Several months ago I upgraded my entire Ethernet network to Ubiqity’s UNIFI equipment to resolve hardware failures and maximize my client’s ability to take advantage of the 1Gbps ISP symmetrical up/down fiber connection. I got hooked using their beta firmware releases so I never know whether the issues I occasionally experience are caused by network issues or ST, or something else.
I am looking for feedback from other UNIFI users on any particular settings they use to ensure best ST performance and to avoid any of the new firewall features from interfering with ST’s ability to communicate over the internet.
There is another thread in this community that talks about ports and UPnP. I always turn off UPnP as it interferes with my regular port forwarding and is often regarded as a security hole. I do not intentionally block any of the ports either so all should be set up properly. However, lately I just get the impression that latency has gone through the roof and everything seems just slow in reacting. Other random issues, such as Alexa taking ages to do simple things and most often telling me that ST is not responding, also made me wonder whether there may be other contributing factors to my issues such as my connection to the internet.
Router:
Main Switch (24p):
plus several other smaller Unifi switches, and 4 APs
I have the Unifi setup in my house and have not noticed any latency or lag issues since I installed it about 18 months ago. I have the USG3 with the Cloud Key and 3 AP’s. I don’t currently have a managed switch but will eventually.
I leave uPnP on, but didn’t have any issues prior to them including it in the GUI (versus SSH).
@mejifair - Thanks for the feedback. I turn off UPnP as it was exposing devices to the internet on default ports that would make it very easy for scanners to find. Also, it was causing a number of conflicts with port forwardings I was doing so that along with security concerns, I opted to turn it off and never looked back.
I am using Unifi’s latest beta releases on all of my hardware, and running controller 5.7.12 on the Cloudkey. With all the firewall related features they are adding I just have to wonder if something is getting blocked that shouldn’t. Anyway it is good to hear you have not detected any issues.
I set up a unifi system with multiple access points, router, and switches . It’s been rock solid stable and totally controllable. Great value - but much more capable than any of the mesh routers .
There are no WiFi grey zones anywhere in my house and I have a family that love the reliability.
I use a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite router coupled with a pair of UniFi AC HD access points and a UniFi Cloud Key. I have not had any difficulty with that gear and my Smart Things set up. The hub is currently on the floor below a wall mounted access point. It is all rock solid.
Glad to hear all the positive feedback. Mine seems solid with a few exceptions. I have 7 Echos and some do not connect again after firmware upgrades of the switches/APs. Occasionally I find a disconnected Echo even though I did not do any upgrades. Response time over the network for some things such as Alexa requests are occasionally long, and same goes for ST. I know there is so much more than network and ISP when it comes to these delays but I need to rule out a few variables (the ones I have greater control over) before I can get upset at Amazon / ST
What do you guys use the cloud key for in a home setting? I just got the ER-X and 2 AC lites. I thought the idea was you only need to configure the APs once in a while so just run the controller on a PC when needed.
I purchased it because I liked the idea of a low maintenance, low power, always on controller that I could access remotely with a browser. All of my networking gear is either powered via POE from the main switch or under a UPS so in the event of a blackout, I still have control over everything. Also, I believe there are features on the CK that are only possible while it is up and running but I can’t recall what those are - likely all the logging. I also stopped giving my Wifi password out and created a Guest Hotspot with a dedicated AP.
Some use a RPI as their always on controller but the 30 dollar or so savings did not justify the extra uncertainty of dealing with an unsupported platform and all the work needed to keep it running (OS updates, etc). I use an Odroid C2 (was RPI 3) to interface my DSC alarm to ST so I probably could have loaded the software on the same SBC but the other reasons above lead me to tack on the extra $70 to my $2k+ order to get all the rest.
Since I believe you would only use the CK to configure your APs, I believe you made a wise choice. In my case it administers 100% of my network gear.
ok, thanks for the info. kind of wish i would have gotten a UniFi USG but in the end i don’t think i need all that. i went with erx and ac lites to have a robust yet cheaper alternative to the new mesh systems. i have been watching youtube video tours of people’s network gear and it gets me wanting to spend money
I have nothing but Ubiquiti Unifi gear in my home (Gateway, switches, AP’s, cloud key) and have never had a network related issue with my ST setup. Any issue I’ve had is on ST’s side.
I had 3 Netgear/Asus top end consumer routers break on me in row so I opted to go one step higher end. I also needed to ensure the hardware would support 1Gbps up/down ISP fiber connection so Unifi seemed a perfect match even though it was not cheap to upgrade everything. One thing that I do not like about mesh networks is that they use half of the bandwidth for their uplink… when using an AP wired to your router, you make 100% of what the AP is capable of available to your clients.
While my network is reasonably simple, I like the idea of being able to monitor and administer over the web. Going with the cloudkey seemed like the path of least resistance.
My takeaway from all this feedback is that none of the standard or alpha and beta features that Ubiquity added/is adding to Unifi seem to have caused any issues with home automation equipment. I guess I can mark networking issues off my list and badger Amazon or ST for help with my issues.
I have very similar setup with the exception of the switch. I have a managed Tp-link 24 ports switch. It was an impulse buy on the switch. I find most of my ST delay is due to my internet caused by my provider.
When you have delay on Alexa with ST. You can try command Alexa to play music other other things just to isolate if it’s just ST.
Love Ubiquti except their slowness on OpenVPN. Been waiting forever on this.
I believe the slowness might actually be Unifi related but internal to my network… At times a simple power cycle of the Echo fixes the issues and I have noticed that for whatever reason the Echos sometimes connect to the worse possible AP rather than the closest one to them. I wonder if this causes connection issues that translate in slow response time given the audio commands have to be uploaded, processed and response has to be sent back.
If you think that’s the cause then you should look into the controller AP log. I know my APs do have errors sometime due to wifi channel conflict and usually fixed itself but to prevent this I manually move to another channel. That’s just my case but the log does give you thing to look into.
I was having trouble with the Ubiquiti ER-X and my modem; had to factory reset the ER-X any time I cycled power. Soooooo, decided to upgrade to the UniFi USG router. I’m using a Netgear switch and the WAP POE injectors for now as I can’t justify the extra expense for a UniFi POE switch. It would be nice to have that though to clean things up. Now just need to pull some cat6 & permanently mount the two WAPs
I have a complex Unifi setup with gateway, 4 APs, 2 PoE+ switches, etc. and have zero issues with SmartThings. The SmartThings sits bang on top of Unifi products.
BTW: Does anyone have any leads where to get a decent priced consumer grade rack? My Unifi setup is crazy messy. They are all rack mountable so wondering of options. The ones available are all professional grade/enterprise grade - crazy costly. Also have Unifi video and Synology NAS so a rack mount will be very useful.
@baivab - I think I just ran into an issue related to Unifi and Smartthings - if I turn on mDNS I keep losing connection to ST servers. I don’t know whether it is a .25 beta ST firmware issue or a Unifi issue.
Anyway, to answer your question about racks - I use Navepoint racks and I get them on amazon.com