Suggestions for Access Point only

[CajunLanMan]

Hello all.

I have been happily subscribed to Untangles paid product for several months now. However, I'm trying to get away from routers-turned-access point for use of my wireless APs.

I really like the concept of the Plume WiFi system, except that it is always cloud connected. I looked at Ubiquity, but it sounds like you need to purchase some sort of hardware cloud key to use them.

Any suggestions for some good "AP only" hardware for use with Untangle?

[dmorris]

you just need a regular AP? I am partial to the wrt1900acs form linksys. its cheap and super super strong.

if the site is small you can run untangle on it or just regular behind untangle.

if you want to use it as an AP only just plug the ethernet into the LAN instead of WAN so it doesn't do NAT/routing and just provides AP.

However, if you are looking at a large site or mesh style setup for an office/warehouse/campus type deal this isn't a good option.

[chmcwill]

One doesn't have to purchase a Cloud Key for Ubiquiti, you can run the controller on an internal machine, you can use the Cloud Key (basically a hardware dongle which runs the controller onsite and powered by your PoE switch) or you could run the controller offsite ... then the ocntroller is only required if you want to keep statistics or change the configuration or upgrade the firmware of the units, etc.

[sky-knight]

Yeah Unifi WAPs need a controller, but the software in question is just a java app that runs on a windows / linux / mac.

The Cloud Key is honestly not worth it, it's rather expensive, and REALLY fragile. I got tired of replacing them, now I just run the java controller on a windows server in the corner. Here at home it runs on my laptop, I just plug the thing in, fire up the controller make the changes I want, and turn it off again.

[jcoehoorn]

To make this clearer... the Ubiquiti controller app doesn't have to run all the time. You only need it when you want to make changes, or if you need it's wifi monitoring (hint: Untangle does a pretty good job handling the monitoring you need on it's own).

[sky-knight]

If you're really good, you can run the Unifi Controller on Untangle... that's a fun one.

[CajunLanMan]

That sounds like a great idea. But it also sounds unsupported. :-P

[CajunLanMan]

Thanks for the heads up on Ubiquity. I liked the sounds of their AP AC Lite, and having a few of them scattered around the house. This would be like the Plume system I'm so fond of, but without the cloud management bit, and without having to turn off router functionality (since I want to use the Untangle for that anyway).

Thanks for the input.

[sky-knight]

That sounds like a great idea. But it also sounds unsupported. :-P

Yes... and keeping the controller running isn't the easiest thing in the world. If you do go the Unifi route, make sure you disable Java updates on whatever you install it on. You need to make sure the controller isn't online when the java update takes place or the thing will crash, and there's a small chance it'll eat your configuration database along with it. But this only really applies if you activate the thing as a service so it's always running.

Having the controller on Untangle just makes it that much harder to fix it when it misbehaves. It was fun, but ultimately I scrapped it.

[agit8or]

We probably have ~60 of these deployed at different customers. Largest utilizes 10 of them. Built in controller, great range, inexpensive, and zero issues. IIRC, our cost on these is ~$80 each

http://www.grandstream.com/products/...roduct/gwn7610