Hi,
I'm looking for a new router to use first in my new temporary office where it will be connected to a shared fiber connection and will have a small LAN with just 2 work PCs and two servers and possibly a cam or 2. When our new home is built I will move the office to the home and would like to use the same router to connect all the above + tv and a bunch more cams (probably Dahua).
I want all cams to be wired and fed through PoE (proper active 803.af/at, not passive). I also want to put the cams and NVR (hardware or perhaps a dedicated PC with BlueIris) in a separate vlan and only connect to any of them through a VPN (to watch live and recorded video remotely after an alarm for instance) and prevent all cams from connecting to the Internet themselves or to anything in my LAN.
I have always used and liked Draytek routers (in the form of modem/router combos) but they are fairly expensive and as a consequence there are other options that I'm considering such as Ubiquity or perhaps a Fritzbox.
The main thing regarding the Ubiquity stuff is is whether I'll be better off with UniFi series or Edge series routers and switches. I kinda like the idea of the Edge having the entire GUI built-in and accessible throuh HTML, just like my Drayteks, making them relatively self-contained. Any PC or tablet or even smartphone with a web browser will do to manage them.
By contrast it seems the Unify gear must be managed through the UniFi Control software which you must run on a separate device such as a PC and requires Java. The advantage is that supposedly the UniFi stuff is much easier to understand and use as it provides a UniFied view of your entire setup.
As an EE and longtime software developer I'm not afraid to get technical but I'm not a sysadmin and I have no ambitions to become one so even though I'm sure I would be able to manage the Edge stuff I value my time so if UniFi will save me a lot of time it might be a better choice despite the drawbacks I mentioned.
I just downloaded the UniFi instaler from the ubiquity website and wow... it's not even codesigned. I installed it anyway and now I'm getting an error Java Virtual Machine Launcher - A Java Exception has occurred. That sort of stuff is just one of the reasons why I'm not a fan running any Jave based software on my desktop PC.
Ok so this is slowly turning into a rant, appologies for that. After updating Java to the latest version (which I had to do twice as the update failed the first time) I'm now able to start UniFi Controller software but now it says
What's that all about? Yes, port 8080 happens to be in use at the moment on my PC. So after configuring UniFi Controller to use port 8081 instead if finally runs.
So after finally being able to run UniFi Controller, it turns out that you can only push the Launch a Browser to Manage the Network and you still do everything from the browser.
All this makes me wonder why they don't just host the UniFi Controller on the router or something? That would make it a far more convenient solution. It's not like a needs a power CPU to run or anything. They do have something called the UniFi Cloud Key but I'm not sure what the 'cloud' aspect of that means.
Anyway, with no UniFi devices connected there's not much I can learn from this and I can't tell if I will be missing out on something great if I were to use a Edge series routers and switches.
tl;dr
I'm looking for a new router to use first in my new temporary office where it will be connected to a shared fiber connection and will have a small LAN with just 2 work PCs and two servers and possibly a cam or 2. When our new home is built I will move the office to the home and would like to use the same router to connect all the above + tv and a bunch more cams (probably Dahua).
I want all cams to be wired and fed through PoE (proper active 803.af/at, not passive). I also want to put the cams and NVR (hardware or perhaps a dedicated PC with BlueIris) in a separate vlan and only connect to any of them through a VPN (to watch live and recorded video remotely after an alarm for instance) and prevent all cams from connecting to the Internet themselves or to anything in my LAN.
I have always used and liked Draytek routers (in the form of modem/router combos) but they are fairly expensive and as a consequence there are other options that I'm considering such as Ubiquity or perhaps a Fritzbox.
The main thing regarding the Ubiquity stuff is is whether I'll be better off with UniFi series or Edge series routers and switches. I kinda like the idea of the Edge having the entire GUI built-in and accessible throuh HTML, just like my Drayteks, making them relatively self-contained. Any PC or tablet or even smartphone with a web browser will do to manage them.
By contrast it seems the Unify gear must be managed through the UniFi Control software which you must run on a separate device such as a PC and requires Java. The advantage is that supposedly the UniFi stuff is much easier to understand and use as it provides a UniFied view of your entire setup.
As an EE and longtime software developer I'm not afraid to get technical but I'm not a sysadmin and I have no ambitions to become one so even though I'm sure I would be able to manage the Edge stuff I value my time so if UniFi will save me a lot of time it might be a better choice despite the drawbacks I mentioned.
I just downloaded the UniFi instaler from the ubiquity website and wow... it's not even codesigned. I installed it anyway and now I'm getting an error Java Virtual Machine Launcher - A Java Exception has occurred. That sort of stuff is just one of the reasons why I'm not a fan running any Jave based software on my desktop PC.
Ok so this is slowly turning into a rant, appologies for that. After updating Java to the latest version (which I had to do twice as the update failed the first time) I'm now able to start UniFi Controller software but now it says
Initializing UniFi Controller ...
Starting UniFi Controller ...
Port 8080 is used by other programs
Start-up failed.
Starting UniFi Controller ...
Port 8080 is used by other programs
Start-up failed.
What's that all about? Yes, port 8080 happens to be in use at the moment on my PC. So after configuring UniFi Controller to use port 8081 instead if finally runs.
So after finally being able to run UniFi Controller, it turns out that you can only push the Launch a Browser to Manage the Network and you still do everything from the browser.
All this makes me wonder why they don't just host the UniFi Controller on the router or something? That would make it a far more convenient solution. It's not like a needs a power CPU to run or anything. They do have something called the UniFi Cloud Key but I'm not sure what the 'cloud' aspect of that means.
Anyway, with no UniFi devices connected there's not much I can learn from this and I can't tell if I will be missing out on something great if I were to use a Edge series routers and switches.
tl;dr
- Am I a fool to forego the UniFi integrated approach and will I miss out on something great if I go with Edge series stuff instead
- Is the uniFi Cloud Key a good and secure solution if I don't want to have to mess around with setting up a Raspi or PC with Java and still want to use UniFi?
