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Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

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Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#261
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's a program for managing physical hardware running on my hardware. That's not what the article suggests. The article suggests an ad on a page with an ubiquiti url. While it may be the same software under the hood, I agree that seeing an ad when I'm on someone else's hosted page is (somewhat) acceptable unless I'm a paying customer, but seeing it on my own machine isn't. In the end since those are two entirely di…

> That's not what the article suggests. The article suggests an ad on a page with an ubiquiti url. It's both. UniFi is product line of network hardware which is managed by a central controller. The controller is available as a software download, and Ubiquiti sells a few devices that are pre-configured to run it (the "Dream Machine" from the ad, and their "Cloud Key", which is just a PoE-powered mini-appliance that ru…

> I can confirm that the ad also appears when directly accessing the UI.

This is vital information. This is definitely not okay for practical reasons.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#262
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising is the most toxic virus ruining everything it touches. TV, then Cable TV, radio, usenet, on and on. Can anything survive the destructive ravage of ads? In my dream world, all forms of push advertising would be illegal, full stop. Meanwhile, I'll put whatever effort it takes to block everything.

I dread to think what happens when ads collide with cryptocurrencies. They’ll either wipe each other out or merge into something far horrible.

Isn't that basically what Brave is doing with Basic Attention Tokens?

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#263
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…

Until now I loved Ubiquiti. So what do you recommend for high quality mesh wifi?

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#264

I had a Dream Machine (the all-in-one, not the pro) and it fried the very next day. Even after that I was willing to give Ubiquiti another try, but now I don’t know what to do.

I have two of them at two different sites. They’ve been completely fine for me, apart from the problems from the 1.8.x firmwares which probably should never have reached the ‘Release’ channel. (The recently-released v1.9.2 appears to have fixed all my issues from 1.8.x)

I’m definitely not pushing either of them very hard or doing anything particularly fancy, but they’ve certainly been a big step up from the aging Apple routers I’d been using before, at least for me.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#265

I think it's a common sentiment here, but I'm turning into a more extreme anti-advertising zealot every day. Even the large ad networks show paid content that violates what I would consider widespread ethical norms - presenting everything from hyperbolic claims to straight fraud to people with little repercussion. I'm reminded of a poignant example in television, where episodes of Jeopardy! are intertwined with their…

At this point I'm just generally not okay with being marketed to against my will. Especially in places that have absolutely literally nothing to do with spending money — like, you know, every single news website and every single social media service.

If I want to buy something, and if I don't know exactly what, I'd like an unbiased list of things in that category to choose from. And when I don't want to buy anything — which is, again, when I'm reading an article for example — I don't want to be reminded that economy exists AT ALL. There is no place or circumstance in my life where advertising, as it is known today, would be anything but annoyance to me. Which is why all my devices have ad blockers installed and third-party cookies disabled.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#266
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mother got a new laptop, and at some point I got remote access to help her get a few things set up (password manager/ad-blocker/backups/etc). I was really amazed at what her Facebook feed looks like. Actual Facebook advertisements for literal scams. 'Michelle Obama's investment tips' for some bitcoin platform. 'Patagonia Outlet' with items at 25% of the cost, at domains like patagonia-outlet.shjss72828.sub.domain.…

> but KYC-ing advertisers and screening/auditing ads for blatant and obvious scams or false marketing is many orders of magnitude less resource intensive And very easy to automate. We know they can do it. But until there is sufficient threat of action if they don't then they are happy to let their users get fleeced in exchange for the advertising $. There is an argument that "if they crack down on the easy to detect…

For an extra dose of cynicism keep in mind Youtube is demonetizing countless videos supposedly because advertisers don’t want to be associated with such content. Garbage ads certainly aren’t exempt from that logic, yet there doesn’t seem to be as much of a crackdown on them.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#267
Is there anything we can do? I mean we spend money on something that has nice reviews... Gradually they keep pushing "Want want statistics" in your face more and more and now this. They are (trying to make) making money of off me without any of my consent and in a sneaky way. Can't we organize or something?

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#268

I think it's a common sentiment here, but I'm turning into a more extreme anti-advertising zealot every day. Even the large ad networks show paid content that violates what I would consider widespread ethical norms - presenting everything from hyperbolic claims to straight fraud to people with little repercussion. I'm reminded of a poignant example in television, where episodes of Jeopardy! are intertwined with their…

You're upset about regulators, not about advertising. It seems like you're mixing advertising = fraud, when in reality it's just people who commit fraud that use advertising because regulators can't seem to act.

I got my first Internet connection when adblock was already a thing (though I was definitely an early adopter). I don't know how ad-filled Internet looks like and I will fight tooth and nail with every tool at my disposal to keep it that way: adblocks, Pi-hole, VPNs on phones, paying for ad-free versions, it doesn't matter. I do not watch TV and I will do my best to keep ads out of all my screens.

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#269
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nanoHD reboots frequently with current firmware. Sometimes it needs readoption, sometimes a manual reset to be readopted. The AP AC Pro seems less affected.

Thanks for that input. My AP AC Lite has been absolutely rock solid so I wouldn't want reduced reliability; it's the reason I went with Unifi in the first place. Not that it matters; no chance I'll be going with Unifi in the future.

I was on the fence about buying some ubiquiti stuff. Now there's little chance. Do you have any recommendations for competing products?

Re: Ubiquiti starts serving ads in their management interface

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mikrotik user here, I find their software really clunky and buggy. My dream networking gear for my house is whitebox switches that I can run Debian on, but I can't find any at an economical price. Anyone know of 5-12 port ARM switches?

Interesting, Winbox or WebFig/CLI? I find this clunkyness to be a good thing, compared to shiny and inflexible products. I have some experience of quite a few brands and so far Mikrotik is one of the most coherent and unified experiences. WebFig and CLI are the same across devices running RouterOS. Winbox is not my bag though. RouterOS is not perfect but it does most things without being overly complicated. It's DHCP…

The one thing that winbox gives you is the ability to connect directly to a MAC address - helpful if you've borked your IP address setup.
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