Ubiquiti Networks | UBNT | UI General

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Sam Losco

Sam Losco

True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Mar 5, 2018
I can't even keep up with their name changes.

I have:
EdgeRouter Lite
24-port EdgeSwitch Lite
3 G3 cameras, 1 Flex camera, and 1 remaining, barely functional, G2 micro
1 airCube that I stopped using and 1 that we gave to friends that I support
miFi that may not even work, can't remember the current status.
1 airGateway
1 NanoSwitch

This is mostly a thread for me to bitch about them how shitty they're getting, since doing so on their "forum" is hard because they will censor posts. But feel free to post love for them.

I have experience using their other wireless gear. I think it was Rocket Titanium with a sector antenna and the earlier Nano Stations. I loved all that gear. Their new gear is starting to suck because they can't code software that isn't bug ridden, and constantly have false advertising. Seems like the marketing department are the ones running the show.


I was waiting and waiting for version 2 of the EdgeOS for the EdgeRouter because they were supposed to be switching over to DNSmasq. They finally released it and oh boy. The blow back on their forum was pretty bad over how buggy it was and how rushed it was. I think they even rolled it back for a couple EdgeRouter models and there was one model that a known bug at release was a non-working, big advertised feature. I waited and updated at 2.0.1, I believe. My LAN DNS is all fucked up though and I haven't bothered to look into it, I just use IPs like a real man. Either they didn't make DNSmasq the default and I still have to enable and configure via CLI, or they did but they didn't do it right.

Speaking of their forum. Holy fuck did they destroy that. Their in-house redesign is fucking horrible and nearly unusable. That had to kill the usage. @Null if you want to see some atrocious forum design, check it out: https://community.ui.com/

Then the more recent bullshit they pulled with UniFi Video. Putting an annoying ad for Protect in the app and the webUI login page when going through the cloud login. Protect still doesn't even have feature parity with Video; still can't run on your own hardware and can't even support more than 20 cameras. Makes it impossible for a ton of people to switch over, yet they were forced to deal with the ad and deal with their customers asking about the ad. The outcry on the forum was great to watch and they finally removed the ad. Marketing department was undoubtedly responsible, likely because their metrics for Protect suck and they wanted more people on it to beta test their shit.
I regret buying into the Video product line. It seems like they aren't really sure what they want to do with it. Protect is now the 2nd complete re-write of the NVR software. The previous gen cameras tended to have problems with the IR filter, especially the G2 micros. Both the ones I had, the IR filter mechanism stopped working. I removed them both. One camera then died completely and wouldn't power up. The second works but somehow the focus got fucked up.
They had problems with the Dome camera and the IR reflecting inside the dome.

They also have a constant problem with spec sheets being wrong and being very slow to release advertised items like the recessed ceiling mount for the Flex. It was so ridiculous that someone on the forum designed and 3D printed their own mount for it and posted it for others to use. I think that embarrassed them into action because it wasn't long after that they finally released it... but in packs, not as a single unit.
I'm currently, slowly trying to test out Shinobi as a replacement to Video. I have no intention on ever using Protect just so they can eventually abandon that and/or do a 3rd complete re-write.

I was using the airCube as my main house wifi, but it's performance was pretty meh. I then see people on the forum, and Ubnt admitting, that it doesn't even meet the 802.11ac speed spec and that that is a feature not a bug. Fuuuck that. I know have a TP-Link AP that works great. I didn't want to buy any of their UniFi APs because I constantly would see people on the forums complaining about the management software. I also didn't want to have to spin that shit up on a server just to manage one AP.
 
I work for an MSP where Ubiquiti is our bread and butter for anything LAN related; switches, APs, cameras.

Fuck Unifi. The controller doesn't run as a service by default so you have to log in and run it as a specific user.
Fuck Ubiquiti switches. Their GUI is absolute ass trying to make VLANs more tier-1-helpdesk-friendly and in the process making VLANning a fucking nightmare for those of us who actually know how to do it right. They also don't offer a layer 3 switch at all, so I can only assume they're falling into that IT vendor trap of "ok we have working stuff we've made money off of, let's keep riding with that because why adapt to new technologies?"

I don't mind the APs, they work well for what they do controller issues notwithstanding, but god damn do I hate their switches with a passion.
 
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I haven't had problems with the switch but that's likely because I haven't done shit with it. It might as well be an unmanaged switch. All I've done is put port labels in. No VLANs or anything. It does have a tab for routing, but I haven't looked into what it'll actually do for routing.

The only problems I've had witht he router is the aforementioned local DNS bullshit that is still broken. The previous firmware worked, but it only added entries to the hosts file and did not auto remove any. So I ran into issues with trying to setup a new device with the same hostname I had used a year before for something else no longer in use, but was still listed in the hosts file. I would have to manually go prune the hosts file. I've considered switching to OpenWRT or even getting a device to go back to DD-WRT, but laziness.
 
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Sam Losco said:
I haven't had problems with the switch but that's likely because I haven't done shit with it. It might as well be an unmanaged switch. All I've done is put port labels in. No VLANs or anything. It does have a tab for routing, but I haven't looked into what it'll actually do for routing.

The only problems I've had witht he router is the aforementioned local DNS bullshit that is still broken. The previous firmware worked, but it only added entries to the hosts file and did not auto remove any. So I ran into issues with trying to setup a new device with the same hostname I had used a year before for something else no longer in use, but was still listed in the hosts file. I would have to manually go prune the hosts file. I've considered switching to OpenWRT or even getting a device to go back to DD-WRT, but laziness.
Click to expand...
I don't have any experience with the routers, we use other more mainstream security edge device vendors. Judging from the rest of it all, it's probably just as ass. The routing you mention is for the Unifi gateway devices, so it's not for layer 3 switching.
 
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They've been getting a bit shitty lately, unfortunately they're still one of the best consumer options for a decent product that doesn't cost an arm or leg

Here are some examples of shitty behaviour from the company:

Ubiquiti sues competitor for Custom Firmware installed on their devices claiming copyright infringements for using GPL Code... (They were also caught previously violating GPL btw)

www.mtin.net

UBNT vs Cambium -The legal battle

The Recently, it was announced that Ubiquiti Networks Inc (UBNT) is suing Cambium over the Cambium Elevate. This will be a long post, so sit back with your favorite beverage and read away. Discla…
www.mtin.net
sfconservancy.org

When companies use the GPL against each other, our community loses

Our Executive Director, Karen Sandler, has warned for years about the dangers of lawsuits between two for-profit companies engaged in a legal dispute in which the GPL is tangentially featured. Unlike Conservancy, companies don't use legal action as the last resort, and they don't select their...
sfconservancy.org sfconservancy.org

Ubiquiti adding telemetry to firmware updates without an Opt-Out/Opt-In option

UI official: urgent, please answer | Ubiquiti Community

@UI-MikeD or some other UI employee, we really need an official answer on this.Here's a thread from 10 days ago asking about the phone-home by APs to
community.ui.com community.ui.com
 
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David Spadem said:
Ubiquiti adding telemetry to firmware updates without an Opt-Out/Opt-In option

UI official: urgent, please answer | Ubiquiti Community

@UI-MikeD or some other UI employee, we really need an official answer on this.Here's a thread from 10 days ago asking about the phone-home by APs to
community.ui.com community.ui.com
Click to expand...
They did firmware telemetry shit before with the cameras. I think they had Google analytics code in the camera firmware for the webui and if you blocked it, you couldn't use the webui at all.
 
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Sam Losco said:
They did firmware telemetry shit before with the cameras. I think they had Google analytics code in the camera firmware for the webui and if you blocked it, you couldn't use the webui at all.
Click to expand...

Damn, I didn't know about this. Cameras aren't in my interest area at the moment (Maybe when I own instead of rent a house), that and I've only had my ubiquiti gear for 6 months roughly.

Oh well, my gear still works just fine and I can just hold off updating firmware until they implement the opt-out (Should be Opt-In though).
 
I've never dealt with UBNT since I've never had a job that requires me to use them, but I'll watch out if I have to use them.
 
I have come across them, they seem to have a reputation of making customers their beta testers according to a few forums. Their shit *IS* pretty cheap compared to HP's jewery.
 
Ubiquiti was never about the best hardware (and they've never been fastest). They were popular because they're about the only brand affordable for home use that updates firmware for more than 12 months and actually cared about multi-AP setups. The alternative is stuff like Netgear who only care about winning single device WiFi speed tests or TP-Link who have a lot of good devices but awful software and no care for long term support.

The change I've noticed is they now seem to be chasing cheap business users rather than small businesses and prosumer home users. The cheap business users are pissed because they got what they paid for and the prosumers / small businesses are pissed because they don't need all these new hardware devices and only want reliable firmware or controller updates.
 
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I'm fine with most of Ubiquiti's hardware directions - they're moving into a nice space for people who have bumpin' home labs and don't want to have to fan mod serious gear. That's pretty niche, though. The phone-home thing was unfortunate, they should know better than that, but at this point I assume pretty much anything's doing it, so... enh?

Current *Unifi* setup is a UDM, an XG-16, one of the new 24 port PoE Pro switches, an AC-HD as the main AP, an AC Pro out in the garage, and a couple switches scattered about. The other nice thing they're doing these days is bringing out good PoE stuff - though I suppose that's how they made their bones to begin with. Being able to run a bunch of cameras/etc off a single USW-Flex is really, really cool.

One thing I haven't checked on in a while, that might be relevant to this site, is the community surrounding the UI stock. It's... fairly lulzy, or used to be.
 
I only got in to UI because I recently needed a duel WAN router. I first bought a TP link but it didn't offer Hardware offload so I was getting 1/2 the speed my ISP Offers was suggested the EdgeRouter X, got it and for under 100 bucks its nice (Although I can't figure out how to get fallback to work). Decided I want to try some other stuff always wanted to play around with a managed swtich and went with a Unifi 24, holy crap it was a pain in the ass, The software didn't want to adopt nor update the switch on the first computer, I tried updating it via the GUI and SSH and nothing would work. I had to install the software on another computer for it to work.
Then only to find out the features that sold me on "Yeah I want to try this out" you need Cloudkey and/or the USG. Not really happy about the thought of dropping another 300+ bucks on more equipment.
 
No one probably cares, but here's an update.
Ubiquiti continues its slide into the dumpster.

3 months ago they announced they are EOL'ing Unifi-Video, this will include killing the cloud connection support. Effective January 1st.
Screenshot from 2020-10-20 13-02-22.png

They are doing this to devote more resources towards the "replacement" Unfi Protect. This is a "replacement" that still
  • Does not have feature parity, despite years of development.
  • Still cannot be run on your own hardware. Meaning that, in order to "upgrade" you will have to ditch your custom hardware setup with good CPU's and tons of redundant storage space, to go to their Cloudkey, which has, I think, a single hard drive with no option for expansion or redundancy.
  • Protect only supports up to 20 cameras, so if you have a setup with more (and many, many people do), you're SOL.
  • Since it's on completely different hardware, you cannot migrate over recordings from Unifi-Video.

After that post being massively downvoted and getting 14 pages of replies of people bitching them out and swearing to never buy a Ubnt product again, they locked the thread.

They also did this post a month ago:
Screenshot from 2020-10-20 13-03-48.png

It's a pathetic attempt to quell the masses of people that are getting fed up with their bullshit.
If you go to the link for feedback: https://community.ui.com/tags/ui-feedback/questions

You see a lot of people bitching about everything.
One thing I've seen come up is their support people are a joke. Apparently, if you contact support with issues, they just tell you to post on the forum.

One pretty funny one is this one:
Screenshot from 2020-10-20 13-16-02.png

Snowflake is upset that people can downvote his posts and wants that feature removed.
He has a point though. Because it's a custom forum platform, it has issues, and people have figured out how to game it:

Screenshot from 2020-10-20 13-16-21.png

0080cbce-dedf-4023-b961-22afb79d6a20.jpeg4b101d56-9869-481e-8ec3-3f0885dd54d5.jpeg

It's a complete shitshow over there.
 
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As someone who went the Ubiquiti route after suffering with garbage consumer-grade equipment for years, this is disappointing, though also not terribly surprising given Ubiquiti's general decline over the last few years. Are there any prosumer/SOHO-grade network equipment manufacturers out there who don't suck? Or is rolling your own the best plan at this point? I miss my Linksys WRT54G...
 
Spasticus Autisticus said:
As someone who went the Ubiquiti route after suffering with garbage consumer-grade equipment for years, this is disappointing, though also not terribly surprising given Ubiquiti's general decline over the last few years. Are there any prosumer/SOHO-grade network equipment manufacturers out there who don't suck? Or is rolling your own the best plan at this point? I miss my Linksys WRT54G...
Click to expand...
Yeah I don't know. I've been looking for alternatives to camera systems but not finding much. Most of the consumer shit is just rebranded Chinese crap or shit that has to be cloud connected. Can't exactly roll your own cameras like you can a router.

WRT54G with DD-WRT was great.
 
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Spasticus Autisticus said:
As someone who went the Ubiquiti route after suffering with garbage consumer-grade equipment for years, this is disappointing, though also not terribly surprising given Ubiquiti's general decline over the last few years. Are there any prosumer/SOHO-grade network equipment manufacturers out there who don't suck? Or is rolling your own the best plan at this point? I miss my Linksys WRT54G...
Click to expand...
I've had decent luck with Mikrotik gear. Configuring the router can be a bit confusing but it offers a lot for the money.

Sam Losco said:
Yeah I don't know. I've been looking for alternatives to camera systems but not finding much. Most of the consumer shit is just rebranded Chinese crap or shit that has to be cloud connected. Can't exactly roll your own cameras like you can a router.

WRT54G with DD-WRT was great.
Click to expand...
My solution for using those Chinese cameras are to isolate them to a VLAN and block any outside access from that VLAN. I then interact with them by routing their rtsp stream to your surveillence software of choice. Those Amcrest and Hikvision are priced nicely and I can't see myself spending a ton more for some min 1080p IP cams.
 
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