3 ms·

"I spent around ~$5750 for all my devices and accessories. This includes 7 APs, 6 PoE cameras, and several switches. I rebuilt it from scratch, and my house i

"I spent around ~$5750 for all my devices and accessories. This includes 7 APs, 6 PoE cameras, and several switches. I rebuilt it from scratch, and my house is big." I wonder how many people this is applicable to... We have a similar setup but for a co-living house with 24 people. It can read like an Ad for Unifi but, in our experience no other brand comes close in terms of hardware+software quality, reliability and no leaking data.

farslan 2y ago
OP. Bummer that the article gave that impression. I'm just a passionate person, if you read my blog and the other articles, people would see every single of my blog post is like that. I just like to shoot nice photos and write about my experience, nicely.
- asalahli 2y ago
  The photos are indeed beautiful
- nelsonic 2y ago
  Don't worry. People are naturally skeptical when they see high quality content it feels like "advertorial". It's clear you are just sharing your experience of using the Unifi products/ecosystem and setting up an impressive home-lab. I was taken aback that an individual would spend almost $6k on their private home network. But you're clearly not short of a penny so why not spend it on having a kickass network? ;-) I'm sure other successful software engineers have similar setups / investments; they just don't share them in public.
candiddevmike 2y ago
> no leaking data Ubiquity collects MAC addresses (https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042384093-Analytics-Data-Collection-FAQ https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042384093-Analytics...) and have had data breaches in the past (https://www.twingate.com/blog/tips/ubiquiti-data-breach https://www.twingate.com/blog/tips/ubiquiti-data-breach)
- Mashimo 2y ago
  Mhh, I'm not so sure I would count that breach against them. It was an inside job from an employee who wanted to export money. I would guess most companies fail at that threat vector. Thought that link made me curious, why did UI have peoples social security numbers? (I'm not American)
  - bestham 2y ago
    IMO this should have been included in their threat model. The only way to exclude yourself from insider threats is if insiders cannot possibly become threats.
    - nelsonic 2y ago
      Excellent point. Agreed. Do you have any practical tips on how to achieve this? e.g. a) don't collect data unless it's absolutely necessary to the functioning of your product/service. b) encrypt and limit access to only essential people. But then what if one of those essential people goes rogue or falls victim to a spear-phishing attack or family ransom etc. How do you mitigate that? Perhaps have a "two keys" to unlock protocol such that two separate team members are always required to unlock sensitive data and i.e. always supervised. I don't know the solution, genuinely curious how this is solved in practice.
      - bestham 2y ago
        The gist is that as long as your business model is collecting certain data that can be used to identify individuals you must cater for the insider threat and for instance implement segregation of duties. When you do not manage the risk of the data you’re collecting that’s when you end up together with ubiquity.
        Mashimo 2y ago
        What duties would you have split up in this instance?
sponaugle 2y ago
I like it. I use Ubiquiti gear for most of my homelab and home networking stuff with the exception of the 40g and 100g stuff. It is both easy to use and provision as well as easy to upgrade… and of course it works. Sometimes people do really ridiculous stuff with their homelabs, like this guy: https://youtu.be/-b3t37SIyBs?si=t_h49fv594dChYf9 https://youtu.be/-b3t37SIyBs?si=t_h49fv594dChYf9 Tongue-in-cheek on that of course. ;)

farslan 2y ago

OP. Bummer that the article gave that impression. I'm just a passionate person, if you read my blog and the other articles, people would see every single of my blog post is like that. I just like to shoot nice photos and write about my experience, nicely.

asalahli 2y ago
The photos are indeed beautiful
nelsonic 2y ago
Don't worry. People are naturally skeptical when they see high quality content it feels like "advertorial". It's clear you are just sharing your experience of using the Unifi products/ecosystem and setting up an impressive home-lab. I was taken aback that an individual would spend almost $6k on their private home network. But you're clearly not short of a penny so why not spend it on having a kickass network? ;-) I'm sure other successful software engineers have similar setups / investments; they just don't share them in public.

candiddevmike 2y ago

> no leaking data Ubiquity collects MAC addresses (https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042384093-Analytics-Data-Collection-FAQ https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042384093-Analytics...) and have had data breaches in the past (https://www.twingate.com/blog/tips/ubiquiti-data-breach https://www.twingate.com/blog/tips/ubiquiti-data-breach)

Mashimo 2y ago
Mhh, I'm not so sure I would count that breach against them. It was an inside job from an employee who wanted to export money. I would guess most companies fail at that threat vector. Thought that link made me curious, why did UI have peoples social security numbers? (I'm not American)
- bestham 2y ago
  IMO this should have been included in their threat model. The only way to exclude yourself from insider threats is if insiders cannot possibly become threats.
  - nelsonic 2y ago
    Excellent point. Agreed. Do you have any practical tips on how to achieve this? e.g. a) don't collect data unless it's absolutely necessary to the functioning of your product/service. b) encrypt and limit access to only essential people. But then what if one of those essential people goes rogue or falls victim to a spear-phishing attack or family ransom etc. How do you mitigate that? Perhaps have a "two keys" to unlock protocol such that two separate team members are always required to unlock sensitive data and i.e. always supervised. I don't know the solution, genuinely curious how this is solved in practice.
    - bestham 2y ago
      The gist is that as long as your business model is collecting certain data that can be used to identify individuals you must cater for the insider threat and for instance implement segregation of duties. When you do not manage the risk of the data you’re collecting that’s when you end up together with ubiquity.
      - Mashimo 2y ago
        What duties would you have split up in this instance?

sponaugle 2y ago

I like it. I use Ubiquiti gear for most of my homelab and home networking stuff with the exception of the 40g and 100g stuff. It is both easy to use and provision as well as easy to upgrade… and of course it works. Sometimes people do really ridiculous stuff with their homelabs, like this guy: https://youtu.be/-b3t37SIyBs?si=t_h49fv594dChYf9 https://youtu.be/-b3t37SIyBs?si=t_h49fv594dChYf9 Tongue-in-cheek on that of course. ;)