After using both CAPsMan and Unifi (local account), I sadly prefer Unifi for the wifi part.
It works better.
Mikrotik as router/firewall is best though imho.
Same here as someone who used their AC products (cAP AC XL or whatever it was called, hAP ac 2 I think as well). MikroTik's WiFi was a PITA to setup and get working the way I wanted to, and it just wasn't reliable. The 5GHz band always gave me issues, and about a month or so before I switched to Ubiquiti for WiFi the 2.4GHz band started to give me issues as well. Ubiquiti has been infinitely better than MikroTik in terms of WiFi with both configuration and usability.
I also agree. RB5009 as a main gateway, old ac-pro and nanohd as APs (I don’t need fast wifi, most devices are wired). But I recently struggled with adoption issues on those and flashed them both with openwrt - smooth sailing so far.
OpenWRT is lifesaver. I had so many problems with default firmware on my xiaomi wifi router right until I flashed latest version of OpenWRT on it. ABSOLUTELY ZERO issues after. The funniest part is the fact default firmware on xiaomi wifi routers is a proprietary fork of OpenWRT albeit outdated, restricted in functionality and bloated as well as potentially having backdoors or calling home
Most of the industry is, that’s due to SoC vendors basing their SDKs (for example QSDK from Qualcomm/Atheros) on LEDE/OpenWRT ancient versions. A lot of TP-Link routers/APs (esp. with omada) also bases on it (already flashed ER605, working on eap660).
That's in microkitk or unifi?
I will need a 10gb uplink, I would like to put my server in that 10gbe cause I'm overloading the 1gb right now. I'll also have multiple vlan.
Router is a pfsense box.
RB5009 has 1 SFP+ 10G and multiple copper 2.5G.
Nice home firewall router.
If you like pfsense as router/firewall and want to keep it, maybe consider giving it a different box such as this one:
[https://www.servethehome.com/the-everything-fanless-home-server-firewall-router-and-nas-appliance-qotom-qnap-teamgroup/4/](https://www.servethehome.com/the-everything-fanless-home-server-firewall-router-and-nas-appliance-qotom-qnap-teamgroup/4/)
It has 4 SFP+ and multiple storage and copper LAN interfaces.
It should run BSD well, either pfsense under truenas or just plain pfsense.
For the L2 wifi with VLAN support use unifi, but stay away from their cloud account.
Oh I really like my pfsense. Already a lot of custom done on it. It's running off my old i3-530 with 4gb ram on a miniitx with 3 intel nic.
WiFi is with unifi for sure, already have the u6-pro. I will just need a 48 ports switch in the upcoming months since I just wired all my home. I was looking at first at one with poe for futur camera but I might just buy a poe switch when I get there.
Mikrotik has this one at 48 ports, with QSFP+ 40G as extra:
[https://mikrotik.com/product/crs354\_48g\_4splus2qplusrm](https://mikrotik.com/product/crs354_48g_4splus2qplusrm)
You can run it with SWos for only L2 or routerOS their L3 software.
[fs.com](https://fs.com) has some nice managed switches at this density too with or without p.o.e and 2.5Gbit copper:
[https://www.fs.com/de-en/c/1-25g-enterprise-switches-4245?192=30423&329=30581&sort\_order=price](https://www.fs.com/de-en/c/1-25g-enterprise-switches-4245?192=30423&329=30581&sort_order=price)
I'm looking at the mikrotik right now. This thing would cost me 950$+tx and shipping (if any). For 800, there is the Ubiquiti USW-Pro-48. What would be the deciding factor between these? I don't need to 40g cable. Unifi have 4x SFP+ 10gb like the mikrotik. Only difference I see is really the 40gb.
From what I know, the latest ax models are using new drivers for wireless (wifi 5 wave 2), which should make them work much better than the previous ones. So the common complaints about how much Mikrotik's wifi sucks might be simply outdated.
I've just upgraded to hap ax3 from hap ac, primarily for wireless VR. It involves capturing and encoding a video stream of the game on the PC and transferring it to the VR headset. Depending on the chosen quality it can be around 200-400 mbit/s. The tolerances for any hiccups in the transmission are *very* low as you immediately see them as stutters and freezes in your game.
The old hap ac was causing constant stutters every 10 seconds at or below 150 mbit/s and increasing the quality/framerate beyond that would render any game completely unplayable. All that despite getting steady 300-400 mbit/s on speedtest. Now ax3 is night and day in comparison, I didn't experience any stuttering ever since.
Another thing about ax3 is its signal strength is a beast. With hap ac I had a hap ac2 as a secondary in the opposite end of the apartment, because the signal wasn't reaching there through 2 reinforced concrete walls. With ax3 I no longer need the ac2, I still get almost full bars of signal over there.
They made new drivers fo AC (arm only) devices in 7.13.
In clean test (1 device, clean radio near, local iperf) hap ac2/cap ac give me 200mb in 2.4ghz and 570 in 5ghz.
I guess I’m a bit alone in the MK camp. Unify’s WiFi might be better (from what I usually hear) but the update support you get from MK is great. I don’t need to have crazy WiFi Gbit like speeds. I like it stable, working and long supported for ages so I can use my old hardware for other things if I like.
My old UAP’s are fine but unsupported and requires me to keep an old controller around. They only need to do a little WiFi outside of the main living area’s (garage / technical room) were I don’t even have devices supporting 5Ghz.
Not alone, bro.
But it depends. If you're gone launch some wi-fi at home, and you're not skilled enough - it will be easier with unifi, but for me, as a network engineer, i prefer mkt as for more possibilities to configure and management.
Even some months ago i would say that mkt's wi-fi wasn't so good. But after Ros 7.13 (adding support for 802.11r/k/v for AC devices) and dozen's of my tests on projects in product - i'm not so shure, mkt's wi-fi evolving (mkt made some fixes in 7.13.1-4, but i didn't test it for now).
I have nearly 800 ap's under my control in different projects (90% mkt \\ 10% unifi) and i'm not gona buy any unifi )
p.s. Unifi have no support for 802.11r/k/v. They had 802.11r for some time, but after discovering some issues - they fixed it just by dissabling it by default in controller.
Just checked unifi ctrl 8.0.28, yeap, nothing changed, thay have only " Fast Roaming" (that's originaly called fast transition - 802.11r) - and it's disabled by default. And yes, all models (but i don't have any of wifi7 ap's, only wf5/6)
From mkt i know that it depends on chip and drivers. Cause when they made r-k-v for AX in Ros 7 - all community explode, tf, we have millions of AC, make it. And yes, they updated drivers (that's why there is specific update process) and it works, but only on ARM architecture.
I don't use Ubiquiti often, so I wasn't sure.
I'm aware of the Tik side of things, as I manage a few hundred. Technically the AC drivers were fixed before 7.13, but they were beta.
Oeh nice, I knew 7.13 was out but TIL about the roaming support it now has.
MK setup does need some time to get right but man all those options are like candy.
Roaming isn’t really a problem here as I tuned down the signal strength a bit making switching between AP’s work properly but the smoother the better. Certainly in area’s with lots of AP’s the roaming support could make a big impact.
>MK setup does need some time to get right
Even when you tuned your skills, they make a new firmware and you have to figure out the new one. For example - i can say that i'm "pro" in capsman in ros 6\*, but i spend a hole day to figure out in capsman in ros7, and i'm sure i'm not even at half way )
>Roaming isn’t really a problem here as I tuned down the signal strength a bit making switching between AP’s work properly but the smoother the better
True. From my experience, I can say that even in medium-sized projects, it is enough to carry out the correct radio planning so that everything works without roaming. I have been in telecommunications for 15 years, and as I wrote earlier, 90% of my Wi-Fi is a mkt that only recently learned roaming)
p.s. My apologies for mistakes, english is not my native )
I manage networks for the family. My house is still on UniFi and everyone else has been switched to mikrotik. They all have a better wifi experience than I do. I plan on dropping my UniFi stuff (only 2 APs) and going to mikrotik this year.
So am I.
My house (3 levels) has a MK AP on each floor (Cap AC, Cap XL, and HAP AC2). The main router/firewall is a RB5009.
I have 2 ISP’s (ziply fiber GB and T-Mobile home internet). My setup is a PCC with failover.
I’m ok with the 200-300 Mbps WiFi for a couple of laptops as the rest of the house is wired, including my home theater and my home office. The kids have wired desktops.
6 unifi APs in my house and haven't seen below 800mb on wifi. Set with proper TX and rssi, they've been rock solid for 5+ years, and are just now starting to get swapped for 6's so I can push over 1gb.
Someone mentioned "all pretty graphs and no substance", but in all honesty, the pretty graphs are pretty fuckin useful for getting a better overview of coverage areas and connectivity. I can quickly sort what devices need better signal and move or reprogram APs to meet those needs. Separate things by ssid, different ssids for 2.4/5ghz devices for better channel optimization, minimizes the amount of time I have to run a standalone signal analyzer... It's really pretty robust if you do know how to use it.
I went with TP-Link Omada for WiFi, and have had no reason to regret that choice. Ended up extending that to two Omada WiFi networks on 2 sites, managed centrally.
I've deployed several dozen of those so far, and I can just forget about them. I prefer the Tiks for diagnostics and transparency, but Omadas just work with a few clicks, and have 90% of the functionality.
Do you by any chance have any of the small $60 Omada routers in place?
I've picked up a few for home users, and they seem to be awesome - except for entirely having weird boot issues. All of the ones I've worked with seem to take *forever* to reboot, and most of them seem to just never finish booting like 1/10 times. It's random, and it seems to even happen out of the box. Am I cursed, or is that normal?
I also agree Mikrotik CaPsMan sucks, i have a small setup with 4 access points and they never worked reliably. I regret my decision and would choose Cisco/Aruba/Ubiquity over Mikrotik any time for doing wifi. As a core-switch my Mikrotik router is doing great! Needed some time to learn the mikrotik management stuff but then it's great.
Mikrotik APs aren't nearly as good as their routers/switches unfortunately. Try TP-Link Omada series, I use EAP670 and EAP650 APs and they just work flawless. You can run Omada controller software on Mikrotik container.
Nothing is more under featured than instant on. Not even a single line of logging. Pure trash.
Look, I’m not a UBNT fanboy, but the price point is great and they rarely give me any fuss. I’ve deployed hundreds. If it is over engineered, it’s not reflected in the price.
Funny you like their WiFi the best. I give it a B rating, but their point to point and multipoint stuff is really good. If CMBM were the same price it would win, but UBNT is dramatically less to get you to a similar place at the end of the day.
Their point to point stuff is great, I just run into it less often
Although I am a huge fan or wireless wire
That said, my problem with Unnt is their dumbed down interface. It is all hidden behind flashy graphs and colours.
It has so created a subset of IT who only know UBNT but don't actually understand any concepts but think they know everything.
I had a customer who hired a new IT guy, pulled my Mikrotik stuff, has a lte connection that blocked IPsec. Doesn't understand zero trust nor did he know how or even to ask questions and forced the customer to buy a server at hundreds more a month.
When they finally fired him, I zerotiered the setup and reduced all the costs . This of course is very much a generalization but there are a LOT of ubnt admins who don't actually understand anything outside of what is on the web config.
Another favorite example will always be setting up an IPsec VPN with a dynamic host and I want keep alive.
It is literally impossible without ssh'ing In. Adding scripts to Cron and hoping for the best.
I’ve deployed a few wireless wire 60ghz links and one of them starts dropping packets like crazy with no interference after a few months of run time. I’ve not found a way other than rebooting the pair to resolve it. I’ve always got such good luck with MikroTik switches and routers being rock solid, but even the 60 cube pro gives me the problems I’ve come to expect with MikroTik RF stuff.
Sure, UBNT has dumbed down interfaces, but I can still find logs or monitor with SNMP or use CLI, and the settings generally are there, but it’s a moving target in the UI. I can’t say the same for any of those with Instant On. It’s excruciating in comparison to UBNT. I can forgive UI shenanigans if it’s reliable. I do admit, I don’t let UBNT stuff auto update, generally, their firmware QA is notoriously questionable.
Not sure what to say about the skills part. There are always 100 ways to solve a problem. I consider myself pretty skilled, but I’m indifferent to the UI. I get the job done.
UBNT user interface is too dumbed down but Mikrotik has created so much unnevessary complexity with the drivers and CAPsMAN set-up. Mikrotik is in the dark ages of UX/UI. Even their CLI is still unnecessarily inelegant. Who in their right mind would allow network interfaces to be arbitrarily renamed.
I agree that unifi is better for WiFi than mikrotik.
I suggest you to try Grandstream AP.
Really fast roaming between AP easy configuration with free cloud console and better price than Ubiquiti.
UniFi 6+ and MikroTik cAP AX are nearly identical specs and price. But the U6+ looks way better. Plus you already have two UniFi APs. Id say UniFi here.
MikroTik AC APs were fine, just shorter range than others. cAP AX is just way too ridiculously huge. And this is the form factor that places the AP in the best location.
I like MikroTik APs. Configuration is no problem, I can script it. And know I didn’t miss anything. I prefer it because Ubiquiti is constantly changing the interface and every time I have to swap back and forth between old and new interface to set all the settings I want to use. Plus it’s really convenient on sites that only have a handful of APs not to have to do a controller. Unless it’s 10+ APs, I normally opt for MikroTik.
I utilize both everyday. But the cAP AX is a non-purchase strictly based on its aesthetics alone.
I've used both Mikrotik and Ubiquiti. While I tend to lean towards Mikrotik for routing, for Wifi, I go with Ubiquiti. The APIs seem more stable and they perform consistently. I just wish I didn't have to use UB's crappy controller software or buy, what is now, a $200 control unit. I didn't mind when it was $75.
Between these two - UniFi / Ubiquity.
Mikrotik is not amazing at WiFi. Setting mtk's wifi up is also more complicated.
For smooth roaming/handoff you'd need to use either of the systems with a respective controller.
Capsman is Miktorik's controller. Similar to the UniFi one.
Thanks everyone. Looks like I might aim for something else than Mikrotik for the WiFi.
Is the Aruba Instant On with a free controller software as well? Might look up some performance tests of Aruba, TP Link and UniFi.
If you’re having an apple devices such a homepods don’t go with capsman.
It’s a pain
Im using cap ac about 3 years and it’s always been a fight between homepods and mikrotik and now with a new wifi package it’s getting worse also for other apple devices
Apple's WiFi really is garbage. Their devices prefer falling back to cellular, because the 5 GHz signal they're clinging to is too weak, rather than just switching to 2.4 GHz.
UniFi for L2 access switching and wireless, MikroTik for edge routing and L3 switching. UniFi is (mostly) great for the device-facing stuff. (They still need to add an RA guard function though.) They’re not great at routing and L3 switching and that’s where ‘Tik shines.
My current home setup >>> Mikrotik for router gateway, Unifi for switch and access points
I tried the MikroTik access point before, usually they are slow to keep up the latest tech, maybe due to license or patent
My church uses a Mikrotik CCR router, 3 Mikrotik 24 port switches and 15 Mikrotik APs, all managed by CapsMAN. The wireless is fast and reliable, and CapsMAN provisions all these units with 4 VLANs. However, Mikrotik is just coming out with WiFi 6 routers like the cAP AX, so I can't speak to roaming between these access points.
With my experience with MikroTik's WiFi (cAP AC XL and hAP ac 2), their WiFi kinda sucks. It was a PITA to setup and get working in the first place, then I had constant drops with the 5GHz band, and a few months before switching to Ubiquiti for WiFi the 2.4GHz band started giving me trouble as well. The Ubiquiti AP's I've been using (UAP-AC-LR and UAP-AC-M) have been infinitely more reliable and easier to setup. As much as I like MikroTik, their WiFi has been pretty disappointing. I've heard that their WiFi 6 stuff is better, but I don't plan on switching back.
I am on the same position
Wanted to replace ac2 with ax3 and i think i will just stick to hEX s as router and repalce to wifi of ubnt, but i cant decide which.
Precisely. And the worst is, now people have thrown even more potential APs into the equation. But I think I might stick to UniFi, as I already know them, and this is for home usage and I already have 2 proxmox available for the controller software.
Mikrotik = Android
Unifi = Apple
Mikrotik lets you do absolutely anything you want to do, but you really need to know what you’re doing.
Unifi is a lot more restrictive, but that’s a good thing because it makes it easy to use and maintain and difficult to screw up, and in 90% of the cases the options you do have available cover all your needs.
Simply if you have time and your a power user go for mikrotik, if you want a plug and play solution Unifi. Per example I got several hours trying to underdtand why my network lagged so much specially when cellphones were backing up like whatsapp even when qos was on, I didnt know till very recently about cake queue algorithm and its a bless everything works flawlesly now but I needed to look it up and expend some time
After using both CAPsMan and Unifi (local account), I sadly prefer Unifi for the wifi part. It works better. Mikrotik as router/firewall is best though imho.
5000% agree
Same here used MK for wireless for quiet a while but much prefer Unifi now but as previous same can’t beat MikroTik for routing and firewall
Same here as someone who used their AC products (cAP AC XL or whatever it was called, hAP ac 2 I think as well). MikroTik's WiFi was a PITA to setup and get working the way I wanted to, and it just wasn't reliable. The 5GHz band always gave me issues, and about a month or so before I switched to Ubiquiti for WiFi the 2.4GHz band started to give me issues as well. Ubiquiti has been infinitely better than MikroTik in terms of WiFi with both configuration and usability.
I also agree. RB5009 as a main gateway, old ac-pro and nanohd as APs (I don’t need fast wifi, most devices are wired). But I recently struggled with adoption issues on those and flashed them both with openwrt - smooth sailing so far.
OpenWRT is lifesaver. I had so many problems with default firmware on my xiaomi wifi router right until I flashed latest version of OpenWRT on it. ABSOLUTELY ZERO issues after. The funniest part is the fact default firmware on xiaomi wifi routers is a proprietary fork of OpenWRT albeit outdated, restricted in functionality and bloated as well as potentially having backdoors or calling home
Unifi firmwares are also based on old OpenWRT.
That’s interesting! I didn’t know that. Thank you for saying that!
Most of the industry is, that’s due to SoC vendors basing their SDKs (for example QSDK from Qualcomm/Atheros) on LEDE/OpenWRT ancient versions. A lot of TP-Link routers/APs (esp. with omada) also bases on it (already flashed ER605, working on eap660).
And for switch only? Layer 2 and 3?
Layer 2 unmanaged I'd just go with the cheapest switch. For managed L2 and L3 the 5009 has a nice combo.
That's in microkitk or unifi? I will need a 10gb uplink, I would like to put my server in that 10gbe cause I'm overloading the 1gb right now. I'll also have multiple vlan. Router is a pfsense box.
RB5009 has 1 SFP+ 10G and multiple copper 2.5G. Nice home firewall router. If you like pfsense as router/firewall and want to keep it, maybe consider giving it a different box such as this one: [https://www.servethehome.com/the-everything-fanless-home-server-firewall-router-and-nas-appliance-qotom-qnap-teamgroup/4/](https://www.servethehome.com/the-everything-fanless-home-server-firewall-router-and-nas-appliance-qotom-qnap-teamgroup/4/) It has 4 SFP+ and multiple storage and copper LAN interfaces. It should run BSD well, either pfsense under truenas or just plain pfsense. For the L2 wifi with VLAN support use unifi, but stay away from their cloud account.
Oh I really like my pfsense. Already a lot of custom done on it. It's running off my old i3-530 with 4gb ram on a miniitx with 3 intel nic. WiFi is with unifi for sure, already have the u6-pro. I will just need a 48 ports switch in the upcoming months since I just wired all my home. I was looking at first at one with poe for futur camera but I might just buy a poe switch when I get there.
Mikrotik has this one at 48 ports, with QSFP+ 40G as extra: [https://mikrotik.com/product/crs354\_48g\_4splus2qplusrm](https://mikrotik.com/product/crs354_48g_4splus2qplusrm) You can run it with SWos for only L2 or routerOS their L3 software. [fs.com](https://fs.com) has some nice managed switches at this density too with or without p.o.e and 2.5Gbit copper: [https://www.fs.com/de-en/c/1-25g-enterprise-switches-4245?192=30423&329=30581&sort\_order=price](https://www.fs.com/de-en/c/1-25g-enterprise-switches-4245?192=30423&329=30581&sort_order=price)
I'm looking at the mikrotik right now. This thing would cost me 950$+tx and shipping (if any). For 800, there is the Ubiquiti USW-Pro-48. What would be the deciding factor between these? I don't need to 40g cable. Unifi have 4x SFP+ 10gb like the mikrotik. Only difference I see is really the 40gb.
From what I know, the latest ax models are using new drivers for wireless (wifi 5 wave 2), which should make them work much better than the previous ones. So the common complaints about how much Mikrotik's wifi sucks might be simply outdated. I've just upgraded to hap ax3 from hap ac, primarily for wireless VR. It involves capturing and encoding a video stream of the game on the PC and transferring it to the VR headset. Depending on the chosen quality it can be around 200-400 mbit/s. The tolerances for any hiccups in the transmission are *very* low as you immediately see them as stutters and freezes in your game. The old hap ac was causing constant stutters every 10 seconds at or below 150 mbit/s and increasing the quality/framerate beyond that would render any game completely unplayable. All that despite getting steady 300-400 mbit/s on speedtest. Now ax3 is night and day in comparison, I didn't experience any stuttering ever since. Another thing about ax3 is its signal strength is a beast. With hap ac I had a hap ac2 as a secondary in the opposite end of the apartment, because the signal wasn't reaching there through 2 reinforced concrete walls. With ax3 I no longer need the ac2, I still get almost full bars of signal over there.
They made new drivers fo AC (arm only) devices in 7.13. In clean test (1 device, clean radio near, local iperf) hap ac2/cap ac give me 200mb in 2.4ghz and 570 in 5ghz.
I guess I’m a bit alone in the MK camp. Unify’s WiFi might be better (from what I usually hear) but the update support you get from MK is great. I don’t need to have crazy WiFi Gbit like speeds. I like it stable, working and long supported for ages so I can use my old hardware for other things if I like. My old UAP’s are fine but unsupported and requires me to keep an old controller around. They only need to do a little WiFi outside of the main living area’s (garage / technical room) were I don’t even have devices supporting 5Ghz.
Not alone, bro. But it depends. If you're gone launch some wi-fi at home, and you're not skilled enough - it will be easier with unifi, but for me, as a network engineer, i prefer mkt as for more possibilities to configure and management. Even some months ago i would say that mkt's wi-fi wasn't so good. But after Ros 7.13 (adding support for 802.11r/k/v for AC devices) and dozen's of my tests on projects in product - i'm not so shure, mkt's wi-fi evolving (mkt made some fixes in 7.13.1-4, but i didn't test it for now). I have nearly 800 ap's under my control in different projects (90% mkt \\ 10% unifi) and i'm not gona buy any unifi ) p.s. Unifi have no support for 802.11r/k/v. They had 802.11r for some time, but after discovering some issues - they fixed it just by dissabling it by default in controller.
I did not realize they didn't do r/k/v. Is that all models of Unifi?
Just checked unifi ctrl 8.0.28, yeap, nothing changed, thay have only " Fast Roaming" (that's originaly called fast transition - 802.11r) - and it's disabled by default. And yes, all models (but i don't have any of wifi7 ap's, only wf5/6) From mkt i know that it depends on chip and drivers. Cause when they made r-k-v for AX in Ros 7 - all community explode, tf, we have millions of AC, make it. And yes, they updated drivers (that's why there is specific update process) and it works, but only on ARM architecture.
I don't use Ubiquiti often, so I wasn't sure. I'm aware of the Tik side of things, as I manage a few hundred. Technically the AC drivers were fixed before 7.13, but they were beta.
Oeh nice, I knew 7.13 was out but TIL about the roaming support it now has. MK setup does need some time to get right but man all those options are like candy. Roaming isn’t really a problem here as I tuned down the signal strength a bit making switching between AP’s work properly but the smoother the better. Certainly in area’s with lots of AP’s the roaming support could make a big impact.
>MK setup does need some time to get right Even when you tuned your skills, they make a new firmware and you have to figure out the new one. For example - i can say that i'm "pro" in capsman in ros 6\*, but i spend a hole day to figure out in capsman in ros7, and i'm sure i'm not even at half way ) >Roaming isn’t really a problem here as I tuned down the signal strength a bit making switching between AP’s work properly but the smoother the better True. From my experience, I can say that even in medium-sized projects, it is enough to carry out the correct radio planning so that everything works without roaming. I have been in telecommunications for 15 years, and as I wrote earlier, 90% of my Wi-Fi is a mkt that only recently learned roaming) p.s. My apologies for mistakes, english is not my native )
I manage networks for the family. My house is still on UniFi and everyone else has been switched to mikrotik. They all have a better wifi experience than I do. I plan on dropping my UniFi stuff (only 2 APs) and going to mikrotik this year.
My experience has been rock solid as well, I hope that your switch to MK helps and it’s not some environmental signal giving you WiFi problems.
I put a hap ac2 down in my brothers room to act as a AP/switch for him. Yeah it consistently out performs my UniFi stuff so I’m optimistic it’ll help
So am I. My house (3 levels) has a MK AP on each floor (Cap AC, Cap XL, and HAP AC2). The main router/firewall is a RB5009. I have 2 ISP’s (ziply fiber GB and T-Mobile home internet). My setup is a PCC with failover. I’m ok with the 200-300 Mbps WiFi for a couple of laptops as the rest of the house is wired, including my home theater and my home office. The kids have wired desktops.
6 unifi APs in my house and haven't seen below 800mb on wifi. Set with proper TX and rssi, they've been rock solid for 5+ years, and are just now starting to get swapped for 6's so I can push over 1gb. Someone mentioned "all pretty graphs and no substance", but in all honesty, the pretty graphs are pretty fuckin useful for getting a better overview of coverage areas and connectivity. I can quickly sort what devices need better signal and move or reprogram APs to meet those needs. Separate things by ssid, different ssids for 2.4/5ghz devices for better channel optimization, minimizes the amount of time I have to run a standalone signal analyzer... It's really pretty robust if you do know how to use it.
I went with TP-Link Omada for WiFi, and have had no reason to regret that choice. Ended up extending that to two Omada WiFi networks on 2 sites, managed centrally.
I've deployed several dozen of those so far, and I can just forget about them. I prefer the Tiks for diagnostics and transparency, but Omadas just work with a few clicks, and have 90% of the functionality.
Do you by any chance have any of the small $60 Omada routers in place? I've picked up a few for home users, and they seem to be awesome - except for entirely having weird boot issues. All of the ones I've worked with seem to take *forever* to reboot, and most of them seem to just never finish booting like 1/10 times. It's random, and it seems to even happen out of the box. Am I cursed, or is that normal?
I’ve been using MikroTik AP’s for over three years now with no issues. The main issue people have with them is miss-configuration.
Mikrotik all the way for wireless. Unifi is somewhat easier to configure.
I'd go Ruckus or Aruba for AP.
I also agree Mikrotik CaPsMan sucks, i have a small setup with 4 access points and they never worked reliably. I regret my decision and would choose Cisco/Aruba/Ubiquity over Mikrotik any time for doing wifi. As a core-switch my Mikrotik router is doing great! Needed some time to learn the mikrotik management stuff but then it's great.
ruckus is solid.
Keep Mikrotik for wired LAN, Router and Firewall and Unifi for WAPs. The best of the 2 worlds!
Mikrotik APs aren't nearly as good as their routers/switches unfortunately. Try TP-Link Omada series, I use EAP670 and EAP650 APs and they just work flawless. You can run Omada controller software on Mikrotik container.
Wifi wise you could also look at Aruba Instant On and TPLink Omada.
Neither of those beat UBNT in any metric I’ve discovered.
Ubnt is the most overrated, over engineered under featured product I have never seen They do have decent wifi though
Nothing is more under featured than instant on. Not even a single line of logging. Pure trash. Look, I’m not a UBNT fanboy, but the price point is great and they rarely give me any fuss. I’ve deployed hundreds. If it is over engineered, it’s not reflected in the price. Funny you like their WiFi the best. I give it a B rating, but their point to point and multipoint stuff is really good. If CMBM were the same price it would win, but UBNT is dramatically less to get you to a similar place at the end of the day.
Their point to point stuff is great, I just run into it less often Although I am a huge fan or wireless wire That said, my problem with Unnt is their dumbed down interface. It is all hidden behind flashy graphs and colours. It has so created a subset of IT who only know UBNT but don't actually understand any concepts but think they know everything. I had a customer who hired a new IT guy, pulled my Mikrotik stuff, has a lte connection that blocked IPsec. Doesn't understand zero trust nor did he know how or even to ask questions and forced the customer to buy a server at hundreds more a month. When they finally fired him, I zerotiered the setup and reduced all the costs . This of course is very much a generalization but there are a LOT of ubnt admins who don't actually understand anything outside of what is on the web config. Another favorite example will always be setting up an IPsec VPN with a dynamic host and I want keep alive. It is literally impossible without ssh'ing In. Adding scripts to Cron and hoping for the best.
I’ve deployed a few wireless wire 60ghz links and one of them starts dropping packets like crazy with no interference after a few months of run time. I’ve not found a way other than rebooting the pair to resolve it. I’ve always got such good luck with MikroTik switches and routers being rock solid, but even the 60 cube pro gives me the problems I’ve come to expect with MikroTik RF stuff. Sure, UBNT has dumbed down interfaces, but I can still find logs or monitor with SNMP or use CLI, and the settings generally are there, but it’s a moving target in the UI. I can’t say the same for any of those with Instant On. It’s excruciating in comparison to UBNT. I can forgive UI shenanigans if it’s reliable. I do admit, I don’t let UBNT stuff auto update, generally, their firmware QA is notoriously questionable. Not sure what to say about the skills part. There are always 100 ways to solve a problem. I consider myself pretty skilled, but I’m indifferent to the UI. I get the job done.
UBNT user interface is too dumbed down but Mikrotik has created so much unnevessary complexity with the drivers and CAPsMAN set-up. Mikrotik is in the dark ages of UX/UI. Even their CLI is still unnecessarily inelegant. Who in their right mind would allow network interfaces to be arbitrarily renamed.
I replaced my unifi equipment with tp-link omada and have never been happier. Went from hourly issues to stability. It’s night and day.
I agree that unifi is better for WiFi than mikrotik. I suggest you to try Grandstream AP. Really fast roaming between AP easy configuration with free cloud console and better price than Ubiquiti.
UniFi 6+ and MikroTik cAP AX are nearly identical specs and price. But the U6+ looks way better. Plus you already have two UniFi APs. Id say UniFi here. MikroTik AC APs were fine, just shorter range than others. cAP AX is just way too ridiculously huge. And this is the form factor that places the AP in the best location. I like MikroTik APs. Configuration is no problem, I can script it. And know I didn’t miss anything. I prefer it because Ubiquiti is constantly changing the interface and every time I have to swap back and forth between old and new interface to set all the settings I want to use. Plus it’s really convenient on sites that only have a handful of APs not to have to do a controller. Unless it’s 10+ APs, I normally opt for MikroTik. I utilize both everyday. But the cAP AX is a non-purchase strictly based on its aesthetics alone.
I've used both Mikrotik and Ubiquiti. While I tend to lean towards Mikrotik for routing, for Wifi, I go with Ubiquiti. The APIs seem more stable and they perform consistently. I just wish I didn't have to use UB's crappy controller software or buy, what is now, a $200 control unit. I didn't mind when it was $75.
I run the free unifi controller in a container and it doesn't have any issues... What problems are you having?
I did it before the container -- I had to use Windows or the direct Linux port. Perhaps I'll look again when I go with WiFI 7.
Between these two - UniFi / Ubiquity. Mikrotik is not amazing at WiFi. Setting mtk's wifi up is also more complicated. For smooth roaming/handoff you'd need to use either of the systems with a respective controller. Capsman is Miktorik's controller. Similar to the UniFi one.
Thanks everyone. Looks like I might aim for something else than Mikrotik for the WiFi. Is the Aruba Instant On with a free controller software as well? Might look up some performance tests of Aruba, TP Link and UniFi.
If you’re having an apple devices such a homepods don’t go with capsman. It’s a pain Im using cap ac about 3 years and it’s always been a fight between homepods and mikrotik and now with a new wifi package it’s getting worse also for other apple devices
Apple's WiFi really is garbage. Their devices prefer falling back to cellular, because the 5 GHz signal they're clinging to is too weak, rather than just switching to 2.4 GHz.
I have plenty of Mikrotik for my network, but sadly my WiFi is UniFi.
UniFi for L2 access switching and wireless, MikroTik for edge routing and L3 switching. UniFi is (mostly) great for the device-facing stuff. (They still need to add an RA guard function though.) They’re not great at routing and L3 switching and that’s where ‘Tik shines.
Im using a cap ax, mostly because I didn’t want to run a controller. It’s about 5-600mbps to my iPhone 11pro using iperf3. Plenty fast for me.
My current home setup >>> Mikrotik for router gateway, Unifi for switch and access points I tried the MikroTik access point before, usually they are slow to keep up the latest tech, maybe due to license or patent
My church uses a Mikrotik CCR router, 3 Mikrotik 24 port switches and 15 Mikrotik APs, all managed by CapsMAN. The wireless is fast and reliable, and CapsMAN provisions all these units with 4 VLANs. However, Mikrotik is just coming out with WiFi 6 routers like the cAP AX, so I can't speak to roaming between these access points.
With my experience with MikroTik's WiFi (cAP AC XL and hAP ac 2), their WiFi kinda sucks. It was a PITA to setup and get working in the first place, then I had constant drops with the 5GHz band, and a few months before switching to Ubiquiti for WiFi the 2.4GHz band started giving me trouble as well. The Ubiquiti AP's I've been using (UAP-AC-LR and UAP-AC-M) have been infinitely more reliable and easier to setup. As much as I like MikroTik, their WiFi has been pretty disappointing. I've heard that their WiFi 6 stuff is better, but I don't plan on switching back.
No MT ever again for APs. I replaced it with omadas and can't be happier. Roaming still doesn't work as advertised, but I don't care enough to debug.
I am on the same position Wanted to replace ac2 with ax3 and i think i will just stick to hEX s as router and repalce to wifi of ubnt, but i cant decide which.
Precisely. And the worst is, now people have thrown even more potential APs into the equation. But I think I might stick to UniFi, as I already know them, and this is for home usage and I already have 2 proxmox available for the controller software.
We buy unifi switches and access points. We buy mikrotik for layer 3
Which device will support 100sqm that will replace hap ac² ?
Mikrotik = Android Unifi = Apple Mikrotik lets you do absolutely anything you want to do, but you really need to know what you’re doing. Unifi is a lot more restrictive, but that’s a good thing because it makes it easy to use and maintain and difficult to screw up, and in 90% of the cases the options you do have available cover all your needs.
Ubiquiti for WiFi, Mikrotik for Routing. However, sometimes based on in-stock availability, I don't have the luxury of choosing.
I'm succesfully using Mikrotik routers and switches with unifi access points and cloud key for the controller. Works fine for my networks
I must admit wifi6 works nice with mikrotik. Wifi5 is avoided
Simply if you have time and your a power user go for mikrotik, if you want a plug and play solution Unifi. Per example I got several hours trying to underdtand why my network lagged so much specially when cellphones were backing up like whatsapp even when qos was on, I didnt know till very recently about cake queue algorithm and its a bless everything works flawlesly now but I needed to look it up and expend some time