A question on Ubiquiti Unifi....

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chevrolux

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#96683 2-Feb-2012 11:29

Just a quick one in regards to UniFi.
Is the controller software required? Or do they have a built in management interface.

Reason I ask is I am looking at this for a fella's house. His electrician wired the place and installed all the network gear except he has put in one access point in the garage in a metal box. Awesome huh. It is a MASSIVE house and I thought it would be a great opportunity to put in some unifi gear. They care more about performance than price. Thing is they don't have desktop computers, only laptops. Say I installed the management software on one of the laptops, if they took that laptop away (to the the beach house for instance), would the wireless network stop working? I would only be putting in 2 maybe 3 AP's so it wouldn't be much more work to configure each AP.

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#576267 2-Feb-2012 12:25

Hi Sam, no you only need the controller software once to set the SSID, Key and channel etc, but once set its not needed again the AP will happily boot/run on its own with the controller missing.

That said I would recommend that you at least install it on one of the clients PC's to do that initial setup, the program need not launch itself at boot so will not use any resource if not running and gives you the option of changing the config if needed. Also once you have configed the APs then save the network config file and put it in a safe place, that way even if that computer you originally configd the network on goes awol you can install on a new PC restore the config file and they will aquire to the new PC.

I have of recent weeks shipped a number of units off to a few schools without the software, simply configed it here at work, saved their config file aside and shipped the APs with the intention that the client never touch them. Obviously there is a plan should I need to remotely do something, but experience sofar with these is very good so should not need too much ongoing maint.

Hope that Helps
Cyril

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#576272 2-Feb-2012 12:42

Great!! Yea will install software on my laptop for starters and put it on one of there computers too. And good point about backup.

Thanks Stephen!!

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#576277 2-Feb-2012 12:50

There is also L3 support in the current v2 software allowing the units to speak to a remote controller instance.

cyril7

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#576279 2-Feb-2012 12:56

If you dont create a backup of the config then the moving of APs from one PC to another (for control purposes) becomes quite messy, so I strongly recommend you do that to save a lot of grief. If you have the config file its a 30sec job.

Cyril

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#577909 6-Feb-2012 18:23

So ordered a couple of Unifi's from gowifi at about 2pm on thursday and we had them by lunch time on friday. Very impressed with them. Will be ordering plenty more gear through them.
Anyway, was away on site all day friday but came in for a quick play with the Unifi's...
I currently have them set up with a router that doesn't have an internet connection but is doing DHCP just to let me set them up. It is set to the same subnet as the place I am installing it in of which our work network is not
I installed the software and set up an SSID and all that jazz. Then it found the APs with no trouble but this is where I ran in to the problem.
I selected an individual AP and hit 'Adopt'. The status goes to 'Adopting' and stays there forever. It was friday and close to beer o'clock so I didnt bother investigating closely. Just wondering if anyone can give me a heads up on what to look for? And is it a problem having no internet connection? We do have an ADSL line for testing so could set them up on that but I wouldn't have thought it would make a difference.

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#577914 6-Feb-2012 18:34

There are any number of reasons this could be occuring, including some which are bugs in the software depending on what version you're running. Reset the unit and try again

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chevrolux

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#577917 6-Feb-2012 18:44

Hmmm, maybe will hook it up to the net and update firmware.
Thanks!

cyril7

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#577926 6-Feb-2012 19:18

Hi, sam, if they are still on Ver 1 firmware then adpotion issues are common, upgrade them to current Ver2 and things get much better, and lots of neat features to boot, although most you will not need.

Cheers
Cyril

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#577959 6-Feb-2012 20:37

I have used the indoor ones for putting wifi into cafe's, I was wondering if any of you have tried the outdoor ones at all?

I am hoping to try out the hotspot option for a site that has staff accommidation as at the moment the staff can only get voutchers from the HR department during the day.

Dion

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#577960 6-Feb-2012 20:42

mckenndk: I have used the indoor ones for putting wifi into cafe's, I was wondering if any of you have tried the outdoor ones at all?

Pico's or the Rocket?

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#577963 6-Feb-2012 20:49

Pico's or the Rocket?

The outdoor Unifi AP
http://www.gowifi.co.nz/ubiquiti-networks/ubiquiti-networks-radios/ubiquiti-uap-outdoor-802.11n-500mw-access-point.html?keyword=unifi

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chevrolux

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#578330 7-Feb-2012 17:46

The crazyness continues....
Been having a bit of a play for the last little while (I don't want to say how long lol). I upgraded to the latest management software (was shipped with 1.2 and now im on 2.2). Hooked up the ADSL line and the software saw the two AP's and upgraded the firmware on them. Then, finally, one of them started working, beamed out my SSID and I was happy as. But still the other AP want connect.
It has been doing some really weird stuff. I restart the AP (plug out and back in) and it goes through the 'adopting' stage. But when you look at the status window for all the AP's it has an address in the wrong subnet (192.168.1.0 instead of 192.168.2.0). WTF?! I assumed something had gone screwy with the router. Swapped for another, no change. Reset with the button on the AP, restart software and it picks up the correct address but adoption fails. Restart again, and it gets to 'Provisioning' YAH!!!! Nek minnit, adoption failed. Is there any other to force a reset on them other than plug out or the button on them? Seems I can only reset from the software when it is connected. Also, is there a forced firmware update somewhere in the software? I can only find auto update. Im wondering if something went funny when they got updated. Thought I might just download the firmware myself and load it up. Any help much appreciated as always.

Sam

Edit:
Just to add, in regards to the random subnet, here is a picture of the AP stat screen...

Seems I can replicate this. When the AP gets stuck 'provisioning' if I hit restart it will go back to this random address. Check DHCP table on router and it doesn't exist there and nor does it exist in the ARP table which makes me think it is just the software doing something stupid. When I set a static address it goes 'isolated'.

cyril7

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#578357 7-Feb-2012 19:06

Hi Sam, why the large subnet for the address, purhaps the unpstairs AP is out of route.

Cyril

chevrolux

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#578406 7-Feb-2012 20:19

I don't think I understand...

The router should only be assigning addresses in the 192.168.2.0 subnet. Nothing is giving out 192.168.1.0 addresses. As far as I can tell the address 192.168.1.20 doesn't exist anywhere. This address only turns up on the controller software.
What do you mean about 'out of route'? Im just the cabling boy remember lol. Working my way towards network guru haha.

cyril7

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#578409 7-Feb-2012 20:26

Hi, well thats exactly the point the upstairs AP seems to have got the address in the 192.168.1.X subnet, this is why it cannot be found, you need to reset it.

Cyril

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