Ubiquiti Unifi Ap-AC Long Range - Wireless Access Point - 802.11 B/A/G/n/AC (UAP-AC-LR-US),White

The basics: Goodbye consumer wifi! In the last few weeks i've implemented 3 UAP-AC-LR access points, 1 UAP Outdoor 5, and 1 Unifi Security Gateway. I've replaced networks at two separate locations and am amazed at the difference between high end consumer wifi and what Ubiquiti has to offer. While Ubiquiti products do require more product know-how than your typical consumer gear, there is a tremendous amount of online support.Details: The two sites I manage are my home and a fire station. Both utilize a 150mbps connection from Comcast (cable), both have always needed more than a single wifi access point (AP). Traditionally, both were served by wireless range extenders. Because range extenders are some of the worst consumer electronics available (regardless of manufacturer) the range extenders were eventually replaced with wired access points. This created two problems: devices had to be close to power, and the two networks created were horrible at handing off devices that moved from the area around one AP to another. The main router at the firestation was an 802.11n device with gigabit LAN (typical cost $50, typical speed of 80mbps down) and the router in my home was a linksys AC3200 (typical cost $200-300, typical speed of 175mbps down).In deploying ubiquiti gear to each site, I decided to utilize a similar setup to the old one since cat6 cable was already in place. At home I am using 1 UAP-AC-LR, 1 UAP Outdoor 5. At the firehouse I am using 2 UAP-AC-LR and 1 USG. Physical setup is rather straight forward as long as you have a drill/driver set and a decent plan for whats going to go where. The use of the included Power over Ethernet (POE) injectors is simple and liberating. No need to worry about being near a plug, and only one cable to run. I did use Cat6 cable in place of Cat5 cable, mostly because it was already in place, and it was already in place because I find it much easier to push the more rigid cat 6 than cat 5, as long as there aren't sharp corners.Network setup gets a little more complex. I opted to use an Amazon Web Services system for running the Unifi controller. Note that these devices are not controlled by onboard software as many other products are, but are managed and controlled through a cloud controller. This cloud controller can be run locally on a computer on your LAN, or remotely on a cloud server like AWS. Understand that I know next to nothing about AWS, about the Ubuntu instance i'm running, about SSH, very little about port forwarding... but I still made it work, thanks entirely to the online Ubiquiti support community (if you're like me, go slow and read about what you're doing before you do it so you don't create a security nightmare as you go).With the AWS cloud server setup it was as easy as using the Unifi discovery app to detect devices I had plugged in, and telling them to "inform" to my cloud controller IP address on the correct port. The device is then "adopted" in the cloud controller and a couple of minutes later everything is ready to go. Creating wifi networks, changing DNS servers, and managing clients is all done right in the unifi controller. Setting up a second location is simple and easy, as is moving a device from one to the other.Performance has been exemplary. Devices are seamlessly handed off between one AP and the other. Individual users don't even realize it's happening. Speeds are great, but the days of 175mbps down are gone. Even standing directly under the UAP-AC-LR speeds top out around 110mbps. Range on the UAP-AC-LRs is well above any consumer hardware i've ever used, partly due to the power of the device but also due to its ability to adjust to the RF environment it's in, avoiding interference from other networks. Both networks have been hosting 25-75 clients/day without incident.One thing to be aware of is the amount of information that is collected. If running a cloud server, you'll see a good deal of traffic data. You'll also get basic user data as the devices log when a client migrates from one access point to the other. The introduction of the unifi security gateway and usage of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) produces a concerning quantity of data. It is very useful, especially if monitoring a network with resources limited by either high demand or low bandwidth, but caution should be exercised. DPI will collect overall network data about whats being done and where. It may indicate that 13GB have been used for "streaming media" and 7GB of those 13 were for netflix, 4GB youtube, 1GB pandora, etc... and it will also break usage down per client, which begins to border on privacy invasion. At the very least, your controller should be protected by a very strong password, and data collection should be limited to whats necessary. In my case, and for these specific deployments, i've made the decision to turn DPI off unless a problem arises that requires that level of network supervision. If I were to deploy an open, public network I would see more of a use for DPI.If you have the time to set up a Unifi system I can't recommend it enough. These three Ubiquiti products are genuinely impressive. It might not be plug and play, but the effort in setup will likely alleviate a great many frustrations down the road.

This is a 802.11ac/n Wireless Access Point. It is used to provide Wifi in a home or office. Unlike older versions of this product, this one supports both 2.4 Ghz and 5.8 Ghz.The unit is aesthetically beautiful, and could easily pass for a high end smoke detector. It includes a single LED Ring light that shows whether the unit is offline or online, and can be mounted on the wall or on the ceiling. The LED can be disabled if you need to. Power is delivered to the unit using the Ethernet cable, and a Power Over Ethernet Injector is included in the box.I've tested a number of Wifi access points and routers over the years from Linksys and Netgear, and this is, by far, my favorite. Here's why:1. Range: The range on these things is incredible. With Linksys and Netgear APs, I'd have trouble covering my whole house. This covers my entire house on LOW POWER.2. Adjustable Power: You can adjust the power level from 6db through 23db.3. Linking: You can buy and link as many of these devices as you want. There's no limit to the number of AP's that can be linked via Ethernet cable. On top of that, each Unifi that is plugged into Ethernet can be extended by FOUR Unifis that are not plugged into an Ethernet cable, by wirelessly repeating the signal.4. More Linking: In addition, a Unifi that is linked wirelessly can also have its ethernet port be used to extend your network via wires. Theoretically, you could plug in another Unifi to the Wired port, add it to your network and then link up to four more to that new Unifi wirelessly, and carry on the chain forever.5. Easy to configure: To configure, you have to install a Windows program that you can download from Ubiquiti's web-site. When you run the software, it starts a web-server on your computer, and you then use your internet browser to access the configuration screen. The server will detect every Unifi that is plugged into your network and automatically configure them to operate using the same SSID and security settings, and to select the best channel for their location. You can then manually override any settings if you like on a system-wide basis or a per unit basis.If you want to configure a Unifi for wireless linking, you have to plug it in via ethernet first and adopt it, and then unplug it from the ethernet connection and wait until it goes into Isolated Mode, and then you can link wirelessly it to one of the units that are plugged in to your ethernet connection. There's a video on Ubiquiti's web-site that explains everything. Just Google "Unifi FAQ" and you'll find the page that links to it.6. Support for advanced features: Among other things, the Unifi software allows you to configure a Guest Network that is isolated from your own network. It can use its own network name (SSID) and its own security settings/password. Users who connect to it won't be able to connect to any of your internal devices. There is also a whole host of tools to allow you to monitor who is using your network, for how long, with how much data, etc., and you can block specific users as well.Once you configure the above features, you can shut down the server software, and the units will continue operating without the need for a server.You can also create a captive portal for guests, so that they have to enter a password or accept terms and conditions. However, for this to work, you have to leave the Unifi server software running on a Windows Computer 24/7.7. Remote management: Using a special tool that comes with the server software (called the inform tool), you can set a Unifi to get its configuration information from a remote Unifi server. This will allow you to manage a fleet of Unifi units over the internet.8. Disable "Uplink Connectivity Monitor": If you're using this at home, you'll want to disable "Uplink Connectivity Monitor," which you reach using Settings -> Site -> Services. This feature will turn off the Wifi whenever the internet is down, which is useful if you run an internet cafe, but undesireable if you're using Wifi to connect to your home network..---The only trouble that I had setting up the unit related to Windows Firewall. The current version of the software fails to properly configure the Windows Firewall to allow the server to access the Unifi units residing on a network which you have labelled as "Private" in Windows Firewall. You can resolve this problem by going to the control panel in Window, selecting "Windows Firewall," clicking on "Allow a Program or feature through Windows Firewall," and then finding the entry for the Ubiquiti software and enabling it on a Private and Public Network. You might also need to do the same for Java.Or you can disable Windows Firewall while you're configuring and then enable it later.