Which is the Best AP for You? - UniFi Access Points Explained 2022

welcome to crosstalk solutions my name is chris and in this video we're going to cover everything that you need to know to make the right decisions when purchasing unifi access points in 2022 first however if you enjoy this kind of content make sure you like the video and subscribe to crosstalk solutions for two to three brand new tech videos every single week additionally if you get value from these videos that we produce the absolute best way that you can support our channel is to use our ubiquity affiliate link when purchasing equipment from the official ubiquity store now this doesn't change your price at all but it does get us a few bucks for the referral it's super easy and it is literally the best support you can give us so that we can keep producing network related content on youtube before we can dig into all of these various access points first we need to talk about unify itself unify is an sdn or software-defined networking environment this means that the access points switches and routers are not standalone devices they have to be connected to a central controller the central controller software is called unify network and it can be installed either as a standalone self-hosted piece of software or it can be bundled with other unify applications in unify os which runs on many of ubiquity's hardware devices such as the dream machine the dream machine pro the cloud key gen 2s and the upcoming dreamwall products so let's start by talking about the unifi os consoles such as the dream machine or the dream wall now these devices combine multiple network functions into a single device the dream machine pro for instance is a router a firewall a network switch unifi protect surveillance system unified talk phone system and unify os software controller all bundled together the unifi os consoles can be administered locally or through ubiquiti's unifi.ui.com cloud portal if you have enabled cloud access now the upside to these devices is that they're a really convenient way to add a lot of unify functionality packed into a single device the downside is that it's not always wise to put all of your eggs in one basket if the unifi os console device fails you lose a lot of network functionality compared to running separate devices for each network function another downside is that these devices are made for a single unified site meaning that if you have multiple locations running unify equipment you're going to need separate unifi os console devices for each site now you can manage multiple unifi os consoles through unifies cloud portal but you can't manage multiple unified locations from a single unifi os console another option for unify is the cloud key gen 2 or the cloud key gen 2 plus so these devices are standalone unifi os consoles or in other words they're a hardware device that runs unifi os but they don't include any extra network features such as router firewall or built-in access point so the cloud key gen 2 has unify network capabilities only the gen 2 plus version also includes a hard drive for storing unifi protect surveillance camera footage a cloud key is typically used when you have a separate router firewall device already installed in your network that you don't want to replace finally you can install your own self-hosted instance of unify network unifi network can be installed onto windows mac os or linux the self-hosted unifi network software can run locally or remotely at a different physical location or on a cloud server check out my definitive guide to host a unifi video for full step-by-step instructions for installing unifi network on a cloud hosted provider now the upside to hosting your own unifi network controller is that you have full control over how and where your controller is installed you can also host multiple sites on a single unifi network controller for example my own hosted unifi controller hosts dozens of client sites from my one controller i can access my customers equipment and effect changes from anywhere in the world now if you like the idea of having a centrally managed unifi network controller with multiple sites but you don't want to deal with upkeep and maintenance you could also optionally use a service such as hostify hostify is a fast and reliable unified network hosting service that includes instant setup of your unifi network instance dedicated chat phone and email support as well as updates and maintenance to the unified controller you can check out hostify by clicking in the link in the description below the downside to hosting your own unified network controller is that you get unifi network only you don't get any of the other unifi os applications such as protect video surveillance the unifi talk phone system unify access or unify connect none of those are part of the self-hosted install another downside is that the unifi network software version for self-hosted controllers tends to lag a little bit behind the unifi os consoles so you don't always have the latest and greatest features okay so now we've established what it takes to run unifi network to control your access points let's talk about the access points themselves in this video i'm going to focus on the latest generation of wi-fi 6 access points although the older generation of wi-fi 5 or what's known as 802.11 ac hardware is still available for purchase wi-fi 6 is quickly becoming the standard technology for any new access point it was designed to accommodate the larger number of devices that are wirelessly connected to your home and business networks wi-fi 6 isn't necessarily about more speed to your devices it's about density or in other words the features that come with wi-fi 6 allow for more wireless devices to communicate with the network and with each other than the previous generations of wi-fi allowed for when i think about wi-fi i think of the data as cars traveling down a highway you can really get to understand the wi-fi 6 features using this analogy so for example the increased channel widths means wider lanes that can accommodate more data or bigger cars if you will at higher speeds wi-fi 6 also allows for up to 8 by 8 multi-user mimo that packs more lanes into our highway so now we have more lanes as well as wider lanes for our data other features such as ofdma pack in additional efficiency much like carpooling so imagine a bunch of four passenger cars on the highway but each car only has one or two passengers each right not very efficient if you're carpooling you're packing more people into the same amount of cars in wireless terms this means that more data can travel through the air at the same time wi-fi 6 adds other features as well but the bottom line is that wi-fi 6 is faster more efficient and can process more data than previous generations of wi-fi and with the upcoming wi-fi 6e standard additional wireless spectrums are going to be available to use further increasing overall capacity and speed while also reducing interference now wi-fi 60 has not yet made it to any publicly available unified firmware but it's coming all right there are beta versions of firmware that utilize wi-fi 6e on some of the higher-end access points such as the wi-fi six enterprise access point that's still in early access okay with all of that out of the way let's finally talk about the different unifi access points that are available today if you're interested in a comparison chart featuring all of the different access points that i'm discussing in this video i've published a comparison to crosstalk solutions.com and you can check that out using the link below in the description starting at the low end we have the u6 lite coming in at just 99 msrp this is a two by two mimo access point now remember that mimo is like lanes on the highway a two by two mimo access point means that it can process traffic for one two by two client device or two one by one client devices simultaneously the u6 lite is a great access point for home use because it's very cost effective and yet it's powerful enough to handle most standard home wireless needs in our testing the u6 light had the best bang for your buck wireless performance due to its low price point i highly recommend this device for home use or if you're just starting out with exploring the capabilities of unifi network next up you can see the size difference here we have the u6 pro with an msrp of 149. the u6 pro is an excellent entry-level access point for most businesses with a 2x2 multi-user mimo antenna in the 2.4 gigahertz band and a 4x4 multi-user mimo in the 5 gigahertz band the u6 pro is good for up to 300 concurrent client devices this access point is absolutely our go-to device for office environments who have standard wireless needs the u6 pro is also ip54 weather resistant which means it can be placed outside though i would actually recommend having it under a bit of shelter such as like the eve of a roof if you're going to use it outdoors next on our list is the u6 lr and once again you can see the size comparison to the pro here this has an msrp of 179 the lr stands for long range and in previous videos i've speculated that lr might just be kind of like a marketing gimmick to help sell some more access points so before i recorded this video i reached out to ubiquity to specifically ask what makes the lr quote long range versus something like the u6 pro now ubiquiti's engineers responded by sending a great explanation along with the radiation patterns for this access point now i can't share those radiation patterns publicly but essentially the antennas in these axis points are omnidirectional meaning that the signal goes out in every direction but even though they're omnidirectional there are areas where the signal is the strongest or stretches the furthest where the range stretches the furthest right so if you hang this access point on the ceiling the signal for an access point such as the u6 pro is stronger at a steeper angle than the u6 lr so imagine the strongest radiation pattern coming off of this device when it's in this orientation is going to be a little bit wider than something like the u6 pro so the u6 pro's strongest signal is going to be sort of like in this direction and the u6 lr is kind of going to be in this direction right so there's like a slight difference in the orientation of the antennas that gives you the strongest signal a little bit further out than any of these other access points so all of that basically means that the u6 lr is indeed designed to be used in places where you need the signal to be strongest further away from the access point than something like the pro now this is 30 more than the u6 pro but with that extra 30 you get the wider antenna orientation as well as 4x4 memo in both the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands next up we have one of my absolute favorite access points this is the u6 mesh it has an msrp of a hundred and seventy nine dollars and the reason that i like this access point so much is because of this cylindrical form factor this access point looks just as good sitting on a shelf as it does hanging on a wall but it's also ipx5 weather resistant for outdoor use it's hands down the most versatile access point that ubiquity makes there's even an optional ceiling mount accessory for low profile mounting in a drop ceiling the one odd thing about this access point is that it's in the mesh family it's called the u6 mesh right even though all of these access points basically have the exact same mesh capabilities so even though this is labeled a mesh device we tend to use it just as a standard wireless access point for most deployments now if you need an access point for use in a single room such as a dorm room environment or a hotel you're going to want to check out the u6 in-wall with an msrp of 179 the in-wall access points have a pretty specific use case right they're designed to fit onto a single gang electrical box and they're powered up with poe in the back of the device now additionally there are four ethernet ports on the bottom of the access point that expand your wireless connectivity in addition to providing wireless coverage three of the ethernet ports on the bottom are standard one gigabit ethernet ports and the fourth is gigabit plus poe out for powering up a poe device such as a voip phone or a surveillance camera interestingly previous versions of the in-wall access point were designed with lower power output so that they would essentially cover a single room but this new version has as much output as ubiquity's other access points if you're just looking for covers to a single room for instance if you're using these in a hotel environment then you're actually going to want to tune down the output power of the u6 in-wall so that the signals from multiple devices closer together aren't going to interfere with each other finally we have to talk about this uap beacon hd this access point is designed to be a plug and play wireless extender for your existing unifi wireless network the beacon hd has a 4x4 mesh up link to your other dual band access points and then extends that wireless covers to your client devices that don't have great coverage to the other access points that are further away the beacon hd simply plugs into the wall over an existing electrical outlet and then is discoverable and unified to be adopted as a new mesh access point device it's an excellent and super easy way to extend wireless coverage to areas where your signal isn't as strong now this beacon hd is a wi-fi five access point but ubiquity already has a similar wi-fi six device in early access that will hopefully be coming out soon now one of the biggest complaints that i receive about ubiquiti's access points is that they're never in stock there's a huge huge demand for these products and global chip shortages supply chain issues they've made them pretty difficult to get however believe it or not most of these access points come into stock very regularly like multiple times a week even though they sell out very quickly so to ensure that you are notified when a product that you want comes into stock check out uinotify.net you can get free twitter email or discord notifications and with our paid plan you can also get sms notifications along with a number of other features let ui notify keep an eye out for the devices that you want and then all you have to do is buy them all right if you enjoyed this video please like and subscribe for two to three brand new videos every single week my name is chris with crosstalk solutions and we will see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: Crosstalk Solutions

Views: 279,989

Keywords: unifi access points, crosstalk, crosstalk solutions, unifi access points wifi 6, unifi access points review, setting up unifi access points, unifi access points mesh, unifi access points reveiw, unifi access point, unifi, unify, unifi access points explained, u6-lite, u6-pro, u6-lr, u6-iw, u6-mesh, uap-beaconhd

Id: y5I_WhnviYY

Length: 15min 41sec (941 seconds)

Published: Tue May 24 2022