Ubiquiti Users

[bodean]

would like to hear from users who use these AP in their houses. Currently running cat6 wiring to most of the rooms in my house and searching for a wireless AP. My R7800 is too big and bulky for my wife’s tastes so I am exploring Ubiquiti AP to mount on the ceiling.
With 2800sq ft would 1 AP be sufficient?
Also I keep reading about controllers. What exactly are those? How would I access the settings of the Ubiquiti AP after it’s installed? I know with my netgear I log into an IP address and can modify WiFi channels/etc. would it be the same procedure?

Do you feel Ubiquiti is a better option than having a mesh system from say google or netgear?

 

[coxhaus]

If you have wire use it. Figure out where you and your wife spend most of your time. Place APs close so you can use 5GHz. It works much better than 2.4GHz. It would be best to run with a controller so you can roam around your house. I use FaceTime as my test which my wife uses a lot. If she sets outside on the picnic table can she walk in all the way to the kitchen, which is front of my house, and still maintain a connection without dropping the FaceTime call.

Try to find out if ceiling mount is better than wall mount or the other way around.

I run Cisco wireless APs. The controller software is built-in. You configure one and the rest will be auto configured the same as the first one. Real easy.

 

[cybrnook]

I run all unifi gear at home with a custom pfsense router. Our house is a Michigan ranch, 2000sqft with a full footprint basement. With just 1 nanoHD (MediaTek) I get excellent coverage throughout the house. Mostly drywall separating walls in the home, with the AP being located centrally on the main floor.

The controller is basically the main point where you will manage your gear. It manages all your config, firmware updates etc...... The controller is where your mentality will need to change compared to a single home router. With a normal home router, you log directly into the unit and manage it from it's own UI. With the unifi controller, it's a better design from the sense that you can manage ALL your unifi equipment from one single point. For example, I have 3 x unifi switches and a few different AP's I play around with. They all report/provision from the controller. So instead of having to log into each device individually to update/configure it, I do it all from the controller. Then when you are done, the controller sends out all that config and provisions all your devices for you.

Think of it as one more client on your network, where you will do all your admin tasks. You can use either the standalone unifi ck (cloud controller), which is like a small raspberry pi with the unifi controller software/firmware. Or if you run some 24x7 hardware at home, you could install your own controller on a VM (which is what I do).

If your in the market, let me know. I have quite a few unifi pieces I could sell off, including a unifi ck. Keep in mind all unifi equipment is based around PoE (power over Ethernet), so you will likely want to pick up a PoE switch as well (I also have a few for you ).

EDIT: here is a unifi setup demo site which would be the representation of your controller.
https://demo.ubnt.com/manage/site/default/dashboard

 

[rogern]

I have 2 Unifi AP-AC Pro`s thinking of include a Unifi NanoHD also.
Controller is on pfSense and the PoE switches is 16ports unifi 150W plus an 16port Unifi Switch-XG 10Gbps 4 of them rj-45 rest is sfp+ . I do have some asus too but more difficult to hide, more like they are going into the garage or something. Quite happy with the setup and covers the property.

 

[coolguy949]

I've used the R7800 and I currently have the UAP-AC-PRO with EdgeRouter X. I did extensive A/B testing before sending my R7800 back. The R7800 is significantly faster at wireless than the pro due to better processor and Wave2 support. It also has great range. QoS was pretty buggy. The R7800 is probably the fastest wireless I have personally tested (and as noted by many reviewers). It handles concurrent wireless workloads better without bogging. It's a matter of fact the Pro runs on old N hardware with a AC radio added to it. With that said, the Pro does well with certain firmware and location of the client. It seems to be processor and RAM limited. I can get about 350 - 450 mbps across the house with my 2x2 Surface Pro 3 where I would get 550 - 600 with the R7800. However, if you want complete control of your network with a ton of flexibility and stability, Ubiquiti is the way to go. The newer Ubiquiti Wave2 APs are about as fast as the R7800 now. I run the controller on my Synology in a Docker container. As of today, my Pro has been up for 279 days without a reboot. It's very stable and consistent whereas a few times, my R7800 would slow down by about 10 or 15% or so after about a week. A reboot would restore the speed. Seems to be a Netgear characteristic that had followed me for years of owning them. I'm sure a new firmware has corrected it by now.

If you're going to go Ubiquiti, I would consider spending a little more to get the new nanoHD AP for about 40 to 50 bucks more. But they are brand new and the firmware is still missing features. If you don't care about speed or Wave2, maybe grab a couple Lite or Pro APs and place them across the house. That will ensure you have super stable wireless vs one AP in the middle trying to reach all corners. I only have 1100 sq ft so one Pro AP has been fine for me to reach across the house. It just works and works well. The "hardest" part of the setup might be the controller software depending on how you want to run it. It's not required though. The APs can be managed fine through the Unifi app or PC controller software. Multiple APs will benefit from the hosted controller.

As far as the gateway goes, I went ER-X because I wanted good QoS and it was very inexpensive. The EdgeOS software is more mature and powerful. I had the USG but it can't do QoS as well for high-speed connections. My ER-X is also set and forget. I haven't touched it in almost a year and still get A+ bufferbloat tests. Great stuff for only $50. Although one day I'd love to have everything running inside Unifi.

Sorry for the long post but I hope this helps.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[MichaelCG]

My house is 3000'ish sqft 1.5 story with finished basement. I could have gotten away with a single centrally located AP, but that meant I would have been getting 20Mbps in the far ends of the house which isn't acceptable to me. So I have three UniFi APs spread across the house so pretty much anywhere in the house. I am able to get a minimum of 30Mbps for the 2.4GHz clients and 100Mbps for the 5GHz clients.

The other big perk of multi-AP is that even with multiple active clients, my speeds generally don't suffer since they are generally on different APs. My office laptop connects to the basement AP, my wife's iPad is on the bedroom AP, and the FireTV is on the kitchen AP...all three devices will easily have 100Mbps at their disposal at the same time. If we had only used a single AP, multi-active client bandwidth would not have been nearly as high.

For what its worth, I am running two UAP-AC-LR and one UAP-AC-IW. The nanoHD wasn't out when I purchased my equipment or I would have at least considered it. Also to note...by using multi-AP it is easier to select a less than optimal mounting location to keep the wife happy. The kitchen AP is sitting on top of our cabinets facing upwards to better service the top floor. The IW is hiding in my office cloest, and the 2nd AP is also in the other side of the basement out of sight.

As for a controller...you don't "need" a controller unless you are using the captive portal features. However it is handy dandy when you want to see some stats or manage from a desktop/laptop instead of via a phone. I am running my controller on an Ubuntu VM on my existing VM server at the house.

 

[cybrnook]

I would argue that fact you don't need a controller. Without the controller, how are you adopting, config, provision your devices, one by one logging in manually and setting it all by command line?

 

[MichaelCG]

I would argue that fact you don't need a controller. Without the controller, how are you adopting, config, provision your devices, one by one logging in manually and setting it all by command line?

Via the mobile app. The controller is a nice to have, not a requirement.

 

[cybrnook]

Even the mobile app is accessing your devices (your "site") through the controller, at least that's how mine works.

EDIT: You're right, seems it can be done via the app:
https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Wireless/Unifi-Control-without-a-controller/td-p/1864945

Though I will stick with my VM controller, it's good to see the flexibility.

 

[Easy Rhino]

I don't have any Ubiquiti equipment either, so I'm wondering about two possibilities:

1) Running a Ubiquiti APs or two, but plugged into some other consumer router. Would that setup make any sense?

2) Would it be feasible to run the controller software only when I wanted to modify or adjust things, but then leave the controller off at other times? What would I lose in capabilities while the controller PC is turned off?

 

[bodean]

So it looks like I’m going to get 2 AP’s. One centrally located on the upstairs level on the ceiling and one on the main floor.

Is having 2 unifi AP hds an overkill (reason I mention these is for the fast 5ghz and my 1 gigabit internet connection)? Seems the UniFi nanoHD is still not available.

 

[MichaelCG]

At the price point of the HDs...I personally think it is waaaaay overkill. But that depends on your requirements and your budget. You have to determine what speeds you must have via your WiFi and if you are willing to pay for every little bit of speed. Me personally....getting 200-400Mbps via my WiFi suits me just fine using my much more affordable UAP-AC-LR units. When I want faster, I go find an Ethernet jack.

Do you even have any clients that have more than 2x2 radios in them?

If you want to save a bit of money, I would go for a two AC-LITE for now. Then when the nanoHD come available, swap them out. This gives you more time to better understand if your placements are going to work well and provide coverage everywhere. When you finally get the nanoHD, the LITES can be moved to cover some areas that are on the outskirts of coverage.

What you want to build will work just fine and probably perform great. All a matter if you want to spend that kind of money for it.

 

[MichaelCG]

I don't have any Ubiquiti equipment either, so I'm wondering about two possibilities:

1) Running a Ubiquiti APs or two, but plugged into some other consumer router. Would that setup make any sense?

2) Would it be feasible to run the controller software only when I wanted to modify or adjust things, but then leave the controller off at other times? What would I lose in capabilities while the controller PC is turned off?

1.) Yes, this makes sense. You can use any router you want, the Ubiquiti APs could care less what router is being used. Their job is to provide WiFi only. I am using a pfSense box for routing duties, while my in-laws are using a RT-N66U to route. All of our APs are Ubiquiti managed off the controller running at my house.

2.) Yes, you can do that if you want. Again, the controller is NOT required for normal operation of the APs. It is only required if running the guest portal and if you want stats.

I have not confirmed for myself that you can manage the APs from a mobile device without a controller...but that is what I read on the Ubiquiti forums and documentation. I do run a controller and as cybrnook stated, our mobile apps connect to our controllers for management.

 

[bodean]

At the price point of the HDs...I personally think it is waaaaay overkill. But that depends on your requirements and your budget. You have to determine what speeds you must have via your WiFi and if you are willing to pay for every little bit of speed. Me personally....getting 200-400Mbps via my WiFi suits me just fine using my much more affordable UAP-AC-LR units. When I want faster, I go find an Ethernet jack.

Do you even have any clients that have more than 2x2 radios in them?

If you want to save a bit of money, I would go for a two AC-LITE for now. Then when the nanoHD come available, swap them out. This gives you more time to better understand if your placements are going to work well and provide coverage everywhere. When you finally get the nanoHD, the LITES can be moved to cover some areas that are on the outskirts of coverage.

What you want to build will work just fine and probably perform great. All a matter if you want to spend that kind of money for it.

Great post. I don't think I have anything 2x2 right now (your basic Apple products phone,ipad,imac,appletv), all my gaming consoles will be hard wired, along with the iMac, and maybe a few, but not all apple tvs).