Cruiser_Scotland Posted January 2, 2012 Posted January 2, 2012 Hi I'm starting to toy with the idea of UniFi for our school..... currently using unmanaged wireless, and cannot afford the likes of Ruckus, Meru, Aruba etc. I'd be interested to hear anyone's experiences of UniFi - particularly does anyone know if they support guest access, VLAN'ing, NAT etc? If we go down this route it'll likely lead to students using their own devices. Can anyone recomend a supplier if we decide to get some test kit? Many thanks!
markcuk Posted January 2, 2012 Posted January 2, 2012 http://ubnt.com/downloads/guides/UniFi/UniFi_AP_QSG.pdf Great kit and cheap got ours from here Landashop, the Landatel's online shop I helped set these up for apartments in Tenerife
strawberry Posted January 2, 2012 Posted January 2, 2012 use them, cheap, great looking, functional. Best thing to do is splash £150 for 3 and give them a test. You can download the software and have a fiddle for free.
m25man Posted January 3, 2012 Posted January 3, 2012 PM sent, I have been installing Unifi for the last Year and have stopped using everything else as nothing matches it for the price. No point into turning this into another mines better than yours thread, not everyone needs wirespeed campus wide seamless roaming for £30k an install. It does everything it needs to do at a price that wont make your eyes bleed when a new version of 802.11 is released... 1
markcuk Posted January 3, 2012 Posted January 3, 2012 PM sent, I have been installing Unifi for the last Year and have stopped using everything else as nothing matches it for the price. No point into turning this into another mines better than yours thread, not everyone needs wirespeed campus wide seamless roaming for £30k an install. It does everything it needs to do at a price that wont make your eyes bleed when a new version of 802.11 is released... Can I ask one thing about them can you now turn off the ring light?
m25man Posted January 3, 2012 Posted January 3, 2012 Yes, in V2.x you will find it under settings, system, LED Enable/Disable 1
Achandler Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Im sorry but the ring light is the best part, nothing like walking down a dark corridor with UFO shapes glowing above your head! Yes we use them and they are perfect for what we need as a secondary school. 1
m25man Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Beam Forming, Gigabit backhaul, Blanket Coverage, Seamless Roaming, High Capacity all great features but all most of us want is something that works that will not consume the entire IT budget for the next 5 years. With 802.11ac and Gigabit Wifi expected to be mainstream in less than 3 years investing £30k in a system that nobody will thank you for is a mindless ego trip. I have said it before here and will say it again the only stupid thing you can't afford to do with Unifi is not to try it!!
RobFuller Posted January 15, 2012 Posted January 15, 2012 The Inifi kit looks really good, a quick question. Does the AP handle all the traffic onto the local LAN or does it all get routed back to the controller, also if the controller is down for whatever reason, will the AP continue to handle traffic? Cheers, Rob
plexer Posted January 15, 2012 Posted January 15, 2012 The traffic stays at the ap, the controller configures, monitors and maintains the ap. If the controller goes down your ap keeps working but some services like guest access won't. Ben 1
drewp Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 I have been looking a various wireless solutions; Unifi looks interesting from a low cost point of view, but is it too inexpensive? How is it performing in your environments?
RobFuller Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 Thanks plexer, I did look at some of the guest features, but to be honest if I want guest/sixth form/staff access ill probably set it up using windows radius then they can just use their normal AD credentials. I take it you have an implantation yourself, how do you find it, performance good, reliable etc?
plexer Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 Hi no I don't have it deployed atm allthough it's an option I've put on the table for a primary. Ben
Achandler Posted January 16, 2012 Posted January 16, 2012 We have an implementation of 35 access points here, and an average of 300 devices on the Wifi (Staff and Guest), mostly ipod/ ipads and phones, so mainly web browsing and checking emails, but also laptops (on the network using AD credentials). I personally have found the system good, it does everything we need it to and some extra that we don't use., we have only once had a problem with the Wifi since we introduced it but restarting the controller software solved this, i must also add the system has vastly improved over the time we have had it. Initially the controller had to be run from a user account, now it can be run as a system service which shows active development and in the right directly. They are also planning new types of points. I do have two minor complaints about it though, although these are being addressed. Firstly the APs do not work with PoE switches unless you buy adapaters for them which add a cost of about £20 per AP should you want to use one. Secondly, if you don't use a PoE switch but instead use the inline PoE adapters provided, they come with European plugs, which is an annoyance. 2
m25man Posted January 24, 2012 Posted January 24, 2012 I do have two minor complaints about it though, although these are being addressed. Firstly the APs do not work with PoE switches unless you buy adapaters for them which add a cost of about £20 per AP should you want to use one. Secondly, if you don't use a PoE switch but instead use the inline PoE adapters provided, they come with European plugs, which is an annoyance. We are now shipping these with .5m UK 13a to C5 mains leads included. There has been a problem with AF adapters if supplied with more than 48v for too long (some HP switches kick out up to 58v) they can overheat and shut down, I'm expecting the uprated AF to 24v inline PoE adapters next week.
Avalon Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 I share the opinions on this thread, I am looking to implement a small wireless infrastructure in a primary school and can not justify the expense of a wireless controller and came across the unifi products. From what I have read about the unifi solutions seems amazing and seems to fit the bill perfectly. Can any tell me how the unifi software handles clients moving between AP's and if this happens seamlessly as it would on a ruckus/meru managed system? Also, does anyone know of any free wireless planning software so I can calculate how many AP's would be required? Looking at the range I think one per classroom would be overkill but would rather get it right first time without having to add additional AP's later on!
drewp Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Not a wireless expert but what I have read suggests that most access points can support about 25-30 clients per access point. One per classroom might be the only way of delivering it, perhaps with each access point set to run with its power at the lowest setting to avoid over laps – perhaps a wireless expert could say what they think…? I have seen/heard of Ruckus access points working fine with 75+ clients connected to a single access point…
plexer Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 There is a free planning tool from Aerohive Building Your Network | Aerohive Networks Allthough you appear to have to geister to use it so expect some sales contact I guess. Ben
gshaw Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Just had a look at the Unifi with m25man, looks pretty good - only question is long-term build quality... are there any example installations trundling along quite happily after 1-2 years that can be seen or being a relatively new product is it still a bit unknown? 1
Avalon Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 There is a free planning tool from Aerohive Building Your Network | Aerohive Networks Allthough you appear to have to geister to use it so expect some sales contact I guess. Ben great thanks, will look into that - the wireless will be predominantly for 16 iPads and staff laptops so load on any AP is likely to be at most 16-18.
soveryapt Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Ooo .. not come across the UniFi Solutions before .. I'm lucky enough to live in a converted farm house and barn thingy, but the walls in that place make for WiFi nightmares .. I've cobbled together various odds and ends of kits off eBay to run a basic system in the house, but this looks like it could be ideal to do the job properly .. Now, the Unifi controller software, I take it this needs to be on a machine that will remain on 24/7 (or at least when you're wanting to use the Wireless anyway - which in our house with 5 kids between the wife and I normally means 24/7 .. lol) or is it just for setting up the Access Points? If it needs a machine 24/7, is there a Linux version of it? As I have an Ubuntu Media Servery thing in the house .. Ta All
plexer Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Doesn't have to be on 24/7 but when the machine running the controller s/w isn't running you won't be able to make managed configuration changes or use some features such as guest access. Ben 1
soveryapt Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Doesn't have to be on 24/7 but when the machine running the controller s/w isn't running you won't be able to make managed configuration changes or use some features such as guest access. Ben Ok, that's fair enough .. do you know if there is a Linux Controller for it? I noticed a Mac and PC one in the PDF that was linked above, but not a Linux one ..
ShorehamGeek Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Ok, that's fair enough .. do you know if there is a Linux Controller for it? I noticed a Mac and PC one in the PDF that was linked above, but not a Linux one .. Yes there's a linux one. I downloaded a .deb file for my Ubuntu server. 1
soveryapt Posted February 1, 2012 Posted February 1, 2012 Yes there's a linux one. I downloaded a .deb file for my Ubuntu server. Whoop .. Now to convince the wifey it's a great idea to get this WiFi .. See what I did there?! lol .
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