The basics: Goodbye consumer wifi! In the last few weeks i've implemented 3 UAP-AC-LR access points, 1 UAP Outdoor 5, and 1 Unifi Security Gateway. I've replaced networks at two separate locations and am amazed at the difference between high end consumer wifi and what Ubiquiti has to offer. While Ubiquiti products do require more product know-how than your typical consumer gear, there is a tremendous amount of online support.
Details: The two sites I manage are my home and a fire station. Both utilize a 150mbps connection from Comcast (cable), both have always needed more than a single wifi access point (AP). Traditionally, both were served by wireless range extenders. Because range extenders are some of the worst consumer electronics available (regardless of manufacturer) the range extenders were eventually replaced with wired access points. This created two problems: devices had to be close to power, and the two networks created were horrible at handing off devices that moved from the area around one AP to another. The main router at the firestation was an 802.11n device with gigabit LAN (typical cost $50, typical speed of 80mbps down) and the router in my home was a linksys AC3200 (typical cost $200-300, typical speed of 175mbps down).
In deploying ubiquiti gear to each site, I decided to utilize a similar setup to the old one since cat6 cable was already in place. At home I am using 1 UAP-AC-LR, 1 UAP Outdoor 5. At the firehouse I am using 2 UAP-AC-LR and 1 USG. Physical setup is rather straight forward as long as you have a drill/driver set and a decent plan for whats going to go where. The use of the included Power over Ethernet (POE) injectors is simple and liberating. No need to worry about being near a plug, and only one cable to run. I did use Cat6 cable in place of Cat5 cable, mostly because it was already in place, and it was already in place because I find it much easier to push the more rigid cat 6 than cat 5, as long as there aren't sharp corners.
Network setup gets a little more complex. I opted to use an Amazon Web Services system for running the Unifi controller. Note that these devices are not controlled by onboard software as many other products are, but are managed and controlled through a cloud controller. This cloud controller can be run locally on a computer on your LAN, or remotely on a cloud server like AWS. Understand that I know next to nothing about AWS, about the Ubuntu instance i'm running, about SSH, very little about port forwarding... but I still made it work, thanks entirely to the online Ubiquiti support community (if you're like me, go slow and read about what you're doing before you do it so you don't create a security nightmare as you go).
With the AWS cloud server setup it was as easy as using the Unifi discovery app to detect devices I had plugged in, and telling them to "inform" to my cloud controller IP address on the correct port. The device is then "adopted" in the cloud controller and a couple of minutes later everything is ready to go. Creating wifi networks, changing DNS servers, and managing clients is all done right in the unifi controller. Setting up a second location is simple and easy, as is moving a device from one to the other.
Performance has been exemplary. Devices are seamlessly handed off between one AP and the other. Individual users don't even realize it's happening. Speeds are great, but the days of 175mbps down are gone. Even standing directly under the UAP-AC-LR speeds top out around 110mbps. Range on the UAP-AC-LRs is well above any consumer hardware i've ever used, partly due to the power of the device but also due to its ability to adjust to the RF environment it's in, avoiding interference from other networks. Both networks have been hosting 25-75 clients/day without incident.
One thing to be aware of is the amount of information that is collected. If running a cloud server, you'll see a good deal of traffic data. You'll also get basic user data as the devices log when a client migrates from one access point to the other. The introduction of the unifi security gateway and usage of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) produces a concerning quantity of data. It is very useful, especially if monitoring a network with resources limited by either high demand or low bandwidth, but caution should be exercised. DPI will collect overall network data about whats being done and where. It may indicate that 13GB have been used for "streaming media" and 7GB of those 13 were for netflix, 4GB youtube, 1GB pandora, etc... and it will also break usage down per client, which begins to border on privacy invasion. At the very least, your controller should be protected by a very strong password, and data collection should be limited to whats necessary. In my case, and for these specific deployments, i've made the decision to turn DPI off unless a problem arises that requires that level of network supervision. If I were to deploy an open, public network I would see more of a use for DPI.
If you have the time to set up a Unifi system I can't recommend it enough. These three Ubiquiti products are genuinely impressive. It might not be plug and play, but the effort in setup will likely alleviate a great many frustrations down the road.
| Wireless Type | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac |
|---|
