Ubiquiti Advice Please

[discoveranother]

Hello,

 

I am completely new to Ubiquiti and looking towards maybe deploying Ubiquiti into some schools this year. At the moment I have a school that just needs one access point for now. The school currently have an existing HP POE Switch and a Cisco LAN Controller which provides wireless to 4 old Cisco AP's. Unfortunately, only one of the AP's is now working and I would like to get a feel for Ubiquiti. I would like to possibly add one of the following to the current network and see how it goes and then overtime when the school can afford it add more and possibly either a Unifi Switch or Unifi Cloud Key. Sorry, i'm quite vague on this so would be grateful for your advice. I would like to be able to monitor the access points and log onto a web-based application to configure and check on them. I just need some advice on best choosing which AP is required, although I have seen the UAP-AC-LITE seems very popular. Do the Ubiquiti Access Points come with plates that have to be drilled to a wall similar to the Cisco Access Points had.

 

1) Ubiquiti UniFi UAP WiFi Managed PoE Access Point (300Mbps N)

 

2) Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LITE UniFi GEN2 AC1200 Simultaneous Dual-Band WiFi PoE Access Point (1200Mbps AC)

 

3) UBIQUITI UniFi AC In-Wall Wireless Access Point

 

Thanks all

[MatthewL]

Have a look at the UAP-AC-PRO that is what I've got at home and would roll out anywhere.

 

As for cloud key I wouldn't waste your money, not heard good reviews, just install the software on a server you already have and be done with it. I am looking at putting mine on a Pi at home just for the sake of it.

 

Yes they come with a fixing plate there is a plastic one for ceilings or a metal one for use with ceiling tiles, a couple of screws and away you go.

[AJWhite1970]

As above. For testing, install the latest management software on the platform of your choice, at my school that’s a 2016 server, at home it’s a win 10 desktop that doubles up as a media server connected to my tv.

 

The cloud key does work well (my student WiFi runs on one) but make sure you upgrade the firmware to the latest 12.x (or 8.x for the Gen2) as earlier versions than that weren’t great....

 

Only other thing is the range on the In-wall AP’s is far less than the UAP’s although this is by design

Edited January 4, 2019 by AJWhite1970

[richbrowncardiff]

It depends on how many people will be using the Ap at any one time and also what the AP will be handling. If its just email and web browsing with a few app updates etc and your not needing to guarentee bandwidth a lite will be fine however if you needed MU-MIMO and alot of concurrent connected users you will need to look at the more expensive options.

[ITGuyWestMidlands]

The nanoHD devices are probably the ones to go for imo. I bit more expensive but slightly better future proofed

[AlanD]

I'd be looking at the AC Nano Ubiquity AP - because you get the full hit of working features with 802.11af PoE without requiring PoE+

[chaplic]

My school had 7 fairly old HP (Colibris) Wirless N access points that I replaced with 5 Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LITE UniFi GEN2 AC1200 Simultaneous Dual-Band WiFi PoE Access Point (1200Mbps AC) (actually bought 6 but reception is so good I didn't need the sixth). About 50 devices at peak are in play.

 

For proof-of-concept, just install the controller software on a PC, as the controller only needs to be on to deploy config and monitoring. I have it running a windows 10VM.

 

After initial config, it's pretty much 'just worked' and complaints about the 'wifi dropping out' are history. Would recommend!

[discoveranother]

Just want to say thank you to everyone for all your responses. Much appreciated.

[mcolbourn]

If you go the route of deploying Ubiquiti in multi locations I would look at hosting the control either in AWS or Digital Ocean. We have over 50 APs and unifi switches in our school and they are all controlled via a AWS hosted controller.

[XiJ]

We look after multiple sites - all hosted on our cloud controller. Very handy.

[iaintyler]

try installing the latest management software on your platform to test