7 ms·

I am seeing mixed reviews about ubiquity these days.

open-paren 4y ago
I just swapped out my Ubiquiti Dream Machine for an eero Pro 6e because the UDM kept needing a hard reboot in the middle of the night and was very, very noisy. It's the only consumer router I can think of that both needs a fan and idles at 80℃.
- jaywalk 4y ago
  You must have had defective hardware. I can never hear the fans on my UDM Pro, and it idles right around 40℃.
  - open-paren 4y ago
    It was a non-pro model. From my limited research a while ago, I came to the conclusion that it's common among the non-pro models.
mbesto 4y ago
Been using for 6+ years now. Around ~10 APs purchased. I've never looked back. I think the mixed reviews are from HN where people are complaining about their security posture (for good reason).
- gurchik 4y ago
  What about their security posture?
  - jjoonathan 4y ago
    Is this a situation where one company decides to break from the pack and care a little about security and then social media dogpiles them for not doing more?
    - tablespoon 4y ago
      > Is this a situation where one company decides to break from the pack and care a little about security and then social media dogpiles them for not doing more? I believe they did something like force cloud-login with some software update a few years back. They also apparently were downplaying a major security incident, and sued Brian Krebs for reporting on it: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/ubiquiti-sues-journalist-alleging-defamation-in-coverage-of-data-breach/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/ubiquiti-sues-jo.... I have some Ubiquiti stuff, and it works fine, but I've been meaning to look deeper into all this, but I just haven't had the time. I just stopped updating the controller software (none of their gear is external-facing, and IIRC it's only needed for configuration/management) because cloud login is an absolute dealbreaker for me.
      - tristor 4y ago
        > I believe they did something like force cloud-login with some software update a few years back. No, what they did was update the software to prefer cloud-login and push you to set it up during onboarding for new products because they use cloud-login for remote management and anti-theft/device tracking. It's always been entirely optional. I just set up a new network because I moved and gifted my previous network to the buyer's of my prior home. I'm still using local accounts only with no remote management, and it works perfectly fine on the latest generation of Ubiquiti gear with the latest firmwares. The only thing I login to my UI account for is to use the store and buy hardware. The other thing with Brian Krebs was a faked security incident by an insider who was trying to extort money from Ubiquiti and Brian Krebs played the fool by assisting them. Granted, there are /many/ issues I have with Ubiquiti, but generally speaking if you use local accounts and keep the firmware updated it is no worse than any other edge networking device exposed to the Internet.
        tablespoon 4y ago
        > No, what they did was update the software to prefer cloud-login and push you to set it up during onboarding for new products because they use cloud-login for remote management and anti-theft/device tracking. Was that all? Did they add telemetry or something else? I had read that I'd need to edit some text config file or something to opt-out of something I didn't want, because they provided no option in the UI. I believe this might be what I was thinking of: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/fhlowt/where_is_the_opt_out_button_for_the_data/fke7m7k/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/fhlowt/where_is_t.... I took a wait and see before I sorted it all out (since none of their stuff is external facing on my network), and haven't gotten around to it.
deelowe 4y ago
I have an odd issue that clients on the AP cannot communicate with clients connected to the switch. As far as I can tell, this is nothing something in the switch or ap configuration.
linsomniac 4y ago
I had started down the path of going all Ubiquity ~5 years ago. I started with cameras and their camera controller. It was super flaky, when everything was working, it was great, first class app experience. But any time the cameras rebooted (power outage, firmware upgrade), I would literally spend days with some cameras offline, until multiple reboots of impacted or all cameras would eventually fix it. Then, a few years in a firmware upgrade to the switch (their 250W PoE switch) caused it to start isolating my Google WiFi APs because it would do some loop detection. An hour on the phone with their support (which in that instance was really good) resulted in a a prognosis of "This particular loop detection can't be turned off." So I had to drop a dumb switch in front of the Ubiquiti for the Google APs. I was considering replacing them with Ubiquiti, but needed to run some more wire throughout the house to get what I needed. Then I ran into a firmware upgrade that bricked 3 of my 4 cameras. After going back and forth with their support and getting nowhere, I just gave up. I had replaced the controller with the CloudKey G2 at one point because the old one was no longer supported, and it seemed to help with but not totally resolve the days of rebooting cameras situation. Honestly, having the cameras bricked was a relief, because of all the consternation that the firmware updates had been causing. I just couldn't bring myself to buy new Ubiquiti cameras. I ended up pulling out all the Ubiquiti hardware, replacing it with $200 4K very low light cameras that are just amazing (rebranded HIK Vision, "Montavue"). I'm using BlueIris for the camera controller, which is fine. Still using the Google WiFi, which continues to work great. I have 4 APs (one in router role, 3 spread around the house).
zzyzxd 4y ago
I am not 100% happy with it but it is the best prosumer option I can find without making managing home network a full time job for myself. Security wise it is not great, but I don't think it is worse than other consumer products (tplink, netgear...etc). At least ubiquiti patches vulnerabilities reasonably fast. Their cloud infra sucks and the whole data breach / lawsuit drama people constantly bring up was all because (I think?) a former employee had a static AWS access key with admin level access. Small companies are usually not good at dealing with internal threats. I don't use the cloud service anyways and self-host the network controller. Now my biggest complain is that I have to manage a mongodb 3.x cluster for the controller...
- xxpor 4y ago
  FWIW they have a docker option for the controller (what I use) and I'm barely aware it runs mongo.
  - zzyzxd 4y ago
    I know there are community maintained container images. "They" don't have an official one though. In fact I run it in a container as well, but I configures it to talk to an external mongodb cluster. I need it to be an external cluster with some redundancy, so that I can easily backup the database, fix file corruption, and deal with other database errors.
    - xxpor 4y ago
      Yeah, sounds like your deployment is probably a lot larger/more serious than my 2 AP at home deployment then ;)
dano 4y ago
I've deployed Unifi equipment in a number of small home and office environments without any problems at all. Some have been running for a decade or more. Management is a piece of cake and in homes it has high SAF (Spouse Appreciation Factor) because it just works. If you have questions where you think I can help, drop me an email.
- EricE 4y ago
  Just don't upgrade your firmware unless you have a damn good reason to and you will be fine with UBNT stuff. It's borderline criminal that automatic updates are turned on by default :p
EricE 4y ago
Every since they moved their firmware development to Latvia, the pace and quality has decreased significantly. I picked up a couple of Grandstream Wifi 6 APs to try and other than the gawdawful update process (that has thankfully improved - but you still have to get past the ridiculous initial firmware) they are wicked fast and so far a lot more stable/consistent than the Unifi counterparts. The unifi controller is indeed very slick/pretty to look at, but over the years I've come to realize that the "stats" it reports aren't very accurate so I'm back to librenms to gather/report on my network statistics.
- jnsaff2 4y ago
  Pretty funny that you identify Latvia as the turning point. Mikrotik is also from Latvia. I still think Ubiquity rots from the head and whether they mismanage teams in one country or another should not reflect on the country the people are working from.
  - ProZsolt 4y ago
    Intentions matter. If they outsource the development only for cost cutting reasons you'll get what you payed for. It has nothing to do with the capabilities of an average engineer in Latvia. Me and some other colleagues worked for a US based company from Hungary. The company payed us well according to Hungarian standards, but wee where cheap according to US standards. (The payed US junior salaries for senior people). The people in the team were very knowledgeable, efficient and we delivered a lot of great stuff. It worked well for a couple of years, but then the company got greedy. They hired people from another outsourcing company from Ukraine (I think) and this time they went for the cheapest. The people we got only had little work experience and they paid by the delivered story point. The code quality suffered as they wanted to merge everything ASAP. I left shortly after for a different reason, but as I heard from previous colleagues the company went downhill after that. So outsourcing can be a turning point, but for a different reason than you think.
    - jnsaff2 4y ago
      I think I had exactly the same reason in mind as you laid out. I even said so by pointing out that I think they rot from the head and do mismanagement as you described too. So in that light I would ask how did you understood me thinking something different?

I just swapped out my Ubiquiti Dream Machine for an eero Pro 6e because the UDM kept needing a hard reboot in the middle of the night and was very, very noisy. It's the only consumer router I can think of that both needs a fan and idles at 80℃.

jaywalk 4y ago
You must have had defective hardware. I can never hear the fans on my UDM Pro, and it idles right around 40℃.
- open-paren 4y ago
  It was a non-pro model. From my limited research a while ago, I came to the conclusion that it's common among the non-pro models.

mbesto 4y ago

Been using for 6+ years now. Around ~10 APs purchased. I've never looked back. I think the mixed reviews are from HN where people are complaining about their security posture (for good reason).

gurchik 4y ago
What about their security posture?
- jjoonathan 4y ago
  Is this a situation where one company decides to break from the pack and care a little about security and then social media dogpiles them for not doing more?
  - tablespoon 4y ago
    > Is this a situation where one company decides to break from the pack and care a little about security and then social media dogpiles them for not doing more? I believe they did something like force cloud-login with some software update a few years back. They also apparently were downplaying a major security incident, and sued Brian Krebs for reporting on it: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/ubiquiti-sues-journalist-alleging-defamation-in-coverage-of-data-breach/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/ubiquiti-sues-jo.... I have some Ubiquiti stuff, and it works fine, but I've been meaning to look deeper into all this, but I just haven't had the time. I just stopped updating the controller software (none of their gear is external-facing, and IIRC it's only needed for configuration/management) because cloud login is an absolute dealbreaker for me.
    - tristor 4y ago
      > I believe they did something like force cloud-login with some software update a few years back. No, what they did was update the software to prefer cloud-login and push you to set it up during onboarding for new products because they use cloud-login for remote management and anti-theft/device tracking. It's always been entirely optional. I just set up a new network because I moved and gifted my previous network to the buyer's of my prior home. I'm still using local accounts only with no remote management, and it works perfectly fine on the latest generation of Ubiquiti gear with the latest firmwares. The only thing I login to my UI account for is to use the store and buy hardware. The other thing with Brian Krebs was a faked security incident by an insider who was trying to extort money from Ubiquiti and Brian Krebs played the fool by assisting them. Granted, there are /many/ issues I have with Ubiquiti, but generally speaking if you use local accounts and keep the firmware updated it is no worse than any other edge networking device exposed to the Internet.
      - tablespoon 4y ago
        > No, what they did was update the software to prefer cloud-login and push you to set it up during onboarding for new products because they use cloud-login for remote management and anti-theft/device tracking. Was that all? Did they add telemetry or something else? I had read that I'd need to edit some text config file or something to opt-out of something I didn't want, because they provided no option in the UI. I believe this might be what I was thinking of: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/fhlowt/where_is_the_opt_out_button_for_the_data/fke7m7k/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Ubiquiti/comments/fhlowt/where_is_t.... I took a wait and see before I sorted it all out (since none of their stuff is external facing on my network), and haven't gotten around to it.

deelowe 4y ago

I have an odd issue that clients on the AP cannot communicate with clients connected to the switch. As far as I can tell, this is nothing something in the switch or ap configuration.

linsomniac 4y ago

I had started down the path of going all Ubiquity ~5 years ago. I started with cameras and their camera controller. It was super flaky, when everything was working, it was great, first class app experience. But any time the cameras rebooted (power outage, firmware upgrade), I would literally spend days with some cameras offline, until multiple reboots of impacted or all cameras would eventually fix it. Then, a few years in a firmware upgrade to the switch (their 250W PoE switch) caused it to start isolating my Google WiFi APs because it would do some loop detection. An hour on the phone with their support (which in that instance was really good) resulted in a a prognosis of "This particular loop detection can't be turned off." So I had to drop a dumb switch in front of the Ubiquiti for the Google APs. I was considering replacing them with Ubiquiti, but needed to run some more wire throughout the house to get what I needed. Then I ran into a firmware upgrade that bricked 3 of my 4 cameras. After going back and forth with their support and getting nowhere, I just gave up. I had replaced the controller with the CloudKey G2 at one point because the old one was no longer supported, and it seemed to help with but not totally resolve the days of rebooting cameras situation. Honestly, having the cameras bricked was a relief, because of all the consternation that the firmware updates had been causing. I just couldn't bring myself to buy new Ubiquiti cameras. I ended up pulling out all the Ubiquiti hardware, replacing it with $200 4K very low light cameras that are just amazing (rebranded HIK Vision, "Montavue"). I'm using BlueIris for the camera controller, which is fine. Still using the Google WiFi, which continues to work great. I have 4 APs (one in router role, 3 spread around the house).

zzyzxd 4y ago

I am not 100% happy with it but it is the best prosumer option I can find without making managing home network a full time job for myself. Security wise it is not great, but I don't think it is worse than other consumer products (tplink, netgear...etc). At least ubiquiti patches vulnerabilities reasonably fast. Their cloud infra sucks and the whole data breach / lawsuit drama people constantly bring up was all because (I think?) a former employee had a static AWS access key with admin level access. Small companies are usually not good at dealing with internal threats. I don't use the cloud service anyways and self-host the network controller. Now my biggest complain is that I have to manage a mongodb 3.x cluster for the controller...

xxpor 4y ago
FWIW they have a docker option for the controller (what I use) and I'm barely aware it runs mongo.
- zzyzxd 4y ago
  I know there are community maintained container images. "They" don't have an official one though. In fact I run it in a container as well, but I configures it to talk to an external mongodb cluster. I need it to be an external cluster with some redundancy, so that I can easily backup the database, fix file corruption, and deal with other database errors.
  - xxpor 4y ago
    Yeah, sounds like your deployment is probably a lot larger/more serious than my 2 AP at home deployment then ;)

dano 4y ago

I've deployed Unifi equipment in a number of small home and office environments without any problems at all. Some have been running for a decade or more. Management is a piece of cake and in homes it has high SAF (Spouse Appreciation Factor) because it just works. If you have questions where you think I can help, drop me an email.

EricE 4y ago
Just don't upgrade your firmware unless you have a damn good reason to and you will be fine with UBNT stuff. It's borderline criminal that automatic updates are turned on by default :p

EricE 4y ago

Every since they moved their firmware development to Latvia, the pace and quality has decreased significantly. I picked up a couple of Grandstream Wifi 6 APs to try and other than the gawdawful update process (that has thankfully improved - but you still have to get past the ridiculous initial firmware) they are wicked fast and so far a lot more stable/consistent than the Unifi counterparts. The unifi controller is indeed very slick/pretty to look at, but over the years I've come to realize that the "stats" it reports aren't very accurate so I'm back to librenms to gather/report on my network statistics.

jnsaff2 4y ago
Pretty funny that you identify Latvia as the turning point. Mikrotik is also from Latvia. I still think Ubiquity rots from the head and whether they mismanage teams in one country or another should not reflect on the country the people are working from.
- ProZsolt 4y ago
  Intentions matter. If they outsource the development only for cost cutting reasons you'll get what you payed for. It has nothing to do with the capabilities of an average engineer in Latvia. Me and some other colleagues worked for a US based company from Hungary. The company payed us well according to Hungarian standards, but wee where cheap according to US standards. (The payed US junior salaries for senior people). The people in the team were very knowledgeable, efficient and we delivered a lot of great stuff. It worked well for a couple of years, but then the company got greedy. They hired people from another outsourcing company from Ukraine (I think) and this time they went for the cheapest. The people we got only had little work experience and they paid by the delivered story point. The code quality suffered as they wanted to merge everything ASAP. I left shortly after for a different reason, but as I heard from previous colleagues the company went downhill after that. So outsourcing can be a turning point, but for a different reason than you think.
  - jnsaff2 4y ago
    I think I had exactly the same reason in mind as you laid out. I even said so by pointing out that I think they rot from the head and do mismanagement as you described too. So in that light I would ask how did you understood me thinking something different?