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What was the main drive for Ubiquiti customers to buy Ubiquiti? I don’t mean this as a troll question, but as an engineer myself I always preferred my TP-Link m

What was the main drive for Ubiquiti customers to buy Ubiquiti? I don’t mean this as a troll question, but as an engineer myself I always preferred my TP-Link mesh which serves my entire house and garden perfectly blazing fast internet and I never had to go to the cloud like Ubiquity customers. What do they offer for so many technical people to willingly undoubtedly compromise their security by using their cloud as well?

dwater 6y ago
I don't use their cloud. I have a router, 2 switches, and 2 APs from the Unifi line. I run the controller software on one of my servers and nothing phones home out of my LAN. The APs have good coverage, everything is very reliable (as long as you don't upgrade to new firmware), and there single pane of glass management console provided by the controller software is awesomely convenient with just enough options and features for my needs. but all of this hardware is a few years old now and no longer what they want to sell.
phalangion 6y ago
Ubiquiti doesn't have to go to the cloud. I manage my Ubiquiti stuff locally. The reason I bought Ubiquiti is because they offered pro-ish level quality and reliability at closer to consumer prices. At a time when the only consumer options were pretty crappy, Ubiquiti offered higher quality at a small premium without having to go all the way to Cisco APs, for example. I haven't really bought any new gear for several years, so I don't know if the landscape has changed.
- somethingwitty1 6y ago
  Yeah, this is exactly it. They used to produce enterprise-ish level hardware and at a reasonable price. Their devices, in my experience, were pretty rock solid. Setup took a little bit more work than the consumer (edited) offerings, but then you were done. They just ran. They could handle more packets, at least at the time, than the majority of consumer hardware. They've now shifted to targeting consumers and their new stuff doesn't even have the basic features of other consumer hardware. Want DDNS? Something found in every other consumer router I've used. Nope. Want an admin console to configure or update without your smartphone (or when your wifi is down again)? Nope. Want to set a static IP for a device? Ok, but we restart the router each time you set one. Want your network to be bigger than /24? Nope. You can checkout their forums and see how long they've been aware consumers want these things and they've delivered on so little.
sliken 6y ago
Ubiquiti works fine without the cloud, the cloud key/cloud management stuff seems to have a fair bit of user demand. Especially for consultants helping network trailer parks/motels/universities, etc. I like ubiquiti because it's pretty flexible, powerful, I can keep config files in git, IPv6 support is good (I have a /64 per router port), and I can separate router and APs, and handle multiple APs well (without mesh/forwarding).
kelp 6y ago
For me the cloud is a selling point. Though one that I'm now reconsidering after all this news. I have been a Ubiquiti customer and proponent for a few reasons: 1. I have two houses, and the cloud feature lets me easily connect to and manage my devices at the other house when I'm not there. Not a frequent use case, but it does happen, and this just makes it easier. Sure I could setup some other remote access options, but this just works out of the box. I also have their security cams and I can easily monitor those remotely, though the video is stored locally at that location. 2. They occupy a middle between consumer gear and enterprise gear. Giving you flexibility and features that you can't really find in consumer gear.They have a fairly wide and frequently updated product line. One house has ethernet jacks in every room, and for a couple of rooms, I replaced those jacks with Unifi In-Wall HD access points. These are great because they are out of the way, you don't notice them, and they still provide wired ethernet ports. So my office has strong Wifi but I also connect my desktop PC to Gig ethernet via the in-wall AP. At the other house I use the Flex HD access points connected to MOCA adaptors (the one part of my network not made by Ubiquiti) and just tuck them out of the way. 3. They have a fairly well integrated set of products. I have routers, gateways, switches, and APs, all discrete devices, but managed from the same interface. Managed on the web or on my phone. If I add a new AP to a location, I can just adopt it into the network using the app on my phone, the firmware gets updated and it becomes fully managed, taking on the default settings for that site. All that said, I still really like their product lines, but this episode made me lose a lot of trust.
macintux 6y ago
I have an Archer which stops handling non-VPN traffic multiple times a month and seems to drop telnet packets. I'm done with TP-Link. I think part of the problem is that effectively everybody has flaws, so you're forced to choose who has the least-broken approach for your needs...and you can't do that without a lot of research.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

dwater 6y ago

I don't use their cloud. I have a router, 2 switches, and 2 APs from the Unifi line. I run the controller software on one of my servers and nothing phones home out of my LAN. The APs have good coverage, everything is very reliable (as long as you don't upgrade to new firmware), and there single pane of glass management console provided by the controller software is awesomely convenient with just enough options and features for my needs. but all of this hardware is a few years old now and no longer what they want to sell.

phalangion 6y ago

Ubiquiti doesn't have to go to the cloud. I manage my Ubiquiti stuff locally. The reason I bought Ubiquiti is because they offered pro-ish level quality and reliability at closer to consumer prices. At a time when the only consumer options were pretty crappy, Ubiquiti offered higher quality at a small premium without having to go all the way to Cisco APs, for example. I haven't really bought any new gear for several years, so I don't know if the landscape has changed.

somethingwitty1 6y ago
Yeah, this is exactly it. They used to produce enterprise-ish level hardware and at a reasonable price. Their devices, in my experience, were pretty rock solid. Setup took a little bit more work than the consumer (edited) offerings, but then you were done. They just ran. They could handle more packets, at least at the time, than the majority of consumer hardware. They've now shifted to targeting consumers and their new stuff doesn't even have the basic features of other consumer hardware. Want DDNS? Something found in every other consumer router I've used. Nope. Want an admin console to configure or update without your smartphone (or when your wifi is down again)? Nope. Want to set a static IP for a device? Ok, but we restart the router each time you set one. Want your network to be bigger than /24? Nope. You can checkout their forums and see how long they've been aware consumers want these things and they've delivered on so little.

sliken 6y ago

Ubiquiti works fine without the cloud, the cloud key/cloud management stuff seems to have a fair bit of user demand. Especially for consultants helping network trailer parks/motels/universities, etc. I like ubiquiti because it's pretty flexible, powerful, I can keep config files in git, IPv6 support is good (I have a /64 per router port), and I can separate router and APs, and handle multiple APs well (without mesh/forwarding).

kelp 6y ago

For me the cloud is a selling point. Though one that I'm now reconsidering after all this news. I have been a Ubiquiti customer and proponent for a few reasons: 1. I have two houses, and the cloud feature lets me easily connect to and manage my devices at the other house when I'm not there. Not a frequent use case, but it does happen, and this just makes it easier. Sure I could setup some other remote access options, but this just works out of the box. I also have their security cams and I can easily monitor those remotely, though the video is stored locally at that location. 2. They occupy a middle between consumer gear and enterprise gear. Giving you flexibility and features that you can't really find in consumer gear.They have a fairly wide and frequently updated product line. One house has ethernet jacks in every room, and for a couple of rooms, I replaced those jacks with Unifi In-Wall HD access points. These are great because they are out of the way, you don't notice them, and they still provide wired ethernet ports. So my office has strong Wifi but I also connect my desktop PC to Gig ethernet via the in-wall AP. At the other house I use the Flex HD access points connected to MOCA adaptors (the one part of my network not made by Ubiquiti) and just tuck them out of the way. 3. They have a fairly well integrated set of products. I have routers, gateways, switches, and APs, all discrete devices, but managed from the same interface. Managed on the web or on my phone. If I add a new AP to a location, I can just adopt it into the network using the app on my phone, the firmware gets updated and it becomes fully managed, taking on the default settings for that site. All that said, I still really like their product lines, but this episode made me lose a lot of trust.

macintux 6y ago

I have an Archer which stops handling non-VPN traffic multiple times a month and seems to drop telnet packets. I'm done with TP-Link. I think part of the problem is that effectively everybody has flaws, so you're forced to choose who has the least-broken approach for your needs...and you can't do that without a lot of research.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]