*** Official Ubiquiti Discussion Thread ***

Man of Honour
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The SFP+ port can only run at 1GbE or 10GbE so you can put an SFP+ to RJ45 adapter in the slot and it will accept a 10GbE connection but can your modem spoof a 10GbE link? I doubt it. So you could spend £500 minus whatever you get for your UDM Pro but will you REALLY be able to tell the difference between 1100 and 1000Mbps. Maybe, maybe not. Personally I would just leave it as-is.
That’s a good point, I’m using the 2.5GbE port on my SE for VM in modem only mode.
 
Associate
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Bit of a long shot, I recently installed a Unifi U6+ AP and mounted on the ceiling. I was able to mount it so the cable runs in directly behind but I can see the little cut out for where the cable should run through. I can't find the little rubber grommet to block it out. Does anyone have one spare lying around?
 
Caporegime
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If you don't get any responses you should be able to put some white silicone or caulk in the hole and tool it flush without too much bother
 
Soldato
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How does Ubquiti compare to the Deco XE75. Also does anyone have experience of these with Starlink
“Ubiquiti” covers a wide range of equipment and options. You’ll need to a choose a specific piece for comparison… Generally, Ubiquiti will win out for ease of rolling out multiple access points and control of internet access.
 
Associate
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Anyone here running a dream router with 1 AP, up to 2 cameras maybe 4, and threat management? Is it bad as the internet is saying?

Looking to change from an Amplifi HD and i liked simplicity of it but it doesn't support cameras.
 
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I liked that everything is centralised to the dream router, can store recordings, and powered by ethernet. The house has cat6 wiring accessible in the loft and terminating into a utility room. I thought it will make wiring up the cameras easy.

Ive looked at ring cameras they require a subscription to save videos.
 
Caporegime
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The one thing I don’t bother with is Protect. The Unifi cameras are expensive, and recording to a single point of failure seems daft.

I love my Unifi kit, but as you can see in my rack further up, the Synology RS815 (none plus) is my CCTV setup. Any ONVIF compatible camera and as much local storage as you can muster, just seems better than expensive cameras and a single disk.
 
Soldato
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Counter opinion, the G5 cameras are not that expensive, dare I say it reasonably priced. Very easy to install and pretty much everything is plug and play. That’s ultimately what you are paying for.

The protect app is very simple to use and ‘just works’.

Can you get better cameras for similar money elsewhere? Yes. Are they easy to set up or even get hold of without pretending to be an installer (and therefore have zero warranty), particularly if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. No.

As for redundant recording, presumably this is a very entry level home CCTV setup? That’s just not necessary, this isn’t exactly mission critical. That said, I’m not sure I’d choose a Dream Router to base it off, isn’t that recording to SD cards? That’s a bit yuck.

However using something like a cloud key gen 2 plus is more than sufficient for a home setup. A UDM being better still.
 
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Associate
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Yup it is entry level. I am comparing it to the likes of ring/nest/eufy cameras but those all seem to use wifi 2.4ghz to transmit data.
I agree that MicroSD card on the dream router is yuck but the next step to it the the dream machine se which looks overkill for what I need currently. Ill have a read on the cloud key gen 2. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Man of Honour
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For non-Chinese, subscription free, well built cameras with a decent app/UI with no cloud requirement, I think they're well priced.
 
Caporegime
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They really aren’t. My 5MP ReoLink cameras cost me about the same for three cameras than it would have cost me for one G5 Bullet.

The Synology surveillance station is far nicer to use than Unifi Protect as well. No subscription services required, and much greater retention periods available due to storage. Really not fussed about where the cameras are made as they are on a VLAN that has no internet access, they can only communicate to the CCTV interface on the Synology.

Like I said, I’m a big Unifi fan (I’ve got 6 APs, 2 switches, the UDM Pro and even Unifi patch panels, but justifying the cost over generic ONVIF, I couldn’t do it, I want a good value for money, not just sticking with one vendor to spite myself.
 
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Can you get better cameras for similar money elsewhere? Yes. Are they easy to set up or even get hold of without pretending to be an installer (and therefore have zero warranty), particularly if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. No.

I have bought 30+ Hikvision cameras for my own house and close family, and one of them failed after 2.5 years. That particular camera had a 3 year warranty (although some Hikvision I have are 5 years at no extra cost) and the supplier replaced it promptly without issue.

Many years ago I used to install CCTV professionally but these days I am just another end user. Hikvision/Dahua want to avoid the time consuming end user support that some people expect for the most trivial of things. If you do your research and buy from an approved supplier and don't waste their time then all is good and you get way more camera capability for your money.
 
Soldato
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They really aren’t. My 5MP ReoLink cameras cost me about the same for three cameras than it would have cost me for one G5 Bullet.
A bit of an exaggeration but yes Reolink are cheaper and they have more camera options there is no denying it. I never said they were the cheapest, they certainly aren’t the most expensive either. The value proposition goes beyond just the cameras though.
The Synology surveillance station is far nicer to use than Unifi Protect as well. No subscription services required, and much greater retention periods available due to storage.
But you need an (expensive IMO) Synology NAS to go that route and you need the knowledge to put it all together. That’s fine if you have one and you know what you are doing but if you don’t, it’s not as simple as you make out. That said Reolink do an NVR but I’ve not used it so I can’t comment on if it’s any good or not.

Like I said, I’m a big Unifi fan (I’ve got 6 APs, 2 switches, the UDM Pro and even Unifi patch panels, but justifying the cost over generic ONVIF, I couldn’t do it, I want a good value for money, not just sticking with one vendor to spite myself.

The irony is that if you already have a UDM Pro or SE, or Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus, Ubiquiti probably provides a good value option given the cameras will be plug and play and you probably already have the other hardware/software needed to run them.

I also wouldn’t recommend people buy from one manufacturer to spite themselves but if you already have most of the hardware, they can and do make sense for some people. They are also extremely easy to use unlike many other options.

I have bought 30+ Hikvision cameras for my own house and close family, and one of them failed after 2.5 years. That particular camera had a 3 year warranty (although some Hikvision I have are 5 years at no extra cost) and the supplier replaced it promptly without issue.

Many years ago I used to install CCTV professionally but these days I am just another end user. Hikvision/Dahua want to avoid the time consuming end user support that some people expect for the most trivial of things. If you do your research and buy from an approved supplier and don't waste their time then all is good and you get way more camera capability for your money.
I think you’ve missed the point entirely but also ironically hit the nail on the head at the same time - there is no support, hence the cost.

You’re either pretending to be an installer or it’s off the grey market. If you get an installer to supply and support it, you’ll be paying considerably more.

You clearly know what you are looking at in the Hik catalog, 99.999999% of the population don’t. Even if you handed a relatively intelligent person the HIK catalogue and said, order a 4 camera CCTV setup, it would take them hours and it would probably be sub optimal.

Hand them the Ubiquiti catalogue, it would take less than 10 mins and it’s highly likely to work to their satisfaction.

Decent consumer friendly marketing, support and a user interface a novice could engage with does have a value at the end of the day.

It’s why things like Ring, Nest and Eufy are so popular while simultaneously being more expensive and/or inferior to many other options, including Ubiquiti and Reolink.

If someone asked me to recommend them a CCTV camera, the last things I’d recommend is Hik or Dahua, they wouldn’t be asking me for a recommendation if that was even an option for them.

I have pointed people towards Reolink and Ubiquiti if I think they could handle it. If not then either something like Eufy (past security issues aside) or Nest/Ring if they are more that way inclined and happy with the bonkers long term cost.

My number one rule when recommending anything is that I’m not there to support it. Hence despite me being a nerd and hardware enthusiast and almost all my family ask me what to buy or if I can build them a PC for ‘cheap’. I’ve got most of them running MacBooks, iPad and iPhones. It’s simple to use, all works together and if stuff goes wrong, Apple will support it and it’s not my problem.

Happy wife, happy life and all that.
 
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Man of Honour
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But you need an (expensive IMO) Synology NAS to go that route and you need the knowledge to put it all together.
You also have to buy a surveillance pack license per camera, you only get 2 (IIRC) free licenses.

If you have technical knowhow, you can stream your UniFi cameras onto your NAS, or anything which accepts camera streams for longer retention.
 
Soldato
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Quick question please. Noticed last night that my connection from the UDM to the UniFi 8 port switch upstairs has dropped from GbE to FE. It’s a cat5E cable travelling outdoors from outside downstairs to upstairs in the attic.

Visually the cable looks fine (externally) and I’ve replaced both RJ45 connectors to no benefit. If I try and force the UDM and switch to negotiate at 1000 the connection fails. I can SSH into the switch and it tells me the cable is normal (24-50m).

I should add the connection has been GbE for at least 3 years (from the USG prior to the UDM)

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this?
 
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