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UniFi Express

ui.com

41–50 of 296 posts

Re: UniFi Express

#41

This page is a bit confusing if you don't already know the terms... What exactly is "A complete UniFi networking stack" anyway? Is UniFi some protocol that extends WiFi?

Unifi AP for wifi, Unifi switches, Unifi security gateway of some kind, Unifi point to point for terrestrial wireless to share with another set of Unifi gear in a barn/shed/whatever down the road. All managed by UNMS.

Re: UniFi Express

#42
post #21

Weird that the ethernet ports are only 1GbE, that discounts everyone with a >1Gbit internet connection

This is to my massive irritation. I don't want to use the router built into my cable modem, but my Internet is 1.2gb and I feel like I'm throwing money away.

Routers with 2.5gbe uplink are hard to find and even more expensive.

Re: UniFi Express

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you dont provide any reasoning your are just another guy in the internet talking gibberish.

1. The throughput is inadequate. 2. The IDS/IPS is an inadequate Suricata instance with outdated rulesets and no SSL inspection. 3. There is nothing comparable to a WAF. Gun to my head, I'd trust ASUS AI protect for a business router to substantially outperform Unifi's security offerings. The ASUS at least knows what it is and what it can be: basically a glorified WAF. IDS/IPS don't even work well with up to date rul…

“Inadequate” depends a lot on what you’re doing. I wouldn’t use any of this stuff in a datacenter but for a small business or branch office it’s totally fine.

Re: UniFi Express

#44

Another confused product from UniFi. Is it targeting home users or businesses? It looks like businesses from their web page yet feels very much like a better fit for home. It only runs UniFi Network, so you have to buy more things, that also run UniFi Network, to get into any of their other products like Protect. I like their stuff but lately a lot of their stuff feels just confused to me, like they don't know what t…

I bought into their unifi ecosystem years ago. Separate devices, prosumer pricing, features and quality, single pane of glass.

... And I haven't upgraded anything since. Their new products are totally undirected, they aren't making items that are obvious and needed. Their software is falling behind and they just don't care.

Case in point: the usg pro 4 is years old but they havent released an updated affordable just-the-border device. Their new stuff like the dream machine, and now this, just isn't the right thing to replace what was there before. The VPN on there doesn't work with recent Android or iPhone, and they just don't care.

Adding even the most basic firewall rules is hard. The single pane of glass got a major interface overhaul, and they added a huge amount of hard-to-turn-off phone-home crap at the same time. Enshittification reigns supreme.

And don't forget other runty hardware like the poe ceiling lights and doorbell.

The company just needs to buckle down, make good stuff, fire the product astronauts, fix obvious major problems before adding pointless new features.

... Suffice to say, my next hardware refresh almost certainly won't be from this company.

Re: UniFi Express

#45

This page is a bit confusing if you don't already know the terms... What exactly is "A complete UniFi networking stack" anyway? Is UniFi some protocol that extends WiFi?

Unifi AP for wifi, Unifi switches, Unifi security gateway of some kind, Unifi point to point for terrestrial wireless to share with another set of Unifi gear in a barn/shed/whatever down the road. All managed by UNMS.

OK, as an engineer with decades of experience, I give up. What is "Unify AP for WiFi"?

Re: UniFi Express

#46

This is effectively a Dream Router minus any other app support and the switch. For a typical home user who doesn't want/need Protect this seems decent, but I think the $50 upcharge for the UDR is absolutely worth it. That said, the UDR is heavily limited in running Protect. I started hitting occasional problems running Network and Protect together when I hit 4 cameras.

The dream router can’t route faster than 500mbit, which is a huge limitation. This claims to do 1gbit routing, so pairing with a switch gives you a dream router that can actually route at 1gbit.

Re: UniFi Express

#47
post #21

Weird that the ethernet ports are only 1GbE, that discounts everyone with a >1Gbit internet connection

There are still far more people below gigabit speeds than there are people hitting their gig. As more fiber is deployed that may change, but it's still a very functional device regardless.

The cost of 2.5G chipsets is so low it really shouldn't matter especially for a 'premium' product like this.

Re: UniFi Express

#48

Could anyone help explain what this is. Is it just a fancy WiFi router?

Sort of, and sort of not.

UniFi requires a controller that gives you a single pane of glass style interface to control everything. Most of their controllers can run multiple applications, the top two being Network and Protect. Network runs their Routing, WiFi AP's, and Switches and gives you in depth data about what's going on where. Protect is their NVR system, which also does some AI stuff and ties into a few other things like Ring does.

This device is a bit low powered, so only runs Network; they do sell standalone NVR's that will tie into it and run Protect. The $50 more expensive UniFi Dream router is similar, but has a switch with POE built in to run a couple of AP's or cameras, and can run both Network and Protect (with caveats; it's not terribly powerful and it only saves Protect footage to an SD card).

So you can think of it as just a fancy AP, but it's also the base building block of a much larger ecosystem.

As a note, the weakest link of the system is, IMO, the routing. Running UniFi with a more professional router of choice is a common way to go.

Re: UniFi Express

#49
So I started seriously using UniFi I think in 2016-ish after using some of their PtP/PtMP stuff for longer. I never ran anything massive peaking at under 200 devices total across various sites, but we did put it pretty hard, and I did enjoy it and find the value proposition excellent. And having said that I'd sound a real note of caution, which is why I've eliminated most of them in favor the same-niche positioned Omada. Ubiquiti turned into a real development dumpster fire, every bad tech trope right from the textbook. They have a long history of introducing constant new hardware that, particular for routing/firewall/gateway services then languishes even as it gets sold new without a single update for ages. Various touted efforts that then got unceremoniously wiped. Really basic core functionality neglected for constant UX churn, let alone useful important new features. "Dumpster fire" has not been an unreasonable descriptor. They've also added a concerning trend towards proprietary lock-in and pushing of cloud, even though to their great credit full local control remains a key selling point.

Omada isn't perfect either, and the hardware design is worse, though it's been more reliable and with a lot of basics better locked down for me. I'd be delighted to have two strong competitors there, and there have been a few promising glimmers on UniFi, like PPSK getting some initial attention (4 years late is better than nothing). And certainly the basic switching and WiFi mostly works. Having a whole single pane of glass remains attractive, and either is a big upgrade over the kind of stuff a lot of people are coming from. Just take some of their promotional gloss with a grain of salt is all.

And as always AIO is something to balance as well. When I switched out the routing side of things for OPNsense I could maintain the whole rest of the stack as I pleased, including APs in optimal positions. The latter is less of a (or zero) concern in small spaces, but even then WiFi, switching, and routing needs don't always evolve in sync.

Re: UniFi Express

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unifi AP for wifi, Unifi switches, Unifi security gateway of some kind, Unifi point to point for terrestrial wireless to share with another set of Unifi gear in a barn/shed/whatever down the road. All managed by UNMS.

OK, as an engineer with decades of experience, I give up. What is "Unify AP for WiFi"?

Unifi is just their name for this series of products that all work together with their (free) controller. So you buy an AP, a switch, a router, all from the Unifi line of products and they all get setup from a single controller and work together pretty effortlessly
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