Just went (almost) full Ubiquity UniFi and just.. wow!

[SVThuh]

I have been running some form of cobbled together network setup for years now.  I've built my own routers out of old desktops and mini-pc's using PFsense, Ive run OPNSense on my Linksys router, etc. 

 

Having always used old or modded/built hardware, I decided to just go all in with new hardware and Im glad I did. I bought a Ubiquity Dream Machine Pro and a couple of their U6+ AP's.  I'm still using an older HP ProCurve 24port enterprise switch for now to handle all the runs in the house, but I did just buy some Switch Flex Minis for end runs in rooms where I have multiple devices and Im planning on purchasing one of their ProMax 24 switches. 

 

Setup was a breeze and while I'm still working on cleaning up and re-wiring parts of my network cabinet, Im super happy with how everything came out.  I still need to find a rack mount for my 2.5gb switch, mac mini and then Ill be done for a while.

[johnt]

I'm on the fence. On one hand I really want to upgrade my simple setup to a more robust system and I absolutely love the idea of the POE cameras and multiple APs. I recently upgraded to an ASUS router that can handle 2.5 Gbps LAN and it's been amazing transferring files between systems in my house. It just wouldn't have been a good idea before to transfer large files over my old 1 Gbps network.

 

I have about six drops now, I want to add six more for my upstairs bedrooms, and I would probably add five or so cameras, so a total of 17ish ports. Their switch with 24 ports and 2.5 Gbps is like $800. Plus the Dream Machine, APs, and cameras, and I'm looking at close to investing $4k in this brand. And they have some questionable antics from the past of discontinuing cameras and updating TOS for certain things. It's in the past, maybe, but I would hate to spend $1.5k+ on cameras just to get screwed.

 

But on the other hand, I have wifi cameras around the house and they lose connection all the time. They are super unreliable. Thieves can break into my house and steal everything before my cameras let me see a feed. Notifications work fine through HomeKit, but the feed is slow and just lower quality that I prefer in 2024.

 

Someone convince me!

[SVThuh]

On 2/14/2024 at 11:55 PM, johnt said:

I'm on the fence. On one hand I really want to upgrade my simple setup to a more robust system and I absolutely love the idea of the POE cameras and multiple APs. I recently upgraded to an ASUS router that can handle 2.5 Gbps LAN and it's been amazing transferring files between systems in my house. It just wouldn't have been a good idea before to transfer large files over my old 1 Gbps network.

 

I have about six drops now, I want to add six more for my upstairs bedrooms, and I would probably add five or so cameras, so a total of 17ish ports. Their switch with 24 ports and 2.5 Gbps is like $800. Plus the Dream Machine, APs, and cameras, and I'm looking at close to investing $4k in this brand. And they have some questionable antics from the past of discontinuing cameras and updating TOS for certain things. It's in the past, maybe, but I would hate to spend $1.5k+ on cameras just to get screwed.

 

But on the other hand, I have wifi cameras around the house and they lose connection all the time. They are super unreliable. Thieves can break into my house and steal everything before my cameras let me see a feed. Notifications work fine through HomeKit, but the feed is slow and just lower quality that I prefer in 2024.

 

Someone convince me!

Ubiquity is truly the easy button... Sans some small quirks, like setting up vlans and port forwarding, but once you figure out their different way of doing things, it is a cake walk.

[LIGISTX]

1 hour ago, SVThuh said:

Ubiquity is truly the easy button... Sans some small quirks, like setting up vlans and port forwarding, but once you figure out their different way of doing things, it is a cake walk.

I run pfsense firewall with unifi switches and AP's, imo, best of both worlds.

[johnt]

I did it. I got a DMSE and a U7 Pro to begin, and a couple cameras. It was within $1 of my credit card rewards so it's not as hard to get down the gullet.

 

Really looking forward to adding a second AP just to get 6 GHz in my upstairs bedrooms. lol I don't even have it yet. It's arriving Wednesday!

[Smith6612]

On 2/15/2024 at 1:55 AM, johnt said:

And they have some questionable antics from the past of discontinuing cameras and updating TOS for certain things. It's in the past, maybe, but I would hate to spend $1.5k+ on cameras just to get screwed.

 

But on the other hand, I have wifi cameras around the house and they lose connection all the time. They are super unreliable. Thieves can break into my house and steal everything before my cameras let me see a feed. Notifications work fine through HomeKit, but the feed is slow and just lower quality that I prefer in 2024.

 

Someone convince me!

If it helps any. What Ubiquiti got the most criticism for was discontinuing the Self Hosted capable UniFi Video platform, and migrating everyone to UniFi Protect which requires a Ubiquiti OS appliance of some sort. All of those got some criticism because they didn't implement local login support. Early on some x86 self install builds leaked, but Ubiquiti has since closed the ability to use those. As for the actual hardware, a friend of mine has old UVC-G2 Cameras (from before the U Ubiquiti logo days) still in service, still being managed within the latest version of UniFi Protect.

 

Myself, I have tons of UAP-AC-Pros (Gen2 APs) in service, many of which are several years old. They are still getting regular firmware updates, support WPA3, and all the bells and whistles.

 

Their cameras are a little over-priced but they are fine. The APs are a great deal just given their track record. Their switches are meh, but work. Their routers are improving in the software department, with some odd choices made these days around backplane configuration and CPU power, but they work.

[johnt]

1 hour ago, Smith6612 said:

Their cameras are a little over-priced but they are fine. The APs are a great deal just given their track record. Their switches are meh, but work. Their routers are improving in the software department, with some odd choices made these days around backplane configuration and CPU power, but they work.

I got a G5 Bullet (wired) and a G4 Instant cameras (wifi model just to test it). Both of these models are "2k" with an increased resolution over 1080p cameras. The responsiveness when checking away from home is crazy fast. But the phone Protect app could use more polishing. I haven't compared against Synology but I'm pretty happy with the improvement over Arlo, Logitech (HomeKit direct, wifi only), and brand-less Amazon products. I think the price of the cameras is okay for 1080p and 2k, but the G5 Pro 4k model is nearly 3x the price of the non-pro. The part that bugs is how limited the DMSE is when looking at the stats for internal NVR. I'm constantly at 16 to 20% "capacity" with only two 2k cameras. It's seems enough for a small home but a 4k camera might really creep these numbers up.

 

What's your experience with their switches? I've been eyeing the Enterprise model with 2.5 Gbps and POE+ on all ports. I can't believe how much it costs! ($800).

[SVThuh]

In the month that I have had the Unifi stuff deployed, I have been entirely pleased with it.  It has been rock solid, and the UI is very nice.  Also being able to remote in to the router from work when my wife is complaining of internet issues is real nice because I can log in, check everything out and determine if the issue is with us (its not) or with her works VPN (it usually is).

 

Ill be upgrading my old HP switch to a ProMax 24 here very soon.

[Alex Atkin UK]

The appeal of a single unified UI to me is greatly offset by the fact you're tying yourself to that single vendor to get it and reliant on them continuing to support it.

 

Its also annoying if you're just thinking of making the switch to their equipment.  In my case I bought a nanoHD and it forced me to use their management application to get full functionality out of it as it was missing things from the basic WebUI.  Which meant a bloated UI running somewhere comprising of 80% stuff irrelevant to my usage.

 

Totally makes sense for a big enterprise installation (if you can live with vendor lock-in), but felt a bad experience as a home user where getting the best bang for your buck may be more important.  When I switched to the Zyxel AP, my WiFi became far more reliable and the firmware just as more solid from day one, vs Ubiquiti that were constantly bug fixing.