*** Official Ubiquiti Discussion Thread ***

[Steveocee]

I think that's about the only benefit most people see when they trade sideways from Mikrotik or PFSense. Like everything else in the Unifi range, there is nothing special about the actual hardware and nor is the functionality of the units particularly exceptional. USG and USG Pro are perfectly good router/firewall units but the real benefit comes from the "single pane of glass" management that Unifi gives you. If, like me, you have 5 switches and 12 access points then the "one click and you're done" aspect of management make life so easy.

But if you already have something else, there is precious little reason to sidegrade unless you want all the bubbles lit up. If I'm totally honest, that's why I have a USG Pro. I wanted all the bubbles lit up and I wanted it to match everything else in the rack. When the lights on the first batch didn't line up, I waited until the revision came out and put one of those in instead, because I wanted all the lights lined up.

I will say the resale on UBNT is excellent, mainly helped by the strong dollar. Anything bought before the Brexit vote can be sold for effectively no loss in value. So there is an upside to everything.

Absolutely, just looking at the USG (and even the pro) they don't compare on hardware specs to the RB3011. Where the MT stuff is very swiss army knife and will do anything you want if you know how to. I'm pleasantly surprised at how much the USG is doing. There are a couple of bits I need to finish up my "transition" such as 2 VPN tunnels outbound, a PPTP and an L2TP as well as hosting a PPTP server for a single user to dial back in on. Some policy based routing which I'm very uncertain I'll be able to do without going all CLI on it so I'm not convinced of the jump and think I'll probably go back to the trusty old RB. Shame really as I like the Unifi interface and more so as I have a PoE switch thrown into the mix.

 

[Steve_bullockuk]

Took delivery of my first AP today. I went with a lite as i live in a small property. I am going to be installing the Cloud Key software on a rPi3 i have laying around. Is there any missing features on this build compared to the actual Cloud Key unit? If not, why do people bother buying it over an rPi?

 

[MassiveJim]

I've installed a couple of the access points now, I went for LR in both cases and they work seamlessly.

one environment was a single AC capable AP, and I haven't heard that customer complain since (multyiple complaints about poor wifi previously)
another setup was 3 APs (non AC) with 1 of them connected remotely.

Observations, setup can be a little tedious as the software seems to make you wait quite a while whilst it does "stuff" but once they are all configured, man do they connect quickly.
and very stable as well.

I will be shortly installing one in our house for whole house wifi as well

 

[DIABLO]

Took delivery of my first AP today. I went with a lite as i live in a small property. I am going to be installing the Cloud Key software on a rPi3 i have laying around. Is there any missing features on this build compared to the actual Cloud Key unit? If not, why do people bother buying it over an rPi?

Because if you're installing in something like a business for someone else you want to run the controller on something that is plug and play.

 

[ChrisD.]

For the first time since April last year I had an issue with my UAC-AC-Pro. It completely disappeared from available wireless networks for around 5 minutes and then came back. No firmware update, no reboot, no idea what happened.

 

[Steve_bullockuk]

Because if you're installing in something like a business for someone else you want to run the controller on something that is plug and play.

Fair point. So is there no difference in features?

 

[DIABLO]

No exactly the same.

 

[Steveocee]

Installed a UAP-AC-LR in to my mums attic today, connected it to a hex Poe lite with option 43 running so just need to wait for BT to activate the fibre Monday for it to dial home and provision.

Fingers crossed it goes swimmingly!

 

[the-evaluator]

I've found layer 3 provisioning to be very hit and miss. It seems to work fine with one firmware version then fail with the next.

 

[bledd]

you need to plug the AP into a router or a switch then plug a computer/laptop to that same switch.

the AP is managed by lcoalhost webUI so it needs to be wired in the same loop.

No it doesn't. Just needs to be on the same network, doesn't need to be on the same switch...

 

[bledd]

Absolutely, just looking at the USG (and even the pro) they don't compare on hardware specs to the RB3011. Where the MT stuff is very swiss army knife and will do anything you want if you know how to. I'm pleasantly surprised at how much the USG is doing. There are a couple of bits I need to finish up my "transition" such as 2 VPN tunnels outbound, a PPTP and an L2TP as well as hosting a PPTP server for a single user to dial back in on. Some policy based routing which I'm very uncertain I'll be able to do without going all CLI on it so I'm not convinced of the jump and think I'll probably go back to the trusty old RB. Shame really as I like the Unifi interface and more so as I have a PoE switch thrown into the mix.

If it's just one AP and you're unlikely to make daily changes to it, you could just install the controller on a Windows machine for now. You only need the controller running if you want to make changes or have live stats.

If you then decide that you want to move to a Rpi install, you can backup your config, install on a Pi, then restore the config.

 

[Steveocee]

If it's just one AP and you're unlikely to make daily changes to it, you could just install the controller on a Windows machine for now. You only need the controller running if you want to make changes or have live stats.

If you then decide that you want to move to a Rpi install, you can backup your config, install on a Pi, then restore the config.

?? My controller is sitting on a server I have in colo running 6 aps and a switch lol

 

[bledd]

^^oops, I meant to quote Steve_bullockuk

Nothing to see here...

 

[pc-guy]

No it doesn't. Just needs to be on the same network, doesn't need to be on the same switch...

not quite sure how you gonna get the controller PC on the same network without being on the same switch or the physical network hardware. before it is provisioned you can't access it via wireless connectivity.

you can actually physically plug a computer into its secondary lan port for provisioning also.

 

[Steve_bullockuk]

^^oops, I meant to quote Steve_bullockuk

Nothing to see here...

Thanks .

I have installed the controller on my rPi3 and it is working well with multiple VLAN's being distributed.

 

[Avathar77]

so you have to have a USG to see the usage data per device?

 

[bledd]

not quite sure how you gonna get the controller PC on the same network without being on the same switch or the physical network hardware. before it is provisioned you can't access it via wireless connectivity.

you can actually physically plug a computer into its secondary lan port for provisioning also.

You said it needs to be connected to the same switch..

As long as it's on the network, it can be connected to any switch on that network.

 

[the-evaluator]

No it doesn't. Just needs to be on the same network, doesn't need to be on the same switch...

Actually it doesn't. As long as the controller is reachable it can be on a remote network. I've got a central Unifi controller at work with sites setup for a few offices dotted around Europe. Does the job fine. Ubnt are selling (or soon to be selling, I forget) their cloud hosted controller which I believe is hosted in AWS.

 

[Steveocee]

so you have to have a USG to see the usage data per device?

Yes. To add to this annoyance, you can only have 1 USG per site so where you can have 10 different UAPs from 10 different networks all coming into the same Unifi site, it will only allow 1 USG. I see why they do this but if you put it into the corporate scheme they aim at, it hinders scale.

 

[Avathar77]

Yes. To add to this annoyance, you can only have 1 USG per site so where you can have 10 different UAPs from 10 different networks all coming into the same Unifi site, it will only allow 1 USG. I see why they do this but if you put it into the corporate scheme they aim at, it hinders scale.

Pity, thats one of the (few)things i miss from Meraki.

APs(MR18/34 ect) having layer 3 level control without an added security gateway is another.