I have an old Unifi USG. I need to update my network stack. I was in the process of moving off Unifi and then saw some cool Unifi videos Lawrence did so am rethinking that decision. I am looking for suggestions.
Requirements:
– Internet gateway/router.
– level 3 switch to keep my VIP and AOIP VLans intra Vlan traffic off the router.
– currently have old Unifi main switch to be upgraded.
– the AOIP VLans are on Aruba instant on but that can be replaced.
Call for questions
Is Unifi still a good solution?
Any other ideas?
If you are used to Unifi why not stay there, it will fit your needs. It has a simple devices managment and many functions and the price is not so high like enterprise products.
TP-Link got somthing simular called Omada, but I just checkt it for a WLAN upgrade, but after i see the price for the access points i want to have with Omada support I stop thinking in this direction.
Lancom is an other but like most enterprise products you need licencs for the controller to manage devices and it is not cheap in compare with unifi.
There are many solution, you can go with one company which works fine together so long everthing you want to do is supported, or more tinkering which is more flexible if yours needs change, or everthing between.
For me Unifi is an easy solution, even people who are not so IT experienced can setup a unifi enviroment (from reading Omada should be just as easy), on Lancom (as HP Cisco and so an) you need more experiance in IT especially in network infrastructure to find the settings you need to change.
Thinkering is nice but it needs a lot of time for trying out, mayby save some money.
(1) The Unifi routing equipment is too restrictive for a pro user, i’d first look in detail what they offer and what you expect from a solution. Tom has some review videos on some these Unifi routers.
(2) The low end / pro-sumer Unifi switches are L2, no routing in the switch. I haven’t checked what the L3 capabilities of the Unifi Enterprise switches are, but the price tag is too siff for what I am willing to spend. A non-Unifi but enterprise class L3 solution could be using EOL Brocade enterprise switch products. On these the enterprise features can be enabled for free.
Question: Do the Unifi gateways have the ability to do routing for a true local static IP? I have found the reserved Dynamic IP which I use as needed but haven’t found how to set a true static IP routing path which I am probably just missing. Reason below.
I have a power sequencer that is allegedly DHCP capable. WireShark and I disagree with that statement.
When the power sequencer boots up it does the required DHCPDISCOVER. The discover broadcast erroneously sends an Option 50 IP address request which is bogus; the IP is not even close to the subnet the sequencer is in; it isn’t in any of the of the non-routeable DHCP spaces; and would be invalid even if it was in the correct subnet. I don’t have the requested IP in front of me but it is something like 4.2.255.255. The USG responded with a DHCPOFFER broadcast of 192.168.1.77 which is the reserved IP I specified via the Unifi controller that is outside the DHCP range of 1.100 - 1.254. Unfortunately the sequencer just ignores the offer and starts the discover process over again about 1 second later continuously with no exponential back off. Argh.
When I disable the sequencer DHCP and specify the correct parameters in the unit, the sequencer just goes into a passive mode and stops the DHCP broadcasts which is “good.” Unfortunately it stops all traffic out probably waiting for a request. As such the USG has no idea it is “online”.
Now with my wired Mac, and sequencer, plugged into the same VLAN 1 (maintenance network) using the same Aruba Instant on switch, the Mac cannot access the web server on the sequencer but can access it if connected directly to the sequencer:-) I added this paragraph because it made no sense to me and might trigger a thought from you.
I am working with the sequencer vender but they seem to be clueless about the DHCP reservation process. I will probably get a replacement product but I am skeptical that would work.
So – how do I set up a static address for 192.168.1.77 in Unifi so a http://191.168.1.77 would send that to the correct switch segment: USG → Unifi POE switch → Aruba Instant on Switch → Aruba Instant on Switch → sequencer Mac or ip.
Now as I said, some of this may point to a different issue that I need to look at
There you can setup routing, if not check the version of the controller, in the beginning Unifi missed a lot of basic funktions. I have no USG up and running, 6 years ago I try to use one, but for me it was more a downgrade to replace the Endian firewall with a USG.
old thread but simply throwing a penny into the pile because I can, the newest unifi controller security appliances seem to have l2 & l3 routing ability as of 2024.
I don’t own one yet so can’t confirm but the specs seem to indicate it. I also find myself debating security appliance choices occasionally.
