6 ms·

They had good products for a long time, but it's gone very downhill in the past few years (lots of internet stories about why this is happening). I've had enou

They had good products for a long time, but it's gone very downhill in the past few years (lots of internet stories about why this is happening). I've had enough bad experiences that i recently moved my routing/IDS to a dedicated box and am slowly moving away from their switches. No reasonable replacements i've found for their APs yet though (Meraki is too expensive).

JaimeThompson 5y ago
Aruba has some 'instant on' units which might be a decent replacement but I don't have nearly enough experience with them to say for sure. https://www.arubainstanton.com/products/access-points/ https://www.arubainstanton.com/products/access-points/
- thegreenandgrey 5y ago
  My employer switched from Ubiquiti to Aruba. Much, much better. Far easier to manage. The Ubiquiti APs had very little range and below-threshold subscriber loads would cause them to become unstable and require a reboot. No good when 500 employees and guests are attempting to get work done. We issue primarily laptops with only certain people getting docks for Ethernet. Quite a few people have purchased the Anker USB-C dongle docks from Amazon and use their IP phone's secondary Ethernet port for a connection if they want a solid Ethernet connection. At home I'm happy with Google WiFi mesh all around my house.
  - MobileVet 5y ago
    Thanks for the tip on Aruba. Right now my all Ubiquiti home network is awesome because I have a docker controller image. As spoon as something goes out though, I am done with these clowns. Wasn’t sure where to look next… note taken on Aruba
    - guiambros 5y ago
      +1; exactly my case. I have a handful of Ubiquiti APs and the network is now rock solid, so my plan is to wait until WiFi6 becomes mainstream (or they mess up with updates) - and then I'm gone forever. After they bungled reporting the hacks last year, I promised to never purchase anything from Ubiquiti again. Good to know Aruba may be an option.
- thfuran 5y ago
  The access points are cloud managed only (I believe the switches can optionally be managed through a local webui) but very solid hardware, quite easy to set up, and probably feature rich enough for basically anyone who isn't trying to mess around with an enterprise environment at home.
- zrail 5y ago
  My understanding is that Instant On APs drop their wifi clients when they lose internet access and that this is billed as a feature. Maybe that's changed recently.
  - robocat 5y ago
    For an Instant-on AP, that sounds … maybe useful? If I am connected from my phone? Why do you hate the feature?
    - zrail 5y ago
      My internet frequently (although less lately) stalls out for minutes at a time, once or twice a day. I don't want my AP to kick me off wireless when I'm refreshing my monitoring app waiting for internet to come back up, or for me to be locked out of my security cameras, or for wifi-only IoT things which don't talk to the internet at all to get kicked off and have to reconnect.
      - olyjohn 5y ago
        Oh so you want to access your network while the internet is down?
        zrail 5y ago
        Right. Yes.
- hda111 5y ago
  Instant On has several limitations like maximum APs in a site or maximum clients. I don’t want to say they are bad products but it’s only useful for a small network. TP-Link Omada is a very similar system like UniFi in this price range. Their Controller GUI almost looks the same as UniFi‘s.
GekkePrutser 5y ago
You have any links to those stories? Would be interesting. Personally I hate the way they're going towards cloud accounts and dedicated management boxes. We used to be able to just install a docker to manage everything but the latest hardware ranges (eg their video offering) require dedicated management hardware. They're also pretty slow with uptake on new standards like WiFi 6 and now 6E. The ideal selling point of ubiquiti was self-managed near-enterprise quality hardware with free self-hosted management and decent hardware prices. I can't fully blame them because I know venture capital idealises subscription pricing and data mining right now but it won't work for me and it's annoying having to look for another option again when I'm invested in their ecosystem. But anyway it would be interesting to read more about what's going on behind the scenes.
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  "Gotchanomics" is such a shitty model - you get something valuable, begin to trust the vendor, establish a system with their equipment, and then they pull a bait and switch, trying to get away with shitty service, mediocre replacements for good products, moving services to the cloud and subscription based nonsense - Nickel&Dime As A Service. If I'm faced with paying premium rates, I'm going with Cisco and premium vendors. Ubiquiti's value was good equipment at reasonable prices to the point that you could buy spares for reliability and save 90% of the cost of service contracts from premium vendors. That differential was the absolute wrong space for them to try to tap for more profit, because nothing else was special about the brand. Cheap, decent, "good enough" network gear is now a market available for exploitation, ubiquiti has lost it.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    > "Gotchanomics" is such a shitty model - you get something valuable, begin to trust the vendor, establish a system with their equipment, and then they pull a bait and switch, trying to get away with shitty service, mediocre replacements for good products, moving services to the cloud and subscription based nonsense - Nickel&Dime As A Service. Exactly, well put. For what it's worth, as I have been bitten by this practice of "gotchanomics" too many times that I've become a bit sensitive to any signs pointing to it. I'm not 100% sure Unifi is doing this with their existing products, but new ranges like the video stuff require a modern management box which in turn requires a cloud account as far as I've heard. I've decided not to buy those for this reason. But it undermines my confidence in buying new gear for the ecosystem because it really feels like this will be the next step.
AlgorithmicTime 5y ago
TP-Link's Omada AP line is solid.
- dsr_ 5y ago
  Do those require management via their cloud, or can they be handled entirely locally?
  - lukevp 5y ago
    I have a tp-link Omaha setup in my new house. I run the management interface on the LAN in docker on an old Linux box (runs pihole too). Works really well so far! I have the wifi 6 APs, a PoE switch, and a router. I have 1gig symmetrical fiber and everything is reliable and fast now. Previously I had an edgerouter-x and it was very flaky.
  - AlgorithmicTime 5y ago
    The controller doesn't have to be linked to their cloud.
  - serallak 5y ago
    I have installed six in a big old house (with almost a meter deep interior walls !). I manage them with an app on a tablet connected to the same LAN, I've disabled all cloud management. That said, they are almost configure and forget, after the initial install I've only had to upgrade the firmware when I visit the site.
  - volkadav 5y ago
    They can be handled entirely locally; the cloud management bits are optional. (I reworked our home network to Omada gear last fall. OC200, ER605, a few managed switches, couple of EAP245 APs. Overall quite happy with it; as the person above said it's pretty much fire and forget once you get the initial setup done. Used to use -- and enjoyed -- Mikrotik but alas their wifi support/performance at least on the home front has stagnated over the past several years.)
  - thedougd 5y ago
hackmiester 5y ago
Ruckus Unleashed is my favorite replacement, with Aruba Instant On as runner up.
- DannyBee 5y ago
  I'll take a look- thanks. One thing i have that often limits my choices is that the ubiquiti's are recessed into my ceiling (6 AP's). I can do the drywall work, if they make the mounts :) If I have to, I guess i can make some from scratch in solidworks, but i'd rather not.
- thfuran 5y ago
  Ruckus is pretty much the exact opposite of the price spectrum. At least you can get the older generations for less extreme prices second hand.
- anonymousisme 5y ago
  Ruckus is not bad, but not great either. I've got a ICX 7150-C12P that worked fine until the PoE power supply failed just a few months out of warranty. I'm glad that I did not pay them for the "license" to use the SFP ports (which every other manufacturer just enables by default). I do like their WAPs. I've got a couple of RS510 WAPs that do a great job, but initially they had some noticeable performance problems for almost a year until fixed by a firmware update.
phatfish 5y ago
MicroTik have good wireless APs (and other devices).
- DannyBee 5y ago
  I use a mikrotik router, but their wireless AP's are clearly a sideshow for them. But i am very happy with the router. I have 5gbps symmetrical internet, and it's one of the few that can handle it for real without BS.
- bobbob1921 5y ago
  You can’t beat mikrotik s routers (rOS / routerOS) and their routing hardware. I actively managed well over 500x of them. however I agree with another reply that their access points are definitely a side show for them. The unfortunate part is their interface and sw capabilities are so great that if they just put some additional effort + latest gen hardware towards their access-points they could become one of the top players in Wi-Fi. (I also manage several hundred mikrotik access points). Ruckus is my go-to for access points/ client Wi-Fi. (I manage 1000s of ruck) Excellent hardware. Every AP they offer can have it’s firmware flashed to either fully standalone, OR centralized manage (vSZ / ZoneDirector), OR unleashed (which is AP self-managed for up to 25 local aps). Another much overlook feature of ruckus is that every function can be controlled/modified via SSH. while not as powerful as a true API, it’s still very powerful and often very overlooked.
  - phatfish 5y ago
    For home use I've not had any problems with their AP hardware. But it's definitely not been stressed. I was just after something that has enterprise features but not the price. routerOS covers that soundly (almost too well as the configuration can be confusing if you don't know networking).
vijayr02 5y ago
Is Draytek any good? I've just gotten their AX router and mesh APs / smart switch and apart from one significant bug which made the router restart every few hours if the wi-fi interface was on, it seems to be ok. Anything I should keep in mind before I get more of this brand?
hpkuarg 5y ago
I've only used both in home and small office settings, but I found TP-Link's Omada line of APs to be equivalent to Ubiquiti APs. Same type of hardware, same type of controller software you can run on your own machine. I don't know enough about APs to say whether the performance matches.

JaimeThompson 5y ago

Aruba has some 'instant on' units which might be a decent replacement but I don't have nearly enough experience with them to say for sure. https://www.arubainstanton.com/products/access-points/ https://www.arubainstanton.com/products/access-points/

thegreenandgrey 5y ago
My employer switched from Ubiquiti to Aruba. Much, much better. Far easier to manage. The Ubiquiti APs had very little range and below-threshold subscriber loads would cause them to become unstable and require a reboot. No good when 500 employees and guests are attempting to get work done. We issue primarily laptops with only certain people getting docks for Ethernet. Quite a few people have purchased the Anker USB-C dongle docks from Amazon and use their IP phone's secondary Ethernet port for a connection if they want a solid Ethernet connection. At home I'm happy with Google WiFi mesh all around my house.
- MobileVet 5y ago
  Thanks for the tip on Aruba. Right now my all Ubiquiti home network is awesome because I have a docker controller image. As spoon as something goes out though, I am done with these clowns. Wasn’t sure where to look next… note taken on Aruba
  - guiambros 5y ago
    +1; exactly my case. I have a handful of Ubiquiti APs and the network is now rock solid, so my plan is to wait until WiFi6 becomes mainstream (or they mess up with updates) - and then I'm gone forever. After they bungled reporting the hacks last year, I promised to never purchase anything from Ubiquiti again. Good to know Aruba may be an option.
thfuran 5y ago
The access points are cloud managed only (I believe the switches can optionally be managed through a local webui) but very solid hardware, quite easy to set up, and probably feature rich enough for basically anyone who isn't trying to mess around with an enterprise environment at home.
zrail 5y ago
My understanding is that Instant On APs drop their wifi clients when they lose internet access and that this is billed as a feature. Maybe that's changed recently.
- robocat 5y ago
  For an Instant-on AP, that sounds … maybe useful? If I am connected from my phone? Why do you hate the feature?
  - zrail 5y ago
    My internet frequently (although less lately) stalls out for minutes at a time, once or twice a day. I don't want my AP to kick me off wireless when I'm refreshing my monitoring app waiting for internet to come back up, or for me to be locked out of my security cameras, or for wifi-only IoT things which don't talk to the internet at all to get kicked off and have to reconnect.
    - olyjohn 5y ago
      Oh so you want to access your network while the internet is down?
      - zrail 5y ago
        Right. Yes.
hda111 5y ago
Instant On has several limitations like maximum APs in a site or maximum clients. I don’t want to say they are bad products but it’s only useful for a small network. TP-Link Omada is a very similar system like UniFi in this price range. Their Controller GUI almost looks the same as UniFi‘s.

GekkePrutser 5y ago

You have any links to those stories? Would be interesting. Personally I hate the way they're going towards cloud accounts and dedicated management boxes. We used to be able to just install a docker to manage everything but the latest hardware ranges (eg their video offering) require dedicated management hardware. They're also pretty slow with uptake on new standards like WiFi 6 and now 6E. The ideal selling point of ubiquiti was self-managed near-enterprise quality hardware with free self-hosted management and decent hardware prices. I can't fully blame them because I know venture capital idealises subscription pricing and data mining right now but it won't work for me and it's annoying having to look for another option again when I'm invested in their ecosystem. But anyway it would be interesting to read more about what's going on behind the scenes.

robbedpeter 5y ago
"Gotchanomics" is such a shitty model - you get something valuable, begin to trust the vendor, establish a system with their equipment, and then they pull a bait and switch, trying to get away with shitty service, mediocre replacements for good products, moving services to the cloud and subscription based nonsense - Nickel&Dime As A Service. If I'm faced with paying premium rates, I'm going with Cisco and premium vendors. Ubiquiti's value was good equipment at reasonable prices to the point that you could buy spares for reliability and save 90% of the cost of service contracts from premium vendors. That differential was the absolute wrong space for them to try to tap for more profit, because nothing else was special about the brand. Cheap, decent, "good enough" network gear is now a market available for exploitation, ubiquiti has lost it.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  > "Gotchanomics" is such a shitty model - you get something valuable, begin to trust the vendor, establish a system with their equipment, and then they pull a bait and switch, trying to get away with shitty service, mediocre replacements for good products, moving services to the cloud and subscription based nonsense - Nickel&Dime As A Service. Exactly, well put. For what it's worth, as I have been bitten by this practice of "gotchanomics" too many times that I've become a bit sensitive to any signs pointing to it. I'm not 100% sure Unifi is doing this with their existing products, but new ranges like the video stuff require a modern management box which in turn requires a cloud account as far as I've heard. I've decided not to buy those for this reason. But it undermines my confidence in buying new gear for the ecosystem because it really feels like this will be the next step.

AlgorithmicTime 5y ago

TP-Link's Omada AP line is solid.

dsr_ 5y ago
Do those require management via their cloud, or can they be handled entirely locally?
- lukevp 5y ago
  I have a tp-link Omaha setup in my new house. I run the management interface on the LAN in docker on an old Linux box (runs pihole too). Works really well so far! I have the wifi 6 APs, a PoE switch, and a router. I have 1gig symmetrical fiber and everything is reliable and fast now. Previously I had an edgerouter-x and it was very flaky.
- AlgorithmicTime 5y ago
  The controller doesn't have to be linked to their cloud.
- serallak 5y ago
  I have installed six in a big old house (with almost a meter deep interior walls !). I manage them with an app on a tablet connected to the same LAN, I've disabled all cloud management. That said, they are almost configure and forget, after the initial install I've only had to upgrade the firmware when I visit the site.
- volkadav 5y ago
  They can be handled entirely locally; the cloud management bits are optional. (I reworked our home network to Omada gear last fall. OC200, ER605, a few managed switches, couple of EAP245 APs. Overall quite happy with it; as the person above said it's pretty much fire and forget once you get the initial setup done. Used to use -- and enjoyed -- Mikrotik but alas their wifi support/performance at least on the home front has stagnated over the past several years.)
- thedougd 5y ago

hackmiester 5y ago

Ruckus Unleashed is my favorite replacement, with Aruba Instant On as runner up.

DannyBee 5y ago
I'll take a look- thanks. One thing i have that often limits my choices is that the ubiquiti's are recessed into my ceiling (6 AP's). I can do the drywall work, if they make the mounts :) If I have to, I guess i can make some from scratch in solidworks, but i'd rather not.
thfuran 5y ago
Ruckus is pretty much the exact opposite of the price spectrum. At least you can get the older generations for less extreme prices second hand.
anonymousisme 5y ago
Ruckus is not bad, but not great either. I've got a ICX 7150-C12P that worked fine until the PoE power supply failed just a few months out of warranty. I'm glad that I did not pay them for the "license" to use the SFP ports (which every other manufacturer just enables by default). I do like their WAPs. I've got a couple of RS510 WAPs that do a great job, but initially they had some noticeable performance problems for almost a year until fixed by a firmware update.

phatfish 5y ago

MicroTik have good wireless APs (and other devices).

DannyBee 5y ago
I use a mikrotik router, but their wireless AP's are clearly a sideshow for them. But i am very happy with the router. I have 5gbps symmetrical internet, and it's one of the few that can handle it for real without BS.
bobbob1921 5y ago
You can’t beat mikrotik s routers (rOS / routerOS) and their routing hardware. I actively managed well over 500x of them. however I agree with another reply that their access points are definitely a side show for them. The unfortunate part is their interface and sw capabilities are so great that if they just put some additional effort + latest gen hardware towards their access-points they could become one of the top players in Wi-Fi. (I also manage several hundred mikrotik access points). Ruckus is my go-to for access points/ client Wi-Fi. (I manage 1000s of ruck) Excellent hardware. Every AP they offer can have it’s firmware flashed to either fully standalone, OR centralized manage (vSZ / ZoneDirector), OR unleashed (which is AP self-managed for up to 25 local aps). Another much overlook feature of ruckus is that every function can be controlled/modified via SSH. while not as powerful as a true API, it’s still very powerful and often very overlooked.
- phatfish 5y ago
  For home use I've not had any problems with their AP hardware. But it's definitely not been stressed. I was just after something that has enterprise features but not the price. routerOS covers that soundly (almost too well as the configuration can be confusing if you don't know networking).

vijayr02 5y ago

Is Draytek any good? I've just gotten their AX router and mesh APs / smart switch and apart from one significant bug which made the router restart every few hours if the wi-fi interface was on, it seems to be ok. Anything I should keep in mind before I get more of this brand?

hpkuarg 5y ago

I've only used both in home and small office settings, but I found TP-Link's Omada line of APs to be equivalent to Ubiquiti APs. Same type of hardware, same type of controller software you can run on your own machine. I don't know enough about APs to say whether the performance matches.