Great episode!
@ismh86, I really curious about your fiber line to the podcabin.
I know it is a bit tangential to the main discussion, but if I may pose just a couple of questions:
Did you install it yourself or hire a company to do it?
If you hired a company, did you find it hard to find someone professional that was willing to do a small (by their scope) residential project and what was the ballpark cost?
If you did it yourself, did you terminate the fiber yourself or did you buy preterminated fiber cut-to-length with everything ready to use?
(Iām asking because some people claim self-termination kits for fiber is now even easier than Ethernet terminations, but I donāt have any consumer feedback on that, and many consumers interested in fiber, but afraid of the installation, donāt realize that cut-to-fit, already terminated fiber is becoming more widely available.)
Currently, I still advise most of my clients to avoid fiber unless they really need it for a point-to-point outdoor connection such as yours, but I like to keep an open mind as tech and ease of use continue to improve.
On a related note, good luck trying to talk Casey Liss out of installing fiber everywhere 
Stephen left of a few of the benefits of Unifi
Its a contiguous system
Thereās a single pane of glass to configure everything. No jumping into separate devices to tweak a setting. Things like Wifi configurations are global, so once an AP is adopted onto the network, it has all the SSIDs youāve set up.
VPNs that just work
Unifiās Teleport and Site-To-Site VPNs are zero contact and just work.
Iāve got a VPN to my motherās house, and my in-laws so I can support their PCs without having to make port-forwardings and decrease their security.
I can also watch my own movies using teleport to get to my own Plex server.
Remote control
I can manage my network from anywhere. (yes i have MFA and do password rotation on my UI account.
Iāve also invited my brother to my network so he can get his side of the VPN working (he still hasnāt)
I also administer friendsā networks remotely
Config restoration
I had a cloud gateway express fail. Because Iād set up system backups, I was able to restore it to a cloud gateway max with zero issues. I adopted a new AP and all the wifi was all set up.
Theyāre inexpensive
The low end equipment is very cost effective. Layer 3 managed 5 port switches for less than $50? sign me up. Even the top end gear is affordable (if you move in those circles). Even their upcoming flagship Enterprise Flagship 48 POE is less than half a cisco and probably has at least 90% of the feature set of the cisco.
Down Sides
Unifi protect only recently became ONVIF compatible, and while i could see the cameras I couldnāt get them to actually record.
The cameras are expensive.
Their security systems are huge. Like really, really big. And have fixed input configurations. Want more inputs? get a new door controller.
Interested to hear otherās thoughts
Having chased fibre around datacentres, i would definitely leave it to professionals.
Were I planning a fibre install (trench or caternary) Iād order preterminated with 10% extra length armoured outdoor multicore cable.
Putting it in the ground is straight forward, even in conduit. Get some āfibre warningā tape to put 30 cm above the cable.
The less you handle fibre ends the better, so i wouldnāt terminate them myself. Unless youāre connecting the to a stock exchange the distance isnāt going to be a problem other than storage.
I just find this sort of programme so boring. Getting a decent connection shouldnāt be this intense and weird surely? Accidental Tech Podcast bore on about it all the time. Just get a connection and move on and do some work and talk about the interesting stuff. Next!
I delayed getting into Ubiquiti for too long but dove in about 2.5 years ago. It has been the best tech decision I ever made and I wish I had not persisted with trying to make Netgear routers work together for as long as I did! I went with the Unifi Dream Router (white pill-shaped device which I think is now EOL) which powers 2 U6 Lite APs. As itās an AP itself I have 3 APs, it has been rock solid and they keep updating it with new features. Just yesterday I ordered the UniFi Lite 16 PoE to replace a TP Link switch that powers my cameras. I have been looking forward to this episode and really enjoyed it.
Ubiquity has been on a pretty good run this year. The lineup is a bit confusing but Robert Pera learned well from his days at Apple that if you make something look externally good you create desire and if you create an ecosystem that is functional you create the lock in necessary.
I was planning on moving over to a more heterogeneous platform but the lineup today is pretty solid and with the inclusion of the UNAS Pro Unifi NAS device and. solid camera features I decided to just go pretty much all Unifi I will have an Island Router to handle WAN, VPN duties. I donāt need that in a single of pane.
Also SuperLink has piqued my interest. It appears to be based on LoRa and I just so happen to need to replace my Smokes and iām in the market for an indoor Air Quality sensor. UI makes it obscenely easy to add new devices to your network even if you donāt really need them.
Many of us are wondering how far their Pro AV ambitions run given the focus them placed upon recent product releases. I donāt know if the market is big enough for them to go after it heavily beyond playing nice with AES67/Dante/Avnu protocols
My dad and I dug a ditch and laid conduit with pull string in it, then ran pre-terminated fiber through it. Really wasnāt too bad outside of the physical labor.
I am somewhat surprised that the ability to create separate VLANs was not mentioned. That was my primary reason to start my journey with Ubiquiti, having the ability to create a separate IOT VLAN.
Also, my wifi has been more stable.
No Ubiquiti hardware here, but I enjoy talking about it. Fun episode!
It was the outline but I didnāt get there in the end.
Nice maybe it needs a second episode 
@MacSparky if you decide to stick with eero, whether that means continuing with your existing equipment, adding onto it, or replacing everything with some new Wi-Fi 7 gear ā please reach out for tips/guidance as I am extremely familiar with the product. Donāt rule out eero for multigigabit either, I am currently running a 10 gigabit eero network at home. I oversee around a dozen eero networks, and used to moderate over at reddit.com/r/eero.
Great episode!
I havenāt made it through the entire episode yet, but I decided to add my thoughts about my Unifi devices now. Now discontinued, Iāve got a 7 year old wireless access point (AP-AC) and a 4 year old Security Gateway (USG-3P).
Upside is it has worked without failing, and the single access point covers our entire 1/4 acre lot and ~2200 sqft home. However I do have some downsides:
- The gateway is apparently no longer supported and has issues with the latest Network Application (its UI). The older program I apparently have to use is Intel code. So a black mark on legacy support. Iāll have to replace it in this coming year.
- The documentation is terrible. The only in the box documentation concerns how to mount the devices on the wall/ceiling.
- It is also difficult to figure out their product lines and how they fit together. Products also seem to go out of stock or are discontinued frequently.
- A word of warning ā their warranty only applies if you buy directly. Going after lower prices from third party sellers can leave you with no warranty.
Sounds like you have been running the software controller self-hosted in lieu of one of the original cloudkey local management devices.
You can still download the latest version of the software controller from UniFi and it will run on ARM based Macs using Rosetta stone.
Other options do involve purchasing some hardware. If you intend to stay with UniFi you might want to replace the USG-3P with one of the replacement router/gateway controllers.
The smallest one is the Cloud Gateway Ultra for $129. Not a bad deal, but not free.
FYI - There really are no third party dealers or distributors for UniFi anymore. Most 3rd party sellers are unauthorized scalpers and selling above MSRP the products that traditionally were hard to find/sold out.
One of many business issues why professional installers/integrators find Unifi is the company āwe love to hateā every time we install them.
You can DM me for more details - Donāt want to hijack this thread further.
Yes I run the software on my server Mac, since it is on all the time there was no reason to hunt down and buy their ākeyā. As I said, when Rosetta goes away late next year (it wonāt be in macOS 27) it will force my hand and I will have to upgrade to the Cloud Gateway Ultra. Even though the Security Gateway works fine (although at its capacity limits).
You might be able to run the Linux version of the controller in a VM, but Iād upgrade the hardware as the performance of the USG-3P is far outpaced by all the newer devices, and being completely hardware-based is one less thing to worry about (versus a software controller).
I have used my Ubiquiti devices for years, no problem ever occurred. I have a cloud key gen 2, USG (router) poe switches and mini switches and some cameras plus, of course, an antenna.
Then in February I switched to a 1 gb FTTH connection and the USG wasnāt compatible, so I had to think about other solutions because my ISP (Sky wifi in Italy) uses MAP-T ipv6 which is not supported by any Ubiquiti devices.
At the moment I am using the router provided by my ISP and use all Ubiquiti devices connected to the main switch (cameras with protect, smaller switchesā¦) but of course I have lost my vlans (I used to keep home network, IOT and guests separated).
I am waiting for my contract with Sky to expire (18 months so August 2026) to switch to a new ISP which provides 2,5 Gb connectivity and donāt use MAP-T (or maybe Ubiquity will have released a new devices supporting it). To be honest, I found Ubiquiti devices really good without being too professional (I am not a network engineer).
I see that Ubiquiti is inching into VOIP services and that they have security cameras.
My office is considering upgrading our video conferencing room and the proposed candidates are all based around a small PC that runs a Zoom or Teams room and related software. Before we take the plunge, does anybody know whether Ubiquiti either (1) plays nice with particular other systems, or (2) has replacement video conferencing solutions?
Iām an admitted VOIP novice but a few years ago I was looking at Unifi Talk and the prevailing thought I got after reading through the forums was that it was a bit immature and since then Iād say that Ubiquiti has clearly spent more time on fleshing out Door Entry/Camera for Protect and refreshing their switches and gateways. It feels like Unifi Talk has been a bit on the back burner waiting for some attention.
Then again a half year ago they did a small refresh on the phones and added integration partners via Unifi Talk Relay.
Hopefully a voip fan will chime in because the typical guys on youtube donāt really into phones.