Ubiquiti AP firmware - any recommendations?

[Brons2]

Well I upgraded to 6.6.55 on my Ubiquiti APs and now I'm really regretting it. Before the upgrade I could saturate my Internet connection with pretty much any device on the network that could run a Speedtest. Now, I'm struggling to get to over 140Mpbs from the same devices in the same locations. UGH. I haven't seen any streaming dropouts, but, if I try to play a YouTube video on the TVs at 2x speed, which I do frequently, the video is freezing at times, which is enough of an effect to make me seek a resolution.

Unfortunately I didn't cache the old version in my system like you are able to do, and I don't remember what I was on before. Basically I failed to do any of the checks that a competent network admin would do, I just said, ooh look here's new firmware, let's upgrade! Unfortunately this is not the first time that I have kneecapped myself in this manner, but eventually it's always gotten back to working well on later firmware versions.

I have the AP-AC-PRO APs, if that matters. Wifi 5/802.11ac. Ubiquiti US-8-60W switch, USG-3P router, cloud key.

Yes I know I need to upgrade my router and cloud key.

 

[Rand]

I havent had any issues with that firmware on my 6lr and 6-lite AP's but I have seen some posts about it.

 

[Brons2]

I havent had any issues with that firmware on my 6lr and 6-lite AP's but I have seen some posts about it.

You are correct, it seems:

https://community.ui.com/releases/UniFi-Access-Point-6-6-55/ca8e90a5-cfa3-44b5-b56c-1889ea6dbaed?page=10

 

[wwillson]

Check the bandwidth of the radios. I had an upgrade one time that reset all my radios to 20MHz bandwidth.

 

[Rand]

Check the bandwidth of the radios. I had an upgrade one time that reset all my radios to 20MHz bandwidth.

That would definitely make sense. Have you gotten 160 to work? I keep mine on 20(2.4) and 80(5ghz)

 

[wwillson]

That would definitely make sense. Have you gotten 160 to work? I keep mine on 20(2.4) and 80(5ghz)

Yes, 160MHz works great on my Pro 6 access points. I can sustain about 950Mb/s through them. The limiting factor is my 1Gb/s ethernet switch.

 

[Brons2]

Check the bandwidth of the radios. I had an upgrade one time that reset all my radios to 20MHz bandwidth.

I checked and 5Ghz was at 80 as expected. 2.4 at 20, although I could set it at 40, it's never been that way before. I have enough coverage with my APs to get 5Ghz anywhere the house. The main reason for keeping the 2.4 around is the smart home devices that don't support 5G.

I usually have the phones and computers segregated from the rest fo the stuff but I might try the other SSIDs to see if it's consistent. I have WPA3 turned on for the phones and computers on that SSID and also minimum RSSI for better roaming and so forth. The other SSIDs are pretty generic out of the box setups.

 

[Brons2]

Yes, 160MHz works great on my Pro 6 access points. I can sustain about 950Mb/s through them. The limiting factor is my 1Gb/s ethernet switch.

Up until now I hadn't really seen a hook to make me want to upgrade to the WiFi 6 APs. I live in a basically zero lot line community, and turning on 160mhz with a WifFi 6 AP doesn't seem like a real neighborly move. My Internet connection is only 300Mpbs (I am cheap and it works fine for our needs), and I don't do content creation that would cause me to want to copy large image or video files across the network. But they just came out with the Pro7, if my next phone has the 6Ghz WiFi, I might upgrade. The other thing that would make me upgrade is if they quit supporting the Wifi 5/802.11ac APs. But for now they seem to be continuing to develop new software for them. I just have to find a software version that restores the prior level of performance. After taking a suggestion from Rand's post, I looked at the Ubiquiti customer forums and some people with the AC APs who had issues with this version are rolling back to the 6.5.x chain, I might try that.

The bigger current concerns are my cloud key and USG-3P. I can't upgrade UnifiOS any more, my cloud key is officially end of life and I'm stuck at 7.2.97. Additionally, I can no longer access my local network management remotely. If I remove it from remote management and then re-add it, it will work for a little while and then break again. I've got a later version of Unifi OS running on Oracle Free Cloud but I need to go back and figure out how to open the ports I need opened on Oracle Cloud to make it work.

And the USG-3P, although not officially end of life, has not received an upgrade in forever, and it's throughput is terrible if you turn on deep packet inspection. With the threat landscape on the Internet getting worse by the hour seemingly, I'd like to do more with the DPI. I have my stuff installed in a structured wiring panel in the master closet, so I don't really want one of the big gateways like the UDM. The cheapest option is the Gateway Lite at $129, although the UDR at $199 would be a good option if I didn't want to bother with running a Linux VM in the Oracle Cloud for UnifiOS.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[meep]

Hey - their dream machine at $399 is a nice piece of kit. Bought one for one of our offices. It’s also far quicker than the older cloud key and FW setups. Save your pennies, rack mount is nice. I probably wouldn’t ask it to carry a lot of POE, as they’ve had some weaknesses in some of the power supplies used in certain switches.

 

[Rand]

Hey - their dream machine at $399 is a nice piece of kit. Bought one for one of our offices. It’s also far quicker than the older cloud key and FW setups. Save your pennies, rack mount is nice. I probably wouldn’t ask it to carry a lot of POE, as they’ve had some weaknesses in some of the power supplies used in certain switches.

Which one is that the reg is 379(no poe)
and the SE is 499. Poe+2.5gbit wan

 

[meep]

Dream machine pro, is the one we installed in the office. One of the guys also put one in his home and is quite pleased with it. You are right, no POE on it.

ive seen a POE related failure with UniFi… prefer to use an injector with them, or stay Cisco soho for POE. UniFi had a bad batch of power supplies and were slow to address it, but I’ve also not heard of it continuing after they fixed it.

 

[Rand]

I have the udm pro. It was on sale bf for 279. I considered buying a second one
Should be about time for a new version though.

I'd pay an extra hundred or two if they updated it and gave it 2.5 gigabit Ethernet ports on the switch and maybe some light duty Poe+ 60 watt Max etc
To run a couple waps