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0 pointsdangus3mo ago0 comments

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.

0 comments

devilbunny3mo 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.

dangusOP3mo ago

What I didn’t like about TP-Link Omada was their weird requirement for a separate controller hardware thing, or running a controller server thing. If I remember right.

I ended up with the OpnSense box plus Zyxel APs. The Nebula cloud offering has been surprisingly good for me: it offers plenty of features in the free tier and the APs don’t actually need the cloud service to be configured if it were to be discontinued.

devilbunny3mo ago

They phrase it oddly, I think to try to get people to buy a controller, but you only need it for setup, and the free software controller works fine for that. You only really need a hardware controller for a business environment where you expect to manage multiple sites remotely (it can be done remotely but isn’t worth the $80 you save vs having a hardware controller on site). Once configured, the devices will keep on doing their thing after reboots. You will have to fire it up for upgrading devices, but that’s no different from running Unifi without a controller with only AP’s - there has to be a provisioning controller somewhere to get them to work as a true network with seamless handoffs and the like. Otherwise, running in standalone mode, they are just like running consumer AP’s individually.

I have a hardware controller, but I will probably end up putting it in my in-laws’ house because software is fine for where I live. I actually set the whole thing up via software controller and transferred the config when it was all set and I would only be making small changes.

chromatin3mo ago

Time is your most precious commodity.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsdangus3mo ago0 comments

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.

This specific device does seem like a really nice extension of their product line.

0 comments

devilbunny3mo ago

The catch is figuring out what's going to stick around and what won't.

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.

dangusOP3mo ago

What I didn’t like about TP-Link Omada was their weird requirement for a separate controller hardware thing, or running a controller server thing. If I remember right.

devilbunny3mo ago

chromatin3mo ago

Time is your most precious commodity.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse