Stop spending so much on your Wireless Network
August 14, 2017
Stop spending so much on your Wireless Network
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Ubiquiti Networks
Ubiquiti Networks manufacture a wide range of products from small business to expansive enterprises.
The primary use case for our implementation of Ubiquiti was two-fold.
1. To extended our network to other buildings inexpensively, i.e. wirelessly.
2. To create a fully meshed, campus-wide wireless network that could be managed from a single console.
Ubiquiti's products really shined for these two use cases.
The primary use case for our implementation of Ubiquiti was two-fold.
1. To extended our network to other buildings inexpensively, i.e. wirelessly.
2. To create a fully meshed, campus-wide wireless network that could be managed from a single console.
Ubiquiti's products really shined for these two use cases.
- High quality, well featured products for far cheaper than the competition.
- Ubiquiti produces excellent devices with the functionality that you would expect for 2 or 3 times the price.
- No licensing costs
- Ubiquiti does not charge extra for management software or additional devices. What you see is what you get. The management software to manage as many devices as you want for the same price.
- Ease of use
- I always recommend Ubiquiti products to others looking for an all-in-one wireless solution because they deliver a great product that just works with minimal configurations.
- The graphical interfaces on their wireless point to point products, as well as their UniFi products is superb.
- Flexibility
- Ubiquiti works really great for the specific use cases that they are designed for but you will not have good luck moving too far outside of those. For example, you won't find any next generation firewall capabilities with their security appliance.
- Support
- Since Ubiquiti is extremely inexpensive for what you get, their support is a bit lacking. If you have trouble, you are bound to Google searches and forums. There is a wealth of information online about different use cases for their products but if you are looking for dedicated support you may be left desiring more.
- Reduction in support costs.
- You are tired of having to power cycle wireless access points, have users turn on and off their WiFi, log in to multiple management interfaces, and just have poor signal quality.
- Ubiquiti's UniFi solution is literally a set and forget product. Add up the amount of tickets you put in for wireless network issues and figure out the labor cost of that. That is what you could save with Ubiquiti.
- One project of extending our network to a building across a parking lot would have cost us thousands of dollars in cutting concrete, pulling cable, and patching everything up.
- Ubiquiti accomplished this job by using 2 Air Max Nanostation Point to Point antennas. Total product cost was around $200
- The main return on Investment:
- Having a consistent, stable, reliable wireless network. Be that with a network of AirFiber point to points, Nanostations, or UniFi products.
As far as meshed wireless networks and point to point antenna's go, Ubiquiti is the best in my opinion. Where else can you purchase a fully meshed wireless network with a single management interface starting at $89? A typical Aruba Networks Access point starts at $500 for just one!
You will not find a better value for your money, especially if you are a private business where IT costs are not priority.
To give some perspective
An entry-level Cisco Meraki MR33 access point is going for $438 on CDW right now not including licensing costs. The entry-level Ubiquiti access point, a AC-Lite is $89 for similar functionality.
You do the math.
Now are there use cases for the Cisco Meraki? You bet there are but for the majority of us, those that run medium sized businesses, non-profits, etc, Ubiquiti allows you to have the functionality, in essence the quality, of an enterprise grade fully-meshed system without paying the price for one.
You will not find a better value for your money, especially if you are a private business where IT costs are not priority.
To give some perspective
An entry-level Cisco Meraki MR33 access point is going for $438 on CDW right now not including licensing costs. The entry-level Ubiquiti access point, a AC-Lite is $89 for similar functionality.
You do the math.
Now are there use cases for the Cisco Meraki? You bet there are but for the majority of us, those that run medium sized businesses, non-profits, etc, Ubiquiti allows you to have the functionality, in essence the quality, of an enterprise grade fully-meshed system without paying the price for one.
Using Ubiquiti Networks
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Creating multiple SSID networks with separate VLAN tagging. Extremely easy to do.
- Connecting one point to point antenna to another even if they are miles apart is relatively easy to do after you line them up. The antenna will be able to discover the other one and you simply pair them together.
- Setting bandwidth restrictions or restricting IP address spaces for wireless users
- Creating a customized guest portal requires quite a bit of HTML knowledge but isn't impossible.
- Pulling reports regarding wireless usage for specific devices is quite difficult to do.
Yes, but I don't use it