4 ms·

Bummer, I was considering switching to a full Ubiquiti setup in the future. Are there any other worthwhile competitors?

by bozzcl 6y ago

warmwaffles 6y ago
I was also looking into this pretty recently. Good info here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G2g7Txgzgw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G2g7Txgzgw
- chaostheory 6y ago
  Reading the Glassdoor reviews of Engenius makes it sound like a clone of Ubiquiti minus Ubiquiti's weird dislike of automated testing. Still, I hope that there is a decent alternative to UI
  - MindTooth 6y ago
    Seems okay. Though, the controller is Windows only?
  - thaumaturgy 6y ago
    It's been a decade or so since I paid attention to Engenius, but I don't think it's right to describe them as a Ubiquiti clone. Engenius for a little while was the vendor of choice for people trying to build out consumer mesh networks. Ubiquiti may have existed then too, but didn't become the more popular choice until a little later. Back then, Engenius had a lot of nice features and solid products, but their radios had some issues. I think we had to replace about 60% of the Engenius devices we deployed over a five year period. We never had to replace any of the Ubiquitis. I wouldn't buy Ubiquiti now though.
    - andremedeiros 6y ago
      What would you buy?
      - thaumaturgy 6y ago
        I dunno. I'd be starting all over again and looking for different options depending on the application. One of the nice things about Ubiquiti was that they did several things well. For plug-and-play home wifi, Eero might be a good choice, with some reservations. For slightly larger scale prosumer stuff, I might look for a way to use Ubiquiti's hardware but with something like https://hostifi.com/ https://hostifi.com/ , maybe with older-generation hardware that I still trusted. For the DIY hobbyist, pfsense, openwrt, and kin are still popular. Honestly, mesh networks have been a tarpit forever. It's been exceedingly difficult to make them reliable, with all the features people want (like access point roaming), without spending a lot of time or money. I got out of that niche a few years back and have no desire to get back in to it.
        greg5green 6y ago
        > For slightly larger scale prosumer stuff, I might look for a way to use Ubiquiti's hardware but with something like https://hostifi.com/ https://hostifi.com/ , maybe with older-generation hardware that I still trusted. For prosumer stuff -- why would you not just self-host?!? The average prosumer is never going to need more than the cheapest DO droplet to host. Or else just run it on a computer that isn't on all the time -- prosumers either already have a server on all the time or don't care if they have logs going back 5 years. This seems to cost $60/mo at the least. Also, I do not have much faith in this company with their website being so slow (maybe too many HN people are hitting idk, never heard of them).
        reillychase 6y ago
        My bad, (it's WordPress) we're working on building faster landing pages with Webflow
- technothrasher 6y ago
  I tried EnGenius a few years ago and had no end of problems with them. Switched to Ubiquiti and they've been rock solid ever since. I really, really hope Ubiquiti isn't going down hill.
  - warmwaffles 6y ago
    I hope so as well.
globular-toast 6y ago
Just get separate stuff from good manufacturers. Build your own router.
thiagocsf 6y ago
Run a dockerized or VM controller (so you don't need CloudKey or Dream Machine) and pin the version; I'm running 6.0.43 and don't see any ads. Also make sure you find the option to install using a local account (not available on UDM). The rest of the gear is working tiptop for me.

Bummer, I was considering switching to a full Ubiquiti setup in the future. Are there any other worthwhile competitors?

by bozzcl 6y ago

Bummer, I was considering switching to a full Ubiquiti setup in the future. Are there any other worthwhile competitors?

I was also looking into this pretty recently. Good info here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G2g7Txgzgw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G2g7Txgzgw

chaostheory 6y ago
Reading the Glassdoor reviews of Engenius makes it sound like a clone of Ubiquiti minus Ubiquiti's weird dislike of automated testing. Still, I hope that there is a decent alternative to UI
- MindTooth 6y ago
  Seems okay. Though, the controller is Windows only?
- thaumaturgy 6y ago
  It's been a decade or so since I paid attention to Engenius, but I don't think it's right to describe them as a Ubiquiti clone. Engenius for a little while was the vendor of choice for people trying to build out consumer mesh networks. Ubiquiti may have existed then too, but didn't become the more popular choice until a little later. Back then, Engenius had a lot of nice features and solid products, but their radios had some issues. I think we had to replace about 60% of the Engenius devices we deployed over a five year period. We never had to replace any of the Ubiquitis. I wouldn't buy Ubiquiti now though.
  - andremedeiros 6y ago
    What would you buy?
    - thaumaturgy 6y ago
      I dunno. I'd be starting all over again and looking for different options depending on the application. One of the nice things about Ubiquiti was that they did several things well. For plug-and-play home wifi, Eero might be a good choice, with some reservations. For slightly larger scale prosumer stuff, I might look for a way to use Ubiquiti's hardware but with something like https://hostifi.com/ https://hostifi.com/ , maybe with older-generation hardware that I still trusted. For the DIY hobbyist, pfsense, openwrt, and kin are still popular. Honestly, mesh networks have been a tarpit forever. It's been exceedingly difficult to make them reliable, with all the features people want (like access point roaming), without spending a lot of time or money. I got out of that niche a few years back and have no desire to get back in to it.
      - greg5green 6y ago
        > For slightly larger scale prosumer stuff, I might look for a way to use Ubiquiti's hardware but with something like https://hostifi.com/ https://hostifi.com/ , maybe with older-generation hardware that I still trusted. For prosumer stuff -- why would you not just self-host?!? The average prosumer is never going to need more than the cheapest DO droplet to host. Or else just run it on a computer that isn't on all the time -- prosumers either already have a server on all the time or don't care if they have logs going back 5 years. This seems to cost $60/mo at the least. Also, I do not have much faith in this company with their website being so slow (maybe too many HN people are hitting idk, never heard of them).
        reillychase 6y ago
        My bad, (it's WordPress) we're working on building faster landing pages with Webflow
technothrasher 6y ago
I tried EnGenius a few years ago and had no end of problems with them. Switched to Ubiquiti and they've been rock solid ever since. I really, really hope Ubiquiti isn't going down hill.
- warmwaffles 6y ago
  I hope so as well.

globular-toast 6y ago

Just get separate stuff from good manufacturers. Build your own router.

thiagocsf 6y ago

Run a dockerized or VM controller (so you don't need CloudKey or Dream Machine) and pin the version; I'm running 6.0.43 and don't see any ads. Also make sure you find the option to install using a local account (not available on UDM). The rest of the gear is working tiptop for me.