News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on A look at home routers, and a surprising bug in Linux/MIPS. Parent comment

Re:A look at home routers, and a surprising bug in Linux/MIPS by vesinisa on Saturday December 15, 2018 @06:38PM (#18690963)
I got finally frustrated with the flaky WiFi reception at my parents-in-law's and bought a UniFi AP for them. I am very satisfied - the WiFi reception is now either 5/5 or 4/5 in every room, while the previous Asus WiFi router had no reception in some rooms.

But I was rather surprised by the lack of almost any configuration options in the UniFi. No dedicated WebUI, just a few basic configuration options (SSID + WPA2 password) in the mobile app.

Do I need to procure a Windows machine and download the Windows app to configure and take full advantage of the AP? What extra options can I set up with the desktop app in addition to the basic configuration options in the mobile app? As said though - it works really well as it is.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A look at home routers, and a surprising bug in Linux/MIPS by TimTheTinker on Saturday December 15, 2018 @07:00PM (#18691009)
The desktop app serves up the same web UI that the UniFi Cloud Key does. So you need either the cloud key or a computer on which to run the web app (even a Raspberry Pi is reportedly capable of serving it; I just fire it up on my Macbook Pro when it's time for an update or config change).

There is a dizzying amount of information and options in the web UI, but it's designed well so the basics are well-presented and accessible.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A look at home routers, and a surprising bug in Linux/MIPS by Fnoord on Sunday December 16, 2018 @03:23AM (#18692272)
The UniFi Cloud Key is basically a piece of hardware akin to the Raspberry Pi, but only serving that purpose. The UniFi Controller software is written in Java so it will run on any machine which runs Java. You can even run it in Docker. You can also use SSH to connect to the AP.

The UniFi line is rather easy to configure with the UniFi Controller. The EdgeMAX line can utilise UNMS (which can be run in a VM or Docker) for configuration but also HTTP(S). EdgeMAX devices are much more powerful, allowing fine-grained configuration via SSH when HTTP(S)/UNMS doesn't suffice. For UniFi line you should be OK with the UniFi Controller software.

TL;DR: The UniFi line has a lower barrier of entry.

Something else of note: it appears Ubiquity wants users to be able to use UNMS for UniFi products in the future. That's good news because right now you need 2 controller software for 2 product lines from the same company.

[ Parent | on HN ]