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Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

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Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#31

Post by beala »

daveidol wrote: post #26
carlgreene wrote: post #3

This is not for me as I'm not a professional network engineer, but I do want to say that Ubiquiti has made home networking SO fun for me. Everything truly "Just Works." My setup is definitely more on the prosumer side, but it's been so build out and inspect my network with their tools.

Do you think it'd be worth upgrading over TP Link Omada hardware?

All the complaints about Ubiquiti in this thread from a few months ago dissuaded me from investing in their gear: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44746603

I ended up going with TP-Link Omada and have been happy so far (a managed switch and wifi 6 WAPs). I am a bit concerned about their security track record given how bad their soho products are, so I ended up sticking with my opnsense router at the perimeter as the first line of defense.

I’m curious to hear what you think you’re missing out on with Omada.

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#32

Post by mbesto »

daveidol wrote: post #26
carlgreene wrote: post #3

This is not for me as I'm not a professional network engineer, but I do want to say that Ubiquiti has made home networking SO fun for me. Everything truly "Just Works." My setup is definitely more on the prosumer side, but it's been so build out and inspect my network with their tools.

Do you think it'd be worth upgrading over TP Link Omada hardware?

I've used both and was super interested to use Omada because of its price and performance. Honestly, Ubiquiti is just so much easier. The whole controller model for Omada tries to be way more "enterprisey" at the cost of a SOHO ease of use.

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#33

Post by theshrike79 »

phoronixrly wrote: post #23
wmf wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ubiquiti doesn't invent anything; they make it cheap with a better UI.

Better UI is stretching it a bit... Maybe for the amateur/enthusiast (homelab) market... I certainly don't need or want their rack augmented reality... 'feature'? fad? And their clunky web UI is both limiting and slowing me down. Thanks, I'm perfectly fine with a console and simple LEDs.

That’s their exact niche.

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#34

Post by OliverGuy »

joelccr wrote: post #4

I love this. However, I'm very interested to see the maths on "offering up to 1000% savings compared to industry standards"

Cisco etc have truly insane pricing on optics, like $1000 for something generic that cost $20-50 from fs.com etc. The only difference is how it presents itself to the switch (ie, says its a Cisco optic), not actual difference in performance.

Often Cisco/etc will refuse support cases if you aren't using their optics, if the switches/routers even work with them in the first case, which isn't a given as often they'll refuse to work with non branded optics.

Really just a money grab by the big network vendors.

This box allows you to flash the firmware on the optic to say its from whatever brand you want (Cisco, Dell, Aruba, Juniper etc) so that you can get it to work in that companies switch/router.

For most SMEs, the brand of optics makes no difference. Maybe keep a few legit branded ones around for debugging and when you need to raise a support case. But otherwise, the generic ones flashed to look like branded ones work just fine.

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#35

Post by donatj »

jabart wrote: post #30
donatj wrote: post #28

Early this year I started redoing the backbone of my home network with 10 gb. Some of it's fiber, some of it's 10 gb copper Ethernet. It's been genuinely frustrating the weird incompatibilities between switches and SFP+ modules. All my switches are MikroTik. My SFP+ modules are MikroTik, Ubiquiti, and some 3rd party ones from before I knew better. I've had modules that will only run at gigabit in one switch but will…

I've had great luck with 10gtek modules both with Mikrotik gear, with DACs, and one that is connected to an upstream juniper switch. I'm curious what modules were the most troublesom. * I will note that the 10gb sfp+ modules from 10gtek on a Mikrotik just don't work.

Funnily enough, this 10gtek worked on one of my 3 switches, but I could only establish a gigabit connection. I returned it [1]

These 10gtek fiber modules on the other hand have worked flawlessly so far. [2]

This Mikrotik module would not establish a 10 gb link with my Thunderbolt dock no matter what I tried. Works fine with my servers though so I swapped it out.

I've pretty much resigned myself to just buying the full brand Ubiqitui SFP+ adapters [4] for converting to copper.

I recently purchased [5] to run to my living room, but I have not found the time/energy to do the run.

1. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KFBFL16

2. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BP4M8LV

3. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078SNK1MY

4. https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/accessories-modules-fibe...

5. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYC6P6KF

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#36

Post by zamadatix »

FuriouslyAdrift wrote: post #19

FiberStore (fs.com) have offered vendor neutral and reprogrammable SFPs and other modules for years (they're also dramatically less expensive).

> (they're also dramatically less expensive)

It depends, but for typical networking I'd say Ubiquti is actually offering better pricing here (outside of 10G LR) - and I'm saying that as someone who has sold 10s of thousands of FS modules to customers.

             |  FS  | Ubiquiti
  -----------+------+-----------
  Programmer | $369 | $49
  10G SR     | $25  | $12 ($20)
  10G LR     | $34  | $59 ($85)
  25G SR     | $49  | $29 ($49)
  25G LR     | $74  | $69 ($119)
  100G SR4   | $99  | $39 ($69)
Note: Prices in () are the costs outside of the limited time mark-down period.

Side note for the HN crowd: For ridiculous homelab 100G shenanigans look for Intel 100G-CWDM4 on sites like Ebay. They go for $4 and work with SM LC fiber from 0-2000 meter runs, making great DAC replacements (cheaper+thinner replaceable cabling). They run great, I've had 8 going for a year. Even if all 8 failed tomorrow and I bought 8 more that's still cheaper than a single 100G SR4 from FS. You can pair these with used 100G NICs for ~$100, making a 100G direct connection between 2 machines ~$250 after shipping+tax.

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#37

Post by beala »

ectospheno wrote: post #16
efitz wrote: post #10

Ubiquiti is awesome, but their IPv6 support leaves something to be desired. I have two ISPs, one with IPv6 (Starlink) and one without (Frontier). I want to use Frontier for all IPv4, with IPv4 failover to Starlink, and I want to use Starlink only for IPv6. UniFi networking won’t let you configure this, and I’m not going to SSH in to my UDM to manually set routes, that will be lost at next boot.

This is why my router isn’t ubiquiti. I like the switches and access points but my router will stay an OpenBSD box.

I've only been using it for a couple months, but OPNsense (FreeBSD based) is such a solid piece of software. I installed it on a cheap Beelink mini PC with dual 2.5 gb NICs and an N150 processor (model EQ14), and it's been reliable and a pleasure to use as my router. I have a TP-Link Omada setup which I've been pleased with, but I feel no need to purchase one of their gateways.

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#38

Post by tw04 »

headwayoldest wrote: post #7

For those outside the IT/networking realms, SFP use uniform connectors for both the networking device and the fiber cable, but the major vendors (Cisco and friends) have used firmware flags and settings to provide vendor lock-in for at least the last 15 years. It used to be that in the event of a major outage or hardware failure you would need to issue additional debug commands to the effect of "I know this isn't you…

>I'm not sure if this product will _actually_ change any of that, but here's hoping.

SFP programmers have been around forever and work great. This will solve the issue. The only really unique thing here is the form factor and price. I think the last time I looked at a programmer 8 years ago I seem to recall it was about 10x this price. I’m guessing cheaper ones have popped up out of China since then.

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#39

Post by cturner »

runjake wrote: post #13
headwayoldest wrote: post #7

For those outside the IT/networking realms, SFP use uniform connectors for both the networking device and the fiber cable, but the major vendors (Cisco and friends) have used firmware flags and settings to provide vendor lock-in for at least the last 15 years. It used to be that in the event of a major outage or hardware failure you would need to issue additional debug commands to the effect of "I know this isn't you…

> TAC would more or less laugh at you and hang up if you sought support. This is common belief and even a dire warning when filing TAC tickets. However, unless the third-party SFP is the prime suspect, I have never experienced a TAC from any major networking vendor[1] refuse support, let alone "laugh and hang up," even metaphorically. It's good SOP to keep at least a couple SFPs for each networking manufacturer on th…

Before I comment, a disclaimer about my small scale. I am running probably three hundred SFP+s running and less than five years of experience with optics. I don't have stock tracking for the individual manufacturers, and the failure rate comments here are based on gut-feel only. (there will be other people here used to far larger scales)

I bucket it into there being three options: genuine, clone, and good-clone.

We had a bad run with fs.com QSFP+s. Their SFP+s have been better to me, but reckon I have had a couple fail.

Atgbics SFP+s have been a reliable clone supplier for us. I don't think I have had any of those fail, and they have been my main vendor for a while now. You can order them programmed with personalities for Cisco, etc.

Part of the edge of fs.com is that it is so easy to place an order and get fast delivery. My main site is in another country to where I live, and I do a few trips a year. Several times they have made low-notice projects possible.

Re: Ubiquiti SFP Wizard

#40

Post by elevation »

ectospheno wrote: post #16
efitz wrote: post #10

Ubiquiti is awesome, but their IPv6 support leaves something to be desired. I have two ISPs, one with IPv6 (Starlink) and one without (Frontier). I want to use Frontier for all IPv4, with IPv4 failover to Starlink, and I want to use Starlink only for IPv6. UniFi networking won’t let you configure this, and I’m not going to SSH in to my UDM to manually set routes, that will be lost at next boot.

This is why my router isn’t ubiquiti. I like the switches and access points but my router will stay an OpenBSD box.

What do you use for OpenBSD hardware? Is it power hungry? Is it performant?

I had a great stint with OpenBSD on an older Pentium 4 Dell tower a few years back. For basic firewall rules, I had line-rate performance on my NICs. But for a home network I'd love to have something more energy efficient.

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