The 1gb pass through port is great in hotels. At least here in the US a lot of Marriott properties use small Ruckus units in each room, bring along a cat 5 cable and plug directly in for much better speed.
I had a quick look, and it looks like Ruckus actually patented that feature, a few other vendors have sort of replicated it by abusing radius in most cases it seems.
@@__Ben good to know. I don't see why mimicing it through radius comes close as it's a whole different kettle of fish compared to just virtually dropping clients onto a VLAN without them knowing, regardless of 802.1x support. Ruckus really has a USP there.
@@nelizmastr oh definitely yeah, I'm dropping clients into VLANs without knowledge on unifi using Radius and their RADIUS MAC Auth option, though they do also have an upcoming feature in new network controller versions to do that in UI (probably needs UDM?)
I had a feeling you were going to choose Ruckus. I've never used any of their hardware, but it does look pretty good. The fact that you can setup an AP as a controller for multiple access points is a great feature.
My Ruckus AP is now EOL. But still does the job. The unleashed firmware is a killer feature. Just a firmware flash and you are good to go from being controller based, to standalone.
@@l0gic23 Released 2014. I got mine in 2015. Ruckus R500. Latest firmware is September 2023. It does not work with the iOS app. Due to a bug in OS 16.It has been fixed for the xx10 and above series. No big deal.
one of the best video about AP I ever watched in UA-cam. Thanks. Was checking both Ruckus and Aruba instant on to replace my cheap home WiFI systems. if I can get APs cheap I definitely go with Ruckus
Never knew about the power of DPSK so thank you for that demo. Just did a quick Google and apparently my Omada setup supports PPSK, so I might give it a go!
From my now outdated research the omada line was by far the best value in my area (-openwrt on consumer grade ap's). Glad to know they support this feature for when I go enterprise at home in the future. I am currently using the deco line and they are slowly bring more and more features to them. We just got static routes! On deco because I really needed a managed wifi network as client roaming was broken on most devices at the time. I have 7 ap's on my network all 1g wired backhaul. I do wish I waited for 802.11r and "mesh" to be more common before making the switch as I would have gone archer c7's with open wrt for way less money. Like $10-$20 used. And I really sound like a tplink shill with those options😂
Wow, the DPSK feature seems amazing. Unfortunately the new Unifi U6 Enterprise seems a much better deal to me with the 6E features in a more built up area. Thanks for the video!
Have used ruckus unleashed kit since 2017 all way up from WiFi 5 to 6e APs across our 3 site offices at work. My vote is it’s “alright”. Management interface is very nice but frankly they are far too expensive for what you get and other brands have caught up for a third of the cost. I use zyxel kit at home and find it just as good good at 1/2 the price.
I de-unifi’d also. I went with Mikrotik switches but Grandstream APs. The AP’s can control each other. You set one as the master and the rest as slaves. I also had pfSense as a firewall. I looked at Ruckus last year, they had 6+ months of backorders, so I got the Grandstreams.
Those Grandstream APs do look really interesting. They were second on my list when I was deciding which to go for, I ultimately settled for Ruckus based on the DPSK feature and the fact that I picked up this R650 for such a good price. I'd definitely be interested in looking into Grandstream APs in the future, I've had very good experiences with their VoIP phones over the years (with the exception of the mains PSUs that tended to fail prematurely) so it's good to see them branching out into other products as well!
@@PhillipHilton Steep learning curve from what I have found with MikroTik but they are great value and full of features not found on Unifi ecosystem at all at the moment. I've used/setup/managed many firewalls but the MikroTik one I've not managed to get working as I like it as a firewall. Never tried MikroTik APs but have had and still have a few MikroTik 10Gb switches.
@@DavidWhatforAt the end of the day Unifi is popular because it's easy to setup, easy to manage, hard to f*ck up and when you do it's relatively easy to diagnose then fix. That's massively underrated but makes it very sticky. Barrier to entry is low. I'm pretty sure I could sit down with my 8 year old guide him through the setup of a USG, cloud key, switch and access point. I would have no chance of doing that with Mikrotik.
When patching drywall you should tape over the joints to reinforce it. Also the screws you countersunk are slightly too deep as you broke the paper, this leads to screws popping out and looking ugly. You also would have been fine to just screw that piece up without pre drilling, it wouldn't have cracked. Just a few tips for when you do future drywall work.
Fair point on the screws being too deep. When it comes to the tape, it's something I see a lot of conflicting information on. For large patches or where the board is screwed to a stud, then taping is definitely required, but for a small patch in the middle of a board like this that won't really see much movement, I've never seen an issue with it not being taped. Then, by not having the tape, it makes it significantly easier to sand down to a smooth surface rather than having the additional thickness of the tape to deal with. I'm also not sure how much of a difference the type of filler makes? The stuff I use is very lightweight and is still slightly malleable when dry, so maybe that makes it more resistant to cracking? Of course, taping it is still very much the "proper" way of doing it and I'll need to give it a go at some point on a small patch to see how much extra effort it is to get a smooth finish.
I've always been a big fan of Cisco access points. I have a pair of 2802i access points at home running Mobility Express controller software onboard. It works fine, but it's not WiFi 6 or 6E, so I'd like to upgrade them at some point. Limited to around 500mbps on wifi on 5GHz/80MHz channel bandwidth. Not bad. All that said, the cool stuff in Cisco land is Meraki, and requires fairly expensive licensing on top of expensive hardware. I'm still going to recommend Unifi, Aruba ION, and Meraki Go for SMB clients. Out of these, I think the Arubas are my favorite.
I saw a Meraki AP at a school recently and they had labeled the IP on it. I joined the guest wifi network and put in the IP and was suprised to see the AP came up. I could see all the clients and the signal quality on each one. It was a nice feature which I don't even think the Catalyst APs with the WLC make it that easy.
I purchased >1k worth of access point recently in a modest quest: cover 1k square foot of apartment effectively at 500mbps -- a highly RF crowded task. Long story short the Ruckus r710 blew every other access point out of the water -- even modern UniFi and Aruba APs. The ruckus r510 also performed well, but it was clear that the extra antennas were beneficial. I dont love the management or the look, but its just head and shoulders above the rest in terms of radio performance. I feel like most vendors consider AP performance a bit of a gimmick -- it's a bit counter-intuitive to have super effective APs when you want to sell one AP per room anyhow. It's probably a niche that isn't super lucrative so Ruckus can keep underselling while trading on the reputation of Ruckus as having the best hardware in an access point.
Overkill is the best kill. If you want control over keys for DPSK, you can import an CSV file with custom PSK specified. You mentioned you're unsure of limitations. Limitations are up to 2048 concurrent clients for no dedicated controller AP, and roughly 4000 clients if you have an R750 or R850 as a dedicated controller AP. For the typical home network, I think one would be hard pressed to run up against the limitations.
Watched the entire video. Wow absolutely awesome video. So well put together and explained. Time to order me some Ruckus kit. Thanks Cameron! Subscribed!
I thought of a really cool project you could try with the CLI… a Raspberry Pi Zero or similar connected to a thermal printer which would automatically get a new DPSK guest key from the access point and print it onto a little receipt for your guests! They could just press a physical button, wait a few seconds, and have a PSK printed! Don’t know if this is possible with the CLI, I haven’t checked, but potentially one you could try?? Would definitely impress your guests 😂
It's definitely something I considered using, it's the sort of thing you could possibly integrate with a point of sale system to print single use WiFi keys on customer receipts.
I'm still running Xclaim Xi-3 which I believe was Ruckus fairly short-lived effort at cracking SOHO, I still think they're worth a look at they're cheap, locally managed and POE and fairly inoffensive looking, though worth checking if you can still get the app.
Cisco Wifi 6 APs also have an AP only controller called Embedded Wireless LAN Controller. Completely free. They also have an ISO if you want to self host their standalone Wireless LAN Controller as a VM (9800-CL). All completely free, no license requirements.
They do have the built in controller although where are you seeing the lack of licence? The Cisco documentation states "No licenses are required to boot up a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller. However, in order to connect any access points to the controller, Cisco DNA licenses are required. Each access point that connects to the wireless controller requires a Cisco DNA license to be entitled to connect." Those Cisco DNA licences are, as far as I'm aware, an annual subscription.
So the DNA air network advantage (DNA_NWStack) and air DNA advantage (AIR-DNA-A) already are included automatically with access points and you do not need to know or add any licenses to a 9800 wireless LAN controller that is self hosted when you add the Access Points i.e. 9800-CL. This self hosted wireless LAN controller does not need a license. I have 10 Catalyst 9130s around my home and they are orchestrated by 2 self hosted 9800-CL instances in HA configuration. I have been doing this for 2 years without any license requirement. If you search for “Cisco Catalyst 9800-CL Cloud Wireless Controller Installation Guide”, you will see that there is no requirement for license for full functionality or use.
Interesting, that is more promising then, seems very unlike Cisco - presumably an attempt to compete with the likes of Unleashed. I'll need to take a deeper look into it since they would be interesting to try out. Just drives me mad how unclear Cisco is with this sort of stuff in their documentation. For example: Q. What are the Cisco wireless products and offerings for enabling simple controllerless deployments? A. For Wi-Fi 6, use EWC functionality on Wi-Fi 6 access points, with no Cisco DNA license requirements. For Wi-Fi 6E, use Cisco Meraki for a SaaS-based wireless solution. So, does this mean that this free EWC licence only applies to WiFi 6 and won't be supported going forwards with WiFi 6E APs? Just so vague!
@@camerongray1515 totally agree. their documentations are a complete mess and they are too unclear. their requirements and licenses keep changing and it drives me mad lol. the Wifi 6E APs don't support Embedded Wireless LAN Controller i.e. the controller installed on the AP. only up to Catalyst 9130s support installing EWC on the AP itself. Beware EWC though, since it doesnt allow for discrete VLANs for each WLAN/SSID. Its limited in a few more ways but they also hide that from customers. It's best to go the full 9800-CL WLC installation in Proxmox or some other KVM-based hypervisor by utilizing the 9800-CL iso. Also, for now the 9800-CL and 9800 EWC are free but who is to say when they might change their mind and charge for it. They are not the most trustworthy bunch when it comes to licensing.
Since you weren't going to use the ceiling tile mount, why not just butcher it (i.e. cut off the tile bar tabs) then drill a couple of holes in it to match up with the drylining box? Screw the mount to the box, clip in the AP - you'd then keep the flexibility of having a box and fly lead (as no doubt you'll get bored of this at some point and change again!) rather than lots of holes in your ceiling.
That would definitely have worked although I was trying to keep it as close to the ceiling as possible since my ceilings are already pretty low and this AP is already pretty massive. Other option I'd considered would have been to screw a thin piece of wood/MDF to the backbox and mount the AP to that but it would have again ended up hanging a bit lower and wouldn't have allowed me to move the AP so that the downlight was back to being centered between the AP and smoke alarm.
The smallest screwdriver that comes in the cheap and nasty £1 screwdriver sets works perfectly to stick in the hole. Backplates do exist. They are called security backplates. You can actually padlock the AP to a security plate, if needed. its basically a rectangular plate with two logs. Screw the plate to wherever. Then slot the lugs into the holes on the back of the AP.
I think that in terms of value Grandstream access points are a better choice ( and they have also integrated controller ). Ruckus, obviously have a better name and reputation, but they are losing on the software side, I mean looks like windows 98 :). Thanks for sharing.
The Grandstream APs were definitely on the consideration list and they look really good, I'd definitely be interested in trying them out in the future. I ultimately went for the Ruckus purely because I got it for such a good price and I liked the idea of the DPSK feature. If Grandstream add some sort of DPSK/PPSK type feature to their APs, I'd absolutely pick some up to try out! I've used Grandstream extensively in the past and apart from some unreliable mains PSUs, I was very happy with them, it's good to see them branching out into more networking products.
@@camerongray1515 , for the price they are very good, 170 EURs for 4x4 in both bands and 2.5GB LAN plus 1GB, yes they don't have DPSK. Looking forward for yours updates on the Ruckus WIFI experience moving forward, thanks once again for sharing.
Interesting and informativ tutorial about Ruckus AP,to bad half of what you’re said a can’t understand,will you please slow down a little bit? Thanks👍🏻
Cisco does offer a controller in an AP option, as well as embedding a controller inside a 9000 series catalyst switch. They also I think used to offer a .OVA based controller VM as well. I have not however investigated pricing but I suspect the controller in an AP option might be the cheapest route from them. What would be nice is if at somepoint someone creates a Linux based controller that can control Cisco lightweight access points. 3702 and 3802 series APs are super cheap on ebay (20 to 40 USD) supporting AC and AC Wave 2 respectively. Wifi6 however is in the 9000 series APs which are still current models and $1000+ each retail pricing.
The Catalyst 9000 APs look nice (and weren't completely unaffordable on the used market) however it's my understanding that they require annual subscription licences to be used - fine for large enterprises who are used to this sort of thing, but not really suitable for home users or small businesses.
@@camerongray1515 I use the 9120 series at work with a dedicated 9800 controller. I don't fully understand how the licensing works, but I just buy them and add them to our controller and they just work. There are some newer APs that came out (I think the 9136?) that also can do air quality monitoring.
Hey mate, do you have any issues with IPv6 traffic running over VLAN's on the ruckus access points using the DPSK feature? I'm asking as i've had issues with 3 different brands of AP so far, looking for one that can work with IPv6
Nice video! You mentioned you lived in a flat; are you worried about interference with other wifi networks? Or causing interference with other networks around you (given you may choose to use a 80 or 160MHz channels)?
I'm not too worried, the building has massive concrete slabs between floors, brick walls between flats and foil covered insulation in the walls. I barely see any neighbour access points at 5GHz and the only ones that do ever show up are operating on non-DFS channels (probably because they're all ISP provided routers who want to avoid support calls in relation to DFS issues/delays). I have mine set up on the band B DFS channels which I've never seen any neighbours on.
Wondered what you were going try. I went Aruba Instant APs for home. I've had Linksys Business, Unifi, Cisco Small Business and now a few Aruba 303H unified APs. Ditched the Cisco Small Business for support of MPSK. Some of my IoT only works on 2.4Ghz. MPSK talks to FreeRadius servers running in docker and using the FreeRadius Aruba dictionary can specify different vlans for different devices etc. I was not keen on the Cisco Small Business AP controller dashboard that much, constantly having to go to expert mode. Some of the things on the Aruba onboard controllers can only be done via the CLI though such as disabling SSIDs. Deployed Ruckus over 10 years back at a workplace, was a great system but expensive.
Hi Cameron. Do you know the brand / model of that flat downlight you're using? I'm trying to move away from the traditional GU10-style in my own home. :)
They're Integral EvoFire Recessed downlights although they are GU10 fittings, it is just a bit overexposed in this video so looks more "flat". Personally, I avoid any sort of downlights with non-replaceable LEDs, if it fails in the future and you can't source an identical replacement, you either have to replace them all to match or be left with a mismatched fitting.
I've been running a Unifi NanoHD for years too, but got fed up with having to power cycle it every few months. It would get itself into a state where it was 'on' enough to show a GigE and POE+ connection, but not 'on' enough to actually do anything useful. Plus the status led is now so dim, it's almost impossible to see whether it's on or not, let along whether it's lit up of flashing white or blue, which makes debugging startup rather difficult.
I can't say I've had any issues with mine needing power cycled but UniFi definitely have an issue with the longevity of their blue LEDs - Seen it on almost every UniFi AP that's been in use for a long period of time. The LED on my NanoHD is almost completely out, same goes for some AC-LRs I have deployed elsewhere.
Yeah, I think they over drive their LEDs, and that is known to reduce their lifetime. I bought a 6 pro a few months ago, as I got fed up waiting for them to release a U6 device which was equivalent to the NanoHD (it's combination of streams and small size). The U6 Pro's LED was so bright that my other half refused to let me install it in the Living Room. Sure I could turn it off entirely, but when cheap android head units let you change the brightness of their LEDs, you wonder why you can't configure the LED brightness on Ubiquiti access points. By the way, it's great to see you talking about access points other than Ubiquiti, and discussing the disadvantages of using Enterprise or Enterprise lite APs at home. Watching many youtubers, you would think think Ubiquiti was the only option out there.
@@markbooth3066 Your last point was partly my main motivation for this project. Don't get me wrong, I love UniFi stuff and will continue to recommend it, especially for people who want a reliable network but I don't want to be stuck having to support it! However, it does feel as though so much networking content on UA-cam nowadays is "Install a UDM, USW and UAPs and call it the most insane home network ever." I wanted to start taking a look at what other options are out there which, while not nearly as slick or easy to set up as UniFi, can give a great end result with a lot more potential for tinkering or playing with interesting features. If I'd stayed within the "UniFi bubble" I'd have never known that DPSK/PPSK.etc was a thing, and now that I have it set up, it'll be a hard push to give it up again! Now not having a fully UniFi network now also means I don't feel the pressure to keep everything UniFi so it shows up in the dashboard. This means I can now swap out different parts and try all manner of different networking equipment and produce videos on it! Whereas previously, I wouldn't have dared use a non-UniFi switch or AP since it wouldn't show up in the pretty UI!
I've never used them myself but they look decent. They used to be made by Brocade but are now sold under the Ruckus brand after a series of acquisitions so you may be able to find more information about them from people referring to them as Brocade switches.
Do you have a recommendation on just a simple 10 gig switch - I just want to be able to edit video on my mac but with the files on my unraid server. Cheers.
I don't have recommendations of any particular models, but if all you need is a basic unmanaged switch then QNAP have a few reasonably priced options with 10GbE RJ45 options. If you need management then MikroTik is possibly your cheapest option.
I haven't used any of it myself although they have a community forum and then also offer paid "WatchDog" support contracts if that's required. Pricing of the support contracts is a bit vague (it's the classic "contact your local Ruckus distributor" sort of thing) but prices I can find seem to indicate around $125-150/year.
Yeah, that's definitely the main downside - I can deal with it since it's in my hallway, but I can definitely see it being an issue in some environments.
Absolutely nothing wrong with it at all, I'll still continue to use and recommend UniFi. I just wanted to try other options and take a look at them on my channel. I feel that so many home networking UA-cam channels almost exclusively focus on UniFi that a lot of other great options get forgotten about.
@@camerongray1515 i’m using r550 ap with pfsense for a while and agree with all you said it’s a great device, but currently i’m looking in direction of unifi, where I think the best ui ux on the market, maybe you will find alternative open source solutions for network administration web interface in your future videos, because this is the only thing i’m missing in my setup👍🏻
Significantly better - I was having issues trying to get consistent download speed test results from the UniFi AP when I was trying to generate the test results so couldn't use them in the comparison. However, looking back at my video when I first installed the NanoHD, I was getting around 450mbps with an 80MHz channel width vs 600-700mbps on the R650. These old UniFi test results were also taken using an Intel Mac which had a 3x3 MIMO WiFi chipset, a modern Mac (and most other devices) would only have a 2x2 MIMO chipset so would get lower performance than this on the NanoHD!
Although i have 2 WiFi 6E access points (technically routers which have an access point built in, one is set to operate as an access point), the E part of WiFi 6E is not of much use right now, as very few devices support it, i think all M1 (including Pro, Max, and Ultra) Macs don’t support WiFi 6E, and I believe all models of the M2 MacBook Air don’t support WiFi 6E (not even the 15 inch), as well as the M2 MacBook Pro, the M2 Mac Mini does support WiFi 6E though I will admit I don’t even have any devices right now that support WiFi 6E, however, since i have the routers set up as a Mesh network there is an advantage of WiFi 6E, i can have it set up to use the 6GHz band exclusively for the uplink The advice i have heard is to use WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode if possible, and in fact my router advises me to only use WPA2 only mode if i have devices that are incompatible with WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode (I deliberately overlooked WPA3 only mode as it would be unlikely anyone would have devices which all support WPA3)
Anything in particular that's an issue? Ruckus is definitely a much more expensive and less "pretty" (both in therms of hardware and software) but seems like a really rock solid option to me!
@@camerongray1515 Functionality wise they are pretty much the same. I think you essentially just got a 'side grade' and and paid a bit more for it. Cost, installbase - stay with me here it's important later - and resale value were the main factors for me in my decision making. Like you I'm 'in the trade' so when it comes to home hardware I get 'trade rates' I.e. price to the 'reseller' not the 'end user.' Even so back then Rukus verses Ubiquiti was crazy. 4 x the cost per comparable AP for Rukus. In 2017 I starred with 2 UAP-AC-PROs and then - over 6 years - ended up with 8(don't ask) then 5 APs. TLDR: I'm in Singapore it's the tropics there is no drywall: so in every home here each room is divided by a foot of concrete and iron rebar aka every room is a Faraday cage. Not great for IoT. I run 70 devices that operate on WiFi that's not including wired and zigbee. I build a lot of SBC based projects that do 'stuff.' In short Ebon Upton owes me a kidney let's put it that way.... Anyway the thing is 'resale value.' l'm leaving Singapore at the end of the year. All my Unifi APs, edge switches, etc. I can resell 2nd hand for 60-70% of what I paid for them. NB: I haven't bought any new Ubiquiti kit since 2019 and it's 2023 now. You can't do that with Rukus. Very few people are using Rukus and adding Rukus kit to their ecosystem. There is a very, very small resale market. Not so Ubiquiti. Also, 'install base' and 'user profile' its coffee shops, sub-telco grade SMBs and guys like you and me. The prosumer market loves ubiquiti it works and integrates with 'our ecosystem.'
That's very fair, to be clear, I absolutely love UniFi and it's still my go-to recommendation for many environments however my idea for this project was to start looking at other options as I feel that so much of UA-cam network content is now purely UniFi content when there are a lot of other interesting options out there. Resale value is a consideration but isn't ever my primary consideration when buying a product. You're right that UniFi products to have a higher resale value than most other brands, however, on the other hand, the depreciation of other brands such as Ruckus means that you can get very good deals on them second hand - I picked up my R650 for £290 buy-it-now!
@@camerongray1515I agree 100%. Ubiquiti has 'won' the current prosumer/homelab setup and it's very, very formulaic now. Tutorials for "how I fixed my WiFi" it's UDM Pro plus yada, yada. The scene has been heading this way since ~2017 when I got on the Ubiquiti train. Is that a bad thing from a user perspective? 'No' the kit is great but it's not exactly 'ground breaking' stuff for technical UA-camrs. Also, this market dominance is leading to technical stagnation at Ubiquiti and frankly unnecessary price increases. The current switch lineup of mixed PoE class ports and the rumoured introduction of a 'subscription model' for both 'access' and 'protect' is a massive step in the wrong direction in my opinion. It's going to cause a lot of the prosumers to phase out certain components when they need to upgrade. That will hurt them.
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The 1gb pass through port is great in hotels. At least here in the US a lot of Marriott properties use small Ruckus units in each room, bring along a cat 5 cable and plug directly in for much better speed.
That DPSK demo was really cool. Never knew such a feature existed as everything WiFi around me is Unifi.
I had a quick look, and it looks like Ruckus actually patented that feature, a few other vendors have sort of replicated it by abusing radius in most cases it seems.
@@__Ben good to know. I don't see why mimicing it through radius comes close as it's a whole different kettle of fish compared to just virtually dropping clients onto a VLAN without them knowing, regardless of 802.1x support. Ruckus really has a USP there.
@@nelizmastr oh definitely yeah, I'm dropping clients into VLANs without knowledge on unifi using Radius and their RADIUS MAC Auth option, though they do also have an upcoming feature in new network controller versions to do that in UI (probably needs UDM?)
I had a feeling you were going to choose Ruckus. I've never used any of their hardware, but it does look pretty good. The fact that you can setup an AP as a controller for multiple access points is a great feature.
My Ruckus AP is now EOL. But still does the job. The unleashed firmware is a killer feature. Just a firmware flash and you are good to go from being controller based, to standalone.
@@Yandarvalhow long did it last? Good value?
@@l0gic23 Released 2014. I got mine in 2015. Ruckus R500. Latest firmware is September 2023. It does not work with the iOS app. Due to a bug in OS 16.It has been fixed for the xx10 and above series. No big deal.
@@Yandarvaldo all APs need to have unleashed firmware or just one? How much is unleashed firmware?
@@seanganess4846 all must have the same software version. If going unleashed. All APs need to be unleashed. Unleashed is free to DL from Ruckus.
one of the best video about AP I ever watched in UA-cam. Thanks. Was checking both Ruckus and Aruba instant on to replace my cheap home WiFI systems. if I can get APs cheap I definitely go with Ruckus
Never knew about the power of DPSK so thank you for that demo. Just did a quick Google and apparently my Omada setup supports PPSK, so I might give it a go!
From my now outdated research the omada line was by far the best value in my area (-openwrt on consumer grade ap's).
Glad to know they support this feature for when I go enterprise at home in the future.
I am currently using the deco line and they are slowly bring more and more features to them. We just got static routes!
On deco because I really needed a managed wifi network as client roaming was broken on most devices at the time. I have 7 ap's on my network all 1g wired backhaul.
I do wish I waited for 802.11r and "mesh" to be more common before making the switch as I would have gone archer c7's with open wrt for way less money. Like $10-$20 used.
And I really sound like a tplink shill with those options😂
Wow, the DPSK feature seems amazing. Unfortunately the new Unifi U6 Enterprise seems a much better deal to me with the 6E features in a more built up area. Thanks for the video!
Have used ruckus unleashed kit since 2017 all way up from WiFi 5 to 6e APs across our 3 site offices at work.
My vote is it’s “alright”. Management interface is very nice but frankly they are far too expensive for what you get and other brands have caught up for a third of the cost.
I use zyxel kit at home and find it just as good good at 1/2 the price.
I de-unifi’d also. I went with Mikrotik switches but Grandstream APs. The AP’s can control each other. You set one as the master and the rest as slaves. I also had pfSense as a firewall. I looked at Ruckus last year, they had 6+ months of backorders, so I got the Grandstreams.
Those Grandstream APs do look really interesting. They were second on my list when I was deciding which to go for, I ultimately settled for Ruckus based on the DPSK feature and the fact that I picked up this R650 for such a good price. I'd definitely be interested in looking into Grandstream APs in the future, I've had very good experiences with their VoIP phones over the years (with the exception of the mains PSUs that tended to fail prematurely) so it's good to see them branching out into other products as well!
The problem is going to be 'resale value' and ecosystem support. There just isn't the same level of 'love' and 'adoption' that Unifi has for Mikrotik.
@@PhillipHilton Steep learning curve from what I have found with MikroTik but they are great value and full of features not found on Unifi ecosystem at all at the moment. I've used/setup/managed many firewalls but the MikroTik one I've not managed to get working as I like it as a firewall. Never tried MikroTik APs but have had and still have a few MikroTik 10Gb switches.
@@DavidWhatforAt the end of the day Unifi is popular because it's easy to setup, easy to manage, hard to f*ck up and when you do it's relatively easy to diagnose then fix. That's massively underrated but makes it very sticky.
Barrier to entry is low. I'm pretty sure I could sit down with my 8 year old guide him through the setup of a USG, cloud key, switch and access point. I would have no chance of doing that with Mikrotik.
Excellent video Cameron, Way beyond my needs, but it's great to see what the Ruckus AP is capable of.
What an epic and informative video! Thanks, man!
When patching drywall you should tape over the joints to reinforce it. Also the screws you countersunk are slightly too deep as you broke the paper, this leads to screws popping out and looking ugly. You also would have been fine to just screw that piece up without pre drilling, it wouldn't have cracked. Just a few tips for when you do future drywall work.
Fair point on the screws being too deep. When it comes to the tape, it's something I see a lot of conflicting information on. For large patches or where the board is screwed to a stud, then taping is definitely required, but for a small patch in the middle of a board like this that won't really see much movement, I've never seen an issue with it not being taped. Then, by not having the tape, it makes it significantly easier to sand down to a smooth surface rather than having the additional thickness of the tape to deal with. I'm also not sure how much of a difference the type of filler makes? The stuff I use is very lightweight and is still slightly malleable when dry, so maybe that makes it more resistant to cracking? Of course, taping it is still very much the "proper" way of doing it and I'll need to give it a go at some point on a small patch to see how much extra effort it is to get a smooth finish.
I've always been a big fan of Cisco access points. I have a pair of 2802i access points at home running Mobility Express controller software onboard. It works fine, but it's not WiFi 6 or 6E, so I'd like to upgrade them at some point. Limited to around 500mbps on wifi on 5GHz/80MHz channel bandwidth. Not bad. All that said, the cool stuff in Cisco land is Meraki, and requires fairly expensive licensing on top of expensive hardware. I'm still going to recommend Unifi, Aruba ION, and Meraki Go for SMB clients. Out of these, I think the Arubas are my favorite.
I just picked up a 3802 on Ebay for $20 last week and did this same thing. The 3802 isn't even fully end of life yet.
I saw a Meraki AP at a school recently and they had labeled the IP on it. I joined the guest wifi network and put in the IP and was suprised to see the AP came up. I could see all the clients and the signal quality on each one. It was a nice feature which I don't even think the Catalyst APs with the WLC make it that easy.
I purchased >1k worth of access point recently in a modest quest: cover 1k square foot of apartment effectively at 500mbps -- a highly RF crowded task.
Long story short the Ruckus r710 blew every other access point out of the water -- even modern UniFi and Aruba APs. The ruckus r510 also performed well, but it was clear that the extra antennas were beneficial.
I dont love the management or the look, but its just head and shoulders above the rest in terms of radio performance.
I feel like most vendors consider AP performance a bit of a gimmick -- it's a bit counter-intuitive to have super effective APs when you want to sell one AP per room anyhow.
It's probably a niche that isn't super lucrative so Ruckus can keep underselling while trading on the reputation of Ruckus as having the best hardware in an access point.
One r710 replaced 2 old unifi pros in my house. Bought it used for for a little over $200.
Personally not a fan of these APs but like you said what other options are there that aren't cloud controlled
Overkill is the best kill. If you want control over keys for DPSK, you can import an CSV file with custom PSK specified. You mentioned you're unsure of limitations. Limitations are up to 2048 concurrent clients for no dedicated controller AP, and roughly 4000 clients if you have an R750 or R850 as a dedicated controller AP. For the typical home network, I think one would be hard pressed to run up against the limitations.
Watched the entire video. Wow absolutely awesome video. So well put together and explained. Time to order me some Ruckus kit. Thanks Cameron! Subscribed!
I thought of a really cool project you could try with the CLI… a Raspberry Pi Zero or similar connected to a thermal printer which would automatically get a new DPSK guest key from the access point and print it onto a little receipt for your guests! They could just press a physical button, wait a few seconds, and have a PSK printed! Don’t know if this is possible with the CLI, I haven’t checked, but potentially one you could try?? Would definitely impress your guests 😂
^^^this is why I read comments
It's definitely something I considered using, it's the sort of thing you could possibly integrate with a point of sale system to print single use WiFi keys on customer receipts.
@@camerongray1515 yeah definitely, would even be a cool standalone system just to show off to friends 😂
I'm still running Xclaim Xi-3 which I believe was Ruckus fairly short-lived effort at cracking SOHO, I still think they're worth a look at they're cheap, locally managed and POE and fairly inoffensive looking, though worth checking if you can still get the app.
Cisco Wifi 6 APs also have an AP only controller called Embedded Wireless LAN Controller. Completely free.
They also have an ISO if you want to self host their standalone Wireless LAN Controller as a VM (9800-CL). All completely free, no license requirements.
They do have the built in controller although where are you seeing the lack of licence? The Cisco documentation states "No licenses are required to boot up a Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller. However, in order to connect any access points to the controller, Cisco DNA licenses are required. Each access point that connects to the wireless controller requires a Cisco DNA license to be entitled to connect." Those Cisco DNA licences are, as far as I'm aware, an annual subscription.
So the DNA air network advantage (DNA_NWStack) and air DNA advantage (AIR-DNA-A) already are included automatically with access points and you do not need to know or add any licenses to a 9800 wireless LAN controller that is self hosted when you add the Access Points i.e. 9800-CL. This self hosted wireless LAN controller does not need a license. I have 10 Catalyst 9130s around my home and they are orchestrated by 2 self hosted 9800-CL instances in HA configuration. I have been doing this for 2 years without any license requirement.
If you search for “Cisco Catalyst 9800-CL Cloud Wireless Controller Installation Guide”, you will see that there is no requirement for license for full functionality or use.
Interesting, that is more promising then, seems very unlike Cisco - presumably an attempt to compete with the likes of Unleashed. I'll need to take a deeper look into it since they would be interesting to try out. Just drives me mad how unclear Cisco is with this sort of stuff in their documentation. For example:
Q. What are the Cisco wireless products and offerings for enabling simple controllerless deployments?
A. For Wi-Fi 6, use EWC functionality on Wi-Fi 6 access points, with no Cisco DNA license requirements.
For Wi-Fi 6E, use Cisco Meraki for a SaaS-based wireless solution.
So, does this mean that this free EWC licence only applies to WiFi 6 and won't be supported going forwards with WiFi 6E APs? Just so vague!
@@camerongray1515 totally agree. their documentations are a complete mess and they are too unclear. their requirements and licenses keep changing and it drives me mad lol.
the Wifi 6E APs don't support Embedded Wireless LAN Controller i.e. the controller installed on the AP. only up to Catalyst 9130s support installing EWC on the AP itself. Beware EWC though, since it doesnt allow for discrete VLANs for each WLAN/SSID. Its limited in a few more ways but they also hide that from customers. It's best to go the full 9800-CL WLC installation in Proxmox or some other KVM-based hypervisor by utilizing the 9800-CL iso.
Also, for now the 9800-CL and 9800 EWC are free but who is to say when they might change their mind and charge for it. They are not the most trustworthy bunch when it comes to licensing.
Use this exact AP everywhere at work for high density installs.
Cisco Small Business offers a self managed AP echosystem and a local controller.
Since you weren't going to use the ceiling tile mount, why not just butcher it (i.e. cut off the tile bar tabs) then drill a couple of holes in it to match up with the drylining box? Screw the mount to the box, clip in the AP - you'd then keep the flexibility of having a box and fly lead (as no doubt you'll get bored of this at some point and change again!) rather than lots of holes in your ceiling.
It seems that Cameroon didn't think it through.
That would definitely have worked although I was trying to keep it as close to the ceiling as possible since my ceilings are already pretty low and this AP is already pretty massive. Other option I'd considered would have been to screw a thin piece of wood/MDF to the backbox and mount the AP to that but it would have again ended up hanging a bit lower and wouldn't have allowed me to move the AP so that the downlight was back to being centered between the AP and smoke alarm.
great presentation, I did a similar setup with Aruba controllerless setup they are bit cheaper
The smallest screwdriver that comes in the cheap and nasty £1 screwdriver sets works perfectly to stick in the hole. Backplates do exist. They are called security backplates. You can actually padlock the AP to a security plate, if needed. its basically a rectangular plate with two logs. Screw the plate to wherever. Then slot the lugs into the holes on the back of the AP.
Good video sir !! Love the Ruckus stuff !
I think that in terms of value Grandstream access points are a better choice ( and they have also integrated controller ). Ruckus, obviously have a better name and reputation, but they are losing on the software side, I mean looks like windows 98 :). Thanks for sharing.
The Grandstream APs were definitely on the consideration list and they look really good, I'd definitely be interested in trying them out in the future. I ultimately went for the Ruckus purely because I got it for such a good price and I liked the idea of the DPSK feature. If Grandstream add some sort of DPSK/PPSK type feature to their APs, I'd absolutely pick some up to try out! I've used Grandstream extensively in the past and apart from some unreliable mains PSUs, I was very happy with them, it's good to see them branching out into more networking products.
@@camerongray1515 , for the price they are very good, 170 EURs for 4x4 in both bands and 2.5GB LAN plus 1GB, yes they don't have DPSK. Looking forward for yours updates on the Ruckus WIFI experience moving forward, thanks once again for sharing.
Interesting and informativ tutorial about Ruckus AP,to bad half of what you’re said a can’t understand,will you please slow down a little bit? Thanks👍🏻
You can slow down the video in settings.
Cisco does offer a controller in an AP option, as well as embedding a controller inside a 9000 series catalyst switch. They also I think used to offer a .OVA based controller VM as well. I have not however investigated pricing but I suspect the controller in an AP option might be the cheapest route from them.
What would be nice is if at somepoint someone creates a Linux based controller that can control Cisco lightweight access points. 3702 and 3802 series APs are super cheap on ebay (20 to 40 USD) supporting AC and AC Wave 2 respectively. Wifi6 however is in the 9000 series APs which are still current models and $1000+ each retail pricing.
The Catalyst 9000 APs look nice (and weren't completely unaffordable on the used market) however it's my understanding that they require annual subscription licences to be used - fine for large enterprises who are used to this sort of thing, but not really suitable for home users or small businesses.
@@camerongray1515 I use the 9120 series at work with a dedicated 9800 controller. I don't fully understand how the licensing works, but I just buy them and add them to our controller and they just work. There are some newer APs that came out (I think the 9136?) that also can do air quality monitoring.
Hey mate, do you have any issues with IPv6 traffic running over VLAN's on the ruckus access points using the DPSK feature? I'm asking as i've had issues with 3 different brands of AP so far, looking for one that can work with IPv6
Nice video! You mentioned you lived in a flat; are you worried about interference with other wifi networks? Or causing interference with other networks around you (given you may choose to use a 80 or 160MHz channels)?
I'm not too worried, the building has massive concrete slabs between floors, brick walls between flats and foil covered insulation in the walls. I barely see any neighbour access points at 5GHz and the only ones that do ever show up are operating on non-DFS channels (probably because they're all ISP provided routers who want to avoid support calls in relation to DFS issues/delays). I have mine set up on the band B DFS channels which I've never seen any neighbours on.
Wondered what you were going try. I went Aruba Instant APs for home. I've had Linksys Business, Unifi, Cisco Small Business and now a few Aruba 303H unified APs. Ditched the Cisco Small Business for support of MPSK. Some of my IoT only works on 2.4Ghz. MPSK talks to FreeRadius servers running in docker and using the FreeRadius Aruba dictionary can specify different vlans for different devices etc. I was not keen on the Cisco Small Business AP controller dashboard that much, constantly having to go to expert mode. Some of the things on the Aruba onboard controllers can only be done via the CLI though such as disabling SSIDs. Deployed Ruckus over 10 years back at a workplace, was a great system but expensive.
Please do a walkthrough of dpsk with clan configuration 🙏🏻
You read my mind! Video coming out today!
So the original backbox that fits the UniFi WAP perfectly was a UK size square backbox? Or US size 2 gang box?
WiFi 7 is around the corner. WiFi 8 isn't sorted out as of yet, but may support millimeter frequencies for maybe providing something like 100 G 😲
Hi Cameron. Do you know the brand / model of that flat downlight you're using? I'm trying to move away from the traditional GU10-style in my own home. :)
They're Integral EvoFire Recessed downlights although they are GU10 fittings, it is just a bit overexposed in this video so looks more "flat". Personally, I avoid any sort of downlights with non-replaceable LEDs, if it fails in the future and you can't source an identical replacement, you either have to replace them all to match or be left with a mismatched fitting.
What do you know about the Unleased R500 access point?
I've been running a Unifi NanoHD for years too, but got fed up with having to power cycle it every few months. It would get itself into a state where it was 'on' enough to show a GigE and POE+ connection, but not 'on' enough to actually do anything useful. Plus the status led is now so dim, it's almost impossible to see whether it's on or not, let along whether it's lit up of flashing white or blue, which makes debugging startup rather difficult.
I can't say I've had any issues with mine needing power cycled but UniFi definitely have an issue with the longevity of their blue LEDs - Seen it on almost every UniFi AP that's been in use for a long period of time. The LED on my NanoHD is almost completely out, same goes for some AC-LRs I have deployed elsewhere.
Yeah, I think they over drive their LEDs, and that is known to reduce their lifetime. I bought a 6 pro a few months ago, as I got fed up waiting for them to release a U6 device which was equivalent to the NanoHD (it's combination of streams and small size).
The U6 Pro's LED was so bright that my other half refused to let me install it in the Living Room. Sure I could turn it off entirely, but when cheap android head units let you change the brightness of their LEDs, you wonder why you can't configure the LED brightness on Ubiquiti access points.
By the way, it's great to see you talking about access points other than Ubiquiti, and discussing the disadvantages of using Enterprise or Enterprise lite APs at home. Watching many youtubers, you would think think Ubiquiti was the only option out there.
@@markbooth3066 Your last point was partly my main motivation for this project. Don't get me wrong, I love UniFi stuff and will continue to recommend it, especially for people who want a reliable network but I don't want to be stuck having to support it! However, it does feel as though so much networking content on UA-cam nowadays is "Install a UDM, USW and UAPs and call it the most insane home network ever." I wanted to start taking a look at what other options are out there which, while not nearly as slick or easy to set up as UniFi, can give a great end result with a lot more potential for tinkering or playing with interesting features. If I'd stayed within the "UniFi bubble" I'd have never known that DPSK/PPSK.etc was a thing, and now that I have it set up, it'll be a hard push to give it up again!
Now not having a fully UniFi network now also means I don't feel the pressure to keep everything UniFi so it shows up in the dashboard. This means I can now swap out different parts and try all manner of different networking equipment and produce videos on it! Whereas previously, I wouldn't have dared use a non-UniFi switch or AP since it wouldn't show up in the pretty UI!
@@camerongray1515 Could you replace the LED with a pinkyblue one ?
Screw into one of the joists and they should be able to take the weight.
You could mount onto a wall above a door.
Have you had any work with Ruckus switches, I was looking for a 24 port multispeed poe but have completely no feedback on ruckus at all
I've never used them myself but they look decent. They used to be made by Brocade but are now sold under the Ruckus brand after a series of acquisitions so you may be able to find more information about them from people referring to them as Brocade switches.
@@camerongray1515 Oh great, thanks!!
Do you have a recommendation on just a simple 10 gig switch - I just want to be able to edit video on my mac but with the files on my unraid server. Cheers.
I don't have recommendations of any particular models, but if all you need is a basic unmanaged switch then QNAP have a few reasonably priced options with 10GbE RJ45 options. If you need management then MikroTik is possibly your cheapest option.
What kind of support does ruckus have! Chat, email, phone, community Forum? Cost?
I haven't used any of it myself although they have a community forum and then also offer paid "WatchDog" support contracts if that's required. Pricing of the support contracts is a bit vague (it's the classic "contact your local Ruckus distributor" sort of thing) but prices I can find seem to indicate around $125-150/year.
I wish the industrial design was a bit better because it's reeeeally ugly vs the Unifi ones
Yeah, that's definitely the main downside - I can deal with it since it's in my hallway, but I can definitely see it being an issue in some environments.
Where to buy them? Couldn’t find them anywhere Uk
I bought mine second hand from eBay, however looks like they are still available from a fair few places such as 4gon and LambdaTek.
Why actually you decided to go out of unifi eco system? Can you provide reasons?
Absolutely nothing wrong with it at all, I'll still continue to use and recommend UniFi. I just wanted to try other options and take a look at them on my channel. I feel that so many home networking UA-cam channels almost exclusively focus on UniFi that a lot of other great options get forgotten about.
@@camerongray1515 i’m using r550 ap with pfsense for a while and agree with all you said it’s a great device, but currently i’m looking in direction of unifi, where I think the best ui ux on the market, maybe you will find alternative open source solutions for network administration web interface in your future videos, because this is the only thing i’m missing in my setup👍🏻
Was the performance better that the unifi?
Significantly better - I was having issues trying to get consistent download speed test results from the UniFi AP when I was trying to generate the test results so couldn't use them in the comparison. However, looking back at my video when I first installed the NanoHD, I was getting around 450mbps with an 80MHz channel width vs 600-700mbps on the R650. These old UniFi test results were also taken using an Intel Mac which had a 3x3 MIMO WiFi chipset, a modern Mac (and most other devices) would only have a 2x2 MIMO chipset so would get lower performance than this on the NanoHD!
Too expensive 😢 . I got a tplink enterprise ap
Although i have 2 WiFi 6E access points (technically routers which have an access point built in, one is set to operate as an access point), the E part of WiFi 6E is not of much use right now, as very few devices support it, i think all M1 (including Pro, Max, and Ultra) Macs don’t support WiFi 6E, and I believe all models of the M2 MacBook Air don’t support WiFi 6E (not even the 15 inch), as well as the M2 MacBook Pro, the M2 Mac Mini does support WiFi 6E though
I will admit I don’t even have any devices right now that support WiFi 6E, however, since i have the routers set up as a Mesh network there is an advantage of WiFi 6E, i can have it set up to use the 6GHz band exclusively for the uplink
The advice i have heard is to use WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode if possible, and in fact my router advises me to only use WPA2 only mode if i have devices that are incompatible with WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode
(I deliberately overlooked WPA3 only mode as it would be unlikely anyone would have devices which all support WPA3)
Oh dear....swing and a miss I feel. I looked at Rukus in 2017 and went with Unifi. Glad I did.
Anything in particular that's an issue? Ruckus is definitely a much more expensive and less "pretty" (both in therms of hardware and software) but seems like a really rock solid option to me!
@@camerongray1515 Functionality wise they are pretty much the same. I think you essentially just got a 'side grade' and and paid a bit more for it.
Cost, installbase - stay with me here it's important later - and resale value were the main factors for me in my decision making.
Like you I'm 'in the trade' so when it comes to home hardware I get 'trade rates' I.e. price to the 'reseller' not the 'end user.' Even so back then Rukus verses Ubiquiti was crazy. 4 x the cost per comparable AP for Rukus.
In 2017 I starred with 2 UAP-AC-PROs and then - over 6 years - ended up with 8(don't ask) then 5 APs.
TLDR: I'm in Singapore it's the tropics there is no drywall: so in every home here each room is divided by a foot of concrete and iron rebar aka every room is a Faraday cage. Not great for IoT. I run 70 devices that operate on WiFi that's not including wired and zigbee. I build a lot of SBC based projects that do 'stuff.' In short Ebon Upton owes me a kidney let's put it that way....
Anyway the thing is 'resale value.' l'm leaving Singapore at the end of the year. All my Unifi APs, edge switches, etc. I can resell 2nd hand for 60-70% of what I paid for them. NB: I haven't bought any new Ubiquiti kit since 2019 and it's 2023 now. You can't do that with Rukus. Very few people are using Rukus and adding Rukus kit to their ecosystem. There is a very, very small resale market. Not so Ubiquiti.
Also, 'install base' and 'user profile' its coffee shops, sub-telco grade SMBs and guys like you and me. The prosumer market loves ubiquiti it works and integrates with 'our ecosystem.'
That's very fair, to be clear, I absolutely love UniFi and it's still my go-to recommendation for many environments however my idea for this project was to start looking at other options as I feel that so much of UA-cam network content is now purely UniFi content when there are a lot of other interesting options out there. Resale value is a consideration but isn't ever my primary consideration when buying a product. You're right that UniFi products to have a higher resale value than most other brands, however, on the other hand, the depreciation of other brands such as Ruckus means that you can get very good deals on them second hand - I picked up my R650 for £290 buy-it-now!
@@camerongray1515I agree 100%. Ubiquiti has 'won' the current prosumer/homelab setup and it's very, very formulaic now.
Tutorials for "how I fixed my WiFi" it's UDM Pro plus yada, yada. The scene has been heading this way since ~2017 when I got on the Ubiquiti train. Is that a bad thing from a user perspective? 'No' the kit is great but it's not exactly 'ground breaking' stuff for technical UA-camrs.
Also, this market dominance is leading to technical stagnation at Ubiquiti and frankly unnecessary price increases.
The current switch lineup of mixed PoE class ports and the rumoured introduction of a 'subscription model' for both 'access' and 'protect' is a massive step in the wrong direction in my opinion. It's going to cause a lot of the prosumers to phase out certain components when they need to upgrade. That will hurt them.
What's with the wood floor?
It's a workbench - I opted for a solid wood worktop to have something that looks decent on camera.
@@camerongray1515 What happened to the pinkyblue lights ?