Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface • Hacker News Board

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#121

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:57 AM UTC

acidbaseextract wrote: post #76

croutonwagon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive been using them since gen1 hardware on 2.6 controllers. And their advertised features like zero handoff were hot garbage. Their channel selection to this day still sucks and isn’t even self aware. I often have multiple aps on the same channel close enough they have their own co-channel interference. This even happens on 5Ghz where theres plenty of space, not even considering DFS and I live in the country. Standar…

With the depth of your experience, what's your prosumer recommendation? MikroTik?

[deleted]

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#122

Post by hinkley » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:16 AM UTC

kogir wrote: post #47

Ubiquiti has really fallen far. The 5.x series of controller with the AP AC (S)HD was great, but everything since has been hot garbage. The 6.x series of controllers is still basically a public beta and riddled with bugs. The newer MediaTek based APs have constant problems with client device compatibility, and can’t even reliably support DHCP on the newest official firmware and controller versions (or any of the last…

Big tech swing that didn’t connect?

Has the makings of an internal power struggle where the people who actually hold things together we’re not on board and bailed.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#123

Post by windex » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:19 AM UTC

I sometimes wonder how these decisions get made within companies. I mean you are network hw vendor, how do you get convinced to embed adware/spyware into your products without compromising on trust? I'd fire all concerned if I were on the board and understood what the brand meant.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#124

Post by dmqctx » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:20 AM UTC

luckman212 wrote: post #105

I see a lot of complaints here, but nobody offering any substantive alternatives. Mikrotik is mentioned several times, but always with the caveats that it has glitchy UIs or poorly implemented features. EnGenius... you've got to be kidding. I've been a UI fan for many years and was also dismayed by the 6.x releases and the switch to Mediatek, but every time I went looking around, I saw the same tire fires at other ve…

Same. There are enough annoyances with UI gear to keep us all here griping for days. But when you try to find an alternative company for your Wireless needs you realize quick that you're perfectly willing to put up with UI's stupid annoyances. Granted a few glitches have wasted days of my life trying to correct. But I'll be sticking with them for the foreseeable future. Over the years I've had satisfactory uptime and performance.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#125

Post by hinkley » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:25 AM UTC

ballenf wrote: post #119

We need an excise tax on advertising. It’s more destructive than alcohol. And a prohibition on adding it to any product after purchase.

How about we start with not providing a tax break for advertising?

The problem though is that a bunch of forms of sponsorship dry up if you do.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#126

Post by IgorPartola » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:31 AM UTC

They also just deprecated a whole bunch of hardware, some of which barely a year old. I was just about to upgrade my whole setup and drop a decent chunk of change for a home office setup (outdoor APs, wireless backbone between two buildings, etc.). Between them dropping support and this… what is the best alternative to their access points? I plan on using an opensense box for my router.

Edit: looks like Aruba Instant On/Aruba Networks is a frequently mentioned solution in a similar price range.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#127

Post by rebuilder » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:35 AM UTC

Maybe they decided their userbase was too demanding. This gets rid of the more discerning, high-maintenance customers while simultaneously increasing sales among the less fussy people. Win-win.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#128

Post by rubatuga » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:45 AM UTC

bigiain wrote: post #102

donmcronald wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The craziest part is they were poised to dominated the SOHO / MSP markets. There’s NO competition or viable products in those markets. I’ve searched high and low. Instead of focusing on their strengths like great value with self hosted management infrastructure, they look like they’re setting up to force subscriptions on their users. All of the subscription BS for centralized management is so expensive that it’s lite…

This.If I’m gonna have to waste time and effort to block my network gear sending its spy data back home, and blocking ads it tries to show, why wouldn’t I just do that on much cheaper throwaway Chinese hardware? I’m much more likely to buy stuff like TPLink gear that can be flashed with OpenWRT, or jump feet first into Mikrotik gear - than ever spend more money on Ubiquity’s modern shitware...

Try a used WRT1200AC, it has an extremely powerful ARM processor, and is super stable. I'm getting >500Mbit over 5GHz on a 2x2 antenna setup.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#129

Post by orev » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:48 AM UTC

windex wrote: post #123

I sometimes wonder how these decisions get made within companies. I mean you are network hw vendor, how do you get convinced to embed adware/spyware into your products without compromising on trust? I'd fire all concerned if I were on the board and understood what the brand meant.

I’m not saying it’s ethically right, but from a business perspective, the question is inverted: how can you NOT spy on everyone?

There’s virtually no regulation on data collection, every other company is already doing it with no repercussions (especially home ISPs who you have no choice over and can see/sell everything you do!), anyone doing it is making a ton of money while destroying competitors, and virtually nobody in the public cares at all.

The only people speaking against it only have a voice because they’re already rich, mostly from collecting data, so anything they say rings hollow at best.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#130

Post by eatbitseveryday » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 3:55 AM UTC

Ads for their own products? Companies have the right to advertise upgrades for their own stuff. If this were ads for other companies, perhaps I would share some sympathy. How often do folks log into the management interface to actually do something everyday? I opened mine once to acquire the APs and configure the network, then shut it off and haven't opened it for months.