Fixing Unifi AP performance

Mackintire

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 28, 2004
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These changes require UNIFI Controller 5.5.x or greater if you want to perform them via GUI.

Older versions can be modified via the configuration file.


This change results in a substantial increase in overall operational wireless performance:
1.) Open the UNIFI Controlller Portal
2.) Left Side Bottom of the screen settings
3.) Under Setting Choose Wireless Networks
4.) Enable Advanced Options
5.) Check the box for Block LAN to WLAN Multicast
6.) If a server that provides multicast streaming on your local network stops working, add that Server's MAC to the exemption list.
7.) Enjoy the huge up tick in performance and decrease in latency.

NOTE: This setting is enabled by default to ensure that UNIFI APs are deployed in the most compatible configuration possible. There are enterprise switches which include LAN to Port # Multicast filtering as a filter option for each port. That is how Ubiquiti suggests you configure the AP in an enterprise deployment.




Got mobile wireless devices that disconnect randomly? Or just want to check compare your settings?

1.) Open the UNIFI Controlller Portal
2.) Left Side Bottom of the screen settings
3.) Under Setting Choose Wireless Networks
4.) Open 802.11 Rate and Beacon Control
5.) See the DTIM values?
Certain Apple devices and old Android phones work better with DTIM value of 1, and other (more recent) apple devices prefer a value of 3



Ubiquiti has been playing with this value for the past year. Depending on what version was your first installation is what DTIM value you ended up with. Values of 1,3 or 5 are possible.

A DTIM of 1 prevents mobile device's radios from going into deep sleep, and thus consumes slightly more power on your battery powered devices. This value fights with some Apple and android devices due to the aggressive power management strategy apple users on their devices.

A DTIM of 3 will lower battery power consumption, slightly increase the latency seen while in those deeper sleep states and is the standard value on ASUS and current Apple APs. A couple Apple devices have a connection issue with this DTIM value and require a lower DTIM to operate reliably. My surface book 4's connection goes into the weeds, with a DTIM value of 3, when I'm connected to a remote VPN The device goes into power savings mode requiring me to manually turn off-on the wireless to reconnect to the VPN. My other 4 laptops do not show any issues.

A DTIM of 1 ended up fixing that issue. I'm going to stay with a DTIM of 3 for a month and see what else does and does not occur at my home.

DTIM values other than 3 or 1 are not valid default values.

Apple recommends a DTIM value of 3 and all NEW UNFI installations with current code will results in a default DTIM value of 3.

Upgraded installations will retain their inherited DTIM values.

http://www.wireless-nets.com/resources/tutorials/802.11_multicasting.html
 
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I will try these option when I get my Fios installed and 2 new in wall AC APs configured.
 
I'm hoping this DTIM config will fix my Galaxy S7 - it's not been happy when it goes into sleep mode and is on WiFi - it basically can't find the network when it wakes up....
 
This actually helps a ton for me. I've had issues with my S7 dropping off wifi all the time, and the DTIM definitely fixes it.

I'm too lazy to do MAC whitelists for the broadcast optimizations, but I also went and set the minimum data rate to 12mbps on my radios to help combat this.
 
This actually helps a ton for me. I've had issues with my S7 dropping off wifi all the time, and the DITM definitely fixes it.

I'm too lazy to do Mac whitelists for the broadcast optimizations, but I also went and set the minimum data rate to 12mbps on my radios to help combat this.

Did the change of 1 -> 3 fix it? Mine is still acting wonky....
 
Did the change of 1 -> 3 fix it? Mine is still acting wonky....

For some users a value of 1 will fix their issues, some other 3. It's completely possible you end up discovering that a value of 2 works for your environment.

My goal was to let you know the new installation default value is now a DTIM of 3, and that a DTIM value of 1 resolves some issues for some devices.
 
For some users a value of 1 will fix their issues, some other 3. It's completely possible you end up discovering that a value of 2 works for your environment.

My goal was to let you know the new installation default value is now a DTIM of 3, and that a DTIM value of 1 resolves some issues for some devices.

Got it. Mine was set on 1 by default and I was having issues. Still having issues at 3, so perhaps I'll try 2 next.
 
If your DTIM was set to 1 and you had 1 issue, and changed it to 3...that issue went away and a new one appeared, a DTIM of 2 might be an option.

But if 1 doesn't fix it, and 3 still doesn't fix that issue. a value of 2 will probably not give you the result what you are looking for.
 
:whistle:---> 6.) If a server that provides multicast streaming on your local network stops working, add that Server's MAC to the exemption list.<--:whistle:
Thanks, that fixed the printer but not the Sonos. I have reverted for now.
 
Thanks, that fixed the printer but not the Sonos. I have reverted for now.

Sonos is the pain in the ars to get working with Unifi, but it can be done.

If you're WIFI is part of a flat subnet, the issing piece may be enabling IGMP snooping.

If you have multiple subnets and are routing your network, here's how you do it:

No one has properly documented it yet, but this is close: https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi...gure-Sonos-across-subnets-on-USG/td-p/1979899
 
LOL ubiquiti still hasn't fixed these issues yet? We scrapped them 3+ years ago at my previous office because the connection was complete garbage. Unit was mounted horizontally on the ceiling less than 20' from the laptop, yet the signal strength/speed would fluctuate all the time and connection would drop/stall every few minutes.

Worked with their support, tried beta firmware/controller software and any setting they could think of. Even replaced the device under warranty, but never could get it working consistently. Replaced with a single asus router setup as an AP and it was completely reliable.

I still don't get why ubiquiti has such good reviews when so many people have had similar issues for years now.
 
LOL ubiquiti still hasn't fixed these issues yet? We scrapped them 3+ years ago at my previous office because the connection was complete garbage. Unit was mounted horizontally on the ceiling less than 20' from the laptop, yet the signal strength/speed would fluctuate all the time and connection would drop/stall every few minutes.

Worked with their support, tried beta firmware/controller software and any setting they could think of. Even replaced the device under warranty, but never could get it working consistently. Replaced with a single asus router setup as an AP and it was completely reliable.

I still don't get why ubiquiti has such good reviews when so many people have had similar issues for years now.


I've run Ubiquiti equipment for over 5 years, I'm a power user, but would not call myself an expert. I've been a beta forum member for almost the entire 5 years and have contributed to the feature set and debug process off and on as time has allowed. I believe UNIFI provides a great value for it's price, but am in no way a blind fanboy.


So as far as I can reliably answer your questions:


  • 3 years ago, that probably means you jumped off during the 3.x UNIFI code days, which explains a lot..... needless to say 3.x was not very good until the very end, and by the point they ~fixed~ it shared a big portion of it's code with the 4.2 codebase.
  • The now have paid business class support available as a subscription option, and have dedicated support staff for that purpose
  • HUGE improvements have occurred in the code base in the past 18 months.
  • They paid for an Apple engineer to be onsite resolving apple specific issues for 6 months last year.
  • Properly implemented, their $300 performs equals their competitor's $600 APs.
  • There's a lot of things UNIFI can do that, that ASUS can not.... most of those things are not of any concern to the typical home user, which is why Ubiquiti created the Amplify product line (I'm currently not a fan)
  • Implemented Plug and play style, UNIFI APs can be quite frustrating to deploy in a noisy environment.
  • There's are hardcore enterprise APs in the pipeline with price-tags and features to match. UNIFI covers a lot of products, the details matter.
  • There arn't too many manufacturers that are still providing free software and firmware updates 7 years into a products lifecycle. The earliest UNIFI APs are going to be EOSL with the UNFI controller 4.6..x LTS branch. (Which hasn't even been released yet, but should be this year)
 
Agreed with Mackintire. I've worked with a ton of enterprise APs (Cisco, Meraki, Aerohive, Aruba) and I had heard a lot of bad news from Unifi until version 4. Unifi is pretty good for simple deployments and power user homes. The controls are very simplified even compared to Meraki, but the devs are making sure to constantly improve it.

I'll continue to use it at home myself, and the occasional (exceptionally cheap) small/medium business.
 
Agreed with Mackintire. I've worked with a ton of enterprise APs (Cisco, Meraki, Aerohive, Aruba) and I had heard a lot of bad news from Unifi until version 4. Unifi is pretty good for simple deployments and power user homes. The controls are very simplified even compared to Meraki, but the devs are making sure to constantly improve it.

I'll continue to use it at home myself, and the occasional (exceptionally cheap) small/medium business.


As I mentioned UNIFI is moving upmarket: https://unifi-shd.ubnt.com/ $550 each
 
I've run Ubiquiti equipment for over 5 years, I'm a power user, but would not call myself an expert. I've been a beta forum member for almost the entire 5 years and have contributed to the feature set and debug process off and on as time has allowed. I believe UNIFI provides a great value for it's price, but am in no way a blind fanboy.


So as far as I can reliably answer your questions:


  • 3 years ago, that probably means you jumped off during the 3.x UNIFI code days, which explains a lot..... needless to say 3.x was not very good until the very end, and by the point they ~fixed~ it shared a big portion of it's code with the 4.2 codebase.
  • The now have paid business class support available as a subscription option, and have dedicated support staff for that purpose
  • HUGE improvements have occurred in the code base in the past 18 months.
  • They paid for an Apple engineer to be onsite resolving apple specific issues for 6 months last year.
  • Properly implemented, their $300 performs equals their competitor's $600 APs.
  • There's a lot of things UNIFI can do that, that ASUS can not.... most of those things are not of any concern to the typical home user, which is why Ubiquiti created the Amplify product line (I'm currently not a fan)
  • Implemented Plug and play style, UNIFI APs can be quite frustrating to deploy in a noisy environment.
  • There's are hardcore enterprise APs in the pipeline with price-tags and features to match. UNIFI covers a lot of products, the details matter.
  • There arn't too many manufacturers that are still providing free software and firmware updates 7 years into a products lifecycle. The earliest UNIFI APs are going to be EOSL with the UNFI controller 4.6..x LTS branch. (Which hasn't even been released yet, but should be this year)


I believe this was using 4.x software/firmware, and we even beta tested the newest minor version at the time to try and fix the problem.

But if the problem no longer existed, this post wouldn't be needed anymore. So just the fact that it exists and is helping people kinda confirms what I said.
 
I believe this was using 4.x software/firmware, and we even beta tested the newest minor version at the time to try and fix the problem.

But if the problem no longer existed, this post wouldn't be needed anymore. So just the fact that it exists and is helping people kinda confirms what I said.


The AP performance is equal or better than most of it's marketed competitors (out of the box). You chose to install a consumer router/AP and that speaks to your use case.
 
The AP performance is equal or better than most of it's marketed competitors (out of the box). You chose to install a consumer router/AP and that speaks to your use case.

Because a single consumer AP (with flashed firmware. Router was server running pfsense) in the center of the office performed better than 2 ubiquiti APs spread out at either end running the latest FW/server software. You could watch the wifi status page and see the signal strength/speed bouncing around from great to almost nothing when sitting 20' from the UAP. I've never had a worse experience with wifi and assumed it was hardware issues, but the replacement they sent operated the exact same.

So maybe I was somehow unlucky enough to get 2 bad APs, but it was enough to make me avoid their products going forward.
 
Because a single consumer AP (with flashed firmware. Router was server running pfsense) in the center of the office performed better than 2 ubiquiti APs spread out at either end running the latest FW/server software. You could watch the wifi status page and see the signal strength/speed bouncing around from great to almost nothing when sitting 20' from the UAP. I've never had a worse experience with wifi and assumed it was hardware issues, but the replacement they sent operated the exact same.

So maybe I was somehow unlucky enough to get 2 bad APs, but it was enough to make me avoid their products going forward.

I can assure you that is not typical.

I have yet to see an environment where a single Unifi AP did not outperform 1 if not 2 normal consumer AIO wifi setups. They have also significantly reduced support calls and issues with clients.
 
Thanks OP - Great Post. These noted adjustments made a huge difference on my network !
 
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