Description
Ubiquiti Networks networks Unifi AP AC Pro.
From the manufacturer
Ubiquiti Networks Unifi Dual-Radio PRO Access Point
Deploy the UniFi AC Pro AP indoors or outdoors, in wireless networks requiring maximum performance. Sporting a weatherproof design, the UniFi AC Pro AP features simultaneous, dual-band, 3×3 MIMO technology and convenient 802.3af PoE/802.3at PoE+ compatibility.
- 3 Dual-Band Antennas, 3 dBi each
- Max. Power Consumption: 9W
- Features auto-sensing 802.3af/802.3at PoE support and can be powered by any of the following: Ubiquiti Networks UniFi Switch 802.3af/802.3at PoE+ compliant switch Ubiquiti Networks Gigabit PoE Adapter (48V, 0.5A)
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Reilly Hall –
Absolutely the best quality near enterprise grade pure Access Point capable of mesh WiFiI am so glad I bought this over the rival product I was considering. My aging DIR-655 which was only 802.11n 2.4GHz only was crashing every so often. While that wasn’t catastrophic because I was only using it for 2.4GHz WiFi and not routing (I have my own router that I will not give up, ever). I also needed to supplement this with a cheap $20 802.11ac upgrade mini AP. But this AP had certain limitations that made it just an interesting gimmick. Being 802.11ac, it was capable of speeds in excess of 100Mbps under ideal circumstances, but it’s single ethernet uplink port being Fast Ethernet only (100Mbps) made it cap out wireless speeds in total to just under 100Mbps. Also it was 5GHz only, so only my most expensive or more recent devices could use it (but that was ok, because I bought it mostly for my phone and my wife’s phone). But being “mini” it’s builtin antennae had horrible range (on top of the already known limited range of 5GHz compared to 2.4GHz). So while when the main WiFi crashed, my Internet was still usable to the wired devices and my phone, it got annoying that the kids constantly asked me why I shut the WiFi off, when I hadn’t.So I started looking into replacing both units for a single newer, faster, and more reliable unit. I had worked with much older (802.11g only) versions of these several years ago at a job where they bought some upon recommendations a coworker and I had made. While I was not the one who ended up setting them up I was pleased with the overall operation and range. So naturally I’ve always remained interested in them, but they were always too expensive for me to justify buying them for personal use.But now a friend recommended Google WiFi, which did a similar 3 AP setup. I also liked that I could just buy one. But then I realized I could buy just 1 of the Ubiquiti Unifi. And both turned out to be 802.11b/g/n/a/ac. And both were priced the same (within a $1 of each other when I bought this). Though the Google WiFi claimed a SUBSTANTIALLY higher range than the Ubiquiti Unifi (though that claim was also WAY higher than many other wireless routers that were believable so it was immediately suspect). I read many recent reviews that did say the Google WiFi had awesome range (though nothing likely close to the 3x difference compared to this unit). But one thing the reviews all agreed upon is that despite the range, it was NOT the fastest wireless single they tested in a group of mesh systems.What killed it for me was when I did more research it came out that the Google WiFi systems are actually a router and while it is capable of being put into what they call “bridged” mode, where it essentially behaves just as a regular Access Point only WiFi device with no routing functionality… You end up loosing most of the cool functionality they show in the videos. That made it pointless, as being a Systems Engineer by profession, I demand more control of my systems. There was also the uncool tendency of Google just abandoning a project they feel isn’t worth it anymore for them (either it’s not making them any money or who knows, maybe they just lost interest). While I’ve had a great experience with my two (1 first gen, 2nd newer) Chromecast, I’ve had other Google products that become fundamentally defunct due to Google choosing to no longer support them way before I feel I am done with the device. And something like my WiFi I typically buy and it gets used for 5 years or so, I wasn’t comfortable with the very real possibility of Google abandoning it just because THEY felt it was too old, before I felt the same way.So I pulled the trigger and bought one of these instead of the Google WiFi. After receiving it and setting it up, I have to say I couldn’t be happier. Google WiFi may be a great product, but I feel it’s more for the typical “hipster” masses than for an Engineer like me. I will definitely say that while the Ubiquiti Unifi isn’t enterprise Cisco type of complexity to setup, but it is definitely more advanced than your average person who doesn’t consider themselves computer savvy. While this does require software to setup and run these APs, it is different in that it runs more as a server software that can be made to run all the time to control these. However, it gives you the flexibility to install this anywhere you want, so you don’t have to have it installed as a piece of server software on your desktop, and maybe install it on a file server you may have on your network if you prefer (I’m thinking of doing it on a raspberry Pi myself). Also the software doesn’t need to be running all the time for the AP to function, just to make changes, or do monitoring of the APs. So for now I just fire it up when I need to make a change.Range. I don’t know if the Google WiFi would have really blown this thing out of the water, but all I can say is, for me, for what I wanted, this thing gets 5 stars in range, definitely better than my previous setup. I get signal throughout my whole 1100sqft apartment.Speed. I finally get the full speed of my 150+Mbps Internet connection even from a room or two away on the WiFi!!! That previously required a wired connection to do! 5 stars here again. I am definitely impressed at this point.Configuration options. Again, this thing is in between enterprise and home office, definitely more advanced than the typical unit, but not so daunting that I believe even tech savvy types could easily figure out most things. If you don’t understand computers much, then yes, this is not for you. It has plenty of options, and flexibility in how you set it up, that it empowers you to set your network up as you see fit to fit YOUR needs. Not what most companies believe you do with your computers/devices.In the end I literally have ZERO complaints about this thing. I am super ecstatic I went with this instead of something else possibly even more expensive offering functionality I didn’t even really need. More than highly recommended if you really just need a good high quality Access Point.
Austin Seipp –
A wonderful Wifi AP with powerful features and a beautiful interfaceExcellent WiFi AP and SDN product, and far better than anything else I’ve used for the price and the software quality after some playing, and an initially annoying setup. But I still give it 5 stars despite that, because everything has worked beautifully since then.TL;DR: If you want excellent WiFi — buy one of these.This thing supports dual 2.4/5G and 802.11ac and has extremely powerful radios, so it is an excellent choice for a modern home network — for example, using Sonos devices for streaming high quality audio with no lag. The 5G range is very nice. It also has excellent range in general – the base model has a range of up to 400 ft, and the more recent devices support 802.11ac up to 1Gb/s. On my iPhone with ~300mb/s from my ISP, I can only get about 120mb/s from my phone, while my hard wire gets 300mb/s – but I imagine this is likely more a limitation of the iPhone 6’s 5G radio than anything else.The actual software used to manage the device is quite good once working, and relatively advanced for such a well-priced consumer product. So if you’re a power user, you’ll probably like it a lot. They run Linux, so you can SSH in. It supports multi WLAN groups, and multi SSIDs per WLAN group (a WLAN group being a group of up-to 4 SSIDs, all connected directly to the same subnet), plenty of options for configuration, customization of per-radio settings, mapping support for your physical location (although this functionality is weak, as it doesn’t do actual mapping, it instead lays an RF scan over your floor plan), band steering to 5g (with ‘prefer 5G’ and ‘balance 5G vs 2.4G’ settings), and more. It also allows ‘mass provisioning’ and automated rollout of networks to new devices. If you already configured your first wireless network on one device – just plug in a second one on the same network, let the controller find it, adopt the device, and it will automatically push your pre-configured networks to the device and turn them on. If your mobile devices support sensible WiFi roaming for networks with multiple APs, the net result of this is a “plug and play” effect where you just turn on the device, the controller initializes it, and now your devices will magically roam among the most powerful APs as you wander around. Note that this roaming depends on the client being able to do this for you. It also has a lot of other features if you have UniFi switches, routers, or VoIP phones, along a similar line, though I’m not using those. The software is fully featured, and totally free. There’s no license tiers locked features, which is great. It’s also very well designed and fairly pleasing on the eyes, despite being a “rich” Web 2.0 internet application.They also support fancy names for your APs, which I like. I do enjoy naming them after NSA surveillance programs (PRISM, BULLRUN, XKEYSCORE, etc).But the setup was initially somewhat painful and roundabout for me, even as someone who’s quite experienced.Note that to provision this you will need either A) a smart phone or B) a separate computer to run the UniFi Controller software. Option B is the only way to access more powerful features of the device, but casual users might not need this. Option A is a bit flaky on iOS at the time of this review – actual management features work once setup, but the initial setup of a new AP purely via iOS is a little broken. The developers have indicated they are actively working on this, and a new version of the iOS software will fix it. Android devices apparently work great.You also need a recent firmware for provisioning via phone, but any UAP-AC model should be OK. When I initially tried this — first on an ordinary UAP, not an AC or PRO model — the firmware was too old, and there was nothing to indicate this. So then I upgraded the firmware with the controller, factory reset it and tried again. It failed. So I inevitably gave up on my phone for the time being, and just set up a controller on my laptop to initially provision the devices. I then got a AC-PRO model, and just skipped provisioning via Phone and used the controller again. While I have hardware, running Yet Another Local Service on my home network is just another thing to maintain. But technically, you don’t need to run the controller beyond the first setup, if you just want to “Fire and forget”.But, if you want to go with option B, the
UniFi Cloud Key
is an excellent choice I’ve found. This will also allow you to log into the controller via any web interface or through your Phone and get the same features. Like I said – phone management works fine, but setup doesn’t work so fine on iOS. So if you want the full features with a no-nonsense setup, for advanced users – this is a good way to go.This particular device is also standard PoE/PoE+ (802.3af/802.at) compliant – regular UniFi APs use Ubiquiti’s proprietary 24V Passive PoE, which only UniFi switches support. If you want to avoid cable clutter like and already have a PoE+ like me, this is a big upsell. If you don’t care, you’re in luck – every UniFi AP, including AC and PRO models, come with a 24V PoE injector, so you can just use that. You can also buy
Ubiquiti Passive PoE to 802.3AF Indoor Adapter
for a few bucks, to get an in-line adapter and skip the injector.Generally after a week, initially marred by a painful and roundabout setup, I am extremely impressed with this AP, and will likely buy another one for my second story, so I will have the aforementioned roaming features.I am almost certainly going to recommend Ubiquiti for excellent WiFi devices now. My only hope is that they spend more time polishing the ‘consumer’ end-user features, like mobile phone setup, and making the UI a little easier to manage. It is absolutely suitable for anyone who is even moderately networking savvy, even a little, and definitely suitable for businesses, etc. So I’d easily recommend it to many friends. And I could recommend this to my sister, and probably would (because I’m willing to be her tech support) – but polishing off the “casual” usage points would put it from a “slightly hesitant” to “no brainer” to recommend to anyone.
A. Lee –
A very reasonably price but very capable AP to set up a WiFi network that has multiple AP’sA very customizable Access Point. Was looking to establish a network in our church’s newly remodeled facility. Access points available from many of the brands that focus on homes just didn’t provide what we need. On the other hand, high end wi-fi systems (Cisco, Aruba, Meraki, etc.) intended for medium to large businesses were way too expensive for a relatively small church. In search I came upon two manufacturers that had solutions that caught my attention: Open Mesh and Ubiquiti. Both had features that could meet our needs to provide excellent coverage throughout our building.Open Mesh as its name implies could allow you establish a network that was basically wireless even between many of its access points (a mesh network). This addresses the difficulty of establishing a network throughout an building or area where adding new wiring could prove difficult or more costly than you could afford. In our case since we were remodeling the building I had already designed the internal wiring so all points were I needed to establish an AP (access point) had the necessary wiring. So there was no need for the mesh capability of Open Mesh.Even though I didn’t need that feature Open Mesh provided, their system could work fairly well to meet our needs. Their system could fairly easily configure itself. Ubiquiti likewise could meet our needs. Both were priced about the same (at the time I was examining each system).The main differences were: Ubiquiti was set up so you would manage and configure their devices using software running on your PC/laptop. You don’t need the software running 24/7 if you used it mainly to configure the network. If you wanted to collect stats you would of course need to keep it running. Open Mesh on the other hand was managed via the Internet. It’s management system/software was cloud based, residing on their servers, so no local pc/laptop/server or software was required.Both allowed you to set up guest networks and to even have a guest portal. Both allowed you to set up multiple WiFi networks.Bandwidth for each network could be managed (limits could be set for download and upload bandwidth).What made Ubiquiti my choice: I could establish more WiFi networks (SSIDs) with Ubiquiti. Each could be useful as I needed to provide guest some ‘basic bandwidth’ but with various ministry groups I would provide a different WiFi with different bandwidth limitations and an unlimited one for the staff. It gave me more flexibility.It should be noted that Ubiquiti is not as easy to set up as Open Mesh. My background is in networking and we have others in our church with IT background which helped.On other thing that sold me on Ubiquiti was their were just about to come out with the new model (the one this review is one) which was its most powerful AP and they dropped the price. With all the other expenses in getting our newly remodeled building ready for use, this helped keep our cost even more reasonable.I used the PoE+ (power over ethernet) feature of the AP’s. When I set up the wired access point locations I had the electrician install power at all those locations because at that time I didn’t know what products I would be using and in case any of the wire runs exceeded the max. distance. I purchased an HP Gigabit Switch that included PoE+ ports and they worked great. If an AP ever needed to be rebooted, now all I have to do is disconnect and reconnect the corresponding ethernet cable to the port on the switch. No need to get on a ladder to unplug the AP from a local AC outlet up in the ceiling.The challenge for churches is to manage the “guest users” connecting to your network so that they don’t overpower your network, bringing things to a standstill preventing the staff and ministry leaders from getting onto the network to do the necessary work needed. In our previous building we had two small home routers in our worship hall set up as AP’s and both would be overwhelmed on Fridays (fellowship groups meeting) and Sundays as all the cellphones and tablets tried to connect. In many cases people’s cellphone would be set up with WiFi always turned on whether they were actually using the connection or not. With these new AP’s that allow you to specify bandwidth available (and the units hardware are designed to handle more connections) so we don’t expect such problems. The congregation is just beginning to be aware of our new guest network so we’ll see whether or not we have to add one or two more AP’s to the existing two but at the price they are currently going for its a reasonable cost.Note: the coverage is spherical. We are in a 3 story building (the 1st floor being the garage/storage) with two levels (2nd & 3rd floors) that include all our classrooms, conference rooms, worship hall and offices. We’ve place one AP on the west side of the 2nd floor in the middle of the floor (running north-south) and the other one on the east side of the 3rd floor in the middle of the floor (running north-south). We have excellent reception every where. We’ve set the AP’s to automatically load balance the connections between them.If you are looking for AP’s that are highly configurable so you can set up multiple WiFi networks for different groups and you have some networking background the Ubiquiti product line could be the economical solution to meet your needs. If most of the locations you are considering putting an AP in are not wired (and adding wiring would be difficult) and networking background is limited, take a look at Open Mesh before deciding. They just might be the easier and more workable solution. Also remember one is managed locally while the other is cloud based.
Jacob B. –
These are AWESOMEI have two of these and an L3 switch and they all work with the very nice controller I have running on a server. Pretty easy to configure and they have good signal… Wish the wifi handoff was a bit smoother between them tho
James C. –
These Access Points Changed My Life!I built a new house, 2-story with a basement, and mapped out my entire low voltage setup.I did a ton of research on every home audio video piece, wiring, etc. I wanted everything to NOT BE DEALER ONLY equipment. Instead of Control 4, I use Harmony. Instead of Comcast Alarm, I use Alarm.com and Qolsys, etc.When it got time to do internet, I was talking to my low voltage guy and said I still needed to research WiFi equipment like I do everything else. He convinced me that his Araknis brand (Snap-On Dealer equipment) was so great. I told him that I like consumer or open equipment because they listen to more customers, there is more support, feature requests, online tutorials, etc. He swore how great it was, etc. Against my better judgement I took his advice.I used their Araknis Networks® 500 Series Indoor Wireless Access Point. 3 at first, then added 2 more because coverage was so bad. I had nothing but internet issues non stop! I tried changing settings (Channel Setup to reduce interference, Power Levels, NO RSSI Option anywhere though, etc), checking for newer firmware, etc. The installer refused to acknowledge any issues I was having was from the APs. “He used them other places, and they have worked fantastic”.I finally couldnt stand it anymore. My harmony hubs would constantly disconnect, or look connected but need to be rebooted. Facetime outside the house 10′ from the house would freeze up. Viewing Nest cams were extremly choppy. WiFi calling would never work. WiFi devices on my alarm system kept dropping out. I couldnt stand it.So, I did what I knew I should have done from the beginning. RESEARCH!!!! Like I always do. Well, I came across the UAP-AC-PRO-US. After looking over specs, maturity of firmware, utilities, etc. I made the purchase. I replaced all the APs myself. The round style was nicer than a square AP trying to get lines right with all the angles on the ceiling. It had a useful LED the other didnt have when starting out, then I could easily turn off later.Only hiccups along the way:Setup was a breeze (except it wouldnt except my email, and found it had to be all lower case). Enable cloud access gave me OS error – had to simply install Java x64.After setup, playing around with power level and channels, I got it mostly dialed in and gave it a shot.HUGE issues resolved!!!!!!1. iPhone on old network would show 5 bars, but download at .2MBPS. I found that it was still stuck on further AP and I constantly had to turn off wifi and re-turn on for it to jump on the right AP and get normal speeds. The wireless roaming works as it should with Ubiquiti!!!!2. My harmony hubs now stay connected, the “Loading Data” on mobile app has been reduced from 5 seconds time to being instaneous. This was a nightmare. Sometimes you have a toddler meltdown, need Disney Jr, and then Wife tries to use the remote, doesnt work, and a 10 minute rebooting process and troubleshooting session follows. This happen so often I could never rely on the remote to work and thought I had bad Harmony products.3. The kids can now facetime their grandparents in the backyard and my parents can actually see them now!4. Nest cameras actually work, and dont constantly freeze with spinning loading icon when needing to check on babysitter/kids.5. UnFi software – making it so I dont have to open 5 browsers tabs with 5 ip addresses, with 5 logins to view WiFi clients across the board, and naming mac addresses in each AP. Its – Yup, now Unified!6. Mobile App – So nice to pull up the iPhone and check things/tweak things as needed.7. Intel – I can easily see threshold of clients per AP, how much interference there is, easily get details.8. Automated Firmware updates – no longer manually checking and updatingWhat a blessing this has been switching over to these APs. No more yelling from my wife to get the low voltage guy over – me calling him a hundred times, getting no shows, and being frustrated.I have wifi internet that now works as it should. I’ve been very pleased so far, even though it’s only been a couple days. I’ll post an update if anything goes down hill.CONS:Only con was there used to be an option to select which AP a device should be on in the software. They removed that a long time ago, and even though lots of upvotes to bring it back, they havent.It looks like you need to keep your computer on and UnFi software running to access it through cloud on your mobile device. I installed the controller as a service and it works well.
Roberto Lafaire –
Excellent Product! Especially If Coming From Consumer Grade Wireless Routers!I recently bought this and have only had it for a few days (time of writing obviously) but so far it has been a real eye opener. This is from someone that normally would buy your typical mid-high end wireless home routers from ASUS, ASROCK, TP-LINK etc..Now, I am no Network Engineer and/or IT Specialist but I am what can be considered a “prosumer” or “power-user”. I know plenty of advanced topics and concepts in networking but in no way to the deep level understanding that a professional Network or IT engineer would. That said, I’ve only had it a few days and being a relatively simple product (in terms of what its main purpose is) I will go over the main differences “I” noticed when moving to an AP + Gateway/Router + Modem HOME solution instead of the typically Wireless Router + Modem only solution.The first thing you will immediately notice is that this is NOT going to be plug n play like a wireless router would. Now, that is not to say that this is a pain to setup but just FYI this will require at least a bit of effort besides hooking up Ethernet cable(s) and applying power. Now, as a prosumer I like tinkering and what not so this is fine by me. Honestly, the most time-consuming part of this process is mounting it. Actually setting it up software wise is extremely easy. The inevitable question will come up…do I have to mount it on the ceiling/wall? NO you do not. It can be just sitting somewhere on a flat surface if you wish but obviously its not recommended not because it won’t work but because wireless coverage/throughput won’t be at its best and if your spending this much to upgrade your home wireless network you might as well go the extra mile and get everything you can out of it.The software you literally just follow the instructions, download the controller software to a PC/Laptop/HomeServer ect… and execute. The software is intuitive and you will pick up on the GUI quickly with simple exploration/discovery. It handles the initialization, configuration & monitoring of the AP.Now for the impressions. MASSIVE difference compared to having a singular Wireless Router powering your whole house/apartment. In my case, I have about an ~1200 sqft apartment. I mounted it on the ceiling near the center of the apartment in the most open area (Living Room + Dining Room + Kitchen) and used a 50ft CAT5e shielded UTP Ethernet cable to neatly route it back to my now WIRED only router (If you are staying with a wireless router, disable ALL radios) + POE Switch Combo. My whole apartment is literally covered with “Full Bars” of coverage. The lowest point I could find was way back in the Master Bedroom where it was a good -62 dBm (Anything above -65 dBm is good IMO). Before, I could not go to my Bedroom without experiencing intermittent drops and/or LAG. Not to mention that when I did have a connection there it was sometimes slow, as in Youtube constantly buffering slow. This is no longer the case and I am really impressed. The Controller software also has some pretty advanced features which I like and the interface and how it shows you stats and data is really neat and slick. The LED Blue light CAN be turned off if you wish. Overall, really satisfied and will no longer rely on wireless routers or all-in-one solutions again. Honestly, although it is more work, it is far worth it to avoid hassling with the router and the frustration of dealing with slow internet when you KNOW you are paying for high speed internet (In my case its 200 Down, 20 Up) and are not getting those results. Now granted, this is wireless we are talking about so you will RARELY get your full internet speed if your roaming around or not in line of sight of the AP. In my case, If I am in the living room or anywhere within line of sight and maybe 20-40 ft away It will get pretty close sometimes even full speed (Average I’d say 170-180 mbps out of 200 Max). Anywhere not line of sight and an appreciable distance away will drop it to an average of 90-120 mbps which is STILL EXCELLENT compared to my previous numbers of 5-10!! This is on both the 2.4 GHZ and 5 GHZ bands as well as using an AC device (Galaxy S Phone).If your case is similar to mine and don’t mind tinkering, DITCH the wireless router and get a good Wired Router/Gateway because those have much better hardware for handling plenty of traffic since they don’t worry about radios. BUY this AP because of its easy and slick GUI AND the fact that the company Ubiquiti has other products that have similar design style and will integrate nicely together with ONE software package (Big deal for me maybe not for others). Highly Recommended!
Tyler Forge –
Simplified my lifeI purchased this to go with a
Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway Pro
I got through the Vine program. It has been one of my better technology purchases over the past few years. I have no idea how it operates when separate from the security gateway. I do know that it is fantastic with the gateway. If you know your way around a network, this Unifi gear is pretty awesome for home and small offices. In fact, you can manage both your home and your office from the same control panel. Yeah.To be clear – this isn’t consumer grade gear and home networks are probably not the intended use. But… this stuff is oh-so-good for homes with lots of networking bits – which will soon be just about every home. Another point is that this access point looks like a required first hop for the Unifi mesh nodes. Mesh networks are wondrous. You want one.Following is the review I wrote for the security gateway. It covers the access point too because they operate as a single system.———– This thing, along with the
PRO Access Point
, has really simplified my networking life. My home network is somewhat complicated because there are the various IOT devices and gadgets that I want to keep isolated from my serious systems that are used for work. The reason this Ubiquiti gear has simplified things is that I’ve gone from a cluster of routers/access points down to a nice clean install. The WiFi part of the network can have four SSIDs from that one access point. This is a nice improvement over the purely consumer grade stuff that is being supplanted because I’ve been partitioning via multiple WiFi routers with each having its own SSID.My knowledge level is that I’ve used lots of consumer grade equipment and have turned linux boxes into poor man’s routers. Basically, it’s been setting up SOHO stuff at the start-up level and then getting out of the way when corporate IT types show up with all that fancy (and expensive) CISCO gear. I’ve always been one to suffer a very inexpensive pile of gear over a costly install in a rack. This Unifi gear has me questioning those life choices because the price point drew me in and because it is so much easier to deal with this gear than my old rats nests.The configuration bit isn’t that difficult but there have been a few frustrations along the way. For example, WiFi devices having the same SSID can see each other period. I was hoping to isolate them using firewall rules, but that simply did not work. It would be fantastic if this had worked. Instead, I had to set up additional SSIDs on different VLANs. Regardless – having the flexibility to do this is a huge step forward over my previous headache. Another huge plus is that it is now far easier to install new WiFi devices. My netgear and tp-link devices made it a pain in that they are aimed at the consumer who isn’t very concerned about security. That said – I’m still looking for a MAC whitelist ability in the Unifi software – I really like to lock things down.I currently have the Unifi control software installed on an old laptop and it runs fine. Even so, I’ll certainly be looking into the cloud key and cloud control capabilities. The capabilities of the Unifi configuration/control software are amazing in that it is so much and so easy to get to.The other thing I’m eager to put in place at home is load balanced WLANs. I currently have a cable modem and connect through Comcast. When Comcast craps itself, I’m out of luck. Also, Comcast can’t support a blazingly fast pipe into my house – the wires won’t support it even though they’ll sell me “up to” some impressive speeds. Century link is about the same – there’s fiber nearby but the copper in between ain’t all that. So, it’s now time to get a connection through centurylink, hook it into the WLAN2 port, and see if the two service providers (unknowingly working together) can give me a nice fat pipe.Another thing on the to-do list is setting up VPN through this box so that I can retire the linux box that has been handling that chore.I’m really loving this Unifi gear.If there’s anything disturbing its that this Unifi gear appears to not support IPv6. Yeah, we’re doing OK with just IPv4, but it would be nice to get that IPv6 goodness going just to see what else is enabled.
D. Johnson –
Amazing! I finally have rock-solid Wi-Fi through my houseI’ve been running an Apple AirPort Extreme + 2 Airport Express’s to cover our 3600 sq. ft. 2-story home, but coverage was still spotty and my connection would often drop back to 2.4Ghz in my office, partly due to interference from my neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks. It meant frequent buffering of WebEx and Zoom meetings, and a general frustrating experience.Enter Ubiquti. Where have you been all of my life? I learned about this system from a colleague at work who’d been using it for a while. I set up the controller software on an 8-year-old Dell laptop running Windows 10 I was already using for my security cameras, and plugged the Unifi access point into my network. The software recognized it and provisioned it right away. I set it up with the same SSID and password as my Airport network, and once the Unifi was up and running, I turned off the wireless radios in my extreme base station with the Apple Airport app, and then went around the house to unplug the 2 Airport Express’s – all of this while my wife was on a Webex call for work. Voila! Seamless transition to the Unifi with zero disruption.Now for the best part: The Unifi AP is sitting on a shelf in a downstairs coat closet that’s centrally located in the house, and the same location where I had the AirPort Extreme previously. I’m getting 95% or better Wi-Fi experience scores (according to the controller software) for every device in the house – all 24 of them. And that claim seems legit because FaceTime, video streaming and WebEx calls are crystal clear, even in locations farthest away from the AP. My wife often takes video calls from an upstairs guest bedroom, which is the farthest point in the house from the AP, and the quality is perfect, with never any buffering for her now, when previously it was spotty with my Airport network. There’s also an Amazon FireStick in that room that used to buffer a lot, but now streams 4K video with no buffering.I’m also getting great coverage on our screen porch outside, which used to be in a Wi-Fi shadow from the Extreme, but too far from an Express to get a reliable signal. The garage, front porch and driveway also have a signal strong enough for reliable FaceTime calls now.In short, I’m completely blown away by this thing. I can’t believe that a single Wi-Fi AP sitting on a shelf in a closet, amidst a sea of other strong Wi-Fi signals from neighboring houses, can deliver such stellar performance to every single device and location in our home. But it does.I should also note that I bought two of these things assuming I would need to install a second one upstairs to get acceptable coverage, but I don’t, so I’ll take it to our second home and set it up there, replacing the Airport network there, too.So here’s my final setup:1 Unifi Pro AP1 Apple AirPort Extreme being used as the router with the radios turned off1 Motorola cable modem1 old Dell PC running the controller softwareAnd one final thing: the Unifi mobile app is a thing of beauty and gives me quick access to performance stats, etc. I’m so happy to finally have a commercial-grade Wi-Fi system that’s as solid and reliable as I want it to be.
AshayinFLA –
Strongest access point on the market, hands down!I have set up many of these at work, and now I have one in my house. This is the Best Access Point you can get for a large area, hands down! Here at home, we use it with a handful of laptops & cell phones (lots of kids video games and video streaming), as well as about 25 or 30 wifi home Automation devices, including a couple of security cameras streaming HD feeds 24/7, and a HD video streaming dongle with a G on it.. One camera is a doorbell camera that does not work well if it doesn’t have a strong wifi signal… I used to have a router in AP mode near the front door just for that (and to cover some spires that had weak signal), but with this installed I no longer need another ap!In order to program it, you need to install software that will connect to it, and it seamlessly controls any other Unifi series gear in your network. If you have multiple devices from ubiquity this is awesome (I don’t). Once you install it on your always-on machine (not necessary to keep it on, but nice to be able to log in) you can log in from any machine on your network (provided your computer’s firewall doesn’t stop it). I tried to install it on a linux machine that I use as a media server, but had allot of issues getting the software installed/working in the Linux environment (even though there is a Linux version available, issues were with other software dependencies). I ended up using a Windows machine to set it up and that worked seamlessly. Once you set it up, you need to use the same machine’s installation to get back in for any future management, unless you export the configuration to another machine (otherwise you need to reset the device).If you don’t know much about computers/networking, this is a slightly complicated device to get working, but once it’s going it’s excellent. If you need the highest speed wifi, I think they have a newer, but similar product that works a little faster, but unless you really need super crazy fast wireless service, this is the one to get. If you have a super large area to cover and do end up needing more than one, the system will automatically mesh them!Fyi I am using a router from a different brand, and just turned off the wireless radios in the router, so this is the only source of AP radio in the house. At work we have a few older routers / AP’s that we still keep the radios on, (same AP name) and although it doesn’t work as a real mesh network, the computers can connect to one AP and then auto-swap to the other AP when signal from the first AP gets too weak (we are bringing them into arenas for temporary installations/events, so we need to convert a huge area). I don’t recommend keeping different app’s on normally within a short distance as its better to not saturate the air waves with rf if you can avoid it.
Locke Smythe –
Great Option for Adding 5GUbiquiti seems to be an industry standard. We use the microwave point-to-point units at work. These are so simple to set up and manage. I turned off the wifi on my Cisco router and replaced that function with one of these. It works so much better. The interface takes a little getting used to, but all of the functionality is right where you need. This is a great way to add 5G to your network. My neighbors haven’t implemented 5G yet, so the channels are wide open for me right now.