Ubiquiti Unifi Ap-AC Long Range - Wireless Access Point - 802.11 B/A/G/n/AC (UAP-AC-LR-US),White

I purchased the Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR Networks Enterprise Wi-Fi System because I was tired of intermittent problems, poor range, and crappy interface of my existing wireless solution. Now, don't get me wrong, I had a very nice Buffalo AirStation HighPower N600 Gigabit Dual Band Open Source DD-WRT Wireless Router (WZR-600DHP). It's truly a fantastic router, but even the best router and wifi unit can't compare to separate units. Here's the simple truth... routing network traffic is hard work that requires some pretty clever firmware to function properly. If you have to take that firmware and join it together with an access point (wifi) and rewrite the firmware to accommodate everything, it just isn't easy to get it to work perfectly all the time. That's why some of the worst reviews on wireless devices are the Cable Modem/Router/Wifi AP all in one single unit. They get really hot, they have terrible reliability and they are kind of expensive typically too. SO, after a co-worker purchased the Ubiquity UAP-AC-PRO (he bought the Pro version) and started raving about incredible coverage, never dropping out, not having to be rebooted, etc etc etc... I thought it was too good to be true but was curious enough to see it for myself. After minimal research I learned that my existing wifi router would typically be much more reliable as JUST a router once I turned off the wifi output. So all I had to do was plug the ubiquity UAP-AC-LR into an open port on the back of my buffalo router and connect to it with my computer. Now, my computer is plugged directly into the router that my Ubiquity AP is plugged into so the two devices can talk to one another. I downloaded and installed the management software and searched for devices. It found the Ubiquity device quickly and gave me some options to configure a guest network, setup security, etc... At this point, I am working in a basement. I have not mounted the Ubiquity on the wall yet, and just set it on top of a speaker to do my configuration. All of five minutes later it was ready to use so I checked my phone, saw it, connected to it with the key I created a minute ago, and got straight on the internet. No issues whatsoever. I then went upstairs to test the range a little bit. I got full signal strength in my living room (2200 sq-ft house by the way) and then proceeded upstairs to do more testing. Even in the farthest spot away from the router I had one bar less than full signal strength and was still pulling amazing download speeds. The next day I downloaded a wifi-scanner app so I could test the range even more and I put the Ubiquity AP on the wall in my basement. For the first time ever, I have full wifi signal in my SHED in the farthest corner of my back yard on a 1/2 acre lot! That was a HUGE milestone for me. I didn't stop there however... I then went walking up the street watching the signals appearing and disappearing of all of my neighbor's networks and even two houses up the street I still had signal. It wasn't much by this point, but my goodness... for a single access point mounted in my basement I think that is nothing short of outstanding! After my verbal praise to people around me my dad bought one for his house and I just heard yesterday that another friend bought one for his house too. Seriously, if you have unreliable wifi or signal that doesn't go as far as you think it should you absolutely positively need to try the Ubiquity UAP-AC-LR. Good luck!! Please let me know if my review was helpful. Sorry it was so lengthy, but I am pretty excited about this thing in case you can't tell.

While this product is target towards businesses and networking consultants it works great for home environments like mine. This review is firmly aimed at home users like me who do not work in networking. I grew frustrated with flaky and spotty WiFi in my two story home and had finally had enough and looked for solution. I had read about the Ubiquiti access points on ArsTechnica.com but also compared it to other access points and wifi routers on the market before pulling the trigger. So far I am quite pleased with the performance. With the UAP-AC-LR mounted on the ceiling on the second floor, I have 4-5 bar wifi through out my 2400 sq feet home. Setup was rather simple, although I did download their management software, UniFi (using an Android or iOS app is also an option) : (1) choose a network name (SSID) and password & (2) choose a user name and password & supply email address. I choose to run a RF scan to see how busy the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands are in my area and to turn on band steering so that devices will prefer the faster 5Ghz band, but that is completely optional. I can now surf with an iPad in bed and not loose internet connectivity! The management interface exposes many more options and data, but I have not yet done any other tweaking. I ran the third party firmware DD-WRT on my previous wireless router, but UniFi exposes a different, if partially overlapping, set of advanced options. I will say the UI is attractive, but I have not yet learned my way around yet. UniFi is capable of managing dozens or hundreds of devices across many different locations. Obviously a home user with one or a few (for very large homes) in one place will not stress UniFi at all. I did disable WiFi on my old router so as to not compete for precious RF space with the new AP and it is critical to note that this unit is just an Access Point (AP) it does not act as a modem, router or firewall. But if you like me are happy with your existing router/firewall but found the WiFi irksome this is a great and cost effective way of achieving wireless bliss.

*UPDATE* After being installed for a while now, I am amazed at the quality of my network with just this one simple upgrade. Our range is far better than with any other router we've tried. Our connection is solid and consistent. I *most* happy about the streaming speed- with my previous router, I would get somewhat frequent buffering on my FireTV while watching live streams on DirecTVNOW. With this new router, it hast not buffered ONE TIME while watching! No other changes were made to my network; same service, same speed, exact same location for the router, and same location for the FireTV. Simply amazed at the quality of this product, especially for the PRICE! After seeing these in action at our business, I was amazed at the features and functionality and just had to order one for my home network. I've spent years juggling between home network routers bought at different electronics stores- most of them would work OK for a bit, then start to run into issues, or the speed wasn't the greatest, or they didn't put out the range that was advertised, etc... It seemed that the "quality" routers would be well into the 100's of dollars, and the less expensive ones would be less-than-stellar. I have 3 bedroom home with 3 levels. I would find that I frequently had 1 or 2 bars (out of 3) for Wifi reception on my phone. While I would still be connected, the speed wouldn't be the greatest. Additionally, we have a 16x24 studio building that sits about 100 feet from our house that we frequently need wifi in as well. We would bounce between no wifi and 1 bar of reception out there with my previous set up. I bought this long range access point with the hope that it would cover my whole house sufficiently, as well as provide usable wifi reception out at the studio. After initial set up (not as difficult as others make it seem), I've been thrilled at the quality of my network, in terms of coverage, uptime, and speed. The set up does require a bit more knowledge than your typical consumer router, but Ubiquiti has created a "wizard" that walks you through a few different setup options to have your network up and running in minutes. Once set up, our network has been working flawlessly since! I love that this comes with a PoE injector- no more hassle in having to find a mounting location with a wall outlet near it! The power comes in over the ethernet cable. We have this sitting on a 1/2 wall ledge at the front of our home on the main level. I get wifi all throughout the house without any problem, as well as out at the studio, and around the rest of my property. I used to be stuck with my downloaded music when I was out in the yard working or mowing, since I would lose wifi reception so frequently that it wasn't realistic to stream. Now those issues are a thing of the past!

Wow! I wish I had gone to this unit a long time ago. I purchased this Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR to replace a Hawking HW2R1. (We were using the Hawking just to create a WiFi access point out in our warehouse (aka an AP)...we were not trying to use the Hawking as a router.) It was nothing but headache after headache trying to get the HW2R1 to act just as an AP. We had to constantly reboot the setup, and then it was 50/50 whether it would perform as an AP. So, I did some research and decided to instead give the Ubi a try instead. WOW...what a piece of cake!! I hooked up our new Ubi to an existing switch out in our warehouse, then I installed the (free) downloadable software from Ubi to manage the Ubi. Once the software was installed, it quickly found the new Ubi on our network. The whole process was super simple and the Ubi works great!! The software makes it super easy to name your wireless network (aka your SSID), to set up a password for your SSID and to monitor your SSID in tons of cool ways. I just set up the Ubi on the desk by the switch to get things rolling, and already I am quite impressed with the range of our new SSID. Once I get a chance to properly mount the Ubi up on a wall or on the ceiling of the warehouse, I have no doubt that the signal will carry even further. A few reviews said that this unit was not for rookies, but I found it incredibly easy to setup and use. (I'm not a rookie, but not one step would have scared me had I been a complete rookie!) Also, I read that you need to have that software I downloaded from Ubi to be running all the time. As far as I can tell, you have to have the software running ONLY to do the cool monitoring of your new WiFi network, but you DON'T need the software running just for the Ubi to provide the new WiFi network. After having the new situation totally set up, I powered down the PC that had the Ubi software on it. Yet, I still had a great WiFi network out in our warehouse. For some reason I misunderstood something...I kept thinking that I had to have the PC that has the Ubi software on it running 24/7 to have a working WiFi network in our warehouse. I am glad this is not the case, because I didn't really want to have leave that one particular PC on non-stop everyday just to have a working WiFi network. I realize that if the Ubi software is not running, I am not building a history of who is using our WiFi network and how much data they are using (& tons of other neat info like that.) But, that's just fine. If I need to monitor something like that, I will just leave the Ubi software PC on nonstop for a few days or whatever, and then review the data I am interested in. Sorry about the long, rambling review. The bottom line is that the Ubi works great and is really easy to setup. We have a pretty nice (& somewhat costly) Fortinet router/firewall contraption that is in our main office right where the master internet signal comes into our entire facility. It alone does all of the necessary router functions (assigning IP addresses, providing firewall security, etc) that our entire facility needs. So, we don't need (or want) a bunch of additional routers elsewhere in our facility. For everywhere and everything else at our facility, we just need switches and AP's. We used to have additional routers past the Fortigate, but I always ending up needing to shut off their "router" parts to use them just as switches or AP's. Instead of doing all of this stuff the hard way (like we were in the recent past), please just get switches and AP's like the awesome Ubiquiti UAP-AC-LR to do things for you throughout your facility. Do NOT buy tons of cheapie routers and try to use those to create WiFi networks all over different areas of your facility. Some folks might actually need a complicated, multi-router setup to run the network/internet/WiFi setup at their facilities. But, if you just need a simple company network with internet and with WiFi offered in different areas of your facility, go the way I did. Trust me, it makes things SO MUCH SIMPLER and EVERYTHING ENDS UP WORKING THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO WORK! I will not miss pulling my hair out every other day over network and internet and WiFi issues at my workplace. Thank you Ubiquiti!!!

I have been looking for an Ubiquity UniFi AP for a long time at a specific price point. I jumped on it when the price was under $100.00 for the UniFi AP LR. It's an Amazon opened box item, described as "like new." It looks brand new, not even a noticeable scratch & performing great, thus far. I got lucky! Here's the bad... I have a relatively complex home network that has many subnets combined with switches from different manufacturers. I'm no IT professional. I'm just a regular Joe that likes to tinker around with technology. I use pfSense as my home router running in a repurposed HP workstation. My old AP's were running third-party firmware, Gargoyle. My relatively large house is also wired for ethernet, Cat-6. My old AP's were running fine. I upgraded out of curiosity because I hear so much great things about UniFi AP's. I was only going to upgrade only if the price was reasonable since there was no pressing need to upgrade my stable network. I was using three AP's to cover my house. Now, with the UniFi LR, I only need just one to do the job. This thing is phenomenal compared to my old AP's, tpLink Archer C7 & two generic tplink clones. It took me approximately 12 hours to set it up despite watching several YouTube videos. In my humble opinion, most of the YouTube videos are misleading because most of them only use Ubiquity equipment for everything. It looks so easy to setup when you watch those videos. Yes, if you're only using Ubiquity equipment only. My network is composed of equipment from different manufacturers that must be configured properly to play nice with others. I had to configure my D-link 16-port managed switch. I had to configure certain ports to "trunk" mode after trial and error for the UniFi vlans to work properly. This is contrary to what the YouTube videos say. I had to also configure Vlan setup in the tplink managed switch to allow UniFi traffic. I have been told many times if the router & device are vlan aware, the switch doesn't have to be configured, which is false in my case. To use my stand-alone Cuty PoE switch, I had to add a second uplink cable & tagged the appropriate ports for UniFi to work. More frustration... Initially, I had trouble installing the controller software. It kept requesting a password despite the fact that it was my initial setup. I tried the default password, thinking it was "ubnt" without success. The password "ubnt" is for SSH. It turns out you have to disable "remote access & use your Ubiquity account for local access " before you'll see the prompt to create new password. It's confusing because it's not intuitive until you go to the next page. I was a little flustered with that temporary user experience, which is unnecessary. It's just poor software implementation. My goal is to transition the controller software to Raspberry Pi when available on Amazon. The controller software has a plethora of information...so much to digest. I love it. Despite my initial horrible experience setting up the UniFi AP, it was worth it at the end because I got a great piece of hardware that has met all my expectations, thus far, at a competitive price.

I want to caveat what will be a glowing review with this comment. I am a true computer nerd and former systems admin, so playing with this type of hardware is more fun than anything else. With that being said, this is hands down the easiest business/enterprise level device I have ever used, and people with a basic understanding of how their home networks work can absolutely use this. Like many, I heard about the Ubiquiti line of products from an Ars Technica post a few months back. I have been searching for a way to ensure solid wifi coverage across my 3-story home (about 3,000 sq. ft.) since my Asus Dark Knight wireless signal has slowly been getting worse (honestly, it was never that good). I wasn't sold on the Eero or Luma because backhaul is handled via wireless, and there's also the issue that it costs $500 for the setup. Considering how much equipment I have, dropping $500 to duplicate functionality of some of my gear just didn't seem worthwhile. The plan was to turn off the wireless on my router, install one of these puppies, and see how many more I might need. Worst case I would drop $300 to put one on each floor of the house, saving me $200 over the Eero. It helps immensely that I have ethernet running to key places in the house that makes a hardwired setup on each floor possible. Setup for the unit took literally five minutes. I used the power over ethernet (PoE) injector, and it should be noted for folks that familiar with these types of devices you will need two ethernet cables if you don't use PoE. One cable goes from your network jack/switch to the PoE power unit, and the second then goes to the AP. I downloaded the UniFi controller software, and it found the AP with no issues. I went through the guided setup setting my SSID and password, and then logged into the controller interface. There are a plethora of options, and I suggest playing around with things like the RF environment scan, 5G steering and so on, but the main thing I wanted to do was shut off the internal DHCP server. By the time that was done and the controller refreshed, 11 devices throughout the house had connected flawlessly. The real surprising factor was the coverage throughout the house. Again, I'm trying to get coverage through a 3-floor house with a finished basement, so I figured I would need at least 2 - 1 on the main floor and one in the basement. Nope! With the single device I have solid signal in every corner of my house, including the deepest, darkest recesses of my basement and the furthest point in my second floor in my tile bathroom. I do have a relatively open floorpan, but the fact that a $100 device covers my entire house was mind blowing. The only real downside to the device is if you want to use some of the more robust enterprise-style features, like a guest portal, you need to have the controller running on a server. However, I don't think this is much of an issue for most users. Some other devices have one-time guest codes and other control mechanisms for when people come to visit, but honestly, I don't understand the need for them. If a friend is over the house and wants to use my wifi, what do I care if he has access to it any time he's at the house? Generating a one-time code every time seems to be more in the realm of, "I'll trust you now, but later I'm not too sure." If I notice my friends sitting in the driveway of my house at 3am trying to use my network there are probably much larger issues going on than them just stealing my wifi. From the computer nerd perspective this device is incredibly easy to setup. The only actual setting I needed to change was turning off the DHCP server. Other than that it's basically plug and play. There are obviously a bunch of other features, and the controller UI is pretty slick, but for what I needed, which was a replacement for the dying wireless on my Asus router, this more than fit the bill at 1/5th the cost of an Eero.

This is a 802.11ac/n Wireless Access Point. It is used to provide Wifi in a home or office. Unlike older versions of this product, this one supports both 2.4 Ghz and 5.8 Ghz. The unit is aesthetically beautiful, and could easily pass for a high end smoke detector. It includes a single LED Ring light that shows whether the unit is offline or online, and can be mounted on the wall or on the ceiling. The LED can be disabled if you need to. Power is delivered to the unit using the Ethernet cable, and a Power Over Ethernet Injector is included in the box. I've tested a number of Wifi access points and routers over the years from Linksys and Netgear, and this is, by far, my favorite. Here's why: 1. Range: The range on these things is incredible. With Linksys and Netgear APs, I'd have trouble covering my whole house. This covers my entire house on LOW POWER. 2. Adjustable Power: You can adjust the power level from 6db through 23db. 3. Linking: You can buy and link as many of these devices as you want. There's no limit to the number of AP's that can be linked via Ethernet cable. On top of that, each Unifi that is plugged into Ethernet can be extended by FOUR Unifis that are not plugged into an Ethernet cable, by wirelessly repeating the signal. 4. More Linking: In addition, a Unifi that is linked wirelessly can also have its ethernet port be used to extend your network via wires. Theoretically, you could plug in another Unifi to the Wired port, add it to your network and then link up to four more to that new Unifi wirelessly, and carry on the chain forever. 5. Easy to configure: To configure, you have to install a Windows program that you can download from Ubiquiti's web-site. When you run the software, it starts a web-server on your computer, and you then use your internet browser to access the configuration screen. The server will detect every Unifi that is plugged into your network and automatically configure them to operate using the same SSID and security settings, and to select the best channel for their location. You can then manually override any settings if you like on a system-wide basis or a per unit basis. If you want to configure a Unifi for wireless linking, you have to plug it in via ethernet first and adopt it, and then unplug it from the ethernet connection and wait until it goes into Isolated Mode, and then you can link wirelessly it to one of the units that are plugged in to your ethernet connection. There's a video on Ubiquiti's web-site that explains everything. Just Google "Unifi FAQ" and you'll find the page that links to it. 6. Support for advanced features: Among other things, the Unifi software allows you to configure a Guest Network that is isolated from your own network. It can use its own network name (SSID) and its own security settings/password. Users who connect to it won't be able to connect to any of your internal devices. There is also a whole host of tools to allow you to monitor who is using your network, for how long, with how much data, etc., and you can block specific users as well. Once you configure the above features, you can shut down the server software, and the units will continue operating without the need for a server. You can also create a captive portal for guests, so that they have to enter a password or accept terms and conditions. However, for this to work, you have to leave the Unifi server software running on a Windows Computer 24/7. 7. Remote management: Using a special tool that comes with the server software (called the inform tool), you can set a Unifi to get its configuration information from a remote Unifi server. This will allow you to manage a fleet of Unifi units over the internet. 8. Disable "Uplink Connectivity Monitor": If you're using this at home, you'll want to disable "Uplink Connectivity Monitor," which you reach using Settings -> Site -> Services. This feature will turn off the Wifi whenever the internet is down, which is useful if you run an internet cafe, but undesireable if you're using Wifi to connect to your home network.. --- The only trouble that I had setting up the unit related to Windows Firewall. The current version of the software fails to properly configure the Windows Firewall to allow the server to access the Unifi units residing on a network which you have labelled as "Private" in Windows Firewall. You can resolve this problem by going to the control panel in Window, selecting "Windows Firewall," clicking on "Allow a Program or feature through Windows Firewall," and then finding the entry for the Ubiquiti software and enabling it on a Private and Public Network. You might also need to do the same for Java. Or you can disable Windows Firewall while you're configuring and then enable it later.

Bought one of these after hearing about them on Ars Technica a little while back. Couldn't be happier. This is replacing a DIR-655 router (the wifi portion, at least, got one of their EdgeRouter Lites to replace the router portion), and a DAP-1522 access point that was dying. I have this thing temporarily setup on top of a box, pointing to the sky on my second story, and have max wifi signal strength according to my iPhone in every room of the house. I could not get the desktop controller software to work on my Windows computer. I have another device using port 8080, and even after creating my own system.properties file with different ports, it still could not locate the AP. So thought I'd search the App Store, and what do you know, they had an iPhone app, so gave that a go, and was able to get it configured basically for my needs. Very happy with all my Ubiquiti equipment, the forums are great for getting up and running if you struggle with advanced setup. Update (07/12/16): Well, initially I was pretty happy with this AP, but with the last several firmware updates (stupid me), it seems like I have to continually reboot the thing to get it working again. I have to do this about once a day. Nothing on my network has changed, I've even reset the thing back to default settings and started over with no luck. Really disappointed, as it was rock solid with the original firmware, I should have known not to update it... Update (08/17/16): Ok, so I think I am attributing my daily reboot do to device temperature. This was initially installed in a non-HVAC controlled room (mechanical room, if you will), which in the summer, reaches temps probably somewhere near 100-105 deg F. Normally, I would not consider this to be a problem for most electronics, as most electronics should be capable of operating up to 60-70 deg C with no issues. However, this little guy does generate quite a bit of heat on it's own, so perhaps this ambient temperature was enough to push it beyond it's limits, and shut itself down. Over the weekend, I installed the unit in the ceiling of my first floor pantry (WAF = 100% approval), so that it would be in air conditioned space. This was on Sunday, and today is Wednesday, and I have no longer had to reboot the AP since. I'll give it my original rating, until I encounter further problems. Currently I am on firmware v3.7.5. Update (12/23/21): I think this unit is dying. While I won’t rate it a 1 star, I do feel like this should have lasted longer than almost 6 years, maybe not. Unit needs a reboot between once a day to once a week. Frustrating. Update (01/03/22): Unit not dying, must have been a bad firmware update. Recent firmware seems to have fixed it, only I decided to move on from this unit, and ordered a new U6-LR, and installed it tonight. Wow, didn’t think these could get much better, but it has. The new unit reaches further, and seems faster from initial testing. So impressed with these products. Just watch out for the firmware updates sometimes.