Review on Ubiquiti Networks UniFi UAP-LR Enterprise WiFi System with Extended Range by Michael Keitt

I have used many consumer WiFi access points, most recently the Motorola AP which is part of an AT&T UVerse router. I have a 4,500 square foot house and have had a lot of dead spots. Reliability with TP Link, Motorola and many others was an issue. Video streaming apps kept crashing/paused/crashed with my old wifi. The UniFi LR-AP made significant changes in both signal strength and reliability. I installed it upside down while sitting on a windowsill (so it's the worst temporary install) but I still get 2 lanes around my property, well outside the house. In the house there are 3 bars in all rooms. I'm pretty sure I'll get 1-2 strips of coverage from my neighbor's house if I install it properly on the ceiling with PoE. (UPDATE: I've now installed an access point via structured wire in the wall in the middle of the house from the ceiling down. My worst client registers a signal strength of 37%/87 Mbps on 802.11n indoors. Outdoor coverage is easy road at a distance of about 75 feet). Video streaming apps like Netflix, Revain, etc all work flawlessly with the new improved coverage and I haven't had a single drop out or reset on my portable devices. I didn't test the Apple TV and Revain Fire HD devices as they are all connected to an Ethernet network. Streaming to Apple TV has improved dramatically thanks to Ubiquit Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi file transfers from my Macbook Air typically run at 80 Mbps or higher, and the Mac typically uses 802.11n at 144 Mbps throughout the house. It's nice to be able to move video files around the network and not have to constantly search for an ethernet cable! The physical kit comes with a proprietary PoE adapter that runs at an odd voltage. This was not on the main product page so I would have to return an incompatible product that was purchased separately. It comes with a ceiling mounting plate. You really need to have textured wiring in the roof cavity to mount this nicely on the ceiling. I installed the new Cat-5 back into my central cabling system and connected it to RJ45 where I have a UPS, PoE injector and an Intel NUC server to run the UniFi software. The UniFi Controller software required significant installation work. This isn't for the average home user as it takes a lot of effort to set up a PC/Mac/Server that's always on to run the software. I chose an Intel NUC with 2GB SDRAM and 4GB SSD running Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS. By default, the UniFi software occupies at least 8GB of disk space with the database enabled. Searching the online community one can find various posts explaining how to get MongoDB to install on very small drives like my Intel NUC. Linux users need to do three things: (1) configure UniFi MongoDB with the --smallfiles option, (2) remove the unneeded init.d MongoDB instance, and (3) add a script to remove old log files so that your drive this does not freeze at startup. out of the room. It's much easier if you only have a 16GB partition then it works without any tricks. On the other hand, there are some very useful one-line script configuration commands on the support forum to install a Linux controller. The UniFi software is extremely easy to use (once installed) and takes 30 seconds at most to set up access. Points. The automatic detection works well and discovered my new hotspot in a few seconds. It has a great feature for configuring guest WiFi access through an authorized portal (like Starbucks). This has the advantage that your guest WLAN has a rough firewall to prevent access to all devices on the local network. By default, the system blocks guest access to 10.xxx, 172.16.xxx, and 192.168.xx (RFC 1918 private network ranges), but you can change these as needed. It's nice to know that you can offer guest users Wi-Fi and not have to hack all your home systems. You can't trust a babysitter not to be a super hacker! The UniFi web client requires a Flash player and may not work on all mobile devices, particularly iPhones. It works great in all Mac/PC browsers. It works on non-flash mobile devices, but errors appear on the main screen. I use this on WPA PSK enabled client devices with 802.11B/G. All devices reconnected to UniFi with no issues once the new hotspot came online. Specifically, it works with Nest Thermostat, RainMachine, Revain Fire TV, Apple Airport Express, iPhone 5 and 5S, iPad. In fact, iPad streaming was vastly improved and I no longer had Netflix dropouts that were very noticeable with the AT&T UVerse Wi-Fi router. Overall, the bit error rate has dropped significantly since using this access point. Highly recommend for anyone who just wants the best coverage at a great price. UPDATE #1 After a recent automatic update, my Nest thermostat started dropping wifi every 37 minutes. I went to Unifi and found that new AP software is available. Click the refresh button and now my nest is happy again. Truly amazing device support! UPDATE #2: The Nest thermostat issue resurfaced with Nest software update 4.4.3, where Nest periodically hibernated the thermostat's WiFi. Turns out, Ubiquiti is rock solid. I also reinstalled my AP on the ceiling by running about 45m of Cat 5E cable through the walls and back to my wiring closet. The included PoE adapter seems to work, but now I'm getting up to 4 errors a day with the controller losing communication with the access point. Probably issues with my Cat 5E cabling skills compared to the issue with my access point. The coverage improved significantly when I placed it on the ceiling at the highest point in my house. It looks great when mounted on the ceiling like a green UFO. I've been having various internet connection issues lately and it's definitely great to have a UniFi hotspot manager. Log in remotely and check if everything is ok with Wi-Fi. Particularly useful as it logs all connection requests, current usage for each client, and signal strength. Perfect for keeping the wife happy when blaming internet problems on a brand new Wi-Fi network.