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by kryogen1c 2821 days ago
My IT MSP solely sells and supports unifi WAPs, and I have no idea what you're talking about.

We have dozens of WAPs under management across the city and state, and I've never seen any of the issues you guys are talking about. We don't have issues with database crashing or overheating. The wap controllers are configurable for automatic firmware updating, so I don't know what the issue is with patching. They definitely support wpa-e/radius because I've configured it and we use it in my my office.

A personal goal of mine is to buy a unifi wap and a modem (already have a router and firewall) and divorce from ISP equipment altogether. Then I can start posting on /r/homelab :)

2 comments

> They definitely support wpa-e/radius because I've configured it and we use it in my my office.

Sure, and problems with RADIUS auth have been well documented. How much of the not seeing issues is simply a matter of users assuming your setup (or their phones or computers) is flakey? Issues with Mongo are also pretty well documented.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ubnt+mongo+issue

> The wap controllers are configurable for automatic firmware updating, so I don't know what the issue is with patching.

The issue with patching is that Ubnt is in a bad position. They're on their own completely to create and issue patches even for stock packages. That's just what happens when you distribute EOL'd software. So, sure, it's not that hard to apply patches* from Ubnt but it's a lot more work for Ubnt to generate these patches — and last I checked they were pretty well behind with the excuse of "there are no known exploits for ABC in the wild".

* Let's not forget the ER-X bootloader for which end users are entirely on their own. Ubnt has a patch but hasn't applied it to the devices they ship. It's just lazy and sloppy.

I have an office with a few of those and they are not great and do overheat. I am quite surprised you having been exposed to a great number of them never had an issue.
Maybe he hasn't had overheating problems because he is kryogen1c.

(I'll see myself out...)

They have a lot of models and we usually sell ac-pros and ac-lrs. Maybe there are issues with higher/lower grade versions...
You have dozens of devices in what sounds like small locations across your state. I have 11k users online in North America and I would never trust Unifi for any part of my network. They have their place but enterprise is not one of them. SMB is not the same.
I agree fully, its not enterprise grade. Triplebyte is a 30 person office.
All parents and responses to my posts are probably right, and I'm probably wrong!

My experiences aren't wrong, of course, but it's an apples to oranges comparison. My IT MSP is only small to medium sized businesses (as I think all IT MSPs are since Enterprise level environments don't contract out it and hire their own department - this is an educated guess). We do very little Enterprise work and have no single client with more than 300 users.

However, I will defend my position and consumer grade ubiquitis on a (significant) technicality. Higher models beyond what my company sells are not cost effective. Buying higher grade waps at no less than double the price is more expensive than just running cables. If you WANT to make everyone get 200mbps wifi, you will pay for it, but that's a convenience you pay for, not a requirement. UAP-AC-Pros are perfectly capable of handing out up to 50mbps pipes to multiple endpoints without huge (or even medium) upfront capital investments, overheating or DB problems. In my opinion, just run cat6 lines. Itll be cheaper than spending thousands on Enterprise waps for only 30 people.