough.

I went with the DMSE and the In Wall AP. The added ports on the In Wall device will be handy for in my office i think. Avoids having a separate switch there. I'll likely just go 2 cables to the second building. As you say a switch over there is fine and i can always run cables along the skirting/floor from a single wall socket if they're not conveniently placed. Will leave cable choice to the builder i think.

Thanks for the info on the switches, i wasn't sure how nicely the Network Map worked with mixing non Unifi devices. I'll definitely need a 16-24 port switch. Probably not need POE for it though so an older used one might work well for me.
 
Soldato
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Also, yes to solid walls. I think it'll use Ytong insulated blocks on all walls

I'm thinking 2 AP's. in the house. One in the middle of the lounge area, and then an outside one on the terrace. I'm hoping that's enough. If it's not i'll probably add an In-Wall option, but shouldn't be needed. Not sure whether there's any point in 2 AP's at either side of the main lounge/kitchen. It's only 11m long so doesn't seem to make sense.
 
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@Avalon
Thanks for the info on the switches, i wasn't sure how nicely the Network Map worked with mixing non Unifi devices. I'll definitely need a 16-24 port switch. Probably not need POE for it though so an older used one might work well for me.

If you want the full topology map in the UniFi controller then you need UniFi switches.
 
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Yeah thought so. Guess when it comes to buying i just need to work out how important that is for me and what the cost variance is. For €50-€100 i might just stump it up to keep it all pretty!

Another advantage from having a UniFi switch is if you are away from a site it's really easy to reboot devices connected via PoE if they crash from the UniFi app on your mobile. You get the notification that an AP is not responding and can just click the port and reboot in seconds.
 
Soldato
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By the time you deal with everything else, the 246 euro difference on this is going to look like a rounding error. You then need to consider if you can get a better NVR for similar money and are happy with the simplicity/limitations of Protect over say Hikvision/Dahua which do some very capable camera's for similar or even less money with full colour night vision/on camera processing etc. but better NVR's do tend to cost more, and that's before you add storage and camera's.



The Standard 16 is a horrible spec for the money. It's woefully under powered for a PoE switch (42w max over 8 ports upto PoE+) and again limited to gigabit uplink, the former is important, the latter won't be for now, but is worth keeping in mind that other options exist that are cheaper and offer way more power. A new Aruba 1930 24 port PoE+ is 195w of PoE+ and retails under £350 with 4xSFP+ (10Gb) ports, it's under £250 if you only want 12 PoE+ ports (195w) 12 non PoE and 1Gb SFP uplinks. that makes a Standard 16 PoE at £286.80 inc VAT (obviously I can't suggest where from as i'd break the rules and you're in Spain anyway) a questionable choice - do you even need a managed switch? If not and you still want Unifi, consider an Ultra.

Just on these two aswell. I still might go the much cheaper camera route like Eufy etc. However being hard wired makes far more sense. I think as long as i can add in facial recognition and some of the features like that. The main shortfall sounds like it's around integration with Google Home etc without workarounds with Home Assistant etc. Either way it's nice to have as an option at least.

The Ultra seems like a decent switch but too small really, and i'd prefer to avoid having multiple switches, when i could just have a single 24port one.
 
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