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Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

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Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#41

Post by pyre »

shmerl wrote: post #35

> I got a variety of responses including that I should install the open source dd-wrt firmware... No, no, a hundred times no... Silly. If the author doesn't want to follow good advice, too bad for him. I'm using WRT1900ACS with DD-WRT. It works like a charm. > if I buy a product then I expect it to work as advertised and not need to implement hacks to keep it alive. It's not a "hack". It's installing a better quality…

I think it's a fair criticism of the product that it doesn't work correctly without dd-wrt.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#42

Post by shmerl »

pyre wrote: post #41
shmerl wrote: post #35

> I got a variety of responses including that I should install the open source dd-wrt firmware... No, no, a hundred times no... Silly. If the author doesn't want to follow good advice, too bad for him. I'm using WRT1900ACS with DD-WRT. It works like a charm. > if I buy a product then I expect it to work as advertised and not need to implement hacks to keep it alive. It's not a "hack". It's installing a better quality…

I think it's a fair criticism of the product that it doesn't work correctly without dd-wrt.

Oh, I agree that criticism is fair. I just don't think his approach was optimal or even the fastest way to fix those issues (and he said in the beginning, that he wants to save time). Those who recommended him DD-WRT were right, but he didn't listen. That "no, no" answer sounded more like a rant.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#43

Post by esaym »

sargun wrote: post #29
finnn wrote: post #7

Since we're all saying nice things about Ubiquiti, I feel obliged to point out that they are actively violating the GPL: http://libertybsd.net/ubiquiti/

So are the following: -Tesla -Eero -Pluot

Doesn't make it ok.

But dang hate to see Tesla on there :(

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#44

Post by nine_k »

sargun wrote: post #29
finnn wrote: post #7

Since we're all saying nice things about Ubiquiti, I feel obliged to point out that they are actively violating the GPL: http://libertybsd.net/ubiquiti/

So are the following: -Tesla -Eero -Pluot

Having a somehow famous name does not make a deplorable action magically virtuous.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#45

Post by esaym »

sandGorgon wrote: post #32

what is a good way to connect router or access points OVER WIFI. i dont have wired backhaul in my office and it would be fairly cumbersome to build one. are there APs with two radios each - one for backhaul and one for service?

Most netgear prosafe products have a wifi bridge mode (a few variants of it actually)

Just search for "bridge" in one of their user manuals and see if that is what you need: http://tinyurl.com/j9nwuqs

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#46

Post by awgneo »

shmerl wrote: post #42
pyre wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a fair criticism of the product that it doesn't work correctly without dd-wrt.

Oh, I agree that criticism is fair. I just don't think his approach was optimal or even the fastest way to fix those issues (and he said in the beginning, that he wants to save time). Those who recommended him DD-WRT were right, but he didn't listen. That "no, no" answer sounded more like a rant.

I've tried DD-WRT and OpenWRT on this particular Linksys router and it was no better, but this is besides the point. It made me step back and realize that I shouldn't ever have to install a third party OS just to have a router that doesn't drop out multiple times per day.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#47

Post by baobrien »

esaym wrote: post #39

I've thought about Ubiquiti in the past, but they are not "stand alone" units right? Meaning I am forced into allowing the units to phone home so I can manage them through Ubiquiti's cloud service? (something I don't want or need for a small home set up) Last year I bought my wife and I our first set of "smart" phones. Yes I'm serious, I've been in IT all my life but never felt I had a need for anything other than a…

The UniFi stuff isn't stand alone, but it doesn't need to 'phone home' to Ubiquiti. There's a little management server with a web config interface you need to set up to run everything. It runs on your local network and doesn't call Ubiquiti or open up anything without you setting that up. They do have what they call the 'cloud key' that runs an instance of the Unifi management server. That thing does phone home, IIRC.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#48

Post by uean »

I've taken over deployments of UniFi gear and do not have nice things to say about them. We typically deal in the Aerohive and Meraki world and I find the Ubiquiti zero-handoff to be terrible (I see real-world handoff times of up to 8 seconds in some cases) auto channel selection inneffective, band-steering implementation completely broken, and then just some basic lack of features of things that, to be fair, I wouldn't expect at this price point (L7 firewall, etc) but, given how aggressive some of the marketing has been that the Ubiquiti gear can compete with enterprise grade stuff makes you start to miss the enterprise features. It's too bad that my experience with them is not good as I want to like the stuff, but anything over 3 access points in a typical office environment with competing RF and need for seamless handoff, this stuff just doesn't cut it.

I'm a network admin for a small managed service provider.

Happy to provide more detail if needed:)

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#49

Post by OriginalPenguin »

finnn wrote: post #7

Since we're all saying nice things about Ubiquiti, I feel obliged to point out that they are actively violating the GPL: http://libertybsd.net/ubiquiti/

Wow. And here I was just thinking with this week's Netgear security vulnerability, maybe it was time to switch to Ubiquiti.

Guess I'll just wait for the Netgear patch and save my money.

Re: Ubiquiti all the things: How I fixed my dodgy Wi-Fi

#50

Post by silversmith »

shmerl wrote: post #35

> I got a variety of responses including that I should install the open source dd-wrt firmware... No, no, a hundred times no... Silly. If the author doesn't want to follow good advice, too bad for him. I'm using WRT1900ACS with DD-WRT. It works like a charm. > if I buy a product then I expect it to work as advertised and not need to implement hacks to keep it alive. It's not a "hack". It's installing a better quality…

In my experience, the DD-WRT firmwares are on the same level as XDA android images.

Yes, the overall feature set is richer, and performance might be better. But all that is offset by some completely ridiculous bugs, like having to modify 5ghz wifi settings only via cli, because touching a single switch on web-based admin panel causes it to die (my current tp-link).

And there have been bugs like that on every router I've tried. Always some catch. It might very well even boil down to issues on the hardware level, but the point still stands - the combination has never been stable enough.

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