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Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

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Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#21

Post by reillychase »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #19
xoa wrote: post #17

L3 hosting and UniFi is now unfortunately just one of the many, many areas where it feels like Ubiquiti just kind of quit on it many years ago. It's really unfortunate but I've really gotten that sinking feeling about the platform for the last year or two now, with their killing of the forums and no replacement/upgrade for the bug/feature tracking part being the final straw. But overall they seem to show a lot of the…

I finally switched to UniFi equipment after hearing for years how much better it is than consumer WiFi equipment. Oh man, what a headache. Depending how one configured things, there’s at least 3 ways to provision devices - all 3 incompatible and will cause issues with each other. User manuals refer to Apps no longer in existence. In no instance have I had a “just works” experience. In two instances the option I neede…

I'm not a big fan of their Ubiquiti Device Discovery Tool, I always recommend using SSH method for adoption which is very reliable: https://support.hostifi.net/en/articles/3044211-unifi-cloud-...

Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#23

Post by reillychase »

dsl wrote: post #2

How is this different from or any better than Ubiquiti's Cloud Controller hosting? Also based on your pricing it is cheaper to buy a Cloud Key if you plan to use your devices longer than 10 months.

You're assuming that there is just one location, and if so, it is cheaper to buy a Cloud Key than use a service like this or https://hostifi.net

The benefit comes in when you have many locations, and can replace a bunch of Cloud Keys with a single server, and have someone else manage updates for you and help with support questions.

At HostiFi 90% of my customers are IT service providers who use the service to replace a ton of Cloud Keys with the single server.

Ubiquiti's cloud offering is very expensive ($299/year base fee + $199/year for each +10 devices), and from customers who have told me about it before they switched to HostiFi, the support is not good, they don't keep the servers updated, and you can't get access to use a custom domain name/modify some of the stuff under the hood.

Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#24

Post by cfallin »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #19
xoa wrote: post #17

L3 hosting and UniFi is now unfortunately just one of the many, many areas where it feels like Ubiquiti just kind of quit on it many years ago. It's really unfortunate but I've really gotten that sinking feeling about the platform for the last year or two now, with their killing of the forums and no replacement/upgrade for the bug/feature tracking part being the final straw. But overall they seem to show a lot of the…

I finally switched to UniFi equipment after hearing for years how much better it is than consumer WiFi equipment. Oh man, what a headache. Depending how one configured things, there’s at least 3 ways to provision devices - all 3 incompatible and will cause issues with each other. User manuals refer to Apps no longer in existence. In no instance have I had a “just works” experience. In two instances the option I neede…

The provisioning was a PITA and I only use the WiFi access point, not their router, but at least for me the WiFi reliability and signal quality is night-and-day compared to my "old" (2015/6-era) TP-Link Archer C7 router/WAP. I'm not sure what design details lead to this -- poking around via SSH, they're just running Linux with hostapd controlling Atheros interfaces (perhaps just solid engineering on antennas plus choosing a well-supported WiFi chipset?) -- but qualitatively there is definitely a difference in my experience!

Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#25

Post by throwaway380280 »

xoa wrote: post #17

L3 hosting and UniFi is now unfortunately just one of the many, many areas where it feels like Ubiquiti just kind of quit on it many years ago. It's really unfortunate but I've really gotten that sinking feeling about the platform for the last year or two now, with their killing of the forums and no replacement/upgrade for the bug/feature tracking part being the final straw. But overall they seem to show a lot of the…

"Something is going to have to give at some point."

Former Ubiquiti employee here.

The CEO is insanely toxic. Insulting people in the company Slack, publicly firing people on the spot, constantly trying to micromanage everything, shutting down entire offices without warning. It's crazy.

So much wasted potential. Most of the good employees left or were fired while i was there. Projects were changed or cancelled monthly. No one knew what was going on.

Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#26

Post by joecot »

Question, since a number of folks have chimed in about using various cloud hosted controllers: how do you initially setup the network (given that you presumably need the router to have internet access to connect to the cloud controller), and how do you handle it if there's an internet connectivity problem? My office currently has an internal network VM that runs the controller, and we might move to a Cloud Key, but I'm curious how folks handle having a cloud controller for their Unifi router when their Unifi router might lose internet. Or are most folks using the controllers to manage Ubiquiti wifi hotspots without using the USG as their main router?

We're a small shop of around 20 desktops or so, 2 switches, and 1 router, with a couple external static IPs. I can see the benefit for trying to orchestrate multiple sites using a cloud controller, but I'd be worried about doing it for a single site given internet issues, unless there's something I'm missing.

Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#27

Post by teilo »

tjoff wrote: post #10
teilo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Central control of multiple sites without having to mess with VPNs.

Why would you need any vpns? Especially if the vpns are setup from the controller you create a delicate chicken-and-egg problem. How are you to provision it the first time? You also open up yourself to the problem of accidentally locking sites out and having to reconfigure each site from within.

You are overthinking this. If you have a VM running the controller, or a cloud key, on your internal network, you would need to VPN in to manage them remotely.

Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#28

Post by mkhpalm »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #19
xoa wrote: post #17

L3 hosting and UniFi is now unfortunately just one of the many, many areas where it feels like Ubiquiti just kind of quit on it many years ago. It's really unfortunate but I've really gotten that sinking feeling about the platform for the last year or two now, with their killing of the forums and no replacement/upgrade for the bug/feature tracking part being the final straw. But overall they seem to show a lot of the…

I finally switched to UniFi equipment after hearing for years how much better it is than consumer WiFi equipment. Oh man, what a headache. Depending how one configured things, there’s at least 3 ways to provision devices - all 3 incompatible and will cause issues with each other. User manuals refer to Apps no longer in existence. In no instance have I had a “just works” experience. In two instances the option I neede…

They have a UDM and UDM-Pro in early acces that handles the all-in-one device scenario you mentioned.

Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#29

Post by tjoff »

teilo wrote: post #27
tjoff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you need any vpns? Especially if the vpns are setup from the controller you create a delicate chicken-and-egg problem. How are you to provision it the first time? You also open up yourself to the problem of accidentally locking sites out and having to reconfigure each site from within.

You are overthinking this. If you have a VM running the controller, or a cloud key, on your internal network, you would need to VPN in to manage them remotely.

No? If you have any remote sites you need it to be directly accessable from the internet anyway. Or am I missing something?

Now you might not like that, but realize that this service is exactly that.

You might be comforted by the fact that a breach of the controller doesn't affect your internal networks.

...until you realize that having control over the controller means root access on all of your sites. So it shouldn't be that comforting.

Re: Show HN: Managed UniFi Controller Hosting

#30

Post by imstillhere »

xoa wrote: post #17

L3 hosting and UniFi is now unfortunately just one of the many, many areas where it feels like Ubiquiti just kind of quit on it many years ago. It's really unfortunate but I've really gotten that sinking feeling about the platform for the last year or two now, with their killing of the forums and no replacement/upgrade for the bug/feature tracking part being the final straw. But overall they seem to show a lot of the…

They're definitely ignoring a big part of their market that made them successful initially.

Do you think there's a potential for disruption in this market?

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