End of an era! Being wound down! Sorry, I am not accepting any more networks. You can either configure a standalone UniFi access point via the UniFi app on your phone or fire up your own controller. This controller will be sticking around for a while however but on limited support as I don't personally use any Ubiquiti UniFi products anymore. If you've got an existing network I'd recommend grabbing a Dream Machine and setting that up as the controller for your network. If you urgently need a UniFi controller and are a trusted member / subscriber then please message me and we may be able to work something out. Thanks!

 

PLEASE NOTE! The controller URL is at: https://gzunifi.murfy.nz:8443

 

Old Information:

I understand that for some of you getting into UniFi gear is a bit tedious because of the controller... Not anymore.

The server itself is managed by yours truly, I do have a fulltime job so will manage it in my spare time. This is intended for home/small business use. It is running the latest version of the UniFi controller software with LetsEncrypt for SSL. Pricing for UniFi products is available Here.

The server itself is kindly sponsored and hosted by Sitehost - https://sitehost.nz - they're also a provider I trust and offer excellent service.

Note: This controller is only available for people inside New Zealand on a residential IP address (eg - no VPN providers). You must have a device provisioned and working within a week of being provided access. If your devices stay offline for longer than 2 weeks and I have not had contact I'll assume the site is abandoned and not used and this, along with your user account will be removed.

Setup:
You'll first need to register for the UniFi portal. Please send me a DM with the following details:

Name: Your Name
Email Address: Your email address (I need to be able to send you a registration email)

Once you're provisioned you'll be able to set-inform your devices, you'll be granted rights with the ability to accept devices into your portal. Remember to do a set-inform twice once more once you've hit adopt in the controller to confirm the add.

UniFi Access Points:
Make sure that the UniFi is not adopted to any other UniFi controller before proceeding - if it is then you'll need to factory reset it.  If you're running an Edgerouter you can almost skip all these steps and look at this post.

Once you've opened up your shiny new UniFi access point and got an account on the UniFi portal you'll need to inform it. Plug it into your network first off and download / install the UniFi discovery tool (Chrome Extension) - there will be instructions here to inform it (but this is not working for me - typical...) however it essentially involves clicking "Manage" beside your access point and informing it to http://gzunifi.murfy.nz:8080/inform using the default user/pass of ubnt/ubnt. You need to run the inform twice - the first time to make it show up under devices in your portal and the 2nd time to accept the inform (when you've hit adopt in the portal).

The manual way when the tool doesn't work is to grab the IP address of your UniFi and SSH into it. Using Putty (Windows) or the SSH command (OSX, Linux) SSH into your access point with the username "ubnt" and password "ubnt" and run the command "set-inform http://gzunifi.murfy.nz:8080/inform" and you should get a response back. Note step 2 of the instructions that you need to do this twice when you've clicked adopt in the portal.

USG:
This is just like the UniFi AP however you need to ensure you've got internet connectivity to the USG first (via WAN1) - navigate to https://192.168.1.1 first to connect it to the internet then run the set-inform on it. You'll need to run this twice (when it is in the adopting stage in the portal) for it to be accepted.

Note: To save you time adopt this first then simply plug in your other devices once it is adopted. Your other devices will automatically inform to the cloud controller pending adoption.

It can be a tad annoying to get the USG on VLAN 10 required for most UFB providers and FibreX - if you're with Voyager you can ask them to turn off VLAN however with other ISP's I've found this to be the easiest way to get around this:

1) Get your old router and set it to an IP range that is outside of the UniFi's - I use 192.168.10.0/24
2) Plug your USG in, set it up with DHCP in the internet options and adopt it to the controller.
3) Once it is online in the controller - set your ISP settings w/ VLAN. As it is provisioning the USG will go offline, give it a good 2 minutes then plug the USG into your ONT / Cable Modem.
4) Success - it should come online. If not, you'll need to factory reset and try again.

Tuning:
The settings I recommend for the UniFi AC access points are the following:

2.4GHz - HT20 (20MHz) (unless if you live in the middle of nowhere with no other WiFi congestion)
5GHz - VHT80 (80MHz) AC models only otherwise 40MHz.
Channel / Transmit power on both set to Auto. There is also Wireless AI available on this controller and by default this will run at 4am once a week to fine-tune your network.
Band Steering - Prefer 5G (AC / dual radio UniFi AP's only).

Disclaimer: this is a community project. Uptime is not at all guaranteed however in the event it does ever go down for a period of time your networks will still stay running as normal. Backups are made by the server on a daily basis off-site and community-based help is available in this thread. Approval to the UniFi controller is based on users having at-least 10 posts on Geekzone, introducing themselves in the Introductions thread, actually being a member for a period of time and on my general approval - do DM me anyway as there are some exceptions to this case.

There is also a post on the general security of this here (or below).