I'm an IT guy by profession and have deployed a few of their 802.11ac access points in my offices over the last 8 months. So far, they've been rock-solid. I was so impressed that when my home wireless router started having hardware issues (although wireless continued to work, the switch would stop working after a few days and wired devices would be dead until I rebooted it), I decided to get a solid wired router and grab this entry-level WAP from Ubiquiti to provide my Wi-Fi.
If you're a casual home user who doesn't think tinkering is its own reward, you might not want to invest the time in learning how this operates differently than you're accustomed to. You MUST install the UniFi controller software on a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine to configure and manage this access point. Once that's accomplished, you DO administer it via a web browser, but since it's not a router, you'll find the interface to be unlike most home routers you may have splashed around in. Simpler in some ways since you don't configure routing or firewalling functions, but still different. That said, if you follow the quick-start guide, it's surprisingly easy to get this up and running. They ask you for no more than is absolutely necessary to get a new wireless network up and running. You may find yourself asking, "That's all? I'm done?"
If all you want is a single wireless network for your own use, then yep. That's it! If you want to create guest networks, have a portal page where people agree to your terms first ("You must bring me cookies and massage my feet if you use my WiFi."), or set bandwidth limits on wireless networks, that's not difficult, but you have to figure out how the different settings come together to make that happen.
Consider that for support, you're largely on your own. You can't call anyone for hand-holding, so if you're getting frustrated with a problem, it's self-help all the way. The Ubiquiti community is quite active and a useful resource, but think Microsoft support: you have to figure it out on your own or find someone to ask who knows the answer.
You might be wondering if you need to leave the controller software running all the time. Nope, probably not. If you want that terms of service portal that tells your guests that you want cookies and cakes (or pies and pastries - your call) in exchange for your gracious gift of abundant Internet, yes. If you're just running a single wireless network or a guest network with no portal page, the controller doesn't have to be running.
The range is very good. My radio is set to Auto, and coverage is solid and throughput is reliable, even when the signal is reporting at 50%. I could wish for 802.11ac, but not at 4x the price. Given the price point, reliability, and features of this "entry-level" WAP, I'm more than happy with "n" speeds.
I only had one issue with the controller software. I initially connected and configured it through the failing switch I intended to retire. It worked fine, but once I replaced that router/switch with my new one, my controller software no longer saw the access point. Did the DHCP server on my new router assign it a different IP address than it had before? Almost certainly, but I didn't expect the controller to be that fragile with an IP change. In researching the problem, the UniFi seems to be happier in an environment where you can create a DNS record telling it where to find the controller. I tried a number of things to get them talking again, with partial success, but could just never get it back under management with the existing installation of the controller. Long story short, I ended up simply removing the controller software and configuration and re-installing it clean. I had already reset the AP as one of my troubleshooting steps to bring it back under management, so that meant I had to once again set it up as if I'd just unboxed it. The newly-re-installed controller immediately found and allowed me to adopt the unconfigured access point, and it probably took me all of 5 minutes to recreate my entire configuration from scratch. I'm still using a dynamically assigned IP, and I may eventually decide to assign a static IP, but for now, it ain't broke, so I'll let it run and see how we do. Again, if you don't consider yourself a geek, this may not be for you. If you have any experience with networking or like to putter with cool tech, you'll probably find this a pleasure to use.
My goal was to have a Wi-Fi network that never goes down and doesn't need rebooting every few days or weeks to remain usable. I've had this going for two weeks now since finishing the project, and so far, smooth sailing. If it performs as well as its faster AC cousin has at the office, I expect to remain a happy, well-connected camper.
| Standing screen display size | 7.9 Inches |
|---|---|
| Processor | 1 hertz |
| RAM | DDR4 |
| Wireless Type | 802.11bgn |
