Is UniFi better than Cisco? What's great about UniFi and what's not? Tom Lawrence tells us his thoughts about UniFi WiFi, switches, routing and other products. // MENU // 00:00 ▶ Cisco licenses are a nightmare 01:00 ▶ Tom Lawrence & Unifi 03:12 ▶ Difference between Unifi & Ubiquiti 05:56 ▶ Tailored for WISP 07:08 ▶ Cisco Business 09:08 ▶ Configuring Unifi switches & access points 10:09 ▶ Terrible Unifi support 11:51 ▶ Making money resetting to default 12:10 ▶ Do the devices have CLI? 13:09 ▶ Web-browser on Unifi devices 13:30 ▶ Unifi Controller 16:28 ▶ Unifi Consoles 18:05 ▶ Unifi Routing 21:16 ▶ Do the switches support routing? 22:59 ▶ Unifi switches as layer 2 switches 24:12 ▶ Unifi USG 26:46 ▶ Pros and Cons of Unifi 33:49 ▶ Buggy Ubiquiti software 35:52 ▶ Confidence in Unifi 37:44 ▶ Access Points rule of thumb 38:42 ▶ Advantages of Ubiquiti 43:17 ▶ "The world is changing" 45:13 ▶ Running the controller without a Unifi account 47:19 ▶ Vlans & Routing 50:23 ▶ Unifi Switches 54:23 ▶ Unifi 6 Access Points 57:43 ▶ Recommended products 01:01:56 ▶ Unifi firmware updates 01:02:55 ▶ Inexpensive options 01:05:04 ▶ Third-party support 01:06:12 ▶ Unifi 6 Long Range 01:07:22 ▶ Unifi Camera 01:10:42 ▶ Closing thoughts and recommendations 01:11:26 ▶ Conclusion For Transparency: Both Ubiquity and Cisco have given me products. Ubiquity have never paid me money for any video (but Cisco have sponsored videos in the past). // Videos mentioned // Hackersploit: th-cam.com/video/yYY5mJoUZjU/w-d-xo.html Eric: th-cam.com/video/cMR19vkNqS8/w-d-xo.html // Books Mentioned // Privilege Escalation Techniques: amzn.to/3FUDcLO Mastering Python Networking: amzn.to/3MkaZQN // David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal TH-cam: th-cam.com/users/davidbombal // Tom's SOCIAL // Twitter: twitter.com/TomLawrenceTech TH-cam: th-cam.com/users/TheTecknowledge Website: lawrencesystems.com/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lawrencesystems/ Instagram: instagram.com/lawrencesystems/ // MY STUFF // www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com
Unify is not better than Cisco, specifically Unifi has weak ciphers that cannot be remediated via SSH. Until Unifi allow you to modify these vulnerabilities, it will never be better than Cisco.
Honestly the question "WiFi has changed: Is UniFi better than Cisco?" is totally a dumb question or maybe it is intentional to get viewers on your channel. the range Unifi of Ubiquiti is targeting a market segment that Cisco intentionally ignored and treated with contempt: SME and the consumer market. Cisco like other lived on its assets, they did not see the market evolving outside its privileged sectors and did not understand that there was a real demand in its 2 sectors for simple and reliable products, not requiring CCNA-certified engineers (which cost a fortune) to set up an efficient network architecture. SME and the consumer market ARE NOT looking for complex products with complicated CLI commands, or some kind of network certification, they DO NOT NEED complicated functionalities and I strongly disagree with Laurence when he criticises the lack of some functionalities in Unifi product such a in the firewall. Unifi products are certainly not perfect but they do the job and match the requirement of the targeted customers. Both of you have forgotten to mention in this video that the targeted customers (SME and the consumer market) do not care about network latest functionalities, they only want a simple and reliable solution for their core business without spending a fortune on IT Geeks. Ubiquiti founder saw these opportunities and took it and this is where Unifi beats completely Cisco with their products range: 1/ there is no annual license fee, 2/ a centralised management console easily manageable for lot of people, 3/ a centralised management console which can be deployed even on non-Unifi products, 4/ a good range of products to cover the needs of the targeted customer (Network, AP, Cameras, VoIP, etc...) 5/ a good complement to Unifi range with their additional product ranges 6/ a true vision of the future with Connect or UIF I have 25 years of experience in IT and, honestly, I believe that Ubiquiti is one of the first brand to fully understand the need of SME and the consumer market.
@@jeremygmail I sort of disagree. But as you say the problem to be solved is important. At this price have nothing but praise for unifi WiFi AP. I would not hesitate to recommend this in an environment where networking competence is limited. Having said that I often curse them for good reason. But for wifi happily pay the unifi tax. We need a wide variety of switches. And don't buy unifi. Because we need sfp+ at a reasonable price. Wish they would focus more on the vasics, better variety of switches without the pro upsell... Sfp+ should be standard. A 16port switch with sfp+, a controller which is not beta software. Adoption which works more than 50% of the time. Let's just say there is not a good enough reason to not keep an eye out to look for a replacement at the moment.
I don't bother doing anything with Cisco licensing anymore. Each year I pay the fee and then raise a TAC call and let them sort it out. In my experience it typically takes their own licensing department between 1 and 2 weeks to sort it out. Why should I bother wasting that much time? The thing we all need to realise is that Cisco licensing exists for the sole and exclusive benefit of Cisco. It does nothing for me or my company. The products are good. That's why I use them. But the licensing is just a hindrance to the smooth operation of the equipment we have paid for. And I bet the marketing droid who decided to name that abomination "Smart Licensing" still chuckles to him / her self every night before bed. Hopefully, one day, Satan himself will develop an entirely new circle of hell just for that guy :)
@@aaronpower8741 Everything about Cisco is for the benefit of Cisco (and their stock price.) It doesn't really take 1-2weeks to "sort out", but it does take that long for anyone to get around to actually "doing" it. (they've made it enough of a pain that people - like you - just make them do it. they charge enough for everything, might as well.)
@@jfbeam hence why I replaced all 10 Cisco Meraki switches and 25 APs with TP-Link Omada at my company when I took over as the main IT guy. I told the management, no more bullshit expenses from Cisco... Now, the management folks are happy that they are out of that evil licensing fees bondage!
As a Cisco engineer just installed my first UniFi wireless fitout for a client due to the stock shortage. Easiest equipment to setup and affordability next to none. However the little issues and bugs I found along the way show it’s not enterprise equipment. But they doing some good stuff for affordability.
I feel this is the best take on Unifi. It’s a solid home and I’d argue SMB equipment vendor. Anything larger and the bugs and kamikaze style firmware releases hinder the equipment. That said I’ve found Aruba to be a nice enterprise vendor, I don’t buy HPE endpoints outside of switches and APs but they do both very well.
I agree, but they’ve improved significantly since when i started using it 2 years ago. A lot of bugs are gone. However, the quantity of bugs they still have don’t qualify them for enterprise solutions (yet). It’s just a pity that they don’t give a big priority to fixing this
if my job is on the line and i have to make a recommendation, hell i'd never recommend Ubiquiti. senior management all know and trust the Cisco brand (for better or worse) so that is always going to be my recommendation. if they aren't happy to see the running costs, that's when i start making suggestions like Fortinet, Palo Alto, etc. but yeah, Ubiquiti is not going to be high on that list.
@@derek400004 what would you recommend for a home user then? way eyeing a UDM pro SE + AP pros for my house...or are your recommendations commercial sector only?
@@CubeRhinoDev for home users like myself, i would prioritize performance and stability and use defense in depth as the mechanism instead (e.g. firewall and antivirus on computers, alongside a basic stateful firewall in the router). i personally had really great experience with Linksys and Synology routers.
Lawrence Systems is my goto support for anything Unifi or pfSense. I gave up on Ubiquiti support years ago! Anything I've ever needed to do, he's made a video for it. Best part is he gets to the point and walks you though it, not like some channels where they talk for 20 minutes and not really say anything... Thanks Tom! We switched out our Meraki equipment fo Unifi equipment and saved a fortune!
Hi David. I'm Brazilian and I work as a network analyst for some hospitals and also schools. In hospitals we use Cisco solutions for the Wi-Fi network, but in schools we are strongly considering using an all-Unifi network. I've been studying this change for a while and this video helped me further clarify my knowledge on the subject. I thank you so much for taking the time to help people and share your knowledge. I'm a big fan of your channel and I wish you much success.
What a great discussion in a professional way between Tom and David, well done to two guys that working in the industry and have a good product review for a IT pro way. Keep of the work Guys!
We went with Ubiquity for our wifi segment. It's purely an external segment and allows no internal traffic. The ease of setup and management was great. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with various projects and the absolute no brainer setup really made my life easy. Performance is great too. I recognize the limitations that you covered so well in this interview but, for the people like me who don't need anything really sophisticated, it's a great system.
One point we didn’t touch on which has saved our team a few times is the configs are stored on the controller. Any hardware failure you can just reload from the controller’s config backup. Transferring ownership of a full network infrastructure is a 5 min process. We started off as a Cisco shop and about 6 years ago switched over and haven’t looked back. The nail in the coffin was the “network shutdown” that takes place after a license expires on the Meraki platform.
We had a pretty broad range of switches and firewall brands here at the business I work at when I started 8 years ago heading up IT. Since then, I had changed the backbone of the network over to UniFi, from our gateway, switches, access points and also moved us to using UniFi Access for door control and Protect for camera coverage. Someday I may look into their phones but waiting to see how things progress on that front. I've loved working with their equipment.
I moved from a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 wireless router to a Ubiquiti Edgerouter ER-X and a Unifi AC-LR back in May of 2018 for my home use. They have been rock solid the entire time I've used them. I added a U6-Lite in January of 2021 bc I thought the AC-LR had gone bad. Turned out to be a bad POE injector. I even got my work to implement Unifi APs at all of our facilities bc of the value and not needing licensing for them. We've got around 25 APs now at work, and they work great. We don't have a high density environment, which helps, but we also have some older buildings that I've had to put multiple APs in to get the coverage needed. My biggest knock on Ubiquiti switches is they don't have any that provide full POE+, or POE++, across all ports. Doing VLANs is a bit strange to me on the Unifi switches as well, but I don't have much experience with the Unifi switch line either.
I moved from the same router a UDM Pro. Best choice ever for my home network. I added the 48 port PoE switch and that was kinda pricy, but it’s been worth it.
After working for Cisco, I was selected for a profile in Ubiquiti Inc. But didn't go for it since got an offer from Juniper networks. Have to say that Ubiquiti has good devices when it comes to small and medium size organizations. Also, the interview process is nice. Good to see another player in the market that people are getting to know more. P.S: As an EX Cisco TAC engineer. Even I didn't like configuring smart license on cisco devices (Similar for pretty much all the engineers).
@@davidbombal I am a network engineer and manage the network for a large company, 80 locations around the globe with 10,000 users. This network is 100% Catalyst switches and moving from Aironet to Catalyst Access points now. 9800 WLC, DNA Center, SmartNet and DNA CXEA agreements. Licensing and keeping track of SmartNet coverage was the hardest part of my job. Reach out to your Cisco account manager or SE and ask about the CXEA, this will help you on the smart licensing journey. I also recommend installing CSPC collector. That's my day job. For my off-hours work. I support several small business networks around my area. Unifi is absolutely my go-to choice to install and manage for small business customers.
Deployed a UniFi network with 30 APs using the Cloud key Gen2. Too many issues with the management software timing out or failing to respond. The scalability is nowhere near what could be called an enterprise network with the software issues we experienced. If we hosted the management on a server it may be a better product but that was not in the design of the network deployed. We also have issues with some switches failing to update the firmware. This video was spot on with the issues we experienced and definitely agree that Cisco has a better implementation of routing.
Tom stated the cloud key has a device limit of 25 or 30...and seemed to describe your exact flaky issues. Hardware has limitations, sounds like you just didn't do your homework. Tom stated he has sites with many hundreds of devices and he has hundreds of sites...sounds like the hardware is fine...but you're lacking the competency on the planning implementation and setup. Tom can help you with that
I run IT for two small businesses, got thrown into it kind of. They have UniFi and it was very simple to learn. It's uptimes are amazing as well. Easy upgrade process for the most part. Even the hardware part.
I've done a lot of Aruba and some Cisco Airespace. Just did a UniFi standalone installation and very impressed. Incredible simplicity and can't wait to see a UniFi console that looks more capable than Aruba. Maybe the enterprise printing and dot1x debugging isn't as robust but with the straight forward licensing, it's the way to go unless it's an S&P 500 business.
I’ve been a long term UniFi user. Last year due to limitations with the UDM Pro I installed an Cisco Rv345 firewall. About 1 month after I brought the rv345, Cisco EOL’ed it. Kind of a expensive device to only get 12 months usage out of. I would happily pay an annual fee to get security updates. It’s better than having paper weights. The short life span of the firewall has put me off buying anymore Cisco gear.UniFi for better or worse at least support there hardware for a longer time. Now to find another firewall, maybe pfsense.
I bet this is going to be a very interesting interview. Thank you both for this video. Unifi products (especially their wireless line-up) are affordable and suffice the needs of a small business. I was feeling bad that I could not catch up with your last interview with Chris yet, and thought it would be nice if you had a podcast - I could listen to it while commuting. Before requesting for it, I googled "David Bombal podcast" and found you already have it. I don't know what to tell except that you are Mr.Perfect. Really Appreciate what you do. Thank you!
Having used both but being a Cisco infrastructure guy for a long time.... I installed a number of Unifi U6-LR brand new models into our new office space along with a cloud key gen2 plus controller. Well priced, performance good, management OK.... Winner I thought, especially since I had a good experience with the original UAP Pro's at our old offices. However.... 3 months into use and I have never had so many unexplainable problems with a network component in my life. Drop outs, at random, various AP's falling offline, and a logging system so poor it may as well not exist. I ripped the whole lot out and replaced it with Cisco 9130 series AP's and associated controller. Works flawlessly, just cost me 4 times as much. Unifi is a TOY compared to Cisco and should be left at home for labbers to play with. Yeah its safe to say after 15 years professionally with Cisco in datacenters and office space... I have a real hatred for Unifi. Biggest problem with Cisco now? Their licensing.
We have 30 swtiches/APs at our site. Once we solved a problem with DHCP that always caused adoption issues, we have very few issues with unifi. (And thats running 6 VLANS)
Superb. Feels like an honest conversation. As a pro-sumer, I'll be absolutely clear, I'll never invest 4 figures into any network kit that needs a cloud account. Obviously it's different in industry, but from a home-user, I wouldn't trust a device that can't be locally controlled and managed. I look forward to seeing if the newer Cisco offering is worth investing in... I wouldn't have considered Cisco before hearing David's side of this vid.
This is a great Topic, I work for a Large scale communications Company in Canada and we sell many networks a week (founded in 1980) and used Cisco right up until 2018. Once we got a hand of the Unifi line we dropped Cisco almost the same day. Why? because when you buy cisco you never own it, it's rented. When you buy Unifi it's yours for life. You have freedom, when you can spend upwards of 5,000$ on a switch and have to deal with annoying license issues there is a problem. We will stick with the 1500$ Unifi switch that will smoke any Cisco in the same price range. it's better for us and the customer, this is not a Hit at Cisco but they made their bed. I often travel the world and when I walk into a business I always look to see what they are running and I see Unifi EVERYWHERE. Greed will kill Cisco and I am okay with that. Edit: 1 more thing I wanted to mention, I hear a lot of people mention that Unifi is only meant for Small to Medium businesses. I recently did a project for a school with 2,500 students consisting of 160 APs and 55 Switch's with the controller hosted on a small intel NUC and a Large Netgate Firewall and a 1Gbps dedicated fiber line. And over the past year, it has been absolutely flawless. I say in a few years you will see Unifi taking some larger market share of larger businesses
"Owning" it doesn't mean anything when the vendor is awful developing the firmware and software components. I would never consider their routing or switching gear. Hell no. Their is no comparison for quality of hardware and software.
@@0bsmith0 We received a new 2960x switch from Cisco directly about six months ago. Quality? Hah. They clearly had the day off. All the screws on the board in the switch were loose, with many rattling around in the case.
i would like just to say i had few Unifi AP's laying around (4 years old) and when i tried to install them, they wouldn't work on new controller, it was impossible due to EOL (END OF LIFE). So its not true that its "yours for life" if it simply doesnt work at all after the product is no longer supported.
Great video as always David! Like Tom, I have deployed these devices in school environments in the past and can confirm they are more than capable handling those kind of loads with seamless connectivity across campus and easy management. I have also had great success using these systems in BnB/guest house environments, restaurants etc. I have primarily a Cisco background, and to be honest its hard for me go back there with great Ubiquiti products like this.
@@wackzingo Yes I have, before Unifi was available I used RouterBoards with various antenna configurations including setups like point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links which worked great. The first Ubiquiti product I got my hands on was the Bullet M2 and from there on I slowly moved away from Mikrotik for Wi-Fi applications in favor of Ubiquiti. I still use Mikrotik routers in some applications like the RB750 mainly for small branch sites to create VPN links etc. At home I have a "hybrid" setup and use a Mikrotik RB4011 router with the Unifi Long Range AP's. I considered a Dream Machine however it lacks certain VPN capabilities I needed at the time. I have the Unifi APs broadcasting multiple SSID's each on their own VLAN to segment my IoT/Smart Home devices away from the private and guest networks and use the RB4011 to control inter-VLAN routing and to firewall each segment. Would have probably been more straight forward to setup if I used a Dream Machine, however, got the same results regardless.
@@lyalsaayman2711 thanks for the reply. I have a BS in Computer Science and work in Software engineering with a lot of experience in offensive security. What I don't have is a lot of hand-on experiencing configuring and managing networks. I'm leaning toward Mikrotik for a home lab/network just because they give so many advanced options to learn.
It used to be a selling point with Cisco that the only ongoing cost was an extended warranty if you wanted one making them the better option than Watchguard or other companies that charged an annual fee. Sure they were expensive but during the lifetime of the product they were a good value. Not any more. Since they bought Meraki it seems the cost never ends. We have been selling UniFi as well.
Indeed. Meraki hardware is nice, and the portal is top notch. However, _all_ of it is exceedingly expensive, and when they decide a device is EOL, it's a boat anchor. At least with Cisco-Cisco, the hardware will continue to function long after EOL. (esp the stuff older than the current dumb licensing crap.)
I work at an MSP, and my job is to choose the products and techs we use to implement services for our clients. We have thousands of managed APs around hundreds of clients of any size. Bothered to see tickets flooding in at every single unifi software upgrade, two years ago I ditched all the UniFi stuff for good, and replaced them all with EnGenius. Not a single WiFi problem ever since. It may depend on our installations, it may depend on your installations, it may depend on many things, and personal opinions maybe, but to me the above line is just facts.
Excited to see the review on the cisco business switches. I purchased a Unifi network setup only to see Cisco deploy their business edition 2 weeks later... haha nothing bad but I'm a cisco guy studying for my CCNP.
I deploy networks for restaurants, there’s lots of cctv a few tills,vlans and APs, unifi is perfect for this scenario, I don’t need anything fancy I just want it easy to setup and work consistently
For me the total lack of support and warranty on the unifi side is a no go. I had a switch 8 fail and they were unhelpful. I had a $400 8 port Cisco switch die (outside environment) and they shipped me a replacement the next day. Also it's really hard to find unifi equipment at the moment everything is out of stock. I can go to my reseller and order Cisco gear. It might take 6 months to get but at least I can order it.
As a guy who has VERY little knowledge about my own (I have a UDM Pro, and I have not read the manual), I understand the "ALLOW ALLOW" settings. If my devices have the freedom to talk to each other, it's easier for me to "figure out what's broken" during setup. Once I know that all my devices can talk to each other, I then can start to limit what traffic is allowed to move back and forth between them. Sounds like the program was written for users like me.
Great video guys. I come from corp and Cisco all my life. One of my friends have introduce me to Unifi. He knows that I have worked with Cisco all my life and would not look at Unifi. He took me on a few site installation with him. After the third 3 site I was hooked on how simple it was to deploy large scale enirovment. I now sell Unifi to my clients and love the way I can manage, monitor each client. Baie Dankie!!!
I've installed a second hand UAP last year and it's been running "so far" for 165 days straight without any problems. Been looking in to getting a second UAP for use in our summer house / garden and I think I'll stick with UniFi for access points. Eventhough the one I have is now labeled "obsolete" I'm happy with it and it just works.
Had to choose networking equipment recently for fitting out my new largish home and went with Unifi - 6x U6 Lite and 1x U6 LR with 1x Switch PoE and 1x Switch Pro all connected to a UDM Pro and an ER4 for load balancing. Totally satisfied by both the wired and wireless network coverage. Management is also a breeze.
I am a sales professional at a big VAR and everybody hates unifi here because there is simply no way to make money selling their equipment. I am one of the few guys here who actually understands they make excellent equipment just lack support and a myriad of layer 3 functionalities. Often times I end up recommending their gear simply because it doesn't make sense to buy a bunch of Meraki or fortinet equipment for the customer. Some of these Meraki renewals get stupid huge, like six figure renewals coming at ya left right and center. The reps love it here and I definitely wish I had more Meraki customers but at the end of the day I'm just grateful to have any customers at all haha!!
Seriously ?? What were you smoking when you pondered this question? I've has Ubiquiti APs since 2016, with no problems. Their unifi software to manage them however, now that's a different story. Would I replace my Ubiquiti APs with Cisco if money was not a consideration? You betcha, in a heart beat !
I got tired of the crap in the consumer market routers so I bought a unifi dream machine and it is heaven in terms of reliability and function. Well worth the money even for the home. I then bought the ubiquiti amplifi alien router which was expensive but well worth the money. Great stuff.
Great video. As a long-time UniFi user, I still learned several things from Tom. His explanations are very direct and clear. Thanks for hosting this discussion.
Cisco for work, Unifi for play. A company is only as good as its support. Over 23 years in business and cisco has never let me down. Agreed the licensing of products is a nightmare but when you have a problem it will be addressed in a timely manner. Good discussion.
I am in 22. minute of video and already got many answers for questions that I had when it comes to UniFi. Great job David and Tom. I like kind of transparency from Tom.
Another good interview I watch Lawrence as well both of you have good content, keep it coming. I use the unifi access points and found them very reliable to date, as for the key I run it on a raspberry pie no issues.
Software being buggy is an understatement. With Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus we noticed a ton of issues with statistics and monitoring. The support team has been working on this for a half year now, and it's still not done. I'm honestly waiting for Synology to do something other than a SOHO router as their hardware/software has been super solid.
I love your first comments on Cisco licensing. I was talking to Cisco tier 3 CCIE's on an issue when they were first introducing the model and they were confused. One of the comments from Cisco TAC was that they were going to have to create a CCIE (Just For Licensing)...... That's not a Cisco Engineer..... That's a "Car Salesman"! The Military needs to rethink their Cisco contract as it is becoming a Vulnerability in itself!
As a unifi user for 5 years, it's not just a conception that their software is buggy. It's a joke. They have multiple major release versions that get worked on simultaneously and none of them ever work right. They release new products with an entirely new OS without ever making the original Unifi stuff work correctly.
30:38 Wow, tell me about it brother. I used to have all these free CAD programs and now they want over 6k dollars for it. Licensing fees have gotten out of hand with every software out there. Great video David B. I will stick with Cisco gear. CCNA graduate here thanks to your training materials.
My clients' networks use a variety of firewalls and switches (I'm often times informed after the fact when a VoIP vendor comes in and replaces/augments existing infrastructure) but I've been installing UAPs for their wifi needs pretty much since they came on the market. For price/performance (and flat out performance), features, reliability, and ease of administration, they're hard to fault in my experience.
Converted my college from Aerohive to Ubiquiti for access points. Wish I would have switched my HP / Aruba to Ubiquiti's switches. Switched my firewall from a cisco asa5515 to an Edgerouter Infinity. Replaced 4 separate security camera systems with 1 central unifi system. The licensing savings paid for 92 AP's in just under two years. Every feature on the cisco firewall came with a licensing fee and the camera systems all were a monthly charge for crappy image quality. Very happy customer.
I have deployed several of these wifi networks in small offices. They are fantastic. There are two issues that must be realized if you support multiple businesses. 1. you have to keep the management interface completely separate. if you are used to managing your customer networks with a laptop or remotely using a VPN, it is important to keep the management separate by creating a separate windows user profile for each customer. There are other ways to do it, but this is how i started managing them and i just continued down that path. you cannot log on to the user interface and choose a customer to support, it is a 1:1 relationship, when you start the controller, it calls up your browser and it is what it is. The second thing, and this may have changed in the past year, is the POE power is not compatible with a lot of the layer 1 POE switches out there. So if you have a POE switch powering another brand of surveillance cameras for example, you cannot add Unifi cameras or APs and expect them to run using the same POE interface. Like i said, i think this problem may have been solved but a couple y ears ago i ran into some issues so i just make sure i use ubiquity POE devices to avoid any issues. That being said, having one controller that manages cameras and other IOT devices along with APs is really nice!
Hello David, I've been watching your videos for a year now and they have helped me a lot to perform in the area of networks, you are a great tutor and you have an excellent channel. greetings from Chile! thanks for your content.
I have to say, we use Unifi for our school, but we had to switch off the unifi camera system because it was too slow and eventually stopped working/connecting to the unifi network. The unifi networking system has been great overall though.
UniFi was made by ex-AirPort engineers? No kidding, and no WONDER it feels so much like the experience of using Apple’s routers/APs. As someone who swore by Apple‘s stuff for years, and reluctantly moved on to other solutions a few years ago (Netgear crap mostly), discovering and implementing a UniFi network over the past month (UDM Pro + U6 APs) has been so reminiscent of working with AirPort. Not to mention how much the packaging and unboxing experience is evocative of Apple’s. Of course, the UX is way more important than the packaging, but they really covered it from end to end, and from the first unboxing moment, you really know you’re dealing with something of high-quality. Absolutely fantastic first impression, and from my experience thus far, a lasting one due to the software.
I think of the best for small business is to set up a Firewall with a wi-fi controller embedded... no secrets, no complicated configs ...Fortinet is also a great vendor ...
@@davidbombal you are welcome. I know some people that use their products to network equipment over long distsnces, all over the air, for some fairly complex tasks. Their equipment is solid. I have zero experience with their products that compete with Cisco. The security cameras, dvr, and their antennas are amazing and super easy to setup and use. Why run cable when you can just beam the signal to where you want it.
@@jasonpitts8395 It depends on the use. We supply long distance point-to-point links using Ubiquti and Siklu equipment. Latency can become an issue with wireless links over long distances
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I always use Draytek routing with Unify APs and switching. Great partnership between brands 😁
everyone talking about cisco smart licensing being a pain in the rear but licensing is just one aspect of the whole. my past employer used unifi and cisco, we had some real old cisco & unifi switches on the racks and the closets temp were like up to 88F, not suited or ideal for any networking gear, the unifi switches were freeze and i constantly had to drive 20mi onsite to reboot, wasnt hard but gets frustrating. however the cisco switches on the same rack just keep on truckin, fans maybe loud but they just run so when it comes to durability, i say cisco. we also use unif APs and some would just shutdown on its own, then i gotta climb the latter to the ceiling tile and power cycle. most annoying thing is cloudkey, that thing took a dump 4 times--rescued it 3 times previously but couldnt bring it back to life on the 4th attempt. so we just use a wkstation as the controller to manage unfi gears. their support is not bad, chat only, couldnt talk to anybody live. now a contractor working for gov & some of their cisco gear is 20yrs+ but keeps on rollin. my old employer doesnt have anybody with cli skills so they now on cisco meraki, kinda pricey but runs good & they never had issues.
as a residential integration and home theater installer dependent on solid wifi equipment, I found managing Ubiquiti APs very difficult ..and I would consider my IT knowledge and experience as intermediate ... moved over to Ubiquiti Amplifi and sometimes Alien mesh wifi and have never had an issue since and the setup I could do with my eyes closed
I’ve worked with Ubnt gear since their very first nanostation. I’ve worked with Cisco and Aruba and MikroTik etc etc… One major reason we avoid Ubnt is their firmware and overall software development is a huge dumpster fire. I run thousands of units and have had to completely walk away from the Unifi line as it has left us high and dry on multiple occasions. It’s fine for a small building/home/business, but once you start touching on large scale developments it becomes a very scary game of chicken. I know that deploying a firmware upgrade is not going to brick my entire fleet with Cisco or Aruba… but I no longer have that faith with Ubnt. Coupled with the fact that there is nobody at Ubnt that I can call directly in a true emergency, outside of screaming forums of users…. You get what you paid for sadly.
I agree. The firmware and software from Ubiquiti is really buggy. I don't agree about home/business use. I need stuff that is reliable and works. Not buggy and broken.
Yes one of my friends in the early days deployed over 300 on one site what I nightmare. One of there high end Ubiquiti routers also lost it support, I mean no support whatsoever no more firmware updates????? May I also add, I feel the unifi user interface is a nightmare as far as web management, it is the worse I have ever worked with, it is so disjointed. Yes I was a big Ubiquiti fanboy. Not any more I have moved over to Linksys AP's. Cheaper faster and far far easier to setup and manage. I think Ubiquiti had a lot to offer when they first entered the market now there are lots of competition.
Ubiquity is definitely putting pressure on the market but you know who's putting the most pressure? TH-camrs like you and Tom who teach the general public how to do networking. "Tech enthusiast"is a growing community that sprouts people looking to make a home lab or that want a home network that is above "basic". Exponentially growing actually. So there's demand, and somebody WILL create supply to meet the demand. Speaking as a professional technician that is also a enthusiast , I'm very happy to not have to pay those markups for my own homelab. Unfortunately I've had the displeasure of working with a lot of greedy, slimy salesman over the years that have taken advantage of a lot of good people by charging a ridiculous amount and quite often also selling them stuff they didn't need. So cutting out those type of people whenever possible makes me very happy.
I went with Ubiquiti's UniFi line for my multi-location small business mostly because it has broad and comprehensive support (read TH-cam videos). My 20+ years of experience with Cisco is not a torture I'm willing to pass along to my heirs. Once I'm gone to the great cloud in the sky, I suspect that my kids can now contact someone like Tom to help with issues. Cisco? Not so much!
Having worked in Cisco TAC for quite some time I can tell you that troubleshooting SFP compatibility issues (even with Cisco certified SFPs) can be a painful process. I wouldn't like to do that with generic SFPs where there is no accountability - let alone a process - from the manufacturer to collaborate with Cisco in case of failures.
I run a 3 aps and 6 cameras with a cloud key. The big selling point for me was that I could keep the footage locally. I used dell switches though as you can get them dirt cheap off eBay.
When I got my very first UniFi WAP (UAC-AP-Lite) all those years ago, I had to log into the CLI for the WAP in order to update the LED status as the controller software at the time didn't expose it. That particular functionality always survived controller changes and reboots of the WAP. Then the controller UI gained the ability and I no longer needed to log into it. Though I really do wish the switches had the ability to turn the LEDs off, my office is like an Australia Day fireworks night when I turn the lights off at night time :P I have the Unifi Cloud Key Gen 2 here at home which works very nicely, we also have it at work, but with all the WAPs and switches we now have, the poor UCKG2 screams in agony and rarely allows you to open the web interface due to the number of devices. So we are aiming to move the controller to a VM soon. I didn't start with the cloud key here at home, I had a WAP and a switch and the controller on a windows server, migrating to the cloud key wasn't too bad, but they made it seem like you absolutely had to have a Unifi account and didn't make it immediately obvious that you could go with just a local login. So I started with the Unifi account, and eventually found out how to move back to a local account.
Thank you, gentlemen! I will be installing a full network in a new building for a contractor and this video answered almost all of my questions. Thanks again. As for SonicWall contention with UniFi aggregation switch, I have a long story about that, BUT with a successful solution that I created. Film at 11.
as a home user that just needs something that works I've been very happy with my dream machine, 8 port poe switch and flex switch combo. A lot less fiddling for what I need to do and I've just had very little issues with it over all.
I run my controller on a Raspberry Pi and its pretty stable. The ap firmware versions can be weird especially 2.4ghz so read the forum before updating or just stay on an old firmware.
Thanks gents this was a great one just a heads up Meraki inter vlan routing is also allow by default you have to create rules to block it. Unless they have changed it with a recent firmware update. Im refering to the routing section at 18:05
I hate the whole meraki philosophy where your equipment goes offline when the license expires. Unifi is great for home use but in business setups the aruba instant on line has more features full layer 3 support and decent product support. Cisco ended the rv router line I wonder when a new product line will replace them. I have a cisco sg350x-24p switch and that’s a great piece of equipment.
I think many people agree agree with you Andre. Cisco haven't told me which router will replace the RV line. Hopefully they'll release an updated product soon. Agreed about the Cisco 350.
Cisco has been on a mission to simplify licensing for years... and the "simpler" they make it, the more complicated, convoluted and expensive it gets. The Cisco/Meraki gear is all gone now, replaced with Unify WiFi and PFSense. All is well. No subscriptions and thus far no regrets.
Just starting the video, but gotta say, I love my Unifi gear. There's some stuff I wish was better about it (old interface vs new interface, I'm looking at you. DECOM THE OLD ONE AND ADD ALL THE MISSING STUFF ASAP. ITS BEEN YEARS) -- but that said, it's really solid kit.
UniFi vs other solutions really depends on business needs. It all has to do with required feature sets and need for support. I would say UniFi is an excellent and affordable solution for most SMBs but it isn't ready for the vast majority of enterprise level customers.
I hear you. I’m looking to grab me a 4 drive UNVR and get away from my Blue Iris home made server. I bought the $1800 PTV camera as it was the only one in stock and I have the UDM Pro with 1 drive to get the Protect experience which I like. My $100 Amcrest cameras although cheap do look really cheap compared the the PTV. Problem is nothing is ever in stock. They had the G4 pro in stock yesterday and by the time I got home they were sold out.
The Aruba Product line is absolutely the best, you get the best of both worlds, ease of use and transfer of ownership, and your network stays up even when licenses expire, very robust config capabilities ,all cloud managed in Central. Ive had good experiences with Aruba. Unifi is a close second except i wouldnt say it is as robust as aruba so it is better in a small to medium sized business setting. Cisco equipment was always the best until they decided to screw you with the licenses, from a config standpoint they are still superior though.
Dont forget there is a Docker version of controller. If you have a NAS you can run the controller on it. Also the Edge router is a great add-on for the Unifi system to get WAN-LAN and Guest-Internal network routing.
Found a USG at a bargain store NIB for $80.....picked it up along with a WIFI 6 lite from Amazon. After many years of hearing about how good unifi is I am finally going to make the move..
Honestly the question "WiFi has changed: Is UniFi better than Cisco?" is totally a dumb question or maybe it is intentional to get viewers on your channel. the range Unifi of Ubiquiti is targeting a market segment that Cisco intentionally ignored and treated with contempt: SME and the consumer market. Cisco like other lived on its assets, they did not see the market evolving outside its privileged sectors and did not understand that there was a real demand in its 2 sectors for simple and reliable products, not requiring CCNA-certified engineers (which cost a fortune) to set up an efficient network architecture. SME and the consumer market ARE NOT looking for complex products with complicated CLI commands, or some kind of network certification, they DO NOT NEED complicated functionalities and I strongly disagree with Laurence when he criticises the lack of some functionalities in Unifi product such a in the firewall. Unifi products are certainly not perfect but they do the job and match the requirement of the targeted customers. Both of you have forgotten to mention in this video that the targeted customers (SME and the consumer market) do not care about network latest functionalities, they only want a simple and reliable solution for their core business without spending a fortune on IT Geeks. Ubiquiti founder saw these opportunities and took it and this is where Unifi beats completely Cisco with their products range: 1/ there is no annual license fee, 2/ a centralised management console easily manageable for lot of people, 3/ a centralised management console which can be deployed even on non-Unifi products, 4/ a good range of products to cover the needs of the targeted customer (Network, AP, Cameras, VoIP, etc...) 5/ a good complement to Unifi range with their additional product ranges 6/ a true vision of the future with Connect or UIF I have 25 years of experience in IT and, honestly, I believe that Ubiquiti is one of the first brand to fully understand the need of SME and the consumer market.
I will say I've had Meraki replace dead APs with newer models as the original was at the end of life. So the license does have a benefit. That being said my parent company has a large negotiated discount on all cisco gear. Makes the price more manageable.
We paid for support on some old cisco aps, turns out a lot of them reached end of life in december and they will not replace them under warranty even while we're paying the support...
Cisco is for large operators, last job I had my cellular operator hired 6 guys from Cisco full time for managing the Cisco products. They are stable but a lot of cost for licensing. ubiquity is simple and not expensive. HW wise, I'm not sure how they hold but they are cheap. for a small enterprise...no-brainer to go Ubuiquity
Just be aware of the cloud key for any larger (more than 10) deployments. The gen 1 and gen 2 are extremely fickle. I have 8 sites I manage and removed all the cloud keys because they crashed on me and wouldnt work. The backups arent really backups, they backup your configuration but none of the devices (devices still work but cannot add more). Yes you can remote into the devices and change their site but I havent had alot of success. Normally when that happens I have to go to all devices, factory reset and re-add them. Now I put all sites on one VM stored on a laptop that I bring to site. It doesnt allow me to get historical traffic patterns. If I need that I will leave the laptop on at site for a few days to gather information. Other than that Unifi is fantastic. The drop ceiling mounts are a real pain to deal with especially if you need to change them, as much as possible I try to put it in drywall.
Is UniFi better than Cisco? What's great about UniFi and what's not? Tom Lawrence tells us his thoughts about UniFi WiFi, switches, routing and other products.
// MENU //
00:00 ▶ Cisco licenses are a nightmare
01:00 ▶ Tom Lawrence & Unifi
03:12 ▶ Difference between Unifi & Ubiquiti
05:56 ▶ Tailored for WISP
07:08 ▶ Cisco Business
09:08 ▶ Configuring Unifi switches & access points
10:09 ▶ Terrible Unifi support
11:51 ▶ Making money resetting to default
12:10 ▶ Do the devices have CLI?
13:09 ▶ Web-browser on Unifi devices
13:30 ▶ Unifi Controller
16:28 ▶ Unifi Consoles
18:05 ▶ Unifi Routing
21:16 ▶ Do the switches support routing?
22:59 ▶ Unifi switches as layer 2 switches
24:12 ▶ Unifi USG
26:46 ▶ Pros and Cons of Unifi
33:49 ▶ Buggy Ubiquiti software
35:52 ▶ Confidence in Unifi
37:44 ▶ Access Points rule of thumb
38:42 ▶ Advantages of Ubiquiti
43:17 ▶ "The world is changing"
45:13 ▶ Running the controller without a Unifi account
47:19 ▶ Vlans & Routing
50:23 ▶ Unifi Switches
54:23 ▶ Unifi 6 Access Points
57:43 ▶ Recommended products
01:01:56 ▶ Unifi firmware updates
01:02:55 ▶ Inexpensive options
01:05:04 ▶ Third-party support
01:06:12 ▶ Unifi 6 Long Range
01:07:22 ▶ Unifi Camera
01:10:42 ▶ Closing thoughts and recommendations
01:11:26 ▶ Conclusion
For Transparency: Both Ubiquity and Cisco have given me products. Ubiquity have never paid me money for any video (but Cisco have sponsored videos in the past).
// Videos mentioned //
Hackersploit: th-cam.com/video/yYY5mJoUZjU/w-d-xo.html
Eric: th-cam.com/video/cMR19vkNqS8/w-d-xo.html
// Books Mentioned //
Privilege Escalation Techniques: amzn.to/3FUDcLO
Mastering Python Networking: amzn.to/3MkaZQN
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Unify is not better than Cisco, specifically Unifi has weak ciphers that cannot be remediated via SSH. Until Unifi allow you to modify these vulnerabilities, it will never be better than Cisco.
Honestly the question "WiFi has changed: Is UniFi better than Cisco?" is totally a dumb question or maybe it is intentional to get viewers on your channel. the range Unifi of Ubiquiti is targeting a market segment that Cisco intentionally ignored and treated with contempt: SME and the consumer market.
Cisco like other lived on its assets, they did not see the market evolving outside its privileged sectors and did not understand that there was a real demand in its 2 sectors for simple and reliable products, not requiring CCNA-certified engineers (which cost a fortune) to set up an efficient network architecture. SME and the consumer market ARE NOT looking for complex products with complicated CLI commands, or some kind of network certification, they DO NOT NEED complicated functionalities and I strongly disagree with Laurence when he criticises the lack of some functionalities in Unifi product such a in the firewall. Unifi products are certainly not perfect but they do the job and match the requirement of the targeted customers.
Both of you have forgotten to mention in this video that the targeted customers (SME and the consumer market) do not care about network latest functionalities, they only want a simple and reliable solution for their core business without spending a fortune on IT Geeks.
Ubiquiti founder saw these opportunities and took it and this is where Unifi beats completely Cisco with their products range:
1/ there is no annual license fee,
2/ a centralised management console easily manageable for lot of people,
3/ a centralised management console which can be deployed even on non-Unifi products,
4/ a good range of products to cover the needs of the targeted customer (Network, AP, Cameras, VoIP, etc...)
5/ a good complement to Unifi range with their additional product ranges
6/ a true vision of the future with Connect or UIF
I have 25 years of experience in IT and, honestly, I believe that Ubiquiti is one of the first brand to fully understand the need of SME and the consumer market.
@@ericrsa2348 I was going to say something like this but you nailed it. Apples to Oranges comparison here. Thank you for the thoughtful response.
@@jeremygmail
I sort of disagree. But as you say the problem to be solved is important. At this price have nothing but praise for unifi WiFi AP. I would not hesitate to recommend this in an environment where networking competence is limited.
Having said that I often curse them for good reason.
But for wifi happily pay the unifi tax.
We need a wide variety of switches. And don't buy unifi. Because we need sfp+ at a reasonable price.
Wish they would focus more on the vasics, better variety of switches without the pro upsell... Sfp+ should be standard. A 16port switch with sfp+, a controller which is not beta software. Adoption which works more than 50% of the time.
Let's just say there is not a good enough reason to not keep an eye out to look for a replacement at the moment.
They both sucks, Unifi have horrible DHCP related bugs for over 5 years without fix, Cisco has problems with random Apple devices since forever.
Thanks for having me on and this was a fun interview. Looking forward to more in depth discussions!
Thanks so much for once again sharing your knowledge and experience with all of us Tom!
I LOVE your talks with David, thanks for making the time to give us your insight! you both rock!
Please god yes! UniFi on Windows is never fun! Ubuntu all the way!
@@davidbombal Ik
cisco became woke
As a new UniFi adopter, it’s always fascinating to watch videos from 2 and 3 years ago to understand just how far this product line has come.
Timing is everything. I'm working on getting a smart license installed on a Cisco box. It's a nightmare. Thanks, David.
You're welcome Joe!
Cisco is a nightmare! :)
I don't bother doing anything with Cisco licensing anymore. Each year I pay the fee and then raise a TAC call and let them sort it out. In my experience it typically takes their own licensing department between 1 and 2 weeks to sort it out. Why should I bother wasting that much time?
The thing we all need to realise is that Cisco licensing exists for the sole and exclusive benefit of Cisco. It does nothing for me or my company. The products are good. That's why I use them. But the licensing is just a hindrance to the smooth operation of the equipment we have paid for.
And I bet the marketing droid who decided to name that abomination "Smart Licensing" still chuckles to him / her self every night before bed. Hopefully, one day, Satan himself will develop an entirely new circle of hell just for that guy :)
@@aaronpower8741 Everything about Cisco is for the benefit of Cisco (and their stock price.) It doesn't really take 1-2weeks to "sort out", but it does take that long for anyone to get around to actually "doing" it. (they've made it enough of a pain that people - like you - just make them do it. they charge enough for everything, might as well.)
@@jfbeam hence why I replaced all 10 Cisco Meraki switches and 25 APs with TP-Link Omada at my company when I took over as the main IT guy. I told the management, no more bullshit expenses from Cisco... Now, the management folks are happy that they are out of that evil licensing fees bondage!
As a Cisco engineer just installed my first UniFi wireless fitout for a client due to the stock shortage. Easiest equipment to setup and affordability next to none. However the little issues and bugs I found along the way show it’s not enterprise equipment. But they doing some good stuff for affordability.
I feel this is the best take on Unifi. It’s a solid home and I’d argue SMB equipment vendor. Anything larger and the bugs and kamikaze style firmware releases hinder the equipment.
That said I’ve found Aruba to be a nice enterprise vendor, I don’t buy HPE endpoints outside of switches and APs but they do both very well.
I agree, but they’ve improved significantly since when i started using it 2 years ago. A lot of bugs are gone. However, the quantity of bugs they still have don’t qualify them for enterprise solutions (yet). It’s just a pity that they don’t give a big priority to fixing this
if my job is on the line and i have to make a recommendation, hell i'd never recommend Ubiquiti. senior management all know and trust the Cisco brand (for better or worse) so that is always going to be my recommendation. if they aren't happy to see the running costs, that's when i start making suggestions like Fortinet, Palo Alto, etc. but yeah, Ubiquiti is not going to be high on that list.
@@derek400004 what would you recommend for a home user then? way eyeing a UDM pro SE + AP pros for my house...or are your recommendations commercial sector only?
@@CubeRhinoDev for home users like myself, i would prioritize performance and stability and use defense in depth as the mechanism instead (e.g. firewall and antivirus on computers, alongside a basic stateful firewall in the router). i personally had really great experience with Linksys and Synology routers.
Lawrence Systems is my goto support for anything Unifi or pfSense. I gave up on Ubiquiti support years ago! Anything I've ever needed to do, he's made a video for it. Best part is he gets to the point and walks you though it, not like some channels where they talk for 20 minutes and not really say anything... Thanks Tom! We switched out our Meraki equipment fo Unifi equipment and saved a fortune!
Hi David. I'm Brazilian and I work as a network analyst for some hospitals and also schools. In hospitals we use Cisco solutions for the Wi-Fi network, but in schools we are strongly considering using an all-Unifi network. I've been studying this change for a while and this video helped me further clarify my knowledge on the subject. I thank you so much for taking the time to help people and share your knowledge. I'm a big fan of your channel and I wish you much success.
What a great discussion in a professional way between Tom and David, well done to two guys that working in the industry and have a good product review for a IT pro way. Keep of the work Guys!
We went with Ubiquity for our wifi segment. It's purely an external segment and allows no internal traffic. The ease of setup and management was great. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with various projects and the absolute no brainer setup really made my life easy. Performance is great too. I recognize the limitations that you covered so well in this interview but, for the people like me who don't need anything really sophisticated, it's a great system.
Best collaboration video from two of the most industry relevant youtubers IMO.
Awesome job guys, love your work!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
One point we didn’t touch on which has saved our team a few times is the configs are stored on the controller. Any hardware failure you can just reload from the controller’s config backup. Transferring ownership of a full network infrastructure is a 5 min process. We started off as a Cisco shop and about 6 years ago switched over and haven’t looked back. The nail in the coffin was the “network shutdown” that takes place after a license expires on the Meraki platform.
Thank you for sharing your experience Ramon!
Hilariously bad. I love my backups too. I had to reset to default after i lost my password. Boom back up in seconds.
Meraki... making solid gold boat anchors every day.
I helped a friend upgrade from the old USG-Pro to a Dream Machine SE. All we had to do was load the backup on the SE and it was up and running.
We had a pretty broad range of switches and firewall brands here at the business I work at when I started 8 years ago heading up IT. Since then, I had changed the backbone of the network over to UniFi, from our gateway, switches, access points and also moved us to using UniFi Access for door control and Protect for camera coverage. Someday I may look into their phones but waiting to see how things progress on that front. I've loved working with their equipment.
I moved from a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 wireless router to a Ubiquiti Edgerouter ER-X and a Unifi AC-LR back in May of 2018 for my home use. They have been rock solid the entire time I've used them. I added a U6-Lite in January of 2021 bc I thought the AC-LR had gone bad. Turned out to be a bad POE injector. I even got my work to implement Unifi APs at all of our facilities bc of the value and not needing licensing for them. We've got around 25 APs now at work, and they work great. We don't have a high density environment, which helps, but we also have some older buildings that I've had to put multiple APs in to get the coverage needed.
My biggest knock on Ubiquiti switches is they don't have any that provide full POE+, or POE++, across all ports. Doing VLANs is a bit strange to me on the Unifi switches as well, but I don't have much experience with the Unifi switch line either.
are you using "smart queues"?
@@davetaht4989 I am not
I moved from the same router a UDM Pro. Best choice ever for my home network.
I added the 48 port PoE switch and that was kinda pricy, but it’s been worth it.
I have been running UniFi/EdgeMax for about 5 years in my home. Fantastic reliability. This interview strengthened my confidence, great info! Thanks!
Thank you for sharing your experience :)
After working for Cisco, I was selected for a profile in Ubiquiti Inc. But didn't go for it since got an offer from Juniper networks. Have to say that Ubiquiti has good devices when it comes to small and medium size organizations. Also, the interview process is nice. Good to see another player in the market that people are getting to know more.
P.S: As an EX Cisco TAC engineer. Even I didn't like configuring smart license on cisco devices (Similar for pretty much all the engineers).
Great comment Rajat! Thank you for sharing your experience with us!
My company has started licensing our Cisco devices with smart licensing and it’s quite annoying.
@@davidbombal I am a network engineer and manage the network for a large company, 80 locations around the globe with 10,000 users. This network is 100% Catalyst switches and moving from Aironet to Catalyst Access points now. 9800 WLC, DNA Center, SmartNet and DNA CXEA agreements. Licensing and keeping track of SmartNet coverage was the hardest part of my job. Reach out to your Cisco account manager or SE and ask about the CXEA, this will help you on the smart licensing journey. I also recommend installing CSPC collector.
That's my day job. For my off-hours work. I support several small business networks around my area. Unifi is absolutely my go-to choice to install and manage for small business customers.
Deployed a UniFi network with 30 APs using the Cloud key Gen2. Too many issues with the management software timing out or failing to respond. The scalability is nowhere near what could be called an enterprise network with the software issues we experienced. If we hosted the management on a server it may be a better product but that was not in the design of the network deployed. We also have issues with some switches failing to update the firmware. This video was spot on with the issues we experienced and definitely agree that Cisco has a better implementation of routing.
Tom stated the cloud key has a device limit of 25 or 30...and seemed to describe your exact flaky issues. Hardware has limitations, sounds like you just didn't do your homework. Tom stated he has sites with many hundreds of devices and he has hundreds of sites...sounds like the hardware is fine...but you're lacking the competency on the planning implementation and setup. Tom can help you with that
LMAO imagine deploying thousands of dollars worth of AP's and expecting a $200 device with a phone charger for power input to handle all of it 😆
I run IT for two small businesses, got thrown into it kind of. They have UniFi and it was very simple to learn. It's uptimes are amazing as well. Easy upgrade process for the most part. Even the hardware part.
Lol as a cable guy and tech the hardware part is the easy. Vlans still go over my head. I mean I know the concept it’s easy but never tried it
I've done a lot of Aruba and some Cisco Airespace. Just did a UniFi standalone installation and very impressed. Incredible simplicity and can't wait to see a UniFi console that looks more capable than Aruba. Maybe the enterprise printing and dot1x debugging isn't as robust but with the straight forward licensing, it's the way to go unless it's an S&P 500 business.
I’ve been a long term UniFi user. Last year due to limitations with the UDM Pro I installed an Cisco Rv345 firewall. About 1 month after I brought the rv345, Cisco EOL’ed it. Kind of a expensive device to only get 12 months usage out of. I would happily pay an annual fee to get security updates. It’s better than having paper weights. The short life span of the firewall has put me off buying anymore Cisco gear.UniFi for better or worse at least support there hardware for a longer time. Now to find another firewall, maybe pfsense.
Man I just started this video but I already know I’m going to enjoy it. I love these interview series you are doing.
I bet this is going to be a very interesting interview. Thank you both for this video. Unifi products (especially their wireless line-up) are affordable and suffice the needs of a small business.
I was feeling bad that I could not catch up with your last interview with Chris yet, and thought it would be nice if you had a podcast - I could listen to it while commuting. Before requesting for it, I googled "David Bombal podcast" and found you already have it. I don't know what to tell except that you are Mr.Perfect. Really Appreciate what you do. Thank you!
Thank you so much Vyas! :)
Having used both but being a Cisco infrastructure guy for a long time.... I installed a number of Unifi U6-LR brand new models into our new office space along with a cloud key gen2 plus controller. Well priced, performance good, management OK.... Winner I thought, especially since I had a good experience with the original UAP Pro's at our old offices.
However.... 3 months into use and I have never had so many unexplainable problems with a network component in my life. Drop outs, at random, various AP's falling offline, and a logging system so poor it may as well not exist.
I ripped the whole lot out and replaced it with Cisco 9130 series AP's and associated controller. Works flawlessly, just cost me 4 times as much.
Unifi is a TOY compared to Cisco and should be left at home for labbers to play with.
Yeah its safe to say after 15 years professionally with Cisco in datacenters and office space... I have a real hatred for Unifi.
Biggest problem with Cisco now? Their licensing.
We have 30 swtiches/APs at our site. Once we solved a problem with DHCP that always caused adoption issues, we have very few issues with unifi. (And thats running 6 VLANS)
Superb. Feels like an honest conversation. As a pro-sumer, I'll be absolutely clear, I'll never invest 4 figures into any network kit that needs a cloud account. Obviously it's different in industry, but from a home-user, I wouldn't trust a device that can't be locally controlled and managed. I look forward to seeing if the newer Cisco offering is worth investing in... I wouldn't have considered Cisco before hearing David's side of this vid.
This is a great Topic, I work for a Large scale communications Company in Canada and we sell many networks a week (founded in 1980) and used Cisco right up until 2018. Once we got a hand of the Unifi line we dropped Cisco almost the same day. Why? because when you buy cisco you never own it, it's rented. When you buy Unifi it's yours for life. You have freedom, when you can spend upwards of 5,000$ on a switch and have to deal with annoying license issues there is a problem. We will stick with the 1500$ Unifi switch that will smoke any Cisco in the same price range. it's better for us and the customer, this is not a Hit at Cisco but they made their bed. I often travel the world and when I walk into a business I always look to see what they are running and I see Unifi EVERYWHERE. Greed will kill Cisco and I am okay with that.
Edit: 1 more thing I wanted to mention, I hear a lot of people mention that Unifi is only meant for Small to Medium businesses. I recently did a project for a school with 2,500 students consisting of 160 APs and 55 Switch's with the controller hosted on a small intel NUC and a Large Netgate Firewall and a 1Gbps dedicated fiber line. And over the past year, it has been absolutely flawless. I say in a few years you will see Unifi taking some larger market share of larger businesses
"Owning" it doesn't mean anything when the vendor is awful developing the firmware and software components. I would never consider their routing or switching gear. Hell no. Their is no comparison for quality of hardware and software.
@@0bsmith0 We received a new 2960x switch from Cisco directly about six months ago. Quality? Hah. They clearly had the day off. All the screws on the board in the switch were loose, with many rattling around in the case.
@@mrdanomac7937 So some super rare unicorn occurrence. As opposed to Ubiquiti just plain building the product low quality from the initial design.
i would like just to say i had few Unifi AP's laying around (4 years old) and when i tried to install them, they wouldn't work on new controller, it was impossible due to EOL (END OF LIFE). So its not true that its "yours for life" if it simply doesnt work at all after the product is no longer supported.
@@brunos7995 Ya, they have EOL'd I think two generations of APs.
Great video as always David! Like Tom, I have deployed these devices in school environments in the past and can confirm they are more than capable handling those kind of loads with seamless connectivity across campus and easy management. I have also had great success using these systems in BnB/guest house environments, restaurants etc. I have primarily a Cisco background, and to be honest its hard for me go back there with great Ubiquiti products like this.
Have you used MikroTik?
@@wackzingo Yes I have, before Unifi was available I used RouterBoards with various antenna configurations including setups like point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links which worked great. The first Ubiquiti product I got my hands on was the Bullet M2 and from there on I slowly moved away from Mikrotik for Wi-Fi applications in favor of Ubiquiti. I still use Mikrotik routers in some applications like the RB750 mainly for small branch sites to create VPN links etc. At home I have a "hybrid" setup and use a Mikrotik RB4011 router with the Unifi Long Range AP's. I considered a Dream Machine however it lacks certain VPN capabilities I needed at the time. I have the Unifi APs broadcasting multiple SSID's each on their own VLAN to segment my IoT/Smart Home devices away from the private and guest networks and use the RB4011 to control inter-VLAN routing and to firewall each segment. Would have probably been more straight forward to setup if I used a Dream Machine, however, got the same results regardless.
@@lyalsaayman2711 thanks for the reply. I have a BS in Computer Science and work in Software engineering with a lot of experience in offensive security. What I don't have is a lot of hand-on experiencing configuring and managing networks. I'm leaning toward Mikrotik for a home lab/network just because they give so many advanced options to learn.
It used to be a selling point with Cisco that the only ongoing cost was an extended warranty if you wanted one making them the better option than Watchguard or other companies that charged an annual fee. Sure they were expensive but during the lifetime of the product they were a good value. Not any more. Since they bought Meraki it seems the cost never ends. We have been selling UniFi as well.
I think a lot of people would agree with you.
I really like D-Link Nuclias Cloud as it’s got the benefit of limited lifetime warranty without Cisco pricing.
Indeed. Meraki hardware is nice, and the portal is top notch. However, _all_ of it is exceedingly expensive, and when they decide a device is EOL, it's a boat anchor. At least with Cisco-Cisco, the hardware will continue to function long after EOL. (esp the stuff older than the current dumb licensing crap.)
I work at an MSP, and my job is to choose the products and techs we use to implement services for our clients. We have thousands of managed APs around hundreds of clients of any size. Bothered to see tickets flooding in at every single unifi software upgrade, two years ago I ditched all the UniFi stuff for good, and replaced them all with EnGenius. Not a single WiFi problem ever since.
It may depend on our installations, it may depend on your installations, it may depend on many things, and personal opinions maybe, but to me the above line is just facts.
Excited to see the review on the cisco business switches. I purchased a Unifi network setup only to see Cisco deploy their business edition 2 weeks later... haha nothing bad but I'm a cisco guy studying for my CCNP.
David: I'm not being paid by Cisco
Also David in the very next sentence: I'm being paid by cisco
Merchandise is payment, both legally and morally
I deploy networks for restaurants, there’s lots of cctv a few tills,vlans and APs, unifi is perfect for this scenario, I don’t need anything fancy I just want it easy to setup and work consistently
Thank you for sharing your experience Alex
For me the total lack of support and warranty on the unifi side is a no go. I had a switch 8 fail and they were unhelpful. I had a $400 8 port Cisco switch die (outside environment) and they shipped me a replacement the next day.
Also it's really hard to find unifi equipment at the moment everything is out of stock. I can go to my reseller and order Cisco gear. It might take 6 months to get but at least I can order it.
As a guy who has VERY little knowledge about my own (I have a UDM Pro, and I have not read the manual), I understand the "ALLOW ALLOW" settings. If my devices have the freedom to talk to each other, it's easier for me to "figure out what's broken" during setup. Once I know that all my devices can talk to each other, I then can start to limit what traffic is allowed to move back and forth between them. Sounds like the program was written for users like me.
Great video guys. I come from corp and Cisco all my life. One of my friends have introduce me to Unifi. He knows that I have worked with Cisco all my life and would not look at Unifi. He took me on a few site installation with him. After the third 3 site I was hooked on how simple it was to deploy large scale enirovment. I now sell Unifi to my clients and love the way I can manage, monitor each client. Baie Dankie!!!
No wonder cisco come out with the 1000 series
I've installed a second hand UAP last year and it's been running "so far" for 165 days straight without any problems.
Been looking in to getting a second UAP for use in our summer house / garden and I think I'll stick with UniFi for access points.
Eventhough the one I have is now labeled "obsolete" I'm happy with it and it just works.
You should do a follow-up on this. Setting up a third party VPN is not difficult and openVPN absolutely works on the udm-pro.
Had to choose networking equipment recently for fitting out my new largish home and went with Unifi - 6x U6 Lite and 1x U6 LR with 1x Switch PoE and 1x Switch Pro all connected to a UDM Pro and an ER4 for load balancing. Totally satisfied by both the wired and wireless network coverage. Management is also a breeze.
are you using smart queues?
@@davetaht4989 No! Don't have any real need in a 3 person home.
I am a sales professional at a big VAR and everybody hates unifi here because there is simply no way to make money selling their equipment. I am one of the few guys here who actually understands they make excellent equipment just lack support and a myriad of layer 3 functionalities. Often times I end up recommending their gear simply because it doesn't make sense to buy a bunch of Meraki or fortinet equipment for the customer.
Some of these Meraki renewals get stupid huge, like six figure renewals coming at ya left right and center. The reps love it here and I definitely wish I had more Meraki customers but at the end of the day I'm just grateful to have any customers at all haha!!
Large enterprises are moving to either Cisco Meraki or Juniper Mist for new WAPs solutions. (I work for a large enterprise integrator)
I run a small ad agency and Ubiquiti Unifi has allowed us to set up and manage our own network without needing a network engineer. Love it.
Thank you so much Grandpa🤗
Seriously ?? What were you smoking when you pondered this question?
I've has Ubiquiti APs since 2016, with no problems. Their unifi software to manage them however, now that's a different story.
Would I replace my Ubiquiti APs with Cisco if money was not a consideration? You betcha, in a heart beat !
I got tired of the crap in the consumer market routers so I bought a unifi dream machine and it is heaven in terms of reliability and function. Well worth the money even for the home. I then bought the ubiquiti amplifi alien router which was expensive but well worth the money. Great stuff.
Hate to break it to you but Unifi IS consumer crap. Comparing Unifi to Cisco is like comparing a Moped to a BMW.
@@tomstruble7380 it works far better than any other consumer device I have owned.
Great video. As a long-time UniFi user, I still learned several things from Tom. His explanations are very direct and clear. Thanks for hosting this discussion.
Amazing value, fellas. I’m so glad I found both your channels. Just a wealth of incredibly useful information. Thank you for doing what you do.
Cisco for work, Unifi for play. A company is only as good as its support. Over 23 years in business and cisco has never let me down. Agreed the licensing of products is a nightmare but when you have a problem it will be addressed in a timely manner. Good discussion.
I am in 22. minute of video and already got many answers for questions that I had when it comes to UniFi. Great job David and Tom. I like kind of transparency from Tom.
Another good interview I watch Lawrence as well both of you have good content, keep it coming. I use the unifi access points and found them very reliable to date, as for the key I run it on a raspberry pie no issues.
Software being buggy is an understatement. With Cloud Key Gen 2 Plus we noticed a ton of issues with statistics and monitoring. The support team has been working on this for a half year now, and it's still not done. I'm honestly waiting for Synology to do something other than a SOHO router as their hardware/software has been super solid.
Unifi is not enterprise it’s prosumer on a good day. There’s a reason it’s dirt cheap
@@clipdebeats you might be absolutely right, but Synology is still cheaper, but they deliver quality product
Do you have overheating issues? I know the battery is a risk.
I love your first comments on Cisco licensing. I was talking to Cisco tier 3 CCIE's on an issue when they were first introducing the model and they were confused. One of the comments from Cisco TAC was that they were going to have to create a CCIE (Just For Licensing)...... That's not a Cisco Engineer..... That's a "Car Salesman"!
The Military needs to rethink their Cisco contract as it is becoming a Vulnerability in itself!
As a unifi user for 5 years, it's not just a conception that their software is buggy. It's a joke. They have multiple major release versions that get worked on simultaneously and none of them ever work right. They release new products with an entirely new OS without ever making the original Unifi stuff work correctly.
They remind me of Wyze and Eufy, releasing thousands of products which they can't possibly support.
30:38 Wow, tell me about it brother. I used to have all these free CAD programs and now they want over 6k dollars for it. Licensing fees have gotten out of hand with every software out there. Great video David B. I will stick with Cisco gear. CCNA graduate here thanks to your training materials.
My clients' networks use a variety of firewalls and switches (I'm often times informed after the fact when a VoIP vendor comes in and replaces/augments existing infrastructure) but I've been installing UAPs for their wifi needs pretty much since they came on the market. For price/performance (and flat out performance), features, reliability, and ease of administration, they're hard to fault in my experience.
Converted my college from Aerohive to Ubiquiti for access points. Wish I would have switched my HP / Aruba to Ubiquiti's switches. Switched my firewall from a cisco asa5515 to an Edgerouter Infinity. Replaced 4 separate security camera systems with 1 central unifi system. The licensing savings paid for 92 AP's in just under two years. Every feature on the cisco firewall came with a licensing fee and the camera systems all were a monthly charge for crappy image quality. Very happy customer.
I have deployed several of these wifi networks in small offices. They are fantastic. There are two issues that must be realized if you support multiple businesses. 1. you have to keep the management interface completely separate. if you are used to managing your customer networks with a laptop or remotely using a VPN, it is important to keep the management separate by creating a separate windows user profile for each customer. There are other ways to do it, but this is how i started managing them and i just continued down that path. you cannot log on to the user interface and choose a customer to support, it is a 1:1 relationship, when you start the controller, it calls up your browser and it is what it is. The second thing, and this may have changed in the past year, is the POE power is not compatible with a lot of the layer 1 POE switches out there. So if you have a POE switch powering another brand of surveillance cameras for example, you cannot add Unifi cameras or APs and expect them to run using the same POE interface. Like i said, i think this problem may have been solved but a couple y ears ago i ran into some issues so i just make sure i use ubiquity POE devices to avoid any issues. That being said, having one controller that manages cameras and other IOT devices along with APs is really nice!
Hello David, I've been watching your videos for a year now and they have helped me a lot to perform in the area of networks, you are a great tutor and you have an excellent channel. greetings from Chile! thanks for your content.
I have to say, we use Unifi for our school, but we had to switch off the unifi camera system because it was too slow and eventually stopped working/connecting to the unifi network. The unifi networking system has been great overall though.
The hospital I work in only uses Unifi....and boy is it the best. Many tools are offered to you and many are coming soon.
Thank you for sharing Trevor!
UniFi was made by ex-AirPort engineers? No kidding, and no WONDER it feels so much like the experience of using Apple’s routers/APs.
As someone who swore by Apple‘s stuff for years, and reluctantly moved on to other solutions a few years ago (Netgear crap mostly), discovering and implementing a UniFi network over the past month (UDM Pro + U6 APs) has been so reminiscent of working with AirPort. Not to mention how much the packaging and unboxing experience is evocative of Apple’s.
Of course, the UX is way more important than the packaging, but they really covered it from end to end, and from the first unboxing moment, you really know you’re dealing with something of high-quality. Absolutely fantastic first impression, and from my experience thus far, a lasting one due to the software.
I think of the best for small business is to set up a Firewall with a wi-fi controller embedded... no secrets, no complicated configs ...Fortinet is also a great vendor ...
I have Unifi APs and I use their horn antennas to beam the interwebs from my house to my shop. Great so far.
Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us Jason.
@@davidbombal you are welcome. I know some people that use their products to network equipment over long distsnces, all over the air, for some fairly complex tasks. Their equipment is solid. I have zero experience with their products that compete with Cisco. The security cameras, dvr, and their antennas are amazing and super easy to setup and use. Why run cable when you can just beam the signal to where you want it.
@@jasonpitts8395 It depends on the use. We supply long distance point-to-point links using Ubiquti and Siklu equipment. Latency can become an issue with wireless links over long distances
I always use Draytek routing with Unify APs and switching. Great partnership between brands 😁
Great Collaboration! Always a pleasure watching you guys. Thank you for uploading this video, really enjoyed it!
everyone talking about cisco smart licensing being a pain in the rear but licensing is just one aspect of the whole. my past employer used unifi and cisco, we had some real old cisco & unifi switches on the racks and the closets temp were like up to 88F, not suited or ideal for any networking gear, the unifi switches were freeze and i constantly had to drive 20mi onsite to reboot, wasnt hard but gets frustrating. however the cisco switches on the same rack just keep on truckin, fans maybe loud but they just run so when it comes to durability, i say cisco. we also use unif APs and some would just shutdown on its own, then i gotta climb the latter to the ceiling tile and power cycle. most annoying thing is cloudkey, that thing took a dump 4 times--rescued it 3 times previously but couldnt bring it back to life on the 4th attempt. so we just use a wkstation as the controller to manage unfi gears. their support is not bad, chat only, couldnt talk to anybody live. now a contractor working for gov & some of their cisco gear is 20yrs+ but keeps on rollin. my old employer doesnt have anybody with cli skills so they now on cisco meraki, kinda pricey but runs good & they never had issues.
David and Lawrence great videos and I support both vendors at home and customers
Thank you for the professional response :)
as a residential integration and home theater installer dependent on solid wifi equipment, I found managing Ubiquiti APs very difficult ..and I would consider my IT knowledge and experience as intermediate ... moved over to Ubiquiti Amplifi and sometimes Alien mesh wifi and have never had an issue since and the setup I could do with my eyes closed
I’ve worked with Ubnt gear since their very first nanostation. I’ve worked with Cisco and Aruba and MikroTik etc etc… One major reason we avoid Ubnt is their firmware and overall software development is a huge dumpster fire. I run thousands of units and have had to completely walk away from the Unifi line as it has left us high and dry on multiple occasions. It’s fine for a small building/home/business, but once you start touching on large scale developments it becomes a very scary game of chicken. I know that deploying a firmware upgrade is not going to brick my entire fleet with Cisco or Aruba… but I no longer have that faith with Ubnt. Coupled with the fact that there is nobody at Ubnt that I can call directly in a true emergency, outside of screaming forums of users…. You get what you paid for sadly.
I agree. The firmware and software from Ubiquiti is really buggy. I don't agree about home/business use. I need stuff that is reliable and works. Not buggy and broken.
Yes one of my friends in the early days deployed over 300 on one site what I nightmare. One of there high end Ubiquiti routers also lost it support, I mean no support whatsoever no more firmware updates????? May I also add, I feel the unifi user interface is a nightmare as far as web management, it is the worse I have ever worked with, it is so disjointed. Yes I was a big Ubiquiti fanboy. Not any more I have moved over to Linksys AP's. Cheaper faster and far far easier to setup and manage. I think Ubiquiti had a lot to offer when they first entered the market now there are lots of competition.
Thanks making the new Channel. I am a huge fan and supporter of yours, love both types of videoss.
Ubiquity is definitely putting pressure on the market but you know who's putting the most pressure? TH-camrs like you and Tom who teach the general public how to do networking.
"Tech enthusiast"is a growing community that sprouts people looking to make a home lab or that want a home network that is above "basic".
Exponentially growing actually.
So there's demand, and somebody WILL create supply to meet the demand.
Speaking as a professional technician that is also a enthusiast , I'm very happy to not have to pay those markups for my own homelab.
Unfortunately I've had the displeasure of working with a lot of greedy, slimy salesman over the years that have taken advantage of a lot of good people by charging a ridiculous amount and quite often also selling them stuff they didn't need.
So cutting out those type of people whenever possible makes me very happy.
You can use the AP in standalone mode using a mobile phone.
You can, but you can’t do advanced stuff. Like VLANs on the AP and so forth. For a very basic network you can do it though yes.
I went with Ubiquiti's UniFi line for my multi-location small business mostly because it has broad and comprehensive support (read TH-cam videos). My 20+ years of experience with Cisco is not a torture I'm willing to pass along to my heirs. Once I'm gone to the great cloud in the sky, I suspect that my kids can now contact someone like Tom to help with issues. Cisco? Not so much!
Having worked in Cisco TAC for quite some time I can tell you that troubleshooting SFP compatibility issues (even with Cisco certified SFPs) can be a painful process. I wouldn't like to do that with generic SFPs where there is no accountability - let alone a process - from the manufacturer to collaborate with Cisco in case of failures.
I run a 3 aps and 6 cameras with a cloud key. The big selling point for me was that I could keep the footage locally. I used dell switches though as you can get them dirt cheap off eBay.
Cisco cameras haven't been updated in years. Having poor low resolutions cameras was one of the main reasons I left Meraki
When I got my very first UniFi WAP (UAC-AP-Lite) all those years ago, I had to log into the CLI for the WAP in order to update the LED status as the controller software at the time didn't expose it.
That particular functionality always survived controller changes and reboots of the WAP.
Then the controller UI gained the ability and I no longer needed to log into it.
Though I really do wish the switches had the ability to turn the LEDs off, my office is like an Australia Day fireworks night when I turn the lights off at night time :P
I have the Unifi Cloud Key Gen 2 here at home which works very nicely, we also have it at work, but with all the WAPs and switches we now have, the poor UCKG2 screams in agony and rarely allows you to open the web interface due to the number of devices.
So we are aiming to move the controller to a VM soon.
I didn't start with the cloud key here at home, I had a WAP and a switch and the controller on a windows server, migrating to the cloud key wasn't too bad, but they made it seem like you absolutely had to have a Unifi account and didn't make it immediately obvious that you could go with just a local login.
So I started with the Unifi account, and eventually found out how to move back to a local account.
Tom perfectly describes my experience with cisco licensing and ease of unifi and its usecases.
Thank you for sharing your experience Ahmed.
Toms face when David brought out the Cisco switch.. priceless
Same here. Cisco out. Unify in. A love-hate relationship...with lot of scripting to get things as we wish. But once up and running it´s a treat!
Thank you, gentlemen! I will be installing a full network in a new building for a contractor and this video answered almost all of my questions. Thanks again.
As for SonicWall contention with UniFi aggregation switch, I have a long story about that, BUT with a successful solution that I created.
Film at 11.
When a customer tells you "I've tried all possible combinations of settings", then you know that at the moment it's not in the correct settings.
as a home user that just needs something that works I've been very happy with my dream machine, 8 port poe switch and flex switch combo. A lot less fiddling for what I need to do and I've just had very little issues with it over all.
I like the two of them so and I have learned a lot through them on TH-cam
I run my controller on a Raspberry Pi and its pretty stable. The ap firmware versions can be weird especially 2.4ghz so read the forum before updating or just stay on an old firmware.
Thanks gents this was a great one just a heads up Meraki inter vlan routing is also allow by default you have to create rules to block it. Unless they have changed it with a recent firmware update. Im refering to the routing section at 18:05
Great comment Mark. Thank you for sharing.
Unifi UDM has been great for home setup . Easy to setup and most importantly I never have to restart or need fiddling . Rock solid stuff
Great Great video!! I really enjoy listening to the both of you and your extensive knowledge!!
Thank you :) Glad you enjoyed it!
I hate the whole meraki philosophy where your equipment goes offline when the license expires. Unifi is great for home use but in business setups the aruba instant on line has more features full layer 3 support and decent product support.
Cisco ended the rv router line I wonder when a new product line will replace them. I have a cisco sg350x-24p switch and that’s a great piece of equipment.
I think many people agree agree with you Andre. Cisco haven't told me which router will replace the RV line. Hopefully they'll release an updated product soon. Agreed about the Cisco 350.
@@davidbombal What was the cisco access point you showed on screen?
@@andrevangijsel957 Hey Andre, It was either the CBW140 or CBW240 AP's.
@@shaishavupadhyay5620 Thank you I will look them up
Cisco has been on a mission to simplify licensing for years... and the "simpler" they make it, the more complicated, convoluted and expensive it gets. The Cisco/Meraki gear is all gone now, replaced with Unify WiFi and PFSense. All is well. No subscriptions and thus far no regrets.
Just starting the video, but gotta say, I love my Unifi gear. There's some stuff I wish was better about it (old interface vs new interface, I'm looking at you. DECOM THE OLD ONE AND ADD ALL THE MISSING STUFF ASAP. ITS BEEN YEARS) -- but that said, it's really solid kit.
UniFi vs other solutions really depends on business needs. It all has to do with required feature sets and need for support. I would say UniFi is an excellent and affordable solution for most SMBs but it isn't ready for the vast majority of enterprise level customers.
12B where most of the devices are around 100$. That's pretty big. Didn't know that. I was looking for their DVR setup and they are out of stock. :(
I hear you. I’m looking to grab me a 4 drive UNVR and get away from my Blue Iris home made server. I bought the $1800 PTV camera as it was the only one in stock and I have the UDM Pro with 1 drive to get the Protect experience which I like. My $100 Amcrest cameras although cheap do look really cheap compared the the PTV. Problem is nothing is ever in stock. They had the G4 pro in stock yesterday and by the time I got home they were sold out.
The Aruba Product line is absolutely the best, you get the best of both worlds, ease of use and transfer of ownership, and your network stays up even when licenses expire, very robust config capabilities ,all cloud managed in Central. Ive had good experiences with Aruba. Unifi is a close second except i wouldnt say it is as robust as aruba so it is better in a small to medium sized business setting. Cisco equipment was always the best until they decided to screw you with the licenses, from a config standpoint they are still superior though.
I have a bit of experience working with Aruba and I very much enjoyed it.
Dont forget there is a Docker version of controller. If you have a NAS you can run the controller on it. Also the Edge router is a great add-on for the Unifi system to get WAN-LAN and Guest-Internal network routing.
UniFi is just flashy consumer stuff. Enterprise Cisco products are in a different league and is cheaper than Unifi and Meraki in the long run.
Found a USG at a bargain store NIB for $80.....picked it up along with a WIFI 6 lite from Amazon. After many years of hearing about how good unifi is I am finally going to make the move..
Honestly the question "WiFi has changed: Is UniFi better than Cisco?" is totally a dumb question or maybe it is intentional to get viewers on your channel. the range Unifi of Ubiquiti is targeting a market segment that Cisco intentionally ignored and treated with contempt: SME and the consumer market.
Cisco like other lived on its assets, they did not see the market evolving outside its privileged sectors and did not understand that there was a real demand in its 2 sectors for simple and reliable products, not requiring CCNA-certified engineers (which cost a fortune) to set up an efficient network architecture. SME and the consumer market ARE NOT looking for complex products with complicated CLI commands, or some kind of network certification, they DO NOT NEED complicated functionalities and I strongly disagree with Laurence when he criticises the lack of some functionalities in Unifi product such a in the firewall. Unifi products are certainly not perfect but they do the job and match the requirement of the targeted customers.
Both of you have forgotten to mention in this video that the targeted customers (SME and the consumer market) do not care about network latest functionalities, they only want a simple and reliable solution for their core business without spending a fortune on IT Geeks.
Ubiquiti founder saw these opportunities and took it and this is where Unifi beats completely Cisco with their products range:
1/ there is no annual license fee,
2/ a centralised management console easily manageable for lot of people,
3/ a centralised management console which can be deployed even on non-Unifi products,
4/ a good range of products to cover the needs of the targeted customer (Network, AP, Cameras, VoIP, etc...)
5/ a good complement to Unifi range with their additional product ranges
6/ a true vision of the future with Connect or UIF
I have 25 years of experience in IT and, honestly, I believe that Ubiquiti is one of the first brand to fully understand the need of SME and the consumer market.
I will say I've had Meraki replace dead APs with newer models as the original was at the end of life. So the license does have a benefit. That being said my parent company has a large negotiated discount on all cisco gear. Makes the price more manageable.
We paid for support on some old cisco aps, turns out a lot of them reached end of life in december and they will not replace them under warranty even while we're paying the support...
Installed about 30 APs U6LR in my office and till date no issue , user experience was very nice
Cisco is for large operators, last job I had my cellular operator hired 6 guys from Cisco full time for managing the Cisco products. They are stable but a lot of cost for licensing. ubiquity is simple and not expensive. HW wise, I'm not sure how they hold but they are cheap. for a small enterprise...no-brainer to go Ubuiquity
Just be aware of the cloud key for any larger (more than 10) deployments. The gen 1 and gen 2 are extremely fickle. I have 8 sites I manage and removed all the cloud keys because they crashed on me and wouldnt work. The backups arent really backups, they backup your configuration but none of the devices (devices still work but cannot add more). Yes you can remote into the devices and change their site but I havent had alot of success. Normally when that happens I have to go to all devices, factory reset and re-add them. Now I put all sites on one VM stored on a laptop that I bring to site. It doesnt allow me to get historical traffic patterns. If I need that I will leave the laptop on at site for a few days to gather information. Other than that Unifi is fantastic. The drop ceiling mounts are a real pain to deal with especially if you need to change them, as much as possible I try to put it in drywall.
The hour I pent listening has educated me alot despite not being into IT.