Unifi (Wireless) Feedback

[FN-GM]

Hello,

 

I have been looking at Unifi to replace our old wireless system. I have been testing with a couple of APs and all seems good.

 

I was wondering if people who have been using it long term can provide feedback please? What APs do you use and have they been reliable?

 

Thanks

[robyholmes]

We're using Nano-HD inside and some AC-Mesh-Pro outside to cover our ruby pitch and tennis courts etc. Been stable (As you'd expect from any network kit) and trouble free. Some older devices take longer to connect to it than our older 802.11n Ruckus system we had, however most of these laptops are now being returned as there around 7 years old.

 

Controller is setup on an Unbuntu VM. If your not used to Linux, like me, then its a bit of a job to setup.

 

We have a BYOD network setup with radius authentication to our Smoothwall. Users connect using domain username and password, then have to agree to terms on the Unifi portal, this then redirects to the Smoothwall HTTPS certificate download page. However a lot of Android phones go 'Yey connected, close that job done'. So we've got a QR code and address in our office for staff to manually enter, download the certificate and install.

[sidewinder]

Been great for us, installed last summer replacing an old Ruckus setup. Few issues with APs going offline for a while but this has improved a lot with recent firmware updates - pretty rock solid now.

 

We use a Cloud Key 2 for the controller, no issues.

[synaesthesia]

We've used it for around 7 years and have been extremely happy with it; only replacing it due to a complete network overhaul, however we would have been more than happy to expand/update what we had. A mixture of the original AP's and Pros made up our estate and reliability was excellent. I tinkered later with some more advanced stuff like radius authentication on guest portals to good success. We still have some bridges running on old UAP Outdoor and Outdoor 5Gs, and they have been faultless (except for one I bricked by accidentally sticking the wrong voltage into it!) and their uptime has been astonishing. I couldn't recommend it enough. Also used a linux VM for controller, and to this day have yet to see anyone else's controller that is as intuitive as Unifi; ok it's not as advanced as Ruckus, Aruba etc but they'd all have MUCH to learn by taking some of it as an example!

[FN-GM]

 

Controller is setup on an Unbuntu VM. If your not used to Linux, like me, then its a bit of a job to setup.

 

I setup a controller in an Ubuntu server VM. This might be useful for you. If you run those commands its pretty much done for you.

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/wireless-networks/214756-how-do-you-do-your-unifi-controller.html#post1837642

[chaplic]

Got 6 Unfi APs running in a small school, great coverage and no drama - have just worked for me. The controller is on a VM thats usually turned off.

[JATSO]

Been using using Unifi for nearly 10 years now and its been the best choice for us considering when we obtained quotes companies were quoting 10K for a 10 classroom primary school. Edited April 28, 2020 by JATSO

[CAWJames]

We run a single unifi controller in a ubuntu or debian VM, but around 60 AP's over 5 sites connected with VPN. Controller just takes it all in, everything nicely sorted by site. Love them

[FN-GM]

We run a single unifi controller in a ubuntu or debian VM, but around 60 AP's over 5 sites connected with VPN. Controller just takes it all in, everything nicely sorted by site. Love them

 

Have they been reliable please? How long have they been in service?

[MatthewL]

We have hundreds of Unifi AP's running off our controller installed on a Linux box. Various sites, some using USG and some Unifi switches, replacing our Aruba kit with this as it fails or we need to add more capacity. In fact deployed 2 more AP's this week with no issue.

 

Also use it at home, 3 AP's connected back to a Pi running as controller with no issues.

[Cache]

I've had UAP-Pro's for 5 years and UAP-AC-Pro's for 3 and haven't had any failures, admittedly only got about 15 or so, so not a massive deployment however throughout that whole time they have just worked. Originally started with a windows controller before moving it on to an Ubuntu VM.

[XiJ]

We’ve got hundreds spread over at least 20 schools and that will double in the near future. We run a central controller and they all connect to that so we get alerts and can perform updates from anywhere.

 

Originally started with the standard AP’s at 2.4Ghz now usual the 5Ghz basic model. They’ve be problem free. I’ve had two fail - and that was me accident my putting 48v through the 24v models on setup.

 

My only bug bear really is that updates don’t always apply / particular on older models with manually adding the update url to each AP. Not a problem on newer hardware.

[Primus]

We have circa 100 APs and circa 40 switches - very very happy with it.

[AJWhite1970]

80 AP’s, 70 switches, 45 CCTV cameras, 3 X16 cores, 2x Nanobeams (100m and 900m), all rock solid and been click and forget for over 3 years now

[FN-GM]

Thanks everyone!

[bald_pig]

Have they stopped sending data home without consent yet?

 

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/07/ubiquiti_networks_phone_home/

[Primus]

That was in a beta firmware and the controller now has a dialogue option to disable this.

[synaesthesia]

Been over this multiple times, but people who complain about telementry going home without consent usually do so from their Apple devices, where they "give consent" to sell their soul to Hades in amongst the 427 pages of terms and conditions without batting an eye.

[bald_pig]

Been over this multiple times, but people who complain about telementry going home without consent usually do so from their Apple devices, where they "give consent" to sell their soul to Hades in amongst the 427 pages of terms and conditions without batting an eye.

 

Ah, yes, the Apple devices I don't own, thanks for reminding me!

[Norphy]

Been over this multiple times, but people who complain about telementry going home without consent usually do so from their Apple devices, where they "give consent" to sell their soul to Hades in amongst the 427 pages of terms and conditions without batting an eye.

 

Why do you have such a downer on Apple doing that? At least with the Apple TOCs, you're only selling your soul to Apple whereas with Google, you not only sell your soul to Google but then sublease it to whoever the hell they feel like.

[Roberto]

Been over this multiple times, but people who complain about telementry going home without consent usually do so from their Apple devices, where they "give consent" to sell their soul to Hades in amongst the 427 pages of terms and conditions without batting an eye.

 

I’ve always thought of Apple and Microsoft as “honest villains” in this respect. They’ve always been perfectly clear that they’re here to figure out what you want to buy then sell it to you. To me that makes them a substantial cut above the tech companies who tout slogans about not being evil while scraping every last bit of data they possibly can.

 

But in either case, if you’ve consented, what’s the problem?

[synaesthesia]

It was merely pointing out the irony in it, that's all I have a downer on Apple for everything, they encapsulate everything wrong with this planet's inhabitants.

[FN-GM]

Do you mind if we don't Hijack the thread please?

[Jcx500]

We use unifi , about 30 aps really good system , only complaint I have is our gen1 cloud key what crashes every other week.

[Mr.Ben]

We use it across 10 sites in our Trust (Nano HDs with Cloud key v2s and some switches).

 

Beyond the first few weeks (when the Nano APs had a firmware issue) it's been rock solid. The odd AP needs a reboot after a firmware update.

 

We went with a distributed controller model as, for £150 per site we get a cloud based portal I don't need to maintain and schools have independent systems should the government change its minds about Trusts.

 

The useful information is also split by site doing it this way.

 

Generally I would say to wait a few weeks after each firmware release before applying it.

 

Happy to demo it if you want!

Edited May 5, 2020 by Mr.Ben