So far, it's a thumbs-up. The hardware itself is quite inexpensive and the Apple gear still has value on ebay. Overall, we're in better shape than before for a small investment in money and time.


I believe that I read Ubiquiti have a dual-band AP that uses the 5GHz band solely for the link between APs. Then it's 2.4GHz-only to the clients. That seems like it could be a good idea for some installs, but we can easily run Cat-5 outside. Since it's PoE, there's just one cable for data and power. If it's possible to hardwire something, that's always best.


I do have experience with other cloud hosting services, but this was my first time working with EC2. It was very simple, but requires a basic understanding of setting DNS records to do it right. Since a working image with the controller software was provided already, there is no need to work with the Linux command line and install anything. You just need to install the image, give it a static IP, and optionally point a DNS A-record to it for a domain name.

The controller software obviously has a Windows and OS X version. You could easily use those options for something on-site, but I have no experience with it. Thinking logically, an install with local controller should be simpler. However, I found the cloud-based install to be a piece of cake.

When setting up the APs for cloud hosting, there is a Discovery application I ran on my laptop (OS X). It will list all the APs on your LAN yet to be configured or adopted by a controller. This youtube video shows what's involved with adopting an AP to a cloud controller.

As far as being harder to set up than a consumer router, I should be clear that these devices are not routers. You will still need a separate router and set that up properly before-hand. That said, all the configuration is done on the controller software. Since these APs are meant to be run as a system, they all have the same configuration with regards to SSIDs and passwords. When you successfully adopt a UniFi AP to your controller, it will automatically be provisioned by the controller with your settings. Adopting the AP to the controller is basically a two-step process. Give the AP the URL of your controller using the Discovery application, then command the controller to adopt the AP. After that, the controller will update the AP's firmware, provision it, reboot it, and then you'll be in business. It takes very little time per AP, and I'm impressed with the way it all worked.