Ubiquiti help (noob)

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[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 15, 2014
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Moving into a new home, it's being wired with Cat53, total of seven runs. I was just going to get a cheap switch and linksys router but keep hearing about Ubiquiti.

If I got the Edge router x and the AP AC Lite would this be a good fit (1600 sq. ft. house)

Also does the switch really matter? I was looking at a something like a Netgear 16 port for $60
 
Get two APs for the best coverage. 1600sq ft is a lot depending on the construction materials used.

Switches don’t matter so much, so a decent Netgear gig switch is fine.
 
Get two APs for the best coverage. 1600sq ft is a lot depending on the construction materials used.

Just as a heads up, and I don't mean to sound pedantic on this one, but adding a second AP unless you definitely need it isn't always recommended. If you can get whole home coverage with a single AP in a central location, you are much better off. Troubleshooting roaming issues, not to mention potential channel overlap if you've got nearby neighbors and other 2.4G wireless radios, and tuning the transmit power on the wireless radios can be tricky for new people in wireless.
 
Get two APs for the best coverage. 1600sq ft is a lot depending on the construction materials used.

Switches don’t matter so much, so a decent Netgear gig switch is fine.

Just as a heads up, and I don't mean to sound pedantic on this one, but adding a second AP unless you definitely need it isn't always recommended. If you can get whole home coverage with a single AP in a central location, you are much better off. Troubleshooting roaming issues, not to mention potential channel overlap if you've got nearby neighbors and other 2.4G wireless radios, and tuning the transmit power on the wireless radios can be tricky for new people in wireless.

Ok well maybe I'll just get one of these and call it good.
https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Uni...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3BDRTW9BH29ZQW6W0NWN

I don't need crazy peak performance in every corner.

Is the router difficult to setup. I've done general stuff with routers for a long time like port forwarding etc. I'm assuming there are guides for new peeps.
 
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Ok well maybe I'll just get one of these and call it good.
https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Uni...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3BDRTW9BH29ZQW6W0NWN

I don't need crazy peak performance in every corner.

Is the router difficult to setup. I've done general stuff with routers for a long time like port forwarding etc. I'm assuming there are guides for new peeps.

The ER-X is quite difficult to setup. I do that type of stuff for a living and their GUI isn't the easiest to work with. You have to remember that the ER-X is a true firewall in that each port is independent of the others, and if you want them to talk to each other you need to bridge them to enable communication. There are no "wan" or "lan" ports on an ER-X as it's just a firewall with 5 interfaces, and it's up to you to decide what they are for. That said I thought the ER-X + the AC-Lite was a neat little combo, since the POE injector from the AP can power both the ER-X and the AP at the same time. (So 1 power injector to do both if you use the passthrough) I don't think you'll have an issue with range using a single AC-Lite, it has plenty of coverage and I don't know if it's actually more or less than a AC-Pro. The main difference is the Pro is 3 x 3 and the lite is 2 x 2. Size wise a lite is a LOT smaller than a pro.

It all depends upon your goals. The main advantage to the ER-X + AC-Lite is complete VLAN support. I paired those two with a D-Link DGS-1100-08 8 port switch that also supported VLANs. So it's possible to configure Guest wifi on your AC-Lite and keep that traffic segmented from any other traffic, and you can also do the same for traffic internally if you have a managed switch. Most Soho devices will give you guest isolation for the wireless side, but not usually for wired. And if you ever try to put one of those behind another firewall later, you can't use the Guest Wifi as it's tied internally to the WAN port. If you want to do guest isolation with an AC-Lite you basically have to use VLANs because the device doesn't have 2 ports on it, so it's not possible to separate traffic on the device itself. If it's something you really want but sounds too complex, you might be better off with a Soho that does that for you. Otherwise if you want a challenge, you can probably do it with the ER-X, it's just going to take a bunch of time and patience.
 
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The ER-X is quite difficult to setup. I do that type of stuff for a living and their GUI isn't the easiest to work with. You have to remember that the ER-X is a true firewall in that each port is independent of the others, and if you want them to talk to each other you need to bridge them to enable communication. There are no "wan" or "lan" ports on an ER-X as it's just a firewall with 5 interfaces, and it's up to you to decide what they are for. That said I thought the ER-X + the AC-Lite was a neat little combo, since the POE injector from the AP can power both the ER-X and the AP at the same time. (So 1 power injector to do both if you use the passthrough) I don't think you'll have an issue with range using a single AC-Lite, it has plenty of coverage and I don't know if it's actually more or less than a AC-Pro. The main difference is the Pro is 3 x 3 and the lite is 2 x 2. Size wise a lite is a LOT smaller than a pro.

It all depends upon your goals. The main advantage to the ER-X + AC-Lite is complete VLAN support. I paired those two with a D-Link DGS-1100-08 8 port switch that also supported VLANs. So it's possible to configure Guest wifi on your AC-Lite and keep that traffic segmented from any other traffic, and you can also do the same for traffic internally if you have a managed switch. Most Soho devices will give you guest isolation for the wireless side, but not usually for wired. And if you ever try to put one of those behind another firewall later, you can't use the Guest Wifi as it's tied internally to the WAN port. If you want to do guest isolation with an AC-Lite you basically have to use VLANs because the device doesn't have 2 ports on it, so it's not possible to separate traffic on the device itself. If it's something you really want but sounds too complex, you might be better off with a Soho that does that for you. Otherwise if you want a challenge, you can probably do it with the ER-X, it's just going to take a bunch of time and patience.
Thanks. I just keep reading these are more stable. I did not realize it was five different connections. All I will probably have is the ap and a switch. So I would have to bridge them.

But maybe I'm just over thinking this. I was just getting a $100 Linksys router and a Netgear unmanaged switch. With a media server feeding the entire house.

I currently do this with a cheap Netgear n300 router and $20 switch. Seems to do what I need.
 
It takes a bit of time to setup the edge router but it is well worth it. You have pretty much full control on your network. I like it that I can set up multiple VLANs so I can isolate my network for work, entertainment and IoT devices.
 
You have to remember that the ER-X is a true firewall in that each port is independent of the others, and if you want them to talk to each other you need to bridge them to enable communication.
The ER-X has a hardware switch interface, and you can connect each port to it individually. At least one of the setup wizards includes a basic SOHO config, with 1 WAN & all other ports on the switch.

I agree that the learning curve for everything else can be a challenge, but it's not too difficult to start with a basic setup then customize/control more over time. UBNT's probably not the best fit for people who want to ignore their network for 5 years after a 5-minute setup, but even a basic config will benefit from the regular software updates and - IME - reliability. (Opinions vary here, of course.) And the ER-X is cheap enough to keep a configured spare on the shelf.

Last note for tonight: UBNT's biggest issue seems to be software QA. While they're good about fixing problems, new releases often have bugs & regressions. Unless you have spare equipment for testing, you do not want to be an early updater.
 
The ER-X has a hardware switch interface, and you can connect each port to it individually. At least one of the setup wizards includes a basic SOHO config, with 1 WAN & all other ports on the switch.

I agree that the learning curve for everything else can be a challenge, but it's not too difficult to start with a basic setup then customize/control more over time. UBNT's probably not the best fit for people who want to ignore their network for 5 years after a 5-minute setup, but even a basic config will benefit from the regular software updates and - IME - reliability. (Opinions vary here, of course.) And the ER-X is cheap enough to keep a configured spare on the shelf.

Last note for tonight: UBNT's biggest issue seems to be software QA. While they're good about fixing problems, new releases often have bugs & regressions. Unless you have spare equipment for testing, you do not want to be an early updater.
Thanks for the tips. I think I'd be willing to do the initial leg work to have a more robust setup.

The power side is confusing. Still trying to figure out if the AC power the router has can power the AP as well over POE. Or do you need an injector before the router. Ideally I'd like to have one cord going to the AP.

Would be nice if the cable modem has POE.
 
The newer ER-X firmware has a wizard and is much easier to configure. All you need to do is get one, update the firmware, then go to the Wizards tab. I bought one recently and it’s been very easy to use, only had to Google one thing so far and it was easily done.
 
Get the security gateway and a decent "smart switch" that can do VLANs and 2 APs. Put one on the first floor on one side of the house and the second on the top floor on the other side. Just be sure to tune the power, and set 2.4 and 5GHZ channels and roaming will work seamlessly.
 
At least one of the setup wizards includes a basic SOHO config, with 1 WAN & all other ports on the switch.

Yes for what he's probably doing it's fine to use one of the wizards. I actually found that for what I was trying to do the wizard actually broke the ability for it to work correctly. The biggest issue with the wizard is that if something isn't right and you rerun the wizard, all of the configuration gets reset. If you're using it as just a basic soho device they yes I'd say use those, otherwise you're probably better off just doing it on your own.

Thanks for the tips. I think I'd be willing to do the initial leg work to have a more robust setup.

The power side is confusing. Still trying to figure out if the AC power the router has can power the AP as well over POE. Or do you need an injector before the router. Ideally I'd like to have one cord going to the AP.

Would be nice if the cable modem has POE.

So yes, port 4 on the ER-X supports POE passthrough. That means power that comes into the device can be passed back out to another device. If you were using the ER-X + AC-Lite setup, the injector does go before the router with the injector plugged into port 0 on the ER-X. You power the router with the injector, then when you plug the AC-Lite into port 4, it will automatically receive power. As a side note, the poe on the ER-X is only 24V, not the standard 48V that just about everything else uses. So you only want to plug in Ubiquiti devices that support 24V (Aka the AC Lite) or it can cause problems for other devices.

Another side note, I believe if you do use the 1 WAN, LAN wizard, Port 0 is considered the WAN port. So the Ethernet cord from your modem doesn't go into port 0, but instead you need to plug it into eth in on the POE injector. Then down the power out side of the injector both the traffic and the power will flow into port 0. Plug your switch into port 1 - 3, and the AC-Lite has to go into port 4 to receive power. You want to make sure that POE is enabled on 4, as it might be off by default. Also, you want to make sure it's disabled on port 4 before you try to plug anything else in that doesn't expect POE. It *shouldn't* blow up, but there are warnings about making sure the power is disabled before plugging something non poe into that port.
 
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The biggest issue with the wizard is that if something isn't right and you rerun the wizard, all of the configuration gets reset. If you're using it as just a basic soho device they yes I'd say use those, otherwise you're probably better off just doing it on your own.
Yeah, the wizards' "reset everything" method is annoying. However, unlike every other affordable router I've used, the ER-X's config & backup files are text. So you can run the wizard (or any other GUI feature), then hack all of the settings via CLI or text editor. THAT's pretty sweet in my book, and certainly makes it easier to learn how everything works.

Also, because it hasn't been mentioned yet, Edgerouters are supported by UNMS, which essentially extends Unifi's single management portal to include Edge hardware. Still beta but looks promising.
 
The newer ER-X firmware has a wizard and is much easier to configure. All you need to do is get one, update the firmware, then go to the Wizards tab. I bought one recently and it’s been very easy to use, only had to Google one thing so far and it was easily done.
Thanks I watched a youtube video and it looks pretty straighforward with the wizard.
Get the security gateway and a decent "smart switch" that can do VLANs and 2 APs. Put one on the first floor on one side of the house and the second on the top floor on the other side. Just be sure to tune the power, and set 2.4 and 5GHZ channels and roaming will work seamlessly.
I'm not sure all that at the moment but something to consider for sure. The house is also one floor only.
Yes for what he's probably doing it's fine to use one of the wizards. I actually found that for what I was trying to do the wizard actually broke the ability for it to work correctly. The biggest issue with the wizard is that if something isn't right and you rerun the wizard, all of the configuration gets reset. If you're using it as just a basic soho device they yes I'd say use those, otherwise you're probably better off just doing it on your own.



So yes, port 4 on the ER-X supports POE passthrough. That means power that comes into the device can be passed back out to another device. If you were using the ER-X + AC-Lite setup, the injector does go before the router with the injector plugged into port 0 on the ER-X. You power the router with the injector, then when you plug the AC-Lite into port 4, it will automatically receive power. As a side note, the poe on the ER-X is only 24V, not the standard 48V that just about everything else uses. So you only want to plug in Ubiquiti devices that support 24V (Aka the AC Lite) or it can cause problems for other devices.

Another side note, I believe if you do use the 1 WAN, LAN wizard, Port 0 is considered the WAN port. So the Ethernet cord from your modem doesn't go into port 0, but instead you need to plug it into eth in on the POE injector. Then down the power out side of the injector both the traffic and the power will flow into port 0. Plug your switch into port 1 - 3, and the AC-Lite has to go into port 4 to receive power. You want to make sure that POE is enabled on 4, as it might be off by default. Also, you want to make sure it's disabled on port 4 before you try to plug anything else in that doesn't expect POE. It *shouldn't* blow up, but there are warnings about making sure the power is disabled before plugging something non poe into that port.
And it looks like the AP lite comes with an injector so thats helpful.
 
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Thanks I watched a youtube video and it looks pretty straighforward with the wizard.

I'm not sure all that at the moment but something to consider for sure. The house is also one floor only.

And it looks like the AP lite comes with an injector so thats helpful.

That's exactly what I did. I took the injector from the AP, used it to power both the router and the AP, and then plugged in a managed switch to handle the rest of the traffic. Plug all of the hardwired devices into the switch and only use one port from the router for that traffic. The one thing I've read is that port to port bandwidth of the ER-X can be lower because between ports you have to inspect the traffic, so it does add more overhead than a switch does. It really depends on what you're doing but obviously you'd want to make sure hardware offloading is enabled. I just assume treat the firewall as a firewall and only configure it to act as such, and not have it double up on switch duties as well.

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006567467-EdgeRouter-Hardware-Offloading-Explained
 
That's exactly what I did. I took the injector from the AP, used it to power both the router and the AP, and then plugged in a managed switch to handle the rest of the traffic. Plug all of the hardwired devices into the switch and only use one port from the router for that traffic. The one thing I've read is that port to port bandwidth of the ER-X can be lower because between ports you have to inspect the traffic, so it does add more overhead than a switch does. It really depends on what you're doing but obviously you'd want to make sure hardware offloading is enabled. I just assume treat the firewall as a firewall and only configure it to act as such, and not have it double up on switch duties as well.

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006567467-EdgeRouter-Hardware-Offloading-Explained
Thanks. So you ended up using two ports on the router correct? One to the ap and one to the switch. Bridging the two together? Seems like it shouldn't be too hard.
 
Thanks. So you ended up using two ports on the router correct? One to the ap and one to the switch. Bridging the two together? Seems like it shouldn't be too hard.

No I didn't set mine up like that. But my setup was a lot more complicated than that. If you use the wizard it should do exactly what you said and just magically work. Obviously for this example if you are seeing slow speeds from wifi to wired, it's probably because you have software offload.
 
No I didn't set mine up like that. But my setup was a lot more complicated than that. If you use the wizard it should do exactly what you said and just magically work. Obviously for this example if you are seeing slow speeds from wifi to wired, it's probably because you have software offload.
Excellent thank you. I don't move in until June just trying to be prepared.
 
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