Ubiquiti mesh

[Pocster]

Sigh!

 

I'm sure the ubiquiti God is watching me!

 

My rock solid Asus mesh has lately ( for no apparent reason ) become flakey.

 

So as I now have a cloud key I'm considering swapping to ubiquit access points.

 

How does wired backhaul work on these?. On the Asus the backhaul had to plug straight into the main asus hub unit i.e. would not work via a network switch.

Is this the same for the ubiquiti ?; or do they all just backhaul wired to a poe switch as normal?

 

There seem to be a mountain of choices with AP here! - what should I go for?; want wifi 6 I guess.

Also which do you suggest for outdoors ? - no poe - just a power point - so will be dependent on a wireless connection only

 

Ay advice welcome!

Edited May 14 by Pocster

[Pocster]

Too slow everyone !

You’ve all had a whole 27 minutes !

 

went for 2 x us6 pro and for outdoors

Ubiquiti UniFi UK-ULTRA 

 

Can always cancel order/return so no issue with testing 

[crispy_wafer]

access points on POE switches is how I do it at work.  I run Unifi network server as an app on a general purpose utility server VM.  Run a mix of AP's across the factory and offices.  Switches for what it's worth are all HPE or Aruba

 

Edited May 14 by crispy_wafer

[crispy_wafer]

Pretty much set and forget, set the firmware to update once a month, do a backup once a month, have a spare on the shelf ready to go JIC.  Job's a goodun!  Needs no extra input from me, just as it should be!!!

 

VLANS set on the l3 switch passed through to the AP's for various subnets work no problem.

 

Pretty happy with it to be honest.

[garrymartin]

51 minutes ago, Pocster said:

Also which do you suggest for outdoors ? - no poe - just a power point - so will be dependent on a wireless connection only

Although the UK-Ultra can do a wireless backhaul on mesh, I'm pretty sure it is POE only for power, so you'll need a POE injector if you only have a power point.

 

Ubiquiti kit is rock solid, and I've not had any problems over many years. It would be my first choice for any future installs or upgrades.

[Pocster]

5 minutes ago, garrymartin said:

Although the UK-Ultra can do a wireless backhaul on mesh, I'm pretty sure it is POE only for power, so you'll need a POE injector if you only have a power point.

 

Ubiquiti kit is rock solid, and I've not had any problems over many years. It would be my first choice for any future installs or upgrades.

Yeah realised that so ordered a 3 pin to poe injector .

My 1st experience with Ubiquiti ap was some years ago . Never stayed adopted 

[IanR]

35 minutes ago, Pocster said:

Ubiquiti UniFi UK-ULTRA 

Not sure why they only quote an area coverage: 115 m²

 

I'm sure it will offer more than a ~ 10m x 10m area, but does only come with Internal Antenna (External an option)

 

The UAP-AC-M is external antenna only and is quoted as 183m (distance). Works at around 120m for me, but is then sketchy through a hedge at that distance.

Edited May 14 by IanR

[Pocster]

30 minutes ago, IanR said:

Not sure why they only quote an area coverage: 115 m²

 

I'm sure it will offer more than a ~ 10m x 10m area, but does only come with Internal Antenna (External an option)

 

The UAP-AC-M is external antenna only and is quoted as 183m (distance). Works at around 120m for me, but is then sketchy through a hedge at that distance.

Yeah I’ll try this - if not I’ll get it for the external arial you mention . My problem is getting a WiFi signal to it through triple glazing - always been an issue .

Edited May 14 by Pocster

[Pocster]

The wired AP’s nonissues so far .

The outdoor thing is shite . One adopted etc - put it outside I.e beyond triple glazing - barely get a signal . More concerning is the outdoor Shelly plugs don’t recognise it’s 2.4ghz - no idea why .

Sent that back .

As a test put an AP outside with doors closed . Lots of fiddling - such as changing 2.4ghz channel and can get a good connection to Shelly’s and a borderline good connection wirelessly to indoor AP . To achieve this I literally have indoor AP and outdoor AP on either side of the doors !

[pudding]

Absolutely no way you can you drill a hole through a wall somewhere and poke a CAT 6 out for POE and data and avoid the mesh? Makes it so much simpler. I've got an AC Mesh on my decking via POE and its worked great, nice long range coverage up to the garage.

 

[Pocster]

1 minute ago, pudding said:

Absolutely no way you can you drill a hole through a wall somewhere and poke a CAT 6 out for POE and data and avoid the mesh? Makes it so much simpler. I've got an AC Mesh on my decking via POE and its worked great, nice long range coverage up to the garage.

 

I’ve got a poe cable out there direct from the network switch . Atmospheric issues causing me trouble . It’s in a plastic water proof box . I’ve cleaned it etc - all fine for a few days . Then with damp weather it just fails again 

[pudding]

Whats in the plastic box, the Swiss army knife? Don't you just put the cable straight into it, and then mount it on a wall or post?

[Pocster]

1 hour ago, pudding said:

Whats in the plastic box, the Swiss army knife? Don't you just put the cable straight into it, and then mount it on a wall or post?

Yeah . But before I’ve had poe mesh routers in there and the connection always seems to degrade . Clean the rj45 and it’s good for a bit . Box is a proper waterproof box with gaskets etc . Just seems the rj45 plug doesn’t like the atmosphere- hence resorting to WiFi only as it avoids the issue .

[pudding]

Hmm weird. I've had my AC Mesh with the RJ45 plugged into the bottom for probably 2years now just outside on a 4x4 post about 2m high, completely exposed and no issues. Got any other plugs to try, cut the old one off and crimp a new one on? Just been outside to take these 2 pics of it, and remember the cable I used was outdoor rated CAT6, which had some gel stuff surrounding the 8 cores, maybe that makes a difference?

 

[Pocster]

36 minutes ago, pudding said:

Hmm weird. I've had my AC Mesh with the RJ45 plugged into the bottom for probably 2years now just outside on a 4x4 post about 2m high, completely exposed and no issues. Got any other plugs to try, cut the old one off and crimp a new one on? Just been outside to take these 2 pics of it, and remember the cable I used was outdoor rated CAT6, which had some gel stuff surrounding the 8 cores, maybe that makes a difference?

 

Your atmosphere must be better than mine ! 😊

Had issues with lots of rj45’s outdoors on cameras etc .

Outdoor cat5 cable . Tests fine .

Only thing that’s surviving is a ip camera with a fly lead female rj45 ; so the male and female go in a snap shut gel box .

If only outdoor AP’s had a fly lead connector !

But I’ll try the ac-m which it looks like what you have .

[Pocster]

49 minutes ago, pudding said:

which had some gel stuff surrounding the 8 cores

What did you use ?? 

[pudding]

https://amzn.eu/d/anJn0ET

[Dan F]

On 14/05/2025 at 15:09, Pocster said:

Too slow everyone !

You’ve all had a whole 27 minutes !

 

went for 2 x us6 pro and for outdoors

Ubiquiti UniFi UK-ULTRA 

 

That is a solid choice for indoors if you not deperate to get on the wifi 7 bandwagon.  Outside the U6 Mesh is a significantly better option in terms of wifi standard and coverage,  but it depends on your requirements.  If you just needs a basic AP wifi-5 AP without too much coverage UK-Ultra would work.

[Pocster]

@pudding I know I really need a new pie cable outside . But my house leaks without me drilling more holes 🤣

I think I can cheat and get one through via a different route. The ac m is out of stock in uk ( like most Ubiquiti stuff ) - but I’ve got one coming from Amazon eu in a week …

[Pocster]

I'm confused!

 

These 3 devices are all plugged into the same poe switch.

Yet 1 shows Gbe and the other just E, why?

Also what's all this parent thing - I can get it to change ; but surely none of them have a parent as all supposedly backhauled????

 

 

[Pocster]

This - topology connection diagram - confusing or correct !?

 

 

[Pocster]

Hmmmm , re adopted everything now the connection is showing as Gbe for everything . This parent thing ( after googling ) seems not to be a real topology thing - so…… I ignore it !

[Adsibob]

On 15/05/2025 at 18:40, pudding said:

Don't you just put the cable straight into it, and then mount it on a wall or post?

That’s how I have my Ubiquiti Swiss Army knife set up. Works very well. Managed to send a WiFi signal down a 20m side passage between two houses. I do have the external antennae on it though, in sure they help. We haven’t had much rain since I installed this a couple of months ago, but it works fine.