Anyone with Ubiquiti Unifi experiences?

A

AshleyG

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
272
The wireless portion of my WNDR3700 is going tits-up (covered in another thread - even settings tweaking in DD-WRT isn't saving this thing) but the wired portion is still very happy. I'm considering trying out a Ubiquiti Unifi AP and just turning off wifi on the 3700.

Has anyone here tried the Unifi product line? Would this be a good way to take care of the dying wireless problem?
 
they look good and the range is good as well the issue I had was with UMA from T-Mobile. If you don't use UMA I would say go for it.
 
I have been looking to grab a few to play around with at home. They look like a really nice solution for low cost deployments.
 
compslckr said:
I have been looking to grab a few to play around with at home. They look like a really nice solution for low cost deployments.
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Agree, i might be doing the same thing. FIrst im going to see what my Engenius 9550 does first..
 
I just bought one from Amazon and it should arrive this week. I'm pairing it with a Mikrotik 450G. I'll try to remember to update this thread with my thoughts once I get it set up.
 
I just got a UAP-LR last week. It's pretty solid. I can't think of any complaints if it's used in a SOHO/SMB environment where a ton of features aren't needed.
 
sniggle said:
I just bought one from Amazon and it should arrive this week. I'm pairing it with a Mikrotik 450G. I'll try to remember to update this thread with my thoughts once I get it set up.
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I can't wait to hear what you think of the combo. I was considering replacing the wndr3700 with the 750GL this winter.

Ordering my UniFi right now. :)
 
I've got 15 UniFi indoor AP's and 6 of the outdoor units on pre-order. So far I have 7 indoor units installed at two locations without issues. Signal coverage is great, and roaming from AP to AP is also good. Of course you hit a blip between AP's, but for most things it's just fine since I'm not using them for any sort of VoIP phones.
 
AshleyG said:
I can't wait to hear what you think of the combo. I was considering replacing the wndr3700 with the 750GL this winter.

Ordering my UniFi right now. :)
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My 450G with Unifi setup runs awesome. I also have Untangle in there as a transparent bridge. Rock solid setup IMO.
 
The UnFi's are not the fastest units. They are however stable, upgradeable and have been steadily improving over the past 12 months. They handle a fair about of clients, I think the max number of clients per access point is listed as 40, but I wouldn't deliberately load more than 20 on a single unit.
 
I haven't paired the UniFi with the 450G yet, but I did play around with it a bit last night in my existing environment and I am pretty impressed. A few key things I noticed:

  • The device itself does not host a web UI. It's all done through their java based controller software which hosts its own private web server and acts as a UI layer between the graphical configuration and status and sending/receiving the data to the device. This is really smart since it leaves the device with maximum CPU power to handle the actual wifi operation. The only downside is that you must run it constantly if you want to be able to monitor or configure the device, and since it's java based it's not the most efficient piece of software.
  • You can set up any number of SSID's and optionally specify them as guest networks. The guest network option is cool because it allows you to have a secondary password to be able to do anything once you authenticate with the network. In this sense, even if someone guesses or sniffs your wifi password, they have to then figure out the password for the web gateway before being able to do anything. You can also restrict which subnets the guests can access. Using the guest network option requires that you're always running their controller software since the gateway is hosted within it.
  • The device has a single ethernet input that takes PoE. If you don't use a PoE enabled router or switch, you use their PoE adapter which comes with the device. This keeps a single cable going into the device to minimize clutter.
  • The wifi speed was only slightly better than my DGL-4500, but I noticed that it was more consistent throughout transfers, whereas the 4500 would waver or take time to ramp up to full speed. It also consistently shaved a few ms off pings.

I'm definitely impressed so far. For ~$70, I'd say it's quite the value for what you get. I'm looking forward to getting it paired with the 450G and having a much more flexible network than what the DGL-4500 can offer.
 
How does their authentication work? I found their website a little devoid of info (awaits a link to prove I'm not looking hard enough :))
 
Their Poe does not comply with standards. They use 24 volts so a regular Poe switch won't work. All ubnt equip is like that.
 
hutchingsp said:
How does their authentication work? I found their website a little devoid of info (awaits a link to prove I'm not looking hard enough :))
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If you're asking about the guest web authentication, in my brief testing it just redirects you to a page hosted on the computer running their management software and prompts with a password. There are options for how long their session will be valid and there are some new options with ways to bill them.

Lots of the new features here: http://www.ubnt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40425
 
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