4 ms·

It seems like the main feature is being able to access your home network to watch netflix, access LAN devices, etc. How is this different compared to running a

It seems like the main feature is being able to access your home network to watch netflix, access LAN devices, etc. How is this different compared to running a tailscale exit node in your home network? Is the benefit of this that you have a hardware device that you can connect to instead of needing software like tailscale?

slig 9mo ago
I have a hard time believing anyone would actually use this versus self-hosting headscale in a discarded ThinkCentre and running it from a closet.
- nickt 9mo ago
  Not sure if you’re serious but reeks of “you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially”
  - slig 9mo ago
    Not serious, and you got it.
  - olalonde 9mo ago
    Obligatory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
  - fweimer 9mo ago
    But Unifi should be able to implement this with zero extra hardware, just with VPN-style clients on phones and laptops? I'm just surprised this needs an extra device. It would make sense if the device provided its own connectivity (with global wireless service, say), but this doesn't seem to be the case here. It still needs an uplink.
    - Polycryptus 9mo ago
      That's already an option, too.
- dangus 9mo ago
  I run OpnSense, Wireguard, hooked up to third party WiFi access points, and I had to do a lot of configuration and work that I wouldn't have had to do if I had just bought Ubiquiti equipment. I did save money, a really significant amount of money. Obviously, yes, I am capable of going through the work that eliminates my need for this product. I have no trouble configuring Wireguard and setting it up on my client devices and running through all that. But it was a lot of work to get to this point and I had to spend a lot of time learning how to do that, even as a person who is already technical. Wireguard in particular took me a solid half a day to build understanding and get it configured. If I was a little bit richer and I went back in time I'd probably just buy all Unifi. Actually if I went back in time I think with my same levels of wealth I'd probably just buy Unifi and save some precious time. This specific device does seem like a really nice extension of their product line.
  - chromatin 9mo ago
    Time is your most precious commodity.
  - devilbunny 9mo ago
    The catch is figuring out what's going to stick around and what won't. I have a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite that's a little over ten years old. At the time, it was revolutionary in its ability to pump a whole lot of data over a cheap device with a lot of features - but a lot of those features weren't available in the GUI at all; you had to go CLI and learn Vyatta (of which it was a fork) to do them. It's been updated over the years and is now much easier to use as the web interface exposes a lot more functionality, but it's not part of Unifi (and never will be). Early on, I looked at and even tried one of their AP's. 100 Mbps wired uplinks for N wireless? No thanks. Even the one that I got to test with had absolutely abysmal range. Say what you will about TP-LINK generally, but their Omada unified control system had AP's that actually worked in my house. So the early Unifi stuff wasn't anything special, and based on how they had dropped the ball on so much of their early hardware (the EdgeRouter Lite had its software on an internal USB drive that, out of warranty, failed in a way that I was only able to diagnose with a serial console cable - at least it had a port so I could monitor it during boot, and searching for the error messages found a way to replace the thumbdrive and reload the software) I had no reason to go with them. If I were setting someone up today, with all new gear, I might go Unifi, but I have no reason to spend any time at all replacing a system that works just fine.
- retired_account 9mo ago
  I’m in the market for a solid travel router, and my home network is all Unifi gear. This is a no brainer, especially with the built-in Teleport support.
lucb1e 9mo ago
How would Tailscale run in your home network without a hardware device to connect to?
- elteto 9mo ago
  Not to take away from this device, I think it’s pretty neat. But you can run tailscale on anything, even Apple TVs. If you have a Unifi network odds are that you have at least one spare computing device that can run tailscale.
  - atonse 9mo ago
    Problem is that I think my Apple TV goes into some sort of deep idle mode where tailscale stops working. So it’s been effectively useless for me when I travel.
    - dewey 9mo ago
      Never had that, and I use that feature often.
    - devilbunny 9mo ago
      Check the Tailscale blog and docs for AppleTV. ISTR reading about an issue like this popping up and they had a workaround of some sort. Never happened to me.
- AJRF 9mo ago
  You can create a subnet router on tailscale and access any device on your local network, regardless of them having tailscale installed
  - ohyoutravel 9mo ago
    Sure but you need a device on the local network to run Tailscale so it routes to that subnet no?
__float 9mo ago
I think so: it looks like "UniFi Teleport" is also based on Wireguard. You can also do this with a travel router like one of GL.iNet's and Tailscale subnet routers.
- dawnerd 9mo ago
  UniFi teleport is also very buggy with frequent disconnects. Tailscale and WireGuard proper don’t have those issues for me.
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]

slig 9mo ago

I have a hard time believing anyone would actually use this versus self-hosting headscale in a discarded ThinkCentre and running it from a closet.

nickt 9mo ago
Not sure if you’re serious but reeks of “you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially”
- slig 9mo ago
  Not serious, and you got it.
- olalonde 9mo ago
  Obligatory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- fweimer 9mo ago
  But Unifi should be able to implement this with zero extra hardware, just with VPN-style clients on phones and laptops? I'm just surprised this needs an extra device. It would make sense if the device provided its own connectivity (with global wireless service, say), but this doesn't seem to be the case here. It still needs an uplink.
  - Polycryptus 9mo ago
    That's already an option, too.
dangus 9mo ago
I run OpnSense, Wireguard, hooked up to third party WiFi access points, and I had to do a lot of configuration and work that I wouldn't have had to do if I had just bought Ubiquiti equipment. I did save money, a really significant amount of money. Obviously, yes, I am capable of going through the work that eliminates my need for this product. I have no trouble configuring Wireguard and setting it up on my client devices and running through all that. But it was a lot of work to get to this point and I had to spend a lot of time learning how to do that, even as a person who is already technical. Wireguard in particular took me a solid half a day to build understanding and get it configured. If I was a little bit richer and I went back in time I'd probably just buy all Unifi. Actually if I went back in time I think with my same levels of wealth I'd probably just buy Unifi and save some precious time. This specific device does seem like a really nice extension of their product line.
- chromatin 9mo ago
  Time is your most precious commodity.
- devilbunny 9mo ago
  The catch is figuring out what's going to stick around and what won't. I have a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite that's a little over ten years old. At the time, it was revolutionary in its ability to pump a whole lot of data over a cheap device with a lot of features - but a lot of those features weren't available in the GUI at all; you had to go CLI and learn Vyatta (of which it was a fork) to do them. It's been updated over the years and is now much easier to use as the web interface exposes a lot more functionality, but it's not part of Unifi (and never will be). Early on, I looked at and even tried one of their AP's. 100 Mbps wired uplinks for N wireless? No thanks. Even the one that I got to test with had absolutely abysmal range. Say what you will about TP-LINK generally, but their Omada unified control system had AP's that actually worked in my house. So the early Unifi stuff wasn't anything special, and based on how they had dropped the ball on so much of their early hardware (the EdgeRouter Lite had its software on an internal USB drive that, out of warranty, failed in a way that I was only able to diagnose with a serial console cable - at least it had a port so I could monitor it during boot, and searching for the error messages found a way to replace the thumbdrive and reload the software) I had no reason to go with them. If I were setting someone up today, with all new gear, I might go Unifi, but I have no reason to spend any time at all replacing a system that works just fine.
retired_account 9mo ago
I’m in the market for a solid travel router, and my home network is all Unifi gear. This is a no brainer, especially with the built-in Teleport support.

lucb1e 9mo ago

How would Tailscale run in your home network without a hardware device to connect to?

elteto 9mo ago
Not to take away from this device, I think it’s pretty neat. But you can run tailscale on anything, even Apple TVs. If you have a Unifi network odds are that you have at least one spare computing device that can run tailscale.
- atonse 9mo ago
  Problem is that I think my Apple TV goes into some sort of deep idle mode where tailscale stops working. So it’s been effectively useless for me when I travel.
  - dewey 9mo ago
    Never had that, and I use that feature often.
  - devilbunny 9mo ago
    Check the Tailscale blog and docs for AppleTV. ISTR reading about an issue like this popping up and they had a workaround of some sort. Never happened to me.
AJRF 9mo ago
You can create a subnet router on tailscale and access any device on your local network, regardless of them having tailscale installed
- ohyoutravel 9mo ago
  Sure but you need a device on the local network to run Tailscale so it routes to that subnet no?

__float 9mo ago

I think so: it looks like "UniFi Teleport" is also based on Wireguard. You can also do this with a travel router like one of GL.iNet's and Tailscale subnet routers.

dawnerd 9mo ago
UniFi teleport is also very buggy with frequent disconnects. Tailscale and WireGuard proper don’t have those issues for me.

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]