Ubiquiti products and training

[Martyn]

I've been reading quite a lot on here about Ubiquiti products and was wondering about getting into this company's products here in the uk. I see they do courses in Suffolk for two days and am looking into going on one of those. Has anyone been to one here in the uk or elsewhere? I see the type of establishments they are installed in to. Who are their competitors in the wireless market?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

They provide such a wide range of products it's hard to narrow down who their competition is. The easy part...wireless...indoor and outdoor, some of their competitors are OpenMesh, Meraki, Ruckus, Engenius, Cisco, HP ProCurve wireless, Aruba, AeroHive.

And then they scale all the way up to large carrier grade wireless..point to point, WISP, big enterprise stuff that ISPs use. Competition like Motorola Canopy and Cisco. I'm hoping to get more familiar with some of that stuff, I have 2x projects I'm trying to scratch up with a senior Comcast engineer.....blanket a large retirement/assisted living community with wireless (a neighborhood of about 30 homes). And...provide an alternative, higher performance internet connection to an island 8 miles offshore...better than their local DSL which is poor.

And then there's the cameras/DVRs.

And I still don't know what the heck that mFi product line is about!

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

Martin,

Ms distribution do very reasonable priced ubiquiti and mikrotik courses in Banbury if that closer to you.

 

[Martyn]

Martin,



Ms distribution do very reasonable priced ubiquiti and mikrotik courses in Banbury if that closer to you.

Thanks, I saw that just before I went to bed. A lot closer for me and includes one night in the hotel and evening meal so all round a better deal.

 

[Martyn]

Ok booked Ubiquiti Unifi course 30/6/14 for two days at the Banbury location. It's only about 30 miles from me.

 

[JustInTech]

Wish I could attend some training on Ubiquiti as not held very often in little ole New Zealand so very jealous.

I use Ubiquiti quite often mainly for Point to Point wireless and they are extremely easy to configure and once configured they just work, I haven't had to revisit a single site yet to fix any broken connections.

Just did one the other day and did a quick case study on it, more for end users not techies so don't go into to much detail but hope fully shows what you can do. Also bare in mind in this job I used a fairly basic model as only needed to bridge 200m but some are the models can cover up to 50km or speeds up to 1.4GBps @ 13km so pretty impressive.

Case Study: http://www.justintech.co.nz/joining-two-offices-via-point-to-point-wireless/

Cheers

Ok booked Ubiquiti Unifi course 30/6/14 for two days at the Banbury location. It's only about 30 miles from me.

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

Wish I could attend some training on Ubiquiti as not held very often in little ole New Zealand so very jealous.

I use Ubiquiti quite often mainly for Point to Point wireless and they are extremely easy to configure and once configured they just work, I haven't had to revisit a single site yet to fix any broken connections.

Just did one the other day and did a quick case study on it, more for end users not techies so don't go into to much detail but hope fully shows what you can do. Also bare in mind in this job I used a fairly basic model as only needed to bridge 200m but some are the models can cover up to 50km or speeds up to 1.4GBps @ 13km so pretty impressive.

Case Study: http://www.justintech.co.nz/joining-two-offices-via-point-to-point-wireless/

Cheers

i do like the M5's (im assuming that what you used) we have a few clients using them doing bridging work and they will just churn away without a hitch.

 

[JustInTech]

Yes we used the M5's very easy to set up and they just work

 

[Martyn]

Just a bit of feedback on this course. I found the course very intensive and fast moving. There were 11 other people all with Ubiquiti experience so I was at a bit of disadvantage I think. My networking skills are good(I did ccna years ago) and I ran a couple of courses on networking for consultants at my old company. Wireless is a whole new ball game with lots of calculations etc. I've being doing home wireless for a few years with no real issues. I think the course could have done with being another day and a bit more time on each section. Anyway at the end of the second day we were meant to do the exam but for some reason the online exam didn't work. Yesterday I had to do the exam online and somehow managed to pass! I didn't find it easy at all with 50 questions in 60 minutes with quite a lot them multiple choice/multiple selection. I might do the Airmax course next and then really starting pushing out in that direction, everyone needs to be connected these days and with data caps on 3G and 4G it's going to be needed for a long while. It was interesting talking to others on the course who are quite well established in the wifi market including installs on ferries and trains amongst their clients.

 

[Nerm]

Not done any of their training but have been using their wireless products for years. We don't currently use much of their stuff in our WISP as it is mostly powered by Mikrotik and Cambium (used to be Motorola Canopy). Mostly use their stuff for business client wireless solutions and have been very impressed.

And then they scale all the way up to large carrier grade wireless..point to point, WISP, big enterprise stuff that ISPs use. Competition like Motorola Canopy and Cisco. I'm hoping to get more familiar with some of that stuff, I have 2x projects I'm trying to scratch up with a senior Comcast engineer.....blanket a large retirement/assisted living community with wireless (a neighborhood of about 30 homes). And...provide an alternative, higher performance internet connection to an island 8 miles offshore...better than their local DSL which is poor.

In the carrier grade a huge competitor of theirs is Mikrotik. Cisco isn't actually that big of a player in the WISP community except for hardwired backbone solutions.

btw, if you need someone to bounce idea's off for your projects let me know. Would be more than happy to help.

Just a bit of feedback on this course. I found the course very intensive and fast moving. There were 11 other people all with Ubiquiti experience so I was at a bit of disadvantage I think. My networking skills are good(I did ccna years ago) and I ran a couple of courses on networking for consultants at my old company. Wireless is a whole new ball game with lots of calculations etc. I've being doing home wireless for a few years with no real issues. I think the course could have done with being another day and a bit more time on each section. Anyway at the end of the second day we were meant to do the exam but for some reason the online exam didn't work. Yesterday I had to do the exam online and somehow managed to pass! I didn't find it easy at all with 50 questions in 60 minutes with quite a lot them multiple choice/multiple selection. I might do the Airmax course next and then really starting pushing out in that direction, everyone needs to be connected these days and with data caps on 3G and 4G it's going to be needed for a long while. It was interesting talking to others on the course who are quite well established in the wifi market including installs on ferries and trains amongst their clients.

Yes, wireless is a new ball game indeed. I thought I knew networking until I started doing wireless work and then my knowledge increased tenfold just trying to figure wireless out lol.

Did you get any kind of Ubiquiti certification or recognition for taking the exam after the training?

 

[Martyn]

Did you get any kind of Ubiquiti certification or recognition for taking the exam after the training?

Yes I think it's Ubiquiti Unifi Certified Admin

http://www.msdist.co.uk/product_Ubiquiti-UniFi-Certified-Admin-Training-1.php

I really wanted to get hands on more than certification. We did do a fair amount of hands on. I have bought 3 Unifi aps and a POE switch so I'm going to set it up in the house to reinforce my knowledge. It was good doing a bit of networking with others in the evening but the company divided us all up so they had company representatives around the dinner table making it difficult to talk to other course participators. I think the course would've been better with an extra day. Things moved very quickly onwards while still trying to understand fully the section you were on.

 

[Martyn]

Just got this email:

Afternoon,

Congratulations on passing your Ubiquiti exam.

Just to keep you informed in regards to your Certificate and T-Shirt, Ubiquiti should send these to us at MS Dist in about 6 weeks times, we will then be able to despatch them on to you with your free complementary UniFi UAP.

That course cost me £250 but besides the course that paid for a night in a decent hotel, all meals for two days and a Unifi AP worth about £60 so all in all not bad value.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

In the carrier grade a huge competitor of theirs is Mikrotik.

Never seen "big stuff" from them....just looked at their site..where do they hide it?

 

[hmig89]

Well done Martyn

Just got this email:

Afternoon,

Congratulations on passing your Ubiquiti exam.

Just to keep you informed in regards to your Certificate and T-Shirt, Ubiquiti should send these to us at MS Dist in about 6 weeks times, we will then be able to despatch them on to you with your free complementary UniFi UAP.

That course cost me £250 but besides the course that paid for a night in a decent hotel, all meals for two days and a Unifi AP worth about £60 so all in all not bad value.

Well done Martyn.

 

[Nerm]

Never seen "big stuff" from them....just looked at their site..where do they hide it?

Their website sucks in all honesty. You would get better product information from a distributor website like streakwave or double radius for example. Not sure what you mean by "big stuff" but they have been a major player in the WISP community for quite some time especially for wireless backhauls, etc. Also their Cloud Core routers are very powerful and can handle running even very large WISP/Enterprise level network environments. Even their less expensive products like RB7xx and RB9xx lines pack a lot of bang for the buck.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Their website sucks in all honesty. You would get better product information from a distributor website like streakwave or double radius for example. Not sure what you mean by "big stuff" but they have been a major player in the WISP community for quite some time especially for wireless backhauls, etc. .

I mean like if an ISP were to provide major bandwidth to an offshore island...something that'll blast a gig over 25 or 50 miles. I didn't recall Mikrotik being in this playing field. I've seen their smaller point to point / CAN stuff....like smaller Moto Canopy like stuff. I tend to use mis-use the term carrier grade to be more major ISP stuff. I'm not knocking Mikrotik...I've seen and used their stuff going back many years ago and they have good products.

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

Congrats martyn,

Glad to hear course was worthwhile. I keep meaning to find time to do it but hearing was good makes me think should make the effort.

 

[Martyn]

Congrats martyn,

Glad to hear course was worthwhile. I keep meaning to find time to do it but hearing was good makes me think should make the effort.

There was quite a lot of theory and calculations and I think more time would have been better. The person next to me on the left who has been installing them for three years walked out as he found the course too difficult. The instructor persuaded him to come back in! I've emailed them back to ask how many passed(without names) out of interest. Someone said in the US there was a 33% failure rate on the exam. Quite a few 'select all that apply' questions.

 

[Nerm]

I mean like if an ISP were to provide major bandwidth to an offshore island...something that'll blast a gig over 25 or 50 miles. I didn't recall Mikrotik being in this playing field. I've seen their smaller point to point / CAN stuff....like smaller Moto Canopy like stuff. I tend to use mis-use the term carrier grade to be more major ISP stuff. I'm not knocking Mikrotik...I've seen and used their stuff going back many years ago and they have good products.

Ah I gotcha! Yes you are correct Mikrotik doesn't have anything to compete with say Ubiquiti's AirFiber for example. They are big in WISP because they are inexpensive and extremely reliable. A true gig throughput at 50 miles though? I don't know of anything capable of that without going licensed spectrum. Even AirFiber from Ubiquiti can only do gig throughput for 8-10 miles and by the time you factor in overhead, etc the actual real world throughput is only going to be about 700Mbps.

Martyn,

With that price including a hotel stay and food that isn't a bad value at all.

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

There was quite a lot of theory and calculations and I think more time would have been better. The person next to me on the left who has been installing them for three years walked out as he found the course too difficult. The instructor persuaded him to come back in! I've emailed them back to ask how many passed(without names) out of interest. Someone said in the US there was a 33% failure rate on the exam. Quite a few 'select all that apply' questions.

Darn I detest those all that apply questions. plus point on the exam being challenging atleast won't be many around you with the cert.