We need these alternative devices to keep companies like Ubiquiti from raising their prices, slowing innovation, not stocking products. Ubiquiti needs to pay attention to their up and coming competitors.
I think it is very important to acknowledge that the developers are extremely willing to hear all ideas and are actively developing a lot. Their forum is busy with ideas and feedback. I am very impressed with their interaction and what they are trying to do.
To be fair; they have to. They are outsourcing R & D and are a small company who needs the goodwill. The problem is; if they go away, how will one use their product when their cloud is gone?
Ubiquiti prices have become stupid in the last few years so glad to see some competition in the market. A local hosted controller IS a must though so hopefully this will be available in the not too distant future.
Mikrotik could do that 10 years ago. Ruckus did it with DPSK Cambium did it with EPSK Engenius does it on its current WAPs if you use the cloud version.
A cloud only UI wont help you if they go belly-up or discontinue the product down the road. If they are short on cash, they may even put some or all of the features behind a pay-wall. e.g. Some cars require a monthly subscription to have functional, heated seats.
I am only half way through the video, and I love that their interface & features seem to be answering the question "What do admins typically have to do?" The same SSID, but filtering uses by password is genius! I also love the ease that this allows you to control each device. This is really neat!
It's good to see there's competition! I love Ubiquiti, but there needs to be more players in the same price range to keep things interesting. The multi-password implementation is really cool! I'd love to see that come to other APs too. Less-polished software is acceptable for a young product/company. That is pretty easy to update in the future. The lack of local control is concerning though, and will keep me from purchasing just yet. No hardware company should need to store my AP passwords or log my network traffic. I get that providing a service is easier for them than providing a server application, but this just isn't something that NEEDS to be cloud-based. I look forward to see what else comes from this company - especially after they offer local control.
I like the way the TP-Link does it where you can use the device with a local web server and if you want to then you can add it to the cloud management or the local controller.
Heatsink that goes in the insulated by the surface and AP space? Cloud-only? Nah, thanks. Glad to hear that on-prem is in the roadmap and we'll talk business when it appears. Totally with you on the gigabit NIC, this is getting outdated.
Some of the Alta labs developers/staff, what have you, are ol'ubiquiti staff. I'd say both companies are great in their field and what they do. Alta being so new to the market is worth taking note of though. Actually getting one of these pros on monday so this was very interesting to watch!
As always, an excllent and informative video. A few thoughts: 1. I'm fine with having just cloud management, because I've pretty much stopped doing new Ubiquiti and TP-Link installations with local computer-based controllers. I've had too much trouble maintaining remote access to the controllers, and too many problems with clients unplugging, misplacing or even throwing out the controller PCs except on the rare occasion that I can install the controller on a file server. A cloud controller can be placed in the network rack where the client usually doesn't poke around. It's also annoying when I have a mixed environment (which usually happens when UniFi has the access points I need for a particular installation, but I end up installing TP-Link Omada managed switches and router because Ubiquiti has ongoing stock shortages) and need to have two controllers. The UniFi and Omada controllers are incompatible with each other, so you either have to run one at a time or have two controller PCs. I won't mix access points from different SDN brands because I they won't hand off wi-fi clients to one another, and my clients buy these systems for the roaming feature, among other things. What this space really needs is fully interoperable SDN equipment so you could mix and match components to best meet your clients' needs, but there is little incentive for the component manufacturers to cooperate in such a project. 2. Alta's lack of components other than indoor WAPs (where I live, at least, an IP54 rating isn't sufficient for an outdoor access point, as we get strong winds and winter weather) is a dealbreaker for me. If their WAPs were significantly less expensive than UniFi and TP-Link, I could consider them for clients who are unlikely to ever need anything other than indoor access points. But Alta's prices are about the same, so buying their equipment just means getting less versatility for the same money. Still, a new player in the space is always exciting, and it does look like Alta is off to a good start. I'm looking forward to hearing more as you see how the Alta WAPs perform over time, and if and when Alta introduces more products.
TP-Link Omada also has an multi password on a single SSID, with the possibility to assign different password entry's to different vlan's. PPSK is what is called. But looks good that Alta's!
They definitely have great potential and the speed and range of that AP is super impressive. But, I will absolutely never buy a product that relies on the cloud to function for security reasons and if the company goes out of business, my purchases will likely become paperweights.
Their website states that the AP6 is 1024 QAM and AP6 Pro is 4096QAM. I'll keep an eye on these, I like all the features. When they will support local management I'll grab 2.
Yeah, the website tricks you into thinking both have 4096, but on 1:43, it says one is 'available' and one is 'not-available', very misleading. Even fooled crosstalk into saying 'both are', when they aren't
The primary WiFi engineer at Ubiquiti for several years recently left the company and is now heading up the engineering for Alta Labs. The reason Unifi's WiFi was good was because of him. I have zero doubt that the products coming from Alta Labs will be even better.
Been using Meraki for conference center wifi for over 10 years. Super solid and has handled anything we throw at it. More problems with other vendors onsite hardware than Meraki cloud....for basic mesh wifi, we like it.
For now, I'm definitely not going to replace my UniFi AP's. They are slightly more expensive, pretty much exactly the same performance, new beta quality (in your words) config software, dual configuration of everything and so on and so on. As it is, I see no reasons at all for switching. Sure, the multi password thing is very cool, but it's not something I need. If they want to beat Ubiquiti with these AP's, they are going to have to do a lot better than just slightly better performance on mobile uploads and range. All this said, I do agree that it's impressive that they are this far with their very first product. Definitely a company to keep an eye on.
Oh, here's the other thing that really bugs me about this company: The AP's are not what I would like to replace in the two UniFi networks I manage. If anything, it should be the UDM's. I keep looking at the pfSense stuff and hating it. But there are many reasons for wanting to get rid of the UDM's and NOT ONE for replacing my access points. That's a gigantic problem in Altas business. Well, there would be one, and that's the same 1gbit nic that Alta did not fix. Ubiquiti has the same absurd 1gbit nics except for their most expensive AP's. So they did actually have an opening for something here, and they failed to take it.
I 100,000% agree with you on the sexy. There are so many products that I cannot use because my customers don't want to look at them. Not everything is made for a barn outside. I've got condos and patios and porches that people want to put some stuff on and it's just disgustingly ugly. Word to your mother!
To be fair, Ubiquiti has had a LOT more equipment in stock lately. The pandemic shortages are easing, for sure. They don't always have *everything* but stock refills are happening a lot faster, too.
Yeah, no local "controller" option is a no-go for me. I absolutely despise cloud-only services and devices. Let's hope they stick to what they are saying about an on-premise dashboard. I also don't see myself transitioning from my Unifi network equipment any time soon. Having said that, I'm glad to see another player with a similar ecosystem. I absolutely love the way Ubiquiti hardware is managed. I'm super hopeful that Alta can be similar in their own way.
Enterprise vendors have had the 'multi-password' feature for awhile. Aerohive called it "private pre-shared key' for example. It involves a RADIUS backend and some funky encryption key manipulation. I don't believe this setup works for WPA3, regardless of vendor. This feature is probably why it's cloud-only at the moment. Extremely useful feature and is often used as a middle ground between normal PSK and 802.1x. Glad to see this feature coming down to the 'prosumer' level since it is so useful.
WPA2-PPSK is now listed in Unifi Network Application EA 7.5.185. This does not work for WPA3 but that standard is still early stages in the client world.
My issue is regarding the cloud only being a new company until a local support desktop configuration manager comes out, I wouldn’t even touch it , reason being web access can go offline if a company shutdowns, second web only can leave you vulnerable to cyber attacks, and given the default of no web access no connection by default is a really bad move , it wouldn’t be the first time service providers are swapped, or down for an outage, if your a wireless only small business for mobile clients there would be merry heck if the financial department or lab team lost connectivity with its servers
wonder the percentage of former Ubiquiti employees that work for Alta and if that is the reason their products are similar and engineered well so quickly.
Without a hosted controller these are a hard pass. Looking for a replacement for ubiquity due to the hints that they were going cloud only and sending telemetry to the company.
The industry moving to more cloud is the problem from the get go. No local is a no go for me. So, I will not even consider using these till local is an option.
Alta Labs are working on local control solutions, so they won’t use the cloud only, you will have a choice. Also their switches are up for pre-order now.
recently came across your channel, great stuff - keep it up! any reviews of home/smb grade wireless bridges that you could recommend? many thanks and keep up the good work
Chris, your video is very good. The only suggestion I would offer is to share that the serial number of the unit would also contain the MAC ADDRESS. Here is response on their forum thread regarding the mac address. Both Tom Lawrence and you don't always share that detail on the products. As this unit is very dependent on the cloud to manage the access point, the mac address is important to make sure the unit is not blocked by any firewall/network router/switch, etc.
The Mult-password feature isn't new. Multiple vendors implemented this features years ago, just look up IPSK, PPSK, DPSK, MyPSK. I want Alta to do well, but didn't want people to walk away thinking Alta was first to roll this feature out.
Great to have another competitor on the field, but cloud-only is really a no-go to me. Cloud management is GREAT, don't take me wrong, but must be an option, not mandatory. Will look again when the on-premises option is available. And that being said, the U6-Pro is cheaper and have better stats on the stats that matters. It's really hard to consider Alta at this VERY time. Maybe in the future ...
As others have mentioned here, Ubiquiti has some serious issues with Apple devices, e.g. iPad Pro. Loosing connection here and there. Unfortunately when configuring the AP to work with iOS devices, they stopp working with Android devices.
The 2.5Gb Ethernet is something I feel all the time looking at network hardware these days. With how long the hardware lasts it makes no sense(imo) to buy much of anything that isn't 2.5g+. Except maybe if all you care about are your Internet speed and are ages away from gigabit speeds.
Its a good review however unless I'm misunderstanding things, there was a statement to the effect re. access points i have control over were turned off. My concern is over measurements using a shared media. Not sure how access points on this media needing airtime can be measured and used to offset/balance any actual results .
Both Crosstalk and Lawrence Systems are claiming to replace Ubiquiti with Alta Labs which just came out with 2 APs, but looking into the video, they are really just testing it. I suspect they got paid a lot by Alta, but this is a sure way loose their reputation.
I specifically said in the video that I wasn't paid by Alta - BUT - they did send me the AP's for free. Same with Tom. Both of our reputations online are worth way more than what any sponsor could pay us, and if we ever do sponsored content, we are extremely clear about it, and also throw up the 'Sponsored by' tag on the video. Your suspicions are wrong. The reason I'm testing out Alta in my own home is because I actually want to TEST it - you can't do that by just setting it up one time...it has to be done over time in a production environment. Any IT professional would know this.
@@CrosstalkSolutions Thanks for your reply. Maybe my suspicion was wrong, but based on your video, there wasn't any strong reason to replace UniFi with Alta. What made you spend so much time replacing all existing APs and do all kinds of testing, just out of curiosity about a new brand just coming out with 2 APs? I was just using my common sense which has been pretty accurate so far. Plus, I saw quite a few youtubers coming out with almost the same titles ("replacing Ubiquiti with Alta") at almost the same time. Is that a coincidence?
@@CrosstalkSolutions sorry but that is what I call sponsored. I have to pay if I wan’t some acces points, and so does anyone else. It is not sponsored if the AP’s go back, and you didn’t mentioned that. So no, this is not unbiased, and yes, there are alternatives to Ubiquity that run on onboard controller: Grandstream, Cisco Small Business and Alcatel Lucent. There is more then Ubiquity to compare and not impressed by the answer from Alta at all.
I think these will be better on smaller jobs where a customer's budget doesn't allow for a UDM and they just want to use their ISP modem/router. You don't have to worry about installing the Unifi controller on a local computer or connecting the APs to a cloud hosted controller. Especially when their 8-port switch comes out. One concern I have is the AP6 that I have gets hot. I've had it sitting and a desk. How much airflow is the heatsink going to get stuck up on the ceiling?
Aa a 30 year senior communications & telecommunications network engineer & Cambium Networks Partner professionally speaking I think I'd be waiting for a bit to see whete this company goes before suggesting this to my clients. No.1 Question What if they are not around for the long haul. (If they "closed up" it would be good bye to thier cloud & all thier hardware No.2 Question What is their after sales service like Professionally speaking im a big fan of waiting 12+ months from when something brand new from a brand new company comes out & they have proven them selves in the field.
I wonder ... Could we just adopt the accesspoints into Ubiquiti, or vice versa? It looks interesting. Local controller is a must though. Until they come with a local controller they are not a Ubiquiti-replacement, let alone a Ubiquiti-killer. And they would need to release those switches too. Agree with you on the NIC, if it's holding back the AP ... Why not add a few more cents and add a 2.5 NIC. Apparently they are cheaping out on the switch NICs too. Sadly. Funny to see that Ubiquiti now has PPSK too.
I like the idea with one wifi network and multiple passwords, however UNIFI can for sure so the same. I would not change my single pane of glass due to this feature or even speed. Back to basics. If I have a high bandwidth consuming client I would never use wifi. I wire as much as possible and only if I have to I use wifi. My wifi devices would not need more than 20mb/s each . I work in IT and when working from home I use RDap or Citrix session (or office 365) due to limitations on these platforms I would never use more than 20mb/s bandwidth. We have clients to the company I work for using UNIFI in there office and they use kb/s. Very rare to see someone use Mb/s For me manage everything in one console is much more important than anything mentioned in this video. I agree it’s a cool feature but if it becomes popular all brands will integrate the new feature
heh, I run local only, plenty of times my internet has been down, but with self local hosting i can still do a lot while internet lines are down. Until then, my ubiquiti will stay put.
No network engineer in their right mind would consider a cloud only network device. Until they have a solution on-premise, these don't exist as far as I'm concerned.
A new player saying local is on the roadmap just means they hope users will eventually forget or not care when it eventually shows up way down the road if it shows up at all.
Not switching unless they are more well known. I tried to Google this access point and the company, and I get results for the ski resort, Altafiber, and this video. 😢😅
I'm all for more competition. UBNT needs someone to keep them in check. But, no on-prem controller for Alta? Hmmmm...not cool. Some IT components need to be local. That said, if Alta is willing to listen to users and give admins the functionality they want, bring it! Nice showing by Alta. Suck it Ubiquiti.
Gotta be honest - these are really not a Ubiquiti killer, and I don't see how they're going to get a foot in the market. 1GbE port, fixed LED colors, cloud only, no complementary devices, higher cost.... all they have going is a nice-ish interface (which is pretty beta) and the single SSID trick. I also don't understand the rollout - if Ubiquiti really is overpriced, they should be making a 'U6 lite' competitor (that does the same at $20 cheaper), or, the AP6 Pro should have a 2.5GbE port, for again, $20 cheaper.
Cloud-controller is fine for me, just really looking forward to replace the switches and router/fw as well... hope it doesn't take that long to release.
I like this interface quite a bit, but not having a router/firewall as part of the system is an issue for me. I know many of you use pfsense or other alternatives to unifi, but one of the biggest benefits of unfi to me is one less interface to log into. Maybe I just need to try it out and see.
I agree - it's tough when there isn't a full ecosystem of managed products in a single interface...I assume that's the direction Alta is heading, and this is their first product, with switches coming next.
It is good seeing new vendors, but they have missed an opportunity. Looking at their devices, they have no USP, for example their switches, and all 1GbE primary with 10GbE uplink, which actually put them in competition with 5-year old products from dozens (if not hundreds) of other vendors and OEM-shippers. If a new vendor wants to a chunk of the market, they need be able to offer something new. or at least desirable over the other players.
@chazprouk yeah, but how does it know it's on YOUR network along with the other AP's, or even if just stand alone, how does it link that AP to the cloud service. If 10 people plug in 10 AP's on 10 different networks, how does it sort it out.
What's with the face glitch @31:45 ~ it looked for a second like there was some overlay. As for the product if they had a router with OpenVPN and or wireguard server, I could start suggesting these if they are available in Australia. We have a gap since the USG3P have been phased out. For wifi do they have any mesh capabilities? In my case at home I have a inwall hd part of my desk and a single power cable running to it. The inwall runs in mesh. We also have some clients that have one meshed unit to extend access to a remote area and this is very common with older buildings
