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    UniFi or EnGenius setup

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    • DerelictD
      Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
      last edited by

      pfSense really doesn't care.  It's not much different than plugging in a managed switch and connecting hosts to it.

      Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
      A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
      DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
      Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        What does pfsense care for what wifi AP you use?? Pfsense sees traffic, doesn't know if it came from a wifi client or not.  Its just another mac that it sends and gets packets from.

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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        • S
          stealthrt
          last edited by

          @johnpoz:

          What does pfsense care for what wifi AP you use?? Pfsense sees traffic, doesn't know if it came from a wifi client or not.  Its just another mac that it sends and gets packets from.

          At this point any information is apresheated. But it does look like i will be ordering the Ubiquiti UAP-AC UniFi Indoor Dual Band Wireless AC1750 3x3 MIMO Access Point/Bridge 2x Gigabit Port. :)

          Any more input for anybody else before i push the buy button?

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          • johnpozJ
            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
            last edited by

            I have it and love it..  push the button ;)

            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

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            • D
              dreamslacker
              last edited by

              @stealthrt:

              At this point any information is apresheated. But it does look like i will be ordering the Ubiquiti UAP-AC UniFi Indoor Dual Band Wireless AC1750 3x3 MIMO Access Point/Bridge 2x Gigabit Port. :)

              Any more input for anybody else before i push the buy button?

              Not sure if they managed to fix it but it seems that the UAP-AC has somewhat low 5GHz range.  As a platform, Unifi is leagues ahead of Engenius.

              I used to deploy Engenius APs for customers - mostly EAP-600s, some EAP-300 and EAP-350 as well. The EAP-350 is an odd creature and wasn't at all stable. Plus you'd have better luck asking a brick wall for help than Engenius themselves.

              The EAP-300 & EAP-600 are relatively stable but they have some odd issues - I've had them crap out when placed in a network where IGMP broadcasts were active (there is no way to stop the EAPs from listening to IGMP). Also, they tend not to work as well when certain features (enabled by default) were active - notably CTL, Aggregation & Auto 20/40Mhz. In a high traffic environment, enabling these would cause the APs to go into limbo.

              The Unifi platform is nice and easy to deploy but there's a caveat - you can't manage them as standalone units using a web gui like other APs. You must use their Unifi 3.0 controller software and the APs once adopted by the controller, will only respond to being configured from that machine (unless you manually port the profiles to another controller).

              What the Unifi 3.0 platform does very well is seamless roaming (Zero hand-off), firmware updating (you can update all adopted AP's at once or using rolling update), and also the ability to appoint both site administrators and operators (for vouchering).

              They are also exceedingly stable units in so far as I've deployed for customers (UAP-Pro). Couple of my friends in the networking industry have also tried the UAP & UAP-LR and everyone has nothing but praises for the platform.

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              • S
                stealthrt
                last edited by

                Done. UAP-AC it is :)

                Thanks for the help all!

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                • ?
                  Guest
                  last edited by

                  @stealthrt:

                  Done. UAP-AC it is :)

                  Thanks for the help all!

                  Well done, one hint on top from me, if you change your pfSense box to a greater one a one day
                  and/or your Ubiquiti WiFi networks is growing up, you can install a Linux OS on the old box and install
                  the Ubiquiti Wireless Controller Software for free an in! So you get a full WiFi Controller and you are
                  able to manage the WLAN APs much easier.

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                  • X
                    XanderVR
                    last edited by

                    @BlueKobold:

                    @stealthrt:

                    …

                    Well done, one hint on top from me, if you change your pfSense box to a greater one a one day
                    and/or your Ubiquiti WiFi networks is growing up, you can install a Linux OS on the old box and install
                    the Ubiquiti Wireless Controller Software for free an in! So you get a full WiFi Controller and you are
                    able to manage the WLAN APs much easier.

                    ^^ this actually :)

                    I'm currently running pfSense and a Linux machine with Unify controller software in Hyper-V 2012R2 without a sweat.

                    Unify does need some haggling with Java when you set up the controller, but it works like a charm.

                    Running 3 cheapest UniFi AP's here, but without a problem.

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                    • O
                      oppland
                      last edited by

                      I've been having trouble with coverage at one end of the house, and devices trying to stay with the wrong AP after I added a cheap AP – so I tried the Unifis (the $60 single band) and the zero handoff is working very well.

                      The software is very nice too and I could see how it would not be hard at all to have dozens of APs.

                      SG-2440

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                      • M
                        Mr. Jingles
                        last edited by

                        +1 for Ubiquity. Have a couple of them. They just work.

                        pfSense -> NIC -> VLAN_WAP -> Radius.

                        6 and a half billion people know that they are stupid, agressive, lower life forms.

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                        • luckman212L
                          luckman212 LAYER 8
                          last edited by

                          When you get your Unifi controller set up, dont forget to add DHCP option 43 (string) with a ascii-to-hex converted value of your controller's IP if you want "zero touch" adoption of your WAPs.  pfSense makes this easy (put it in additional bootp/dhcp options area). Here's a neat website that does the IP-to-HEX conversion for you:
                          http://www.miniwebtool.com/ip-address-to-hex-converter/?ip=8.8.8.8

                          :)

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