After nearly a week of researching WiFi 6E options, I’ve decided I’m probably going to opt for my first Ubiquiti setup. I want 6E regardless, I have 2x laptops ready for it, I’ve wanted to get off WiFi 5 for a couple of years now (Ruckus APs.)
Ruckus is not an option due to price, over $1k per AP (vs the $50 per AP I paid for R500’s back in 2021.) Ubiquiti look like the cheapest by quite a bit
I have an IT background, sysadmin 10+ years, currently running Sophos XG on an old Dell but XG has limited support for newer hardware, making 2.5Gbps awkward.
I’d like to go full 10G but this sounds difficult with limited 2.5G compatibility (for access points + PC.)
Ultimately I’ve went full circle and it looks like Ubiquiti will be my simplest option:
-Dream Machine SE (2.5G WAN, 10G DAC to E-24)
-Enterprise 24 PoE
-U6 Enterprise access points
I understand this stuff is expensive but realistically, I can only see potential savings by using a SFF PC instead of the Dream Machine, for the sake of a few hundred I’d rather keep it simpler.
My current fibre is 1Gbps IPoE (I had PPPoE ordered and cancelled for IPoE), with my country trialling 1.2/1.8Gbps next year. The Dream Machine SE is supposed to manage upto 3.5G with security enabled, I’m expecting at least 3 years from this setup. All in, it’s not much more than 3x 6E Orbis.
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice before I order? I’ve read so many mixed reviews about Ubiquiti, I don’t even know what’s real anymore. While I can manage a complex setup, I just want what’s going to be most reliable/stable.
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I had an ui AP, Flex HD whatever. Only had problems with it, and the steering software was trash. Sold it, bought an used Ruckus R610. Now I have a stable network, a simple interface to manage it, and I paid less than 50% of what I got for selling the UI.
But others are happy with ui, so why not?
You could save some money by getting the entripsrise 8 Poe. Unless you plan on using more than 8 Poe devices.
I was looking at the 8 port initially but for a couple hundred extra, decided the 24 port will suit be better, one-device that does all instead of multiple switches.
I went back n fourth between the 2 myself. Took about 2 weeks for me to decide. I ended up with the 8 port only because I figured I wouldn’t be getting more than 8 U6 enterprise AP’s and the cameras are all 1Gbe so I didn’t see the need. At some point I will get a 24port but most likely a professional and not the enterprise.
I think the 24p is 12x 1G and 12x 2.5G so I figured I can just route all devices into one and even save a little bit of money on electric (eg. instead of running extra switches, I bought various lengths of the skinny Ubiquity ethernet cables to wire devices direct.)
Ridiculously reliable is how I describe my UniFi setup - I’ve been running it since 2019 and I could not be happier with it. Updating to a UDM Pro next week from a USG-Pro-4/Cloud Key Gen2+.
I dragged my feet on updates, there were issues a few years ago. However, each update went fine for all devices when I was pushed along, so I’ve gained confidence in them and have been impressed with the improvements in things. I am a former sysadmin and didn’t want to have to have my old job as a new hobby and so far, so good.
I have used Ubiquiti for my home network for years, and it has always worked great at what it promised to do for me. People’s frustrations with it—in my experience—usually revolve around things they want it to do that it doesn’t, and the fact that it is very unfriendly to hacks or jury-rigging. So you have to be very sure going in that it matches your requirements. It’s like Apple gear.
Another option you could look at is TP-Link’s Omada system, which is basically their clone of Unifi but has a wider variety of hardware options.
I also often see people using Ubiquiti switches and APs in combination with a pfSense firewall if they want more sophistication and configurability. If you’re coming from Sophos and want to do sophisticated routing and filtering, you’ll probably find the Unifi firewall lacking in features (but it works great for people who don’t want to do that).
I ended up ordering the Ubiquity setup, I’m hoping it’s a good balance between performance and simplicity. Sophos XG has been great but I’ve lost hours/days working on it, I think sometimes simpler is better.
I’ll never buy anything by TP-Link though, that’s one very fishy company. Aside from stuff I’ve read online (eg. too much telemetry), I was working on a TP-Link Powerline for a friend of the family years ago and the instructions for pairing didn’t work. So instead I managed to find it’s internal IP and bring up the web interface - only to be presented with a page from BT’s powerline software. It clearly wasn’t intended to be accessed by the average consumer, and I would suspect it was ripped from BT’s devices.