I liked seeing that you were doing a "daisy chain" to the fiber switches. There are a good number of people that would say that's not the "right" way to do it and you should home run everything. But the ring gives you a good fail over route if something craps out. My favorite is "Ask 2 IT guys how to do something and you'll get at least 3 different answers." Another great post!
I work in an old folks home and I am looking to go Unifi or Edgeswitch and recalled you saying that unfi is not there yet. I have to undo alot of the past but we are getting there. This video is very helpful. Thank you for what you do.
I did a setup at a small company that I worked for. I used the unifi gateway pro, xg16, two 48 port unifi switches, and the ac pro access point. We also went ahead and replaced our analog camera system with the ubiquiti camera system. Never in my life have I ever setup a network so quickly and easily. I setup four vlans, had a 10G connection to the server, and a VPN to another office one state over that had nearly the same setup. The VPN was a little tricky, but after I figured it out it was simple as well. This system really is excellent! So much so, that it now runs my home network.
I just received equipment for my first Ubiquiti project. Our supplier couldn't get us the GBIC's (1Gbps-MM), either. We took the expensive route, choosing HP GBIC's which we can use as spares for our core HPE switches in a pinch. I went for the USG-PRO as our gateway, but I also ordered an ERP-Pro to replace a VYOS VM running elsewhere. I can't wait to get to it all set up! Thanks for the super-informative video! Keep up the great work!
subscribed!.. i am going thru our hospital installing all Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch gear, pulling new 10Gb fiber, building VLANs, and hosting production and free wifi on UAP-Pro's. we used to have 1Gb fiber, HP switches, and a flat /22 subnet.. tons of work, but i LOVE it!
Chris. Once again. Awesome video. nice gesture to Willie too about the fiber cable. One thing I'd like to see from both you and/or Willie is more in depth step by step best practices on setting up. On the controller going down each step and talk about how you set it up that way and why. A more advanced walk through. A follow-up video to this and an insight of all your settings would be great, then again. Trade secrets. :)
Chris, You are doing an awesome job with these tutorials and demonstrations. I have learnt quite a bit with respect to FreePBX, and some of the IT Infra projects. Thank you! ~Kavi
Love your videos, i've just discovered Ubiquiti products and have been implementing them at some different sites, even in my house, great value for money, awesome products for home and/or Enterprise uses. But your videos have been invaluable, it's great seeing the Ubiquiti products in action, keep up the great work.
This sort of real world case study is great, thank you. I have to set up a similar network for a museum building and is good to see a closely similar short of system configured by an experienced person. I love the box labeling tip!
Great videos you make chap. I am also a bi fan of UBNT kit, in particular the unifi series. I have in the past mainly just used there P2P wireless kit for installs, always found to be such EXCELLENT value for the products you get, and just never seem to skimp on quality, quality packaging, quality items, robust, well made, and reliable... Unifi started out for me with just wireless ap's, but am now rolling out several networks with Security Gateway Pros and switchs etc, largely very happy. Still having a few niggles with a few setups, mainly just due to new features / bugs not quite worked out. But overall I really just dig UBNT, and love what there doing here with UniFi. Great to see this setup going on, also interesting to see you setting up a network, and then posting it out for someone else to install? Very nice work. Would love to see some of your real world installs / setups, but imagine this is likely tricky just due to having a camera on customers networks, which is never really a good thing I guess. Thanks for the content either, I am also a youtuber, although my videos relate to my car hobby, but do love watching what other people do with work related stuff like this. Thanks for uploading!
Hi, Personally I cross-link each connection of switches, and use same SFP models to facilitate the spare stock. mixing MM and SM fibres is spent more time in troubleshooting . I also prepare an IP network plan of the network vlan for future uses. if they are happy with your work, they ask you each time an extension. Example 001 management (antennas) 100 lan users 200 facilities (printers, shared with both network with FW rules) 300 guest users 400 building (upc, badges) 500 security (cameras) 900 servers Anyway config is right done !. Thanks for the nice video:) All the best. David
I would still use Cisco if the budget allowed. However, for the price, I'm surprised at how decent the Ubiquiti equipment is. It reminds me a lot of Cisco Meraki. Nice stuff!
IMO - You should have done Hub-and-Spoke design. Connecting IDF's together is just creating a physical loop which could be an issue (STP should fix but still) and nobody really does that in enterprise designs anymore. Your using 12 SFP's total, so you could have just ran 2 fibers to each access switch in port-channel mode, to that distro switch in your MDF, each switch would have redundancy and you would avoid the loop issue. Plus you could save the client having to purchase those other two XG1 switches, saving money. If your worried about growth, then you could have used two XG1 in MDF (do they support stacking?), and still save money by not having to purchase the 3rd. Unless I"m missing something in your design, but just off the cuff from looking at your drawing that is what I see =) Otherwise well done and it will work of course, I just would have done it differently.
+nolanbrewski Really good point, and I probably would have preferred home runs to a central fiber switch as well...BUT - the building's fiber lines were already planned out when I received the project, so I was working with what I was given. Regardless though, it should work just fine.
Was very curios as to why you did this as well, good to see an explanation in the comments. I am looking to supply these to my customers but was uncertain and a bit cautious about how large of a network could be built using Ubiquiti. Great videos and explanations :D!
Thanks for the great video! I only have some questions regarding the XG devices in your diagram. Why are you using 3 XGs instead of only one? Why are you connecting the EW-XG-1 to SW-XG-1 when SW-XG-1 is already connected to EW-XG-1 through AL-XG-1? Is it possible to chain the switches using the SFPs and eliminate all the XG devices? For example connect EW1 to EW2 and EW2 to AL1 and so on...
Great Video! I'm building a House with an apartment next to it soon and have already planned out my Home Network and eventually decided to go with Unifi.. BEFORE I found all your videos (If I were in the US I would have used your Amazon link for sure)... I'm running Cat 6a cables everywhere and have pretty much all the equipment ready to go.. a Cloud Key, USG-Pro-4, 6 x AP AC Pros (Just saw that they have released the AC HDs which I may get 1 for our Ground floor, would you be able to do a review on it if you can get your hands on them), US-16-150W (for the apartment), US-24-500W, US-48 and am waiting on a Unifi 16-XG.... So excited to get everything setup! And super grateful to have found your videos!
Thanks! Great video. Diagram was super helpful. Couple of questions on best practices for management vlan. 1) Can you route from the Main LAN to the management network or is it totally isolated and protected? 2) Any reason why the native network is the management network as opposed to making it a VLAN that needs to be specifically configured on a port?
Chris, first off I wana say thanks for all the helpful videos. You've helped me learn so much about the Unifi system. I have a couple questions for you. You mentioned having the WAPs get an IP from the Mgmt vlan but have them pass tagged traffic for your Lan and Guest Wifi vlans. Did you just set those up as your "Standard Ports" group? 2nd question. Since your restricting the Standard Ports group to not include the Mgmt network, should you be able to ping anything on the Mgmt network from that group? I'm trying to set up similar to how you set this up (using a 24 port switch) and I cannot find out how to restrict that access. I have ports 1-2 set to the Mgmt lan and 3-20 as your Standard Ports and yet when I plug into port 7 with my desktop, I can still ping the controller on the Mgmt lan.
Great video thank you. Extremely helpful for my new install. I went through the video twice but I did not see you covering the firewall aspect at all. It is my understanding from reading the forums and from my own short test that the USG promiscuously route packets between VLANS. So without setting up the proper firewall rules, PCs in the Main LAN would be able to see Unifi devices in the Mgmt LAN. I am not sure about the accessibility of clients in the guest VLAN to the main or mgmt LAN. When you have multiple VLANS the next step would be to figure out a way to set the firewalling between VLANS. I am at this step now, hopefully there are good guides around.
Thanks for the video. Definitely one of the best unifi videos on UA-cam - and yes, I think I've seen all of them over the past weeks... I'm pretty new to ubiquiti devices as for my latest project the client decided it had to be ubiquiti. Just wanted to ask why you set up your standard lan ports (us-48-poe #3 - #41) to untagged vlan 10 instead of tagged. And why did you add the guest vlan to those ports as the APs are supposed to go to #42-48? Not trying to be one of the 9 lightbulb guys, just want to dig into how unifi may work different from others.
+Crosstalk Solutions I was wondering about using a /24 for the Guest WiFi... seems like a big building, with a lot of APs, are you not worried (or have you not seen) that you can get pretty close to that many leases on a holiday like we just had? Also didn't notice, but were the staff on a WiFi SSID on the LAN network? I guess that would offload a bunch of users.
First of all, great work and video. One of the most interesting for me, at least. One think, I would like to see more details about the settings / configurations you made for this project. As for using SFP for LAN a year ago some ubiquiti employee mentioned in a post that they "will make the port swappable WAN/LAN", but until now as I can see, nothing happened ... maybe it can be done by config.gateway.json ... I can't say ... One question: what type of cable do you recommend for medium distance setups? (40 - 70 meters). Thanks, and looking forward to see more of your videos
great video but isn't using vlan1 the default vlan as a management vlan a security concern? I vaguely remember reading something about not making the management vlan the same as the default vlan so it introduces one more layer of complexity before someone is able to just plug in and have access to management devices.
Great knowledge :) Many thanks from Poland :) I got tired of connecting USG-4pro to Unifi Switch24p. There is a lack of showing the beginning like cable connections, which seems obvious and not for everyone. Similarly, no information apparently obvious. :) like e.g. Disable DHCP LAN in config etc... :) Thanks for Yours films, very useful. Cordiality for You Kamil
Chris I really enjoy your channel. I do IT as a hobby and rally want to get into it professionally. What networking equipment do you use at home? What do you use for network protection? Gateway or endpoint protection or both??
Hello and first of all tahnks for all your videos, you have taught me a lot! I have a question for you, can I ude the usg pro 4 as main router instead of the ont from my provider?
AP Port config on the switch. I believe you were getting to it in your video but glanced over. or perhaps I missed it. for the AP ports, did you leave them as trunks or did you do Management untagged with the other two vlan's tagged? great videos BTW.
Impressing! Really clear concept! But what if a US-48 breaks down. Can you send one to the site and they can swap it, maintaining the wiring? Will it be adopted and gets the same configuration from the management server? That would be cool! In any case, I love the Unifi setup. Thanks for the video!!
Thank you for making great videos Chris. If there are existing network at the site and they wanted to add more equipment. Do you normally replace them all or you configure them to work with the one you put in? Do you need permission from the landlord to make changes to the wiring?
I have a question: Why did you use 3 fiber switches? I would of gone with 1 fiber switch and fiber linked it(at 10Gbs) to all 6 48 port switches. It seems like you complicated and added extra cost.
How often do you notice unifi switches randomly locking up and becoming unresponsive on the network? I've got 2 of them so far that randomly do this.. 1 16 port poe, and 1 24 port poe switch.. Nothing can resume their functions other than pulling their power and restarting them.
Great Video and very informative. Just in the throws of changing out my faulty un-managed switch and this Ubiquity kit looks like the perfect job, especially for a beginner like myself. Can I ask what is the difference between the access points and the mesh units?
I have a smallish UNIFI home network set up with a gigabit service. I run 10 cameras, 7 APs & a bunch of smart home devices and a few hard line drops for PCs. Looking to upgrade my router (currently using egde router X sfp) to something better suited to handle the gigabit service. Should I spend the coin to go with the USG Pro or would the standard USG work for my purposes in your opinion?
I'm kinda new to this company line of Networking equipment, but what is suppose to be the difference between their Unifi and Edge line of equipment? Other than the obvious that one line is black and the other equipment line is white.
Did you actually plug in every single ac pro, configure them and place them on the map? Because I was having trouble until recently Unifi released a beta version where you can add virtual devices and see their coverage without connecting or owning the device. Do you remember approximately what length you put between the access points? Just to compare to my work.
Hi Chris, as always many thanks for all the educative videos. Do you have a video which talks in detail about how to deploy multiple UniFi AP AC HD units based network. - How to find the best approach/ method to selecting the best channels. - How to avoid interference from neighbouring APs - Distance between placing the APs - What happens if the APs are distributed in a 5+ floor building which has thick brick walls instead of the typical American dry wall partitions. - What is the best way for a wireless survey so you can find how many APs (AP-AC-HD) and Mesh AC Pros to deploy before you start buying. - Finally post deployment how to automate constant monitoring, so that the wireless network is not facing any problems/ interference.
and to answer the rest of your questions, avoiding interference between APs is easy as long as you have other APs in range on different channels, you can use a wifi analyzer app or an RF scan in the AP or planning ahead on a map to figure this out, generally I go with about 40 ft between each AP with direct line of sight, but if there are brick walls and other obstacles you will want to adjust that distance or add an AP on the other side (5 gigahertz doesn't penetrate brick very well), and for a survey I would get a map of the place and just think about best placement (again the 40-foot direct line of sight), and for post-deployment as long as you set channels and transmit power manually you'll probably be fine and also once you finish the install I would go around the building with Wifi Analyzer and make sure that you don't have overlapping channels
What is the best practice when using multiple APs in an install like this? I understand manually setting the channel and transmit power. But how do you choose the best channels and manage clients connections when roaming from one AP to another?
You talk about just needing to worry about type and connector in terms of cable. Does UPC vs APC matter? Context: I have a USG-4-Pro and just had century link install fiber in my house. They use Single Mode, Simplex SC/APC into their ONT and I would like to see if I can just plug into the USG.
You give your customers a lot more credit than I would. "What's an ISP? All I know is when I plug my telephone into the ISP port, I don't get a dial tone." That's not where your VOIP phone goes. "VOIP? it says Uniden wireless on it." So I have to ask, how many days before you ended up having to fly out there anyway?
As of now, would you still recommend edgerouter over USG for power users ? I was going to buy ER-X but I feel they are adding more and more features to USG. I've been running pfsense for a long time in VM but I want a cheap hardware box (and to be honest, I'm not using 90 % of the features of pfsense..) but still I want to have some more advanced features in terms of firewall and routing
Which is better stand alone Tough switch POE pro or Ubiquiti Networks UniFi US-24-250W POE? Actually I want build a network of 14 UBIQUITI-AC-PRO WLAN access point. Please help to choose the right Switch?
+John Barnhill No...opening those through the firewall would be a pretty big security risk. I set them up so that I probably will never have to touch them...and if I do need to make changes, I'll just have to coordinate with the customer for remote access.
i wish controller had an option (cloud enabled) to open up a shell to reach other devices on network via ssh. - you can always setup a secure VPN to manage right? any reason why you haven't considered having a way back to their network and opting for coordination with some local hand there?
Excellent explanation about the network build Chris, it doesn't get any easier than that, especially the tip of using the equipment boxes as part of the network documentation. Any chance to post links to the spf modules and fiber cables? Against thank for your videos and hard work. Cheers 🍻
Another outstanding video from Chris. Why was fiber vs. lower cost copper used assuming primary purpose of network is to distribute Comcast Business Internet which runs under 1Gbit? Was request for fiber due to distance limitations of copper, noisy problems, desire for an ultra fast intranet, or something else? As Chris points out (I agree), old people don't need ultra speed!
Hi Chris, thanks for all you vids... Now I’m trying to setup the second wan to balance ISP services in my home UsG pro 4 all updated today.....I’ve created the wan2 network and assigned to wan2 port, but down in the Common Settings in networks, the load balancing option is disable to change, it shows Failover only, that actually works when I unplug the wan1 service , the usg pro 4 change to wan2 ... but I would like to use both at the same time and make balance .... what I’m missing here ? 🥴
Can we get a video showing dual WAN setup and usage. Something like an ethernet cellular modem (sierra wireless or craddlepoint) and how best to setup a dual wan failover system. USB cellular modems are not reliable.
Hey, Chris, I have a few questions regarding the whole Ubiquiti network thing. I'm building a new house with full Cat 6A wiring throughout the whole house, in the current setup, I have about 50 locations where I've run cable. I have 2 EdgeSwitches, and one of my first questions is, how to link them together. Also, I plan to get Google Fiber internet, and I'm not sure whether to get an EdgeRouter or a USG, is there a difference between the two? My final question is regarding POE devices, I plan to have 10 UVC-G3 Cameras, and 5 UAP-AC-PROs, do I need two different switches, or can I use one single switch for both devices. Sorry for the long question, but I'm a beginner at this. Thanks!
if i had just 1 location for all the hardware, would you just use 1 USG w/ however many UniFi switches that are required? if so, how would you connect up 2+ switches to the USG?
Great video and nice sl1pg8r shirt. You said that have prioritization configured, but when I recently played around with a USG, I noticed a lack of those options. Did I miss something, or did you only do some type of prioritization on the EdgeSwitches?
Hi Chris. Love the videos. I only just this week discovered Ubiquiti Unifi devices and have setup a 5 pack of UAP-AC-PROs in our office replacing 5 Apple Airport Extremes. We have a Fortunate 60D Firewall/Router which is supplied by our ISP and we have a Site-to-Site VPN setup to the ISP where our private cloud servers are located. I am also using 2 NetGear GS728TP 24 port PoE switches. Can I integrate the Unifi gear into this environment. I'm interesting in the Deep Packet Inspection views but looks like I need all Unifi gear to make this happen.
I have a USG 4 provider and a dhcp subnet mask provider with 21 and 5 AP-AC-Pro. The problem is that I tried it in an event with about 250 people and at that moment the cpu of the usg started to rise by 89% + - with this I do not deliver more dhcp or did it very slow or even give an ip conflict. This is normal? 260 customers is too little to stop like that? What can be?
Hi Chris, Great video! The labeling / instructions on the boxes were a nice touch! In regards to the XG switches / fiber section... How far are the wiring closets between the XG switches? I ask because when operating with singlemode fiber, depending on the optic (SFP) itself, they may be intended for long range use. Which means if you are using runs under approx 500 meters you would want to use a signal dampener or attenuator to prevent errors and possible burning out the optics! Once again, depends on the SFP's themselves. Be sure to check the specifications of the light levels and ensure you're within spec.
The fiber guys running the cable onsite made that change to single-mode fiber, so I'm assuming they know what they're doing. But - we also all know what happens when you assume.
sounds fair, just do this to be certain! #show fiber-ports optical-transceiver all If you do discover an issue, I'd definitely consider it their error/omission, not yours!
great video! nice to see to design a network. maybe some can help; i still looking for the difference between the Ubiquiti UniFi Switch 16 XG and the Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 16 XG , price nearly the same , just the edgeswitch is black.. any more differences ? its very hard to find out to make my choice for me they look the same technically. thanks in advance!
Hi Chris, just a couple of (stupid) questions: why did you interconnect AL and SW XG1 switches when SW is already connected directly to EW? Link aggregation or just for backup (in case AL dies)? Another question... the only reason for using XG1s is to be future proof or there's something more about it? I mean, if the 4 SFPs on the Unifi switches are enough for me can I get rid of the XG1 without loosing any features? As always thanks a lot for your videos!
Multiple links on the backbone for redundancy. Two reasons for using the ES-16-XG - first is for future expandibility...if they want/need to add additional 48 port switches in the future, they have the capacity. Second is because the 48 port UniFi switches only have 2 SFP+ ports (10 Gbps) and 2 SFP ports (1Gbps) - you wouldn't be able to do a solid 10Gbps backbone if you only used the 48 port switches...you'd have to daisy chain the switches together at each location with 1Gpbs fiber or Ethernet.
When doing redundant links like this, do you have to specify a port to be a failover port, or do the switches just pick one of the connections to send traffic? Just curious if having multiple routes would confuse the switch. I haven't set up a larger network like this yet. Thanks
Who will be installing the equipment out in the field? the electrical contractor or do you/they hire a local networking company? Great video by the way!
Is there a reason you did not add any resiliency links between the 48 port pairs? Thank you for the Unifi overview, as yet I have only used AP Pros for WiFi.
two questions: 1 - How far the XG cabinets are apart ? - Just need to know the best cables - for 100meters/250meters 2 - Can you please show the config for the XG - in another video please. Thanks
I had to rush that video actually, so the XG's are boxed up and shipped out. I will be doing a video on more in-depth UniFi VLANs soon though hopefully.
Can you please let me know how far the cabinets are apart ? -If I had the same setup - but the US are like a 100Meters away, what would be the best cables and Modules. ? ( of course supports Unifi ) Thanks Chris.
Best day of the week, is any day Crosstalk Solutions releases a video!
Agreed!
I liked seeing that you were doing a "daisy chain" to the fiber switches. There are a good number of people that would say that's not the "right" way to do it and you should home run everything. But the ring gives you a good fail over route if something craps out.
My favorite is "Ask 2 IT guys how to do something and you'll get at least 3 different answers."
Another great post!
+Jay Williams Thanks for watching!
Well, daisy chaining switching is wrong.
@@cytranic8602 Why?
I work in an old folks home and I am looking to go Unifi or Edgeswitch and recalled you saying that unfi is not there yet. I have to undo alot of the past but we are getting there. This video is very helpful. Thank you for what you do.
I did a setup at a small company that I worked for. I used the unifi gateway pro, xg16, two 48 port unifi switches, and the ac pro access point. We also went ahead and replaced our analog camera system with the ubiquiti camera system. Never in my life have I ever setup a network so quickly and easily. I setup four vlans, had a 10G connection to the server, and a VPN to another office one state over that had nearly the same setup. The VPN was a little tricky, but after I figured it out it was simple as well. This system really is excellent! So much so, that it now runs my home network.
As a followup, it would be pretty cool to see how you physically set up the racks. :)
Do more videos like this showing networks and the hardware.
Great video, Chris. Helpful. Even three years later. Great idea on using the packaging for documentation.
"Old folks dont move that fast" hilarious
hahahaha i had to watch it for second time makes my day even better
Haha - I had a good laugh too, but quickly reminded myself that we wouldn’t be too far behind! lol
I just received equipment for my first Ubiquiti project. Our supplier couldn't get us the GBIC's (1Gbps-MM), either. We took the expensive route, choosing HP GBIC's which we can use as spares for our core HPE switches in a pinch.
I went for the USG-PRO as our gateway, but I also ordered an ERP-Pro to replace a VYOS VM running elsewhere.
I can't wait to get to it all set up!
Thanks for the super-informative video! Keep up the great work!
subscribed!.. i am going thru our hospital installing all Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch gear, pulling new 10Gb fiber, building VLANs, and hosting production and free wifi on UAP-Pro's. we used to have 1Gb fiber, HP switches, and a flat /22 subnet.. tons of work, but i LOVE it!
Chris. Once again. Awesome video. nice gesture to Willie too about the fiber cable. One thing I'd like to see from both you and/or Willie is more in depth step by step best practices on setting up. On the controller going down each step and talk about how you set it up that way and why. A more advanced walk through. A follow-up video to this and an insight of all your settings would be great, then again. Trade secrets. :)
Chris,
You are doing an awesome job with these tutorials and demonstrations. I have learnt quite a bit with respect to FreePBX, and some of the IT Infra projects. Thank you!
~Kavi
I love your videos. You have a natural teaching style.
That retirement home will have better internal throughput than some billion dollar corporations!
Love your videos, i've just discovered Ubiquiti products and have been implementing them at some different sites, even in my house, great value for money, awesome products for home and/or Enterprise uses.
But your videos have been invaluable, it's great seeing the Ubiquiti products in action, keep up the great work.
This sort of real world case study is great, thank you. I have to set up a similar network for a museum building and is good to see a closely similar short of system configured by an experienced person. I love the box labeling tip!
Great videos you make chap. I am also a bi fan of UBNT kit, in particular the unifi series. I have in the past mainly just used there P2P wireless kit for installs, always found to be such EXCELLENT value for the products you get, and just never seem to skimp on quality, quality packaging, quality items, robust, well made, and reliable... Unifi started out for me with just wireless ap's, but am now rolling out several networks with Security Gateway Pros and switchs etc, largely very happy. Still having a few niggles with a few setups, mainly just due to new features / bugs not quite worked out. But overall I really just dig UBNT, and love what there doing here with UniFi. Great to see this setup going on, also interesting to see you setting up a network, and then posting it out for someone else to install? Very nice work. Would love to see some of your real world installs / setups, but imagine this is likely tricky just due to having a camera on customers networks, which is never really a good thing I guess. Thanks for the content either, I am also a youtuber, although my videos relate to my car hobby, but do love watching what other people do with work related stuff like this. Thanks for uploading!
Thanks!
Hi,
Personally I cross-link each connection of switches, and use same SFP models to facilitate the spare stock. mixing MM and SM fibres is spent more time in troubleshooting .
I also prepare an IP network plan of the network vlan for future uses. if they are happy with your work, they ask you each time an extension.
Example
001 management (antennas)
100 lan users
200 facilities (printers, shared with both network with FW rules)
300 guest users
400 building (upc, badges)
500 security (cameras)
900 servers
Anyway config is right done !. Thanks for the nice video:)
All the best. David
Very nice - standardizing on stuff like this makes life easier.
Thank you so much for all your videos. They are very informative and well presented.
I would still use Cisco if the budget allowed. However, for the price, I'm surprised at how decent the Ubiquiti equipment is. It reminds me a lot of Cisco Meraki. Nice stuff!
IMO - You should have done Hub-and-Spoke design. Connecting IDF's together is just creating a physical loop which could be an issue (STP should fix but still) and nobody really does that in enterprise designs anymore. Your using 12 SFP's total, so you could have just ran 2 fibers to each access switch in port-channel mode, to that distro switch in your MDF, each switch would have redundancy and you would avoid the loop issue. Plus you could save the client having to purchase those other two XG1 switches, saving money. If your worried about growth, then you could have used two XG1 in MDF (do they support stacking?), and still save money by not having to purchase the 3rd. Unless I"m missing something in your design, but just off the cuff from looking at your drawing that is what I see =) Otherwise well done and it will work of course, I just would have done it differently.
+nolanbrewski Really good point, and I probably would have preferred home runs to a central fiber switch as well...BUT - the building's fiber lines were already planned out when I received the project, so I was working with what I was given. Regardless though, it should work just fine.
Was very curios as to why you did this as well, good to see an explanation in the comments. I am looking to supply these to my customers but was uncertain and a bit cautious about how large of a network could be built using Ubiquiti. Great videos and explanations :D!
ingenious with the box labeling.
Thanks for the great video! I only have some questions regarding the XG devices in your diagram.
Why are you using 3 XGs instead of only one?
Why are you connecting the EW-XG-1 to SW-XG-1 when SW-XG-1 is already connected to EW-XG-1 through AL-XG-1?
Is it possible to chain the switches using the SFPs and eliminate all the XG devices? For example connect EW1 to EW2 and EW2 to AL1 and so on...
Great Video! I'm building a House with an apartment next to it soon and have already planned out my Home Network and eventually decided to go with Unifi.. BEFORE I found all your videos (If I were in the US I would have used your Amazon link for sure)... I'm running Cat 6a cables everywhere and have pretty much all the equipment ready to go.. a Cloud Key, USG-Pro-4, 6 x AP AC Pros (Just saw that they have released the AC HDs which I may get 1 for our Ground floor, would you be able to do a review on it if you can get your hands on them), US-16-150W (for the apartment), US-24-500W, US-48 and am waiting on a Unifi 16-XG.... So excited to get everything setup! And super grateful to have found your videos!
Another great video, that is one hell of a setup for that retirement community !
Hi, from the new Firmware 5.8.xx you are able to fiber LAN and configure all ports of the USG4Pro freely
Thanks! Great video. Diagram was super helpful. Couple of questions on best practices for management vlan. 1) Can you route from the Main LAN to the management network or is it totally isolated and protected? 2) Any reason why the native network is the management network as opposed to making it a VLAN that needs to be specifically configured on a port?
Chris, first off I wana say thanks for all the helpful videos. You've helped me learn so much about the Unifi system. I have a couple questions for you. You mentioned having the WAPs get an IP from the Mgmt vlan but have them pass tagged traffic for your Lan and Guest Wifi vlans. Did you just set those up as your "Standard Ports" group?
2nd question.
Since your restricting the Standard Ports group to not include the Mgmt network, should you be able to ping anything on the Mgmt network from that group? I'm trying to set up similar to how you set this up (using a 24 port switch) and I cannot find out how to restrict that access. I have ports 1-2 set to the Mgmt lan and 3-20 as your Standard Ports and yet when I plug into port 7 with my desktop, I can still ping the controller on the Mgmt lan.
Great video thank you. Extremely helpful for my new install.
I went through the video twice but I did not see you covering the firewall aspect at all.
It is my understanding from reading the forums and from my own short test that the USG promiscuously route packets between VLANS. So without setting up the proper firewall rules, PCs in the Main LAN would be able to see Unifi devices in the Mgmt LAN. I am not sure about the accessibility of clients in the guest VLAN to the main or mgmt LAN.
When you have multiple VLANS the next step would be to figure out a way to set the firewalling between VLANS. I am at this step now, hopefully there are good guides around.
Excelent video, I learned a lot about how to deploy a network using Unifi products
nice video...very informative. More please
Thanks for the video. Definitely one of the best unifi videos on UA-cam - and yes, I think I've seen all of them over the past weeks...
I'm pretty new to ubiquiti devices as for my latest project the client decided it had to be ubiquiti. Just wanted to ask why you set up your standard lan ports (us-48-poe #3 - #41) to untagged vlan 10 instead of tagged.
And why did you add the guest vlan to those ports as the APs are supposed to go to #42-48?
Not trying to be one of the 9 lightbulb guys, just want to dig into how unifi may work different from others.
Great video, i really liked that you explained why you did things this way and what you would do different, if you would do it today.
+Daniel Georges Thanks!
great tip at the end! really loved this video. I install a lot of unifi. I'll use the box for notes
you can assign the WAN-Port as a LAN-Port - so you can use SFP as LAN-Port
Are the 10G, 10GTek's also configurable to link at 1G if needed instead of 10G? Or do you have to match the SFP+ according to speed as usual?
+Crosstalk Solutions I was wondering about using a /24 for the Guest WiFi... seems like a big building, with a lot of APs, are you not worried (or have you not seen) that you can get pretty close to that many leases on a holiday like we just had? Also didn't notice, but were the staff on a WiFi SSID on the LAN network? I guess that would offload a bunch of users.
First of all, great work and video. One of the most interesting for me, at least. One think, I would like to see more details about the settings / configurations you made for this project. As for using SFP for LAN a year ago some ubiquiti employee mentioned in a post that they "will make the port swappable WAN/LAN", but until now as I can see, nothing happened ... maybe it can be done by config.gateway.json ... I can't say ... One question: what type of cable do you recommend for medium distance setups? (40 - 70 meters). Thanks, and looking forward to see more of your videos
great video but isn't using vlan1 the default vlan as a management vlan a security concern? I vaguely remember reading something about not making the management vlan the same as the default vlan so it introduces one more layer of complexity before someone is able to just plug in and have access to management devices.
Great knowledge :) Many thanks from Poland :)
I got tired of connecting USG-4pro to Unifi Switch24p. There is a lack of showing the beginning like cable connections, which seems obvious and not for everyone. Similarly, no information apparently obvious. :) like e.g. Disable DHCP LAN in config etc... :) Thanks for Yours films, very useful. Cordiality for You Kamil
Chris I really enjoy your channel. I do IT as a hobby and rally want to get into it professionally. What networking equipment do you use at home? What do you use for network protection? Gateway or endpoint protection or both??
Hello and first of all tahnks for all your videos, you have taught me a lot! I have a question for you, can I ude the usg pro 4 as main router instead of the ont from my provider?
Hi. What software do you use for your documentation?
AP Port config on the switch.
I believe you were getting to it in your video but glanced over. or perhaps I missed it.
for the AP ports, did you leave them as trunks or did you do Management untagged with the other two vlan's tagged?
great videos BTW.
Impressing! Really clear concept! But what if a US-48 breaks down. Can you send one to the site and they can swap it, maintaining the wiring? Will it be adopted and gets the same configuration from the management server? That would be cool!
In any case, I love the Unifi setup. Thanks for the video!!
Thank you for making great videos Chris. If there are existing network at the site and they wanted to add more equipment. Do you normally replace them all or you configure them to work with the one you put in? Do you need permission from the landlord to make changes to the wiring?
I have a question: Why did you use 3 fiber switches? I would of gone with 1 fiber switch and fiber linked it(at 10Gbs) to all 6 48 port switches. It seems like you complicated and added extra cost.
How often do you notice unifi switches randomly locking up and becoming unresponsive on the network? I've got 2 of them so far that randomly do this.. 1 16 port poe, and 1 24 port poe switch.. Nothing can resume their functions other than pulling their power and restarting them.
Great Video and very informative. Just in the throws of changing out my faulty un-managed switch and this Ubiquity kit looks like the perfect job, especially for a beginner like myself.
Can I ask what is the difference between the access points and the mesh units?
great video as always. Thanks Chris
I have a smallish UNIFI home network set up with a gigabit service. I run 10 cameras, 7 APs & a bunch of smart home devices and a few hard line drops for PCs. Looking to upgrade my router (currently using egde router X sfp) to something better suited to handle the gigabit service. Should I spend the coin to go with the USG Pro or would the standard USG work for my purposes in your opinion?
I'm kinda new to this company line of Networking equipment, but what is suppose to be the difference between their Unifi and Edge line of equipment? Other than the obvious that one line is black and the other equipment line is white.
You are good at this. Great videos very informative
Did you actually plug in every single ac pro, configure them and place them on the map? Because I was having trouble until recently Unifi released a beta version where you can add virtual devices and see their coverage without connecting or owning the device. Do you remember approximately what length you put between the access points? Just to compare to my work.
Hi Chris, as always many thanks for all the educative videos. Do you have a video which talks in detail about how to deploy multiple UniFi AP AC HD units based network.
- How to find the best approach/ method to selecting the best channels.
- How to avoid interference from neighbouring APs
- Distance between placing the APs
- What happens if the APs are distributed in a 5+ floor building which has thick brick walls instead of the typical American dry wall partitions.
- What is the best way for a wireless survey so you can find how many APs (AP-AC-HD) and Mesh AC Pros to deploy before you start buying.
- Finally post deployment how to automate constant monitoring, so that the wireless network is not facing any problems/ interference.
here's a good web page I found on selecting Wi-Fi channels www.networkcomputing.com/wireless/channel-bonding-wifi-rules-and-regulations/199326059
and to answer the rest of your questions, avoiding interference between APs is easy as long as you have other APs in range on different channels, you can use a wifi analyzer app or an RF scan in the AP or planning ahead on a map to figure this out, generally I go with about 40 ft between each AP with direct line of sight, but if there are brick walls and other obstacles you will want to adjust that distance or add an AP on the other side (5 gigahertz doesn't penetrate brick very well), and for a survey I would get a map of the place and just think about best placement (again the 40-foot direct line of sight), and for post-deployment as long as you set channels and transmit power manually you'll probably be fine and also once you finish the install I would go around the building with Wifi Analyzer and make sure that you don't have overlapping channels
something else I forgot to say if a UniFi AP is detecting interference it will create a message in the alerts menu
What is the best practice when using multiple APs in an install like this? I understand manually setting the channel and transmit power. But how do you choose the best channels and manage clients connections when roaming from one AP to another?
You talk about just needing to worry about type and connector in terms of cable. Does UPC vs APC matter? Context: I have a USG-4-Pro and just had century link install fiber in my house. They use Single Mode, Simplex SC/APC into their ONT and I would like to see if I can just plug into the USG.
You give your customers a lot more credit than I would. "What's an ISP? All I know is when I plug my telephone into the ISP port, I don't get a dial tone." That's not where your VOIP phone goes. "VOIP? it says Uniden wireless on it."
So I have to ask, how many days before you ended up having to fly out there anyway?
Hah - I have never flown out onsite to this customer, and it's still up and running great!
As of now, would you still recommend edgerouter over USG for power users ? I was going to buy ER-X but I feel they are adding more and more features to USG. I've been running pfsense for a long time in VM but I want a cheap hardware box (and to be honest, I'm not using 90 % of the features of pfsense..) but still I want to have some more advanced features in terms of firewall and routing
Which is better stand alone Tough switch POE pro or Ubiquiti Networks UniFi US-24-250W POE? Actually I want build a network of 14 UBIQUITI-AC-PRO WLAN access point. Please help to choose the right Switch?
I'd assume you're going to setup port forwarding on your XGs to managed them remotely?
+John Barnhill No...opening those through the firewall would be a pretty big security risk. I set them up so that I probably will never have to touch them...and if I do need to make changes, I'll just have to coordinate with the customer for remote access.
i wish controller had an option (cloud enabled) to open up a shell to reach other devices on network via ssh. - you can always setup a secure VPN to manage right? any reason why you haven't considered having a way back to their network and opting for coordination with some local hand there?
Excellent explanation about the network build Chris, it doesn't get any easier than that, especially the tip of using the equipment boxes as part of the network documentation. Any chance to post links to the spf modules and fiber cables?
Against thank for your videos and hard work. Cheers 🍻
Thanks! I'll try to get around to posting those links, but I was tired last night when I edited and posted this video.
Hey Chris, do you crimp your own network cables for these installs or do you buy off the shelf cables to suit the size you need?
Another outstanding video from Chris.
Why was fiber vs. lower cost copper used assuming primary purpose of network is to distribute Comcast Business Internet which runs under 1Gbit? Was request for fiber due to distance limitations of copper, noisy problems, desire for an ultra fast intranet, or something else? As Chris points out (I agree), old people don't need ultra speed!
+John Poldoian Fiber was used because of distance.
just posting. this is a awesome chanel. love how make the videos. keep up the great work.
Thanks!
Nice Sl1pg8r T-shirt!
Hi Chris, thanks for all you vids... Now I’m trying to setup the second wan to balance ISP services in my home UsG pro 4 all updated today.....I’ve created the wan2 network and assigned to wan2 port, but down in the Common Settings in networks, the load balancing option is disable to change, it shows Failover only, that actually works when I unplug the wan1 service , the usg pro 4 change to wan2 ... but I would like to use both at the same time and make balance .... what I’m missing here ? 🥴
Have you tried this setup using the IPS and other features? I’ve heard throughput drops to around 200-250 Mbps when turned on.
Chris what software did you use to diagram the topology? Where did you get the switch icons? Thanks GREAT VIDEO!!!
That software looks like Microsoft Publisher but I’m not sure where he got the icons from.
awesome video, I am looking into this myself
I love the custom map! Can you recommend something to create a custom floor plan that can be imported into the UniFi Controller?
Hi Chris, could you provide me the exact part number of the Gtek SFP+ Tranceiver you were showing in the video? Thanks!
it was worthwhile t0 watch your presentation, thanks
Is it not easyer to give the three edgeswitches direct acces/direct link to the usg-pro??
Awesome video mate! very informative...
Great videos. Salute from Mexico
Great Video.. Thanks a lot.. Anyway, how to create map for this unifi controller? Is there any special software for it?
Did you think about a Unifi Camera for the Network cabinets ?
Can we get a video showing dual WAN setup and usage. Something like an ethernet cellular modem (sierra wireless or craddlepoint) and how best to setup a dual wan failover system. USB cellular modems are not reliable.
Chris, I know you did a did a USG vs ER lite video, have you done a comparison to of the USG Pro and the ER Pro?
Why don't you use DAC cable instead, it's way cheaper.
What are downsides using DAC cable vs separated SFP+ + FO cable?
Hey, Chris, I have a few questions regarding the whole Ubiquiti network thing. I'm building a new house with full Cat 6A wiring throughout the whole house, in the current setup, I have about 50 locations where I've run cable. I have 2 EdgeSwitches, and one of my first questions is, how to link them together. Also, I plan to get Google Fiber internet, and I'm not sure whether to get an EdgeRouter or a USG, is there a difference between the two? My final question is regarding POE devices, I plan to have 10 UVC-G3 Cameras, and 5 UAP-AC-PROs, do I need two different switches, or can I use one single switch for both devices. Sorry for the long question, but I'm a beginner at this. Thanks!
Which program do you use to make your network diagrams? I traditionally use Visio but curious if you have another one you like
if i had just 1 location for all the hardware, would you just use 1 USG w/ however many UniFi switches that are required? if so, how would you connect up 2+ switches to the USG?
Really good video.Is what you would call router on a stick config ? what do you mean with tag and untag ? sorry man I am new to networking.
last week i was told by ubnt support that cloud key is no go for more than 25 devices. it was running out of memory for my 56 devices
Great video and nice sl1pg8r shirt. You said that have prioritization configured, but when I recently played around with a USG, I noticed a lack of those options. Did I miss something, or did you only do some type of prioritization on the EdgeSwitches?
I don't think I said I have prioritization configured. I did firewall off the VLANs for security though.
Ah, my mistake. You touched on bandwidth limiting through the guest control policies of the APs.
Perfect!! Love this guy!!
Now I have a reason to live in a retirement home
Can you share the Visio stencils you are using, Im having trouble finding any like what you are using?
Hi Chris. Love the videos. I only just this week discovered Ubiquiti Unifi devices and have setup a 5 pack of UAP-AC-PROs in our office replacing 5 Apple Airport Extremes.
We have a Fortunate 60D Firewall/Router which is supplied by our ISP and we have a Site-to-Site VPN setup to the ISP where our private cloud servers are located. I am also using 2 NetGear GS728TP 24 port PoE switches.
Can I integrate the Unifi gear into this environment. I'm interesting in the Deep Packet Inspection views but looks like I need all Unifi gear to make this happen.
I have a USG 4 provider and a dhcp subnet mask provider with 21 and 5 AP-AC-Pro.
The problem is that I tried it in an event with about 250 people and at that moment the cpu of the usg started to rise by 89% + - with this I do not deliver more dhcp or did it very slow or even give an ip conflict. This is normal? 260 customers is too little to stop like that? What can be?
Hi Chris,
Great video! The labeling / instructions on the boxes were a nice touch!
In regards to the XG switches / fiber section... How far are the wiring closets between the XG switches? I ask because when operating with singlemode fiber, depending on the optic (SFP) itself, they may be intended for long range use. Which means if you are using runs under approx 500 meters you would want to use a signal dampener or attenuator to prevent errors and possible burning out the optics! Once again, depends on the SFP's themselves. Be sure to check the specifications of the light levels and ensure you're within spec.
The fiber guys running the cable onsite made that change to single-mode fiber, so I'm assuming they know what they're doing. But - we also all know what happens when you assume.
sounds fair, just do this to be certain!
#show fiber-ports optical-transceiver all
If you do discover an issue, I'd definitely consider it their error/omission, not yours!
great video! nice to see to design a network. maybe some can help; i still looking for the difference between the Ubiquiti UniFi Switch 16 XG and the Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 16 XG , price nearly the same , just the edgeswitch is black.. any more differences ? its very hard to find out to make my choice for me they look the same technically. thanks in advance!
Hi Chris, just a couple of (stupid) questions: why did you interconnect AL and SW XG1 switches when SW is already connected directly to EW? Link aggregation or just for backup (in case AL dies)?
Another question... the only reason for using XG1s is to be future proof or there's something more about it? I mean, if the 4 SFPs on the Unifi switches are enough for me can I get rid of the XG1 without loosing any features?
As always thanks a lot for your videos!
Multiple links on the backbone for redundancy. Two reasons for using the ES-16-XG - first is for future expandibility...if they want/need to add additional 48 port switches in the future, they have the capacity. Second is because the 48 port UniFi switches only have 2 SFP+ ports (10 Gbps) and 2 SFP ports (1Gbps) - you wouldn't be able to do a solid 10Gbps backbone if you only used the 48 port switches...you'd have to daisy chain the switches together at each location with 1Gpbs fiber or Ethernet.
When doing redundant links like this, do you have to specify a port to be a failover port, or do the switches just pick one of the connections to send traffic? Just curious if having multiple routes would confuse the switch. I haven't set up a larger network like this yet. Thanks
Crosstalk Solutions Thank you for the reply!
Crosstalk Solutions, how do you configure multiple links like that? do Ubiquiti switches do spamming tree like Cisco?
Who will be installing the equipment out in the field? the electrical contractor or do you/they hire a local networking company? Great video by the way!
They have a cabling specialist doing the fiber - they also did the wireless site survey on my behalf. Very competent crew out in Houston, TX.
Is there a reason you did not add any resiliency links between the 48 port pairs?
Thank you for the Unifi overview, as yet I have only used AP Pros for WiFi.
I have resiliency between the fiber switches, but I didn't do that to the 48's, no.
two questions:
1 - How far the XG cabinets are apart ? - Just need to know the best cables - for 100meters/250meters
2 - Can you please show the config for the XG - in another video please.
Thanks
I had to rush that video actually, so the XG's are boxed up and shipped out. I will be doing a video on more in-depth UniFi VLANs soon though hopefully.
Can you please let me know how far the cabinets are apart ?
-If I had the same setup - but the US are like a 100Meters away, what would be the best cables and Modules. ? ( of course supports Unifi )
Thanks Chris.
I didnt understand using edgeswitch and unifiswitch together. cant i connect the usg directly to unifiswitch with lan instead of sfp as uplink ?
Hi, what was the reason why you added guest wifi as a tagged network to your 'standard' network?