Re: [PLUG] Mesh WiFi

[Keith via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On 10/26/20 4:21 PM, Rich Freeman via plug wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 26, 2020 at 4:07 PM Chad Waters via plug
> <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:
> > The support forums are full of complainers. Take everything you read there with a grain of salt.
> To be fair the UDM itself is a bit beta (it isn't on the regular store
> I think - you need to opt in to "test" it).  I've heard the latest
> controller firmware has some issues with certain features I don't use.
> Their QA isn't spectacular.
>
> Like I said, if you're trying to run a company with thousands of users
> it might not be the right fit.  For your home, though, it should be
> fine.  For a small office as well.  Very close to plug/play for that
> sort of deployment, and you can just have all the APs you need and
> they'll all "do the right thing."

I would disagree with that point.  The biggest issue in wifi design is 
that people unfamiliar with it don't use enough devices.  Doesn't matter 
if it is Unifi, Cisco, Buffalo because physics doesn't care about 
vendors.  More devices running at lower power, its really that simple as 
a high level.

Where Unifi shines is that once you start getting into multiple 
devices.  Direct management consumer units like Buffalo's or anything 
running the DD-WRT and Tomato firmwares we love become a major 
management task for simple things.  Unifi gives you a console like other 
manufacturers so that doing a firmware upgrade, changing an SSID or 
radio parameter on 3 devices is mostly the same tasking for 30 devices.

Also, saying "thousands of users" is not really that clear.  I can have 
thousands of users simply joined to the network because their device 
remembers a previous connection or I could have 1000 users 
simultaneously contending for access.  Now, are those 1000 nodes sending 
or receiving?  Is it both- what's the nature of the data flow?  
Symmetric, asymmetric... is that from the internet or a local server?  
Wifi deployments are one of those things where we can legitimately say 
"its complicated" but you could have 10 nodes stress a network far more 
than 1000 nodes depending on how that network was built and how it is 
being used.

Unifi's product breadth, multiple ways of addressing individual needs 
and needs that evolve (i.e. protecting previous investment) are another 
thing that makes it a good choice from a total cost of ownership point 
of view as well.


--
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Keith C. Perry, MS E.E.
Managing Member, DAO Technologies LLC
(O) +1.215.525.4165 x2033
(M) +1.215.432.5167
www.daotechnologies.com

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