I did a thing… back to Ubiquiti

[dogememe]

I’ve hated on Ubiquiti for years, mainly based on premature failures of their hardware. Yes, it makes it past the warranty, but that’s about it.

I switched to using Aruba Instant On for my home, friends and family installs, and clients, and it’s amazing. Not a single hardware failure.

But, in an attempt to segment the Instant On from the more expensive enterprise Aruba stuff, Aruba/HPE has a very limited feature set. Something that isn’t a problem for most installs, but when you run into it, it’s frustrating.

The specific feature I needed at home was to lock a client onto a specific AP. With the Aruba Instant On, I had to create a separate WiFi network/SSID only enabled on that AP and then connect the devices in question to that. It worked, but I never liked it.

Also, I’ve been using a Mikrotik router. It works, but I use it infrequently enough that every time I need to do something in that messy interface or via CLI I have to Google it or ask AI how to do it.

Anyway, I decided to replace everything with Ubiquiti, and you know what? The interface is great and in about 10 minutes it was all set up and it took like two clicks to lock the clients in question to specific AP and now I’m happy.

I just hope it lasts…

Oh, and I didn’t read the fine print that the Switch Flex 2.5G PoE doesn’t include a power supply if you aren’t powering it with PoE. I should have thought of that. But, $100 later, one is on the way haha.

 

[rijndael]

I've been pretty happy with the expanded features of the Unifi stuff in the past couple of years.

 

[Rand]

I'd agree with a mention that they have improved hardware now and added features aggressively.
as well as expanding product lines.

their 60w 10gbit compatible poe injectors are surprisingly cheap. if you dont have a huge poe budget on the flex 2.5 8port poe

 

[Pew]

Pre-cv19, their firmware was horrible and their support was nonexistent but after they blew up in popularity post-cv19, they have really upped their game. They're basically the defacto now for SMB wifi.

I bought the USG Dream Router 7 Dream Machine a couple months ago and have yet to replace my current Synology router with it. Been kinda too lazy.

 

[rijndael]

Pre-cv19, their firmware was horrible and their support was nonexistent

Very true. When you found a trouble free firmware, you just ignored the "update available" notices. I haven't had an issue like that in quite a while.

 

[dogememe]

It's funny y'all mention bad firmware... that's the one thing I never had a problem with. Just EdgeRouters and PoE switches failing early. I had an article on my personal blog how to fix a specific capacitor issue for a specific model of Unifi Switch and although I took it down at some point to redo my blog that thing got an INSANE amount of traffic...

 

[haggler]

I've had the exact opposite experience. I've had an Edge router x which I bought in 2016, which I just updated the firmware to v3.0.1 yesterday. The product came out in 2015. Before the update, I had 8 months of uptime.
A few years ago after they went back in stock I upgraded the AP to their Wifi 6 pro. Prior to that, I was using their Wifi5 AC Lite for about the same time. Wifi was always rock solid, I simply upgraded for speed. I do have it connected to a self hosted controller on my NAS server.
I could not ask for a more reliable product in this category.

 

[Pew]

Very true. When you found a trouble free firmware, you just ignored the "update available" notices. I haven't had an issue like that in quite a while.

Hah yea! We were using a specific firmware for about 3 years before a more stable one was released and users were finally able to get better than 1.5Mbps.

I did just setup the Dream Machine and I should have done more research. My Synology rt560 AP to the RT6600ax are not compatible with the DM, so now I can have either two paperweight synology devices with horrible UIs or switch back and spend more money on a ubiquiti AP but have a better UI and 2.5g ports.

 

[OVERKILL]

I was using Cisco and then Meraki at home and @Rand (and @wwillson) convinced me to give Unifi a shot and so far, I've been really impressed. I bought a UDM SE and have a hard drive in it and swapped out my camera for a Unifi one and then put another Unifi 4K camera overlooking my driveway. I was so impressed with their surveillance stuff that I have purchased 7x UNVR Pro's and deployed them at various sites.

Myself and many others have been dealing with a Cisco firmware bug for the CW9176l access points, which I've worked around by removing the 6Ghz radio from most of the SSID's, which is less than ideal, but stops the roaming flap and traffic hang the bug presents. If I remember correctly, I think one of these AP's cost more than my entire Unifi setup, lol.

 

[Donald]

I have a bunch of Unifi hardware at churches and a church camp. Have yet to have any hardware fail that's indoors. Some outdoor cameras and WIFI APs have failed. But who knows about hardware that is outdoors. Rain, lightning, branches falling on hardware.

 

[Brons2]

I'm surprised you can't lock a device to an AP with Aruba InstantOn. I'm sure you can with their enterprise devices. With the backing of HPE, Aruba has made a lot of inroads in the enterprise space. We run all Aruba APs at work, although the switch gear is still all Cisco and with them putting in ACI, I don't see us going away from that.

HPE has been smart with this acquisition and not too hands on. Past HP/HPE acquisitions have been disastrous, but this one is working out pretty well for them.

 

[OVERKILL]

I'm surprised you can't lock a device to an AP with Aruba InstantOn. I'm sure you can with their enterprise devices. With the backing of HPE, Aruba has made a lot of inroads in the enterprise space. We run all Aruba APs at work, although the switch gear is still all Cisco and with them putting in ACI, I don't see us going away from that.

HPE has been smart with this acquisition and not too hands on. Past HP/HPE acquisitions have been disastrous, but this one is working out pretty well for them.

Yeah, and now they own Juniper, which is a considerable change!

 

[dogememe]

I'm surprised you can't lock a device to an AP with Aruba InstantOn. I'm sure you can with their enterprise devices. With the backing of HPE, Aruba has made a lot of inroads in the enterprise space. We run all Aruba APs at work, although the switch gear is still all Cisco and with them putting in ACI, I don't see us going away from that.

HPE has been smart with this acquisition and not too hands on. Past HP/HPE acquisitions have been disastrous, but this one is working out pretty well for them.

I'm sure they do it to segment the offerings.

 

[rijndael]

We run all Aruba APs at work

Same. We just tore out ~5000 Cisco APs for Aruba.

They're not listening about the licensing stuff, we told them with our PO.

 

[Brons2]

Same. We just tore out ~5000 Cisco APs for Aruba.

They're not listening about the licensing stuff, we told them with our PO.

I have displaced Cisco at every previous job stop I had. APs, switches, firewalls, routers, etc. Here, I am in a Cybersecurity role, so I don't get as much input on the network side these days.

 

[goblin]

The only Ubiqiti that has died on me was my Unifi when lightning hit very close to the house. The power supply's box exploded (the clipped-on cover popped open), and the router died as well.
They were plugged in a regular powerstrip, which was safely standing on two boxes holding a total of four brand new surge protectors still in their package, waiting on their third year of "I have to plug those in some day".

 

[rijndael]

Even if you used them, surge protectors don’t protect well in lightning strikes anyway. The voltage is high enough to pass through.