8 ms·

i agree with you, but after a decade of routers and openwrt i decided to go with ubiquiti. it got to a point where the router hardware just wasn’t good enough,

by kmlx 3y ago

i agree with you, but after a decade of routers and openwrt i decided to go with ubiquiti. it got to a point where the router hardware just wasn’t good enough, no matter the software. so i got myself a dream machine, a pro switch with poe and an AP and i have never looked back.

alfiedotwtf 3y ago
How's the range? I have d-link mesh satellites, and needed 4 around the house just so I didn't have any blindspots. To show how bad they are, when my laptop is within a metre of the d-link main satellite, I get the full 150Mbs of my upstream, but 2 metres away but with line of sight, it drops to ~130Mbs. Leave the room, and it's about 90Mbs :( I was hoping something like Ubiquiti would be something like the full upstream speed without the horrible dropout-per-metre I'm getting right now. Happy to get a few of them in mesh (if that's how they work) if I can get full speed from my office which is curretly 4 hops away.
- kmlx 3y ago
  i do not recommend mesh. mesh networks halve your bandwidth. if you can just use an ethernet cable to the next access point. the good news is that all their APs use power-over-ethernet, so you just need an ethernet cable, no sockets. https://store.ui.com/products/u6-lr-us https://store.ui.com/products/u6-lr-us this single long range one should cover most of your home (depending on walls etc). and if it's not enough, just get another one from this list: https://www.ui.com/wi-fi#compare https://www.ui.com/wi-fi#compare of course, if you can't/won't use ethernet cables for your APs, you can try this mesh: https://store.ui.com/products/access-point-wifi-6-mesh https://store.ui.com/products/access-point-wifi-6-mesh as a reference, a single long range AP covered a 7 bedroom house (wood), with just a couple of minor blind spots. but for a double wall brick house we needed 3x U6 lite.
  - alfiedotwtf 3y ago
    > mesh networks halve your bandwidth Oh. I actually didn't know this. Damn. > power-over-ethernet I used to use PoE and was getting great speeds everywhere in the house, but then I got solar panels and an inverter. Turns out, that a lot of people ended up having the same issues as me on whirlpool.net.au :( But yeah, I've also considered getting an electrician in and wiring some rooms with CAT-6 and go wireless AP in that room. But sounds like it's still going to be the same as mesh doing this and halving my speed? Awesome! Thank you for the links. I'll check them out!
    - kmlx 3y ago
      > But yeah, I've also considered getting an electrician in and wiring some rooms with CAT-6 and go wireless AP in that room. But sounds like it's still going to be the same as mesh doing this and halving my speed? as long as there is an ethernet cable from your switch/router to the AP, then speed will not halve. speed halves only when using mesh. > Awesome! Thank you for the links. I'll check them out! no problem. i started out my career in networking, and have always kept a soft spot for it even thou i'm doing software these days. the minimum you need is: - 1x Dream Machine (Pro or SE doesn't matter) - 1x Access Point (could be long range, could be lite, depends on your needs) you plug in the internet and the AP into the Dream Machine and that's about it. from this barebones setup you can add further hardware depending your needs. for example I've added a PoE switch and another smaller non-poe switch (that funnily enough is powered by the other PoE switch).
      - alfiedotwtf 3y ago
        aha! Sweet, thanks... ok, looks like this is the way to go! Edit: to be honest, I'm actually excited to try this out now. I've been on bad wireless for at least 4 years
        sethd 3y ago
        You might look at some of the replies in this thread. The poster you’re replying to has an outdated view of how mesh networks work with modern hardware. Mesh networks can use Ethernet as backhaul and they can also use dedicated radios on 6GHz for backhaul. I’m using a mix of both (still have a couple I need to run Ethernet to) and it’s fantastic.
        mcny 3y ago
        > Mesh networks can use Ethernet as backhaul and they can also use dedicated radios on 6GHz band for backhaul. I’m using a mix of both (still have a couple I need to run Ethernet to) and it’s fantastic. I wouldn’t recommend wireless backhaul to people who have bad experience with WiFi. Some people have bad WiFi because their (older?) buildings have problems with wireless in general: I am not saying they live in a faraday cage but still their if their WiFi isn’t great, wireless backhaul won’t be either. Go wired if you have a choice.
  - Hikikomori 3y ago
    >i do not recommend mesh. mesh networks halve your bandwidth. if you can just use an ethernet cable to the next access point. the good news is that all their APs use power-over-ethernet, so you just need an ethernet cable, no sockets. Mesh dropping bandwidth is less of an issue these days as we have much more bandwidth and you are unlikely to run the largest channel width anyway, then newer solutions support mu-mimo with separate backhaul.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - fuzzy2 3y ago
    Proper mesh APs have a dedicated radio for AP-to-AP traffic. Unless traffic takes multiple mesh hops, bandwidth will not be affected.
    - alfiedotwtf 3y ago
      Yeah. Unfortunately my office is 4 hops from the modem :facepalm:
    - thelastparadise 3y ago
      Unfortunately Ubiquiti hardware is not "proper mesh," despite their advertising. They don't have a dedicated backhaul radio.
  - manuelabeledo 3y ago
    > mesh networks halve your bandwidth. This is only true for single band networks. You can use one band as backhaul, another for AP, and still get ~300Mbps. > of course, if you can't/won't use ethernet cables for your APs, you can try this mesh All of the latest UniFi APs support meshing. Ubiquiti is not great at naming their products, apparently. Also, I would advise against the LR. It does output more power and has a larger antenna than the lite, but there is little to it for indoors use, compared to the Pro, which I believe is cheaper and definitely is speedier.
    - kmlx 3y ago
      > All of the latest UniFi APs support meshing. Ubiquiti is not great at naming their products, apparently. good one, this is true, i was mistaken.
  - mikelward 3y ago
    Depends what you mean by mesh. For me, the defining characteristic is better support for roaming/fast handoff, things like 802.11k and 802.11r. Agreed it's best to connect the access points with Ethernet.
    - ipython 3y ago
      Note that 802.11r is only useful if you’re using WPA enterprise authentication (certificates and radius and all). Most home networks use WPA personal pre shared keys (aka here’s my Wi-Fi password). 802.11r accelerates the multi step handshake that you have to perform with WPA enterprise when you roam from one access point to another. There is a much shorter handshake for WPA personal so there is no advantage to enabling 802.11r if you’re not using Enterprise auth.
      - zekica 3y ago
        Not entirely true: for WPA2 it is the case that all APs and clients use the same key, but even in that case, 11r adds mobility domain and FT-PSK and results in more devices having better roaming. For WPA3-SAE and WPA3-OWE it is required as each client has a different (session) key.
        ipython 3y ago
        Interesting- thanks for the correction. I’m off to read more!
  - ibejoeb 3y ago
    Any thoughts on MoCA? I've got gigabit fttp and I need two APs for coverage. Place is already wired with coax, so hoping to utilize that.
- rejectfinite 3y ago
  Thats just wifi dude... how it works. Very bad, prefer cable. Some new gizmo wont magically improve physics. Try homeplug if you cant pull cable. I see you got recommended Ubiquity. That is good. Better than consumer grade shit. *Downvoted for telling the truth about how shit WiFi is, classic HN. You are mostly programmers lol. "WiFi works lule" For some Netflix sure.
  - alfiedotwtf 3y ago
    Yeah, I've tried tp-link, d-link, netgear (consumer), and they're all really bad. Each time I think I've found the silver bullet, but I keep hearing how good Ubiquity is. I know they're not defying physics, but I'm sure that as they aimed at commercial then I'll hopefully be getting something way better than what I'm getting now. I think this plus laying cable should last me another 10-20 years
    - vladvasiliu 3y ago
      In my neck of the woods (France), Ubiquity is fairly expensive. I've had good results with a cheapish (~100 €) netgear "business" access point, the wax214. It supports poe, wifi ax (but only on 5 GHz), wpa 3 and can broadcast 4 separate networks, each on its own vlan (but it doesn't do any routing). It's been great for random iot junk that I don't want on my main network. Routing is handled by an old HP elitedesk I've saved from the bin at work.
      - rejectfinite 3y ago
        Yes Netgear prosafe gear is great too, even unmanaged. Anything made for business is going to be more solid than comsumer stuff.
  - JdeBP 3y ago
    "You are mostly programmers" is not quite the insult that you think it to be. This programmer's task for the weekend is to buy a couple of cheap second-hand Ethernet switches, by the way, as part of an on-going effort to switch to networking infrastructure that doesn't compete with at least 13 of my neighbours. (-:
- dismalpedigree 3y ago
  Definitely don’t have the backhaul be over wifi as it severely impacts your speeds. If you can’t get CAT6 where you need it, I have found MOCA to Ethernet adapters work well. Something like this. https://a.co/d/6FYGrga https://a.co/d/6FYGrga If COAX is not available, I have also had a good experience with Powerline to Ethernet adapters. https://a.co/d/ddGHPOG https://a.co/d/ddGHPOG
- ipython 3y ago
  If you live in the US and your house was built in the past 20 years or so, check if you have old school phone jacks around. Many contractors took a “short cut” and ran dedicated cat5 cable to each of those wall ports instead of daisy chaining cat3 (probably was cheaper to buy cat5 in bulk). Take the face plate off your phone jack and if you see a wire with four pairs of wires inside, only two connected to the jack, you may be in luck. I had rented a few townhomes which were like that, enabling me to build out a simple wired network without modifying or drilling at all.
  - progman32 3y ago
    Can confirm, this was the exact situation in my 2004-built townhome. Everything came into my bedroom closet. Learned how to terminate Ethernet, stuck a switch in there, and had a great home net.
  - alfiedotwtf 3y ago
    Yeah, I've already cut all the phone lines since there was a tonne of noise when I was with ADSL. I've now got fibre into a closet which is connected straight to a modem and switch... I'll be getting an electrician to CAT6 from the switch the the rest of the house and then AP from the terminals
- jaredhallen 3y ago
  Are you connecting clients to the AP on 2.4 or 5 GHz? I've found 2.4 to be much more resilient over distance and through obstacles.
  - alfiedotwtf 3y ago
    Yeah, most of my devices these days are 5Ghz. I suspected either interference, or that shorter waves don't penetrate obstacles as well as longer waves, or it could be that my inner walls are made from lead.
tinus_hn 3y ago
Coincidentally I recently read somewhere that the Ubiquity firmware is actually based on OpenWRT.
- kalleboo 3y ago
  I thought the Ubiquiti stuff used VyOS (fork of Vyatta)?
- james_a_craig 3y ago
  No, it's Vyatta-based.
- tssva 3y ago
  The Unifi APs run OpenWRT. The Edgerouters and USGs run EdgeOS which is a fork of Vyatta 6.3. The Dream Machines run UnifiOS. I'm somewhat out of the Unifi loop these days as I only use the APs since my Edgerouter died in 2020, so am not up on what Unifi OS is based upon.
  - vel0city 3y ago
    I won't say they never ran OpenWRT, but I've used several generations of Unifi AP's and every one used unifiOS which is based on Vyatta. If they did run OpenWRT, they haven't in well over a decade.
    - vetinari 3y ago
      At least ac lite and nanohd are openwrt-based, so definitely less than a decade.
    - tssva 3y ago
      I suggest sshing to one of your Unifi APs and verifying. My APs are running firmware version bz.6.5.28 released 3 months ago. It is based upon OpenWRT 17.01.6 according to the /etc/openwrt_release file on the AP. Below are the complete contents of the file: DISTRIB_ID='LEDE' DISTRIB_RELEASE='17.01.6' DISTRIB_REVISION='r3979-2252731af4' DISTRIB_CODENAME='reboot' DISTRIB_TARGET='ar71xx/ubnt' DISTRIB_ARCH='mips_24kc' DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION='LEDE Reboot 17.01.6 r3979-2252731af4' DISTRIB_TAINTS='no-all mklibs busybox' Edited: Added newlines for file content. I originally posted this from mobile in a hurry. Copy/pasting from the ssh session on my phone resulted in newlines being lost.
ipython 3y ago
Same here. The brand isn’t necessarily important, but rather the idea that the “router” and “access point” don’t need to be bundled in the same physical box. For most people, their incoming internet line comes into their house at an atrocious point for radio transmission and reception. By separating the router from the Wi-Fi access point, even if you only use one AP, you’re able to put the AP in the best place for full coverage. I hired an electrician to run the cable for me when I bought a house about 10 years ago- he charged a reasonable price, cut a minimum number of holes in the wall, and I was left with a cable in the center ceiling of the house which gave me excellent service throughout with a ceiling mounted AP. Since then I’ve added on to the house and run additional wires to more ceiling mounted APs to get consistent 5ghz only access throughout the house. Rock solid and never have to think about it (although it is always tempting to tweak)
ntauthority 3y ago
I actually switched away from a UDM after finding out that I could only hit 500 Mbit/s uplink (out of ~930) due to a PPPoE performance bug as there's no hardware offloading and the old Cortex-A57 cores (in a SoC from a vendor now owned by Amazon, so extremely end-of-life) just couldn't handle that. Now I'm running a Turris Omnia with the bundled OpenWRT fork for router tasks and that seems to work fine.
- daydream 3y ago
  Why do you need to use PPPoE? Is that an ISP requirement? It seems uncommon nowadays to need PPPoE.
  - Fabricio20 3y ago
    Not sure about parent but here in Brazil all ISPs are still using PPPoE even under gigabit fiber, it's a miracle they can find a router that is able to push 800 Mbit under single-threaded pppoe. I've yet to find a router capable of doing proper gigabit that isn't some enteprise machine that costs me a car.
    - wtallis 3y ago
      In cases like yours, the best solution is probably to get an x86-based fanless mini PC built around a laptop CPU. Those can hit quite high single-threaded speeds and have enough resources to handle not just your routing but also light duty as a home server. Chinese brands like Qotom and Topton and a bunch of others are selling them on AliExpress. They're several hundred dollars, but still cheaper than a lot of enterprise gear, and you can get them with 5 or 6 Ethernet interfaces. Getting a separate consumer WiFi access point/router with minimal CPU power of its own is usually cheaper than trying to add an AP-capable WiFi card to a mini PC.
      - ChainOfFools 3y ago
        And if you're going to do that, just run opnsense and (being essentially a distro of full blown BSD) have all the security, flexibility and scalability the machine can provide.
lostlogin 3y ago
I’ve done the same. It’s pretty stable but frustrations remain. Their Edge series are more powerful but the UI is painful and much must be done via the CLI. The Unifi line doesn’t support such things. For example, on an edge router it was fairly easy to make a rule saying “any port 53 traffic that isn’t coming from the Pihole, redirect back to the Pihole”. The Dream Machine Pro isn’t 100% stable and occasionally requires the config to be reloaded. It’s support for more modern VPN types has been slow to materialise. The UDMP has been vastly superior to my crappy IDP supplier routers.

by kmlx 3y ago

alfiedotwtf 3y ago

How's the range? I have d-link mesh satellites, and needed 4 around the house just so I didn't have any blindspots. To show how bad they are, when my laptop is within a metre of the d-link main satellite, I get the full 150Mbs of my upstream, but 2 metres away but with line of sight, it drops to ~130Mbs. Leave the room, and it's about 90Mbs :( I was hoping something like Ubiquiti would be something like the full upstream speed without the horrible dropout-per-metre I'm getting right now. Happy to get a few of them in mesh (if that's how they work) if I can get full speed from my office which is curretly 4 hops away.

kmlx 3y ago
i do not recommend mesh. mesh networks halve your bandwidth. if you can just use an ethernet cable to the next access point. the good news is that all their APs use power-over-ethernet, so you just need an ethernet cable, no sockets. https://store.ui.com/products/u6-lr-us https://store.ui.com/products/u6-lr-us this single long range one should cover most of your home (depending on walls etc). and if it's not enough, just get another one from this list: https://www.ui.com/wi-fi#compare https://www.ui.com/wi-fi#compare of course, if you can't/won't use ethernet cables for your APs, you can try this mesh: https://store.ui.com/products/access-point-wifi-6-mesh https://store.ui.com/products/access-point-wifi-6-mesh as a reference, a single long range AP covered a 7 bedroom house (wood), with just a couple of minor blind spots. but for a double wall brick house we needed 3x U6 lite.
- alfiedotwtf 3y ago
  > mesh networks halve your bandwidth Oh. I actually didn't know this. Damn. > power-over-ethernet I used to use PoE and was getting great speeds everywhere in the house, but then I got solar panels and an inverter. Turns out, that a lot of people ended up having the same issues as me on whirlpool.net.au :( But yeah, I've also considered getting an electrician in and wiring some rooms with CAT-6 and go wireless AP in that room. But sounds like it's still going to be the same as mesh doing this and halving my speed? Awesome! Thank you for the links. I'll check them out!
  - kmlx 3y ago
    > But yeah, I've also considered getting an electrician in and wiring some rooms with CAT-6 and go wireless AP in that room. But sounds like it's still going to be the same as mesh doing this and halving my speed? as long as there is an ethernet cable from your switch/router to the AP, then speed will not halve. speed halves only when using mesh. > Awesome! Thank you for the links. I'll check them out! no problem. i started out my career in networking, and have always kept a soft spot for it even thou i'm doing software these days. the minimum you need is: - 1x Dream Machine (Pro or SE doesn't matter) - 1x Access Point (could be long range, could be lite, depends on your needs) you plug in the internet and the AP into the Dream Machine and that's about it. from this barebones setup you can add further hardware depending your needs. for example I've added a PoE switch and another smaller non-poe switch (that funnily enough is powered by the other PoE switch).
    - alfiedotwtf 3y ago
      aha! Sweet, thanks... ok, looks like this is the way to go! Edit: to be honest, I'm actually excited to try this out now. I've been on bad wireless for at least 4 years
      - sethd 3y ago
        You might look at some of the replies in this thread. The poster you’re replying to has an outdated view of how mesh networks work with modern hardware. Mesh networks can use Ethernet as backhaul and they can also use dedicated radios on 6GHz for backhaul. I’m using a mix of both (still have a couple I need to run Ethernet to) and it’s fantastic.
        mcny 3y ago
        > Mesh networks can use Ethernet as backhaul and they can also use dedicated radios on 6GHz band for backhaul. I’m using a mix of both (still have a couple I need to run Ethernet to) and it’s fantastic. I wouldn’t recommend wireless backhaul to people who have bad experience with WiFi. Some people have bad WiFi because their (older?) buildings have problems with wireless in general: I am not saying they live in a faraday cage but still their if their WiFi isn’t great, wireless backhaul won’t be either. Go wired if you have a choice.
- Hikikomori 3y ago
  >i do not recommend mesh. mesh networks halve your bandwidth. if you can just use an ethernet cable to the next access point. the good news is that all their APs use power-over-ethernet, so you just need an ethernet cable, no sockets. Mesh dropping bandwidth is less of an issue these days as we have much more bandwidth and you are unlikely to run the largest channel width anyway, then newer solutions support mu-mimo with separate backhaul.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- fuzzy2 3y ago
  Proper mesh APs have a dedicated radio for AP-to-AP traffic. Unless traffic takes multiple mesh hops, bandwidth will not be affected.
  - alfiedotwtf 3y ago
    Yeah. Unfortunately my office is 4 hops from the modem :facepalm:
  - thelastparadise 3y ago
    Unfortunately Ubiquiti hardware is not "proper mesh," despite their advertising. They don't have a dedicated backhaul radio.
- manuelabeledo 3y ago
  > mesh networks halve your bandwidth. This is only true for single band networks. You can use one band as backhaul, another for AP, and still get ~300Mbps. > of course, if you can't/won't use ethernet cables for your APs, you can try this mesh All of the latest UniFi APs support meshing. Ubiquiti is not great at naming their products, apparently. Also, I would advise against the LR. It does output more power and has a larger antenna than the lite, but there is little to it for indoors use, compared to the Pro, which I believe is cheaper and definitely is speedier.
  - kmlx 3y ago
    > All of the latest UniFi APs support meshing. Ubiquiti is not great at naming their products, apparently. good one, this is true, i was mistaken.
- mikelward 3y ago
  Depends what you mean by mesh. For me, the defining characteristic is better support for roaming/fast handoff, things like 802.11k and 802.11r. Agreed it's best to connect the access points with Ethernet.
  - ipython 3y ago
    Note that 802.11r is only useful if you’re using WPA enterprise authentication (certificates and radius and all). Most home networks use WPA personal pre shared keys (aka here’s my Wi-Fi password). 802.11r accelerates the multi step handshake that you have to perform with WPA enterprise when you roam from one access point to another. There is a much shorter handshake for WPA personal so there is no advantage to enabling 802.11r if you’re not using Enterprise auth.
    - zekica 3y ago
      Not entirely true: for WPA2 it is the case that all APs and clients use the same key, but even in that case, 11r adds mobility domain and FT-PSK and results in more devices having better roaming. For WPA3-SAE and WPA3-OWE it is required as each client has a different (session) key.
      - ipython 3y ago
        Interesting- thanks for the correction. I’m off to read more!
- ibejoeb 3y ago
  Any thoughts on MoCA? I've got gigabit fttp and I need two APs for coverage. Place is already wired with coax, so hoping to utilize that.
rejectfinite 3y ago
Thats just wifi dude... how it works. Very bad, prefer cable. Some new gizmo wont magically improve physics. Try homeplug if you cant pull cable. I see you got recommended Ubiquity. That is good. Better than consumer grade shit. *Downvoted for telling the truth about how shit WiFi is, classic HN. You are mostly programmers lol. "WiFi works lule" For some Netflix sure.
- alfiedotwtf 3y ago
  Yeah, I've tried tp-link, d-link, netgear (consumer), and they're all really bad. Each time I think I've found the silver bullet, but I keep hearing how good Ubiquity is. I know they're not defying physics, but I'm sure that as they aimed at commercial then I'll hopefully be getting something way better than what I'm getting now. I think this plus laying cable should last me another 10-20 years
  - vladvasiliu 3y ago
    In my neck of the woods (France), Ubiquity is fairly expensive. I've had good results with a cheapish (~100 €) netgear "business" access point, the wax214. It supports poe, wifi ax (but only on 5 GHz), wpa 3 and can broadcast 4 separate networks, each on its own vlan (but it doesn't do any routing). It's been great for random iot junk that I don't want on my main network. Routing is handled by an old HP elitedesk I've saved from the bin at work.
    - rejectfinite 3y ago
      Yes Netgear prosafe gear is great too, even unmanaged. Anything made for business is going to be more solid than comsumer stuff.
- JdeBP 3y ago
  "You are mostly programmers" is not quite the insult that you think it to be. This programmer's task for the weekend is to buy a couple of cheap second-hand Ethernet switches, by the way, as part of an on-going effort to switch to networking infrastructure that doesn't compete with at least 13 of my neighbours. (-:
dismalpedigree 3y ago
Definitely don’t have the backhaul be over wifi as it severely impacts your speeds. If you can’t get CAT6 where you need it, I have found MOCA to Ethernet adapters work well. Something like this. https://a.co/d/6FYGrga https://a.co/d/6FYGrga If COAX is not available, I have also had a good experience with Powerline to Ethernet adapters. https://a.co/d/ddGHPOG https://a.co/d/ddGHPOG
ipython 3y ago
If you live in the US and your house was built in the past 20 years or so, check if you have old school phone jacks around. Many contractors took a “short cut” and ran dedicated cat5 cable to each of those wall ports instead of daisy chaining cat3 (probably was cheaper to buy cat5 in bulk). Take the face plate off your phone jack and if you see a wire with four pairs of wires inside, only two connected to the jack, you may be in luck. I had rented a few townhomes which were like that, enabling me to build out a simple wired network without modifying or drilling at all.
- progman32 3y ago
  Can confirm, this was the exact situation in my 2004-built townhome. Everything came into my bedroom closet. Learned how to terminate Ethernet, stuck a switch in there, and had a great home net.
- alfiedotwtf 3y ago
  Yeah, I've already cut all the phone lines since there was a tonne of noise when I was with ADSL. I've now got fibre into a closet which is connected straight to a modem and switch... I'll be getting an electrician to CAT6 from the switch the the rest of the house and then AP from the terminals
jaredhallen 3y ago
Are you connecting clients to the AP on 2.4 or 5 GHz? I've found 2.4 to be much more resilient over distance and through obstacles.
- alfiedotwtf 3y ago
  Yeah, most of my devices these days are 5Ghz. I suspected either interference, or that shorter waves don't penetrate obstacles as well as longer waves, or it could be that my inner walls are made from lead.

tinus_hn 3y ago

Coincidentally I recently read somewhere that the Ubiquity firmware is actually based on OpenWRT.

kalleboo 3y ago
I thought the Ubiquiti stuff used VyOS (fork of Vyatta)?
james_a_craig 3y ago
No, it's Vyatta-based.
tssva 3y ago
The Unifi APs run OpenWRT. The Edgerouters and USGs run EdgeOS which is a fork of Vyatta 6.3. The Dream Machines run UnifiOS. I'm somewhat out of the Unifi loop these days as I only use the APs since my Edgerouter died in 2020, so am not up on what Unifi OS is based upon.
- vel0city 3y ago
  I won't say they never ran OpenWRT, but I've used several generations of Unifi AP's and every one used unifiOS which is based on Vyatta. If they did run OpenWRT, they haven't in well over a decade.
  - vetinari 3y ago
    At least ac lite and nanohd are openwrt-based, so definitely less than a decade.
  - tssva 3y ago
    I suggest sshing to one of your Unifi APs and verifying. My APs are running firmware version bz.6.5.28 released 3 months ago. It is based upon OpenWRT 17.01.6 according to the /etc/openwrt_release file on the AP. Below are the complete contents of the file: DISTRIB_ID='LEDE' DISTRIB_RELEASE='17.01.6' DISTRIB_REVISION='r3979-2252731af4' DISTRIB_CODENAME='reboot' DISTRIB_TARGET='ar71xx/ubnt' DISTRIB_ARCH='mips_24kc' DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION='LEDE Reboot 17.01.6 r3979-2252731af4' DISTRIB_TAINTS='no-all mklibs busybox' Edited: Added newlines for file content. I originally posted this from mobile in a hurry. Copy/pasting from the ssh session on my phone resulted in newlines being lost.

ipython 3y ago

Same here. The brand isn’t necessarily important, but rather the idea that the “router” and “access point” don’t need to be bundled in the same physical box. For most people, their incoming internet line comes into their house at an atrocious point for radio transmission and reception. By separating the router from the Wi-Fi access point, even if you only use one AP, you’re able to put the AP in the best place for full coverage. I hired an electrician to run the cable for me when I bought a house about 10 years ago- he charged a reasonable price, cut a minimum number of holes in the wall, and I was left with a cable in the center ceiling of the house which gave me excellent service throughout with a ceiling mounted AP. Since then I’ve added on to the house and run additional wires to more ceiling mounted APs to get consistent 5ghz only access throughout the house. Rock solid and never have to think about it (although it is always tempting to tweak)

ntauthority 3y ago

I actually switched away from a UDM after finding out that I could only hit 500 Mbit/s uplink (out of ~930) due to a PPPoE performance bug as there's no hardware offloading and the old Cortex-A57 cores (in a SoC from a vendor now owned by Amazon, so extremely end-of-life) just couldn't handle that. Now I'm running a Turris Omnia with the bundled OpenWRT fork for router tasks and that seems to work fine.

daydream 3y ago
Why do you need to use PPPoE? Is that an ISP requirement? It seems uncommon nowadays to need PPPoE.
- Fabricio20 3y ago
  Not sure about parent but here in Brazil all ISPs are still using PPPoE even under gigabit fiber, it's a miracle they can find a router that is able to push 800 Mbit under single-threaded pppoe. I've yet to find a router capable of doing proper gigabit that isn't some enteprise machine that costs me a car.
  - wtallis 3y ago
    In cases like yours, the best solution is probably to get an x86-based fanless mini PC built around a laptop CPU. Those can hit quite high single-threaded speeds and have enough resources to handle not just your routing but also light duty as a home server. Chinese brands like Qotom and Topton and a bunch of others are selling them on AliExpress. They're several hundred dollars, but still cheaper than a lot of enterprise gear, and you can get them with 5 or 6 Ethernet interfaces. Getting a separate consumer WiFi access point/router with minimal CPU power of its own is usually cheaper than trying to add an AP-capable WiFi card to a mini PC.
    - ChainOfFools 3y ago
      And if you're going to do that, just run opnsense and (being essentially a distro of full blown BSD) have all the security, flexibility and scalability the machine can provide.

lostlogin 3y ago

I’ve done the same. It’s pretty stable but frustrations remain. Their Edge series are more powerful but the UI is painful and much must be done via the CLI. The Unifi line doesn’t support such things. For example, on an edge router it was fairly easy to make a rule saying “any port 53 traffic that isn’t coming from the Pihole, redirect back to the Pihole”. The Dream Machine Pro isn’t 100% stable and occasionally requires the config to be reloaded. It’s support for more modern VPN types has been slow to materialise. The UDMP has been vastly superior to my crappy IDP supplier routers.