Unifi controller on pfsense?
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A VM running UniFi Controller is nice, and is what I use at home currently. However, if you have a PoE switch I would very seriously consider running the CloudKey USB dongle. I use one for our church setup. Works great.
Yeah, it's more expensive than a VM if you already have the hypervisor hardware, but it you don't have the hardware, then the cost of the CloudKey is pretty reasonable (assuming you have a PoE switch already for your UniFi APs). Of course with no PoE switch to plug the dongle into, then a VM is a better option.
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I live in a condo, which a single AP covers well. Even the TP-Link did that. What VM are you referring to? I have VirtualBox on a couple of computers and had considered an Ubuntu VM to run the controller.
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@johnpoz said in Unifi controller on pfsense?:
I leave mine up all the time because I like the info that provides you.. But its not really a requirement to have the controller up and running 24/7
Isn't it necessary for seamless roaming to run the controller 24/7?
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@viragomann said in Unifi controller on pfsense?:
Isn't it necessary for seamless roaming to run the controller 24/7?
With only a single AP, I wouldn't have a lot of roaming.
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@viragomann said in Unifi controller on pfsense?:
Isn't it necessary for seamless roaming to run the controller 24/7?
Can the UBI's run seamless roaming ?
I know my Cisco WLC's can but they tunnel every endpoint back to the controller. And the WLC's have hefty CPU's for the encapsulation.
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That's one thing I didn't care for about the Cisco APs. On a large network, that's going to be a lot of traffic through the controller.
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@JKnott said in Unifi controller on pfsense?:
That's one thing I didn't care for about the Cisco APs. On a large network, that's going to be a lot of traffic through the controller.
Right .. But in a multi floor building w. a Vlan for each floor. It's pretty cool to just be wandering around with your lappy , and a VoIP call wo. a drop.
I don't like the price (WLC) , but love the feature.
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pfSense+ 23.05.1 (ZFS)QOTOM-Q355G4 Quad Lan.
CPUĀ : Core i5 5250U, Ram : 8GB Kingston DDR3LV 1600
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Hello!
The unifi controller runs great on a raspberry pi.
Compact, reliable, and cheap.John
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You don't need the controller to roam.. To answer that question.. Only thing you would really need the controller for is if you were using the captive portal stuff, guest network stuff - hotspot, etc.
But if its not running you will not have the history of what your clients were doing, how your AP(s) were doing, etc. etc..
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@bingo600 said in Unifi controller on pfsense?:
Right .. But in a multi floor building w. a Vlan for each floor. It's pretty cool to just be wandering around with your lappy , and a VoIP call wo. a drop.
I don't like the price (WLC) , but love the feature.I first heard of such a system about 11 - 12 years ago. I don't recall the make, but they called it a "blanket". Each AP had to be connected directly back to the controller, without even a switch in between.
Back in 2005 I was working at IBM (my 2nd time there) supporting a major U.S. telecom. One woman called in complaining that the Wifi didn't work in the parking garage, an area that specifically didn't have Wifi. She didn't want to accept that as an answer.
