Crosstalk Solutions

2018-11-13 · open the original ↗

• The nanoHD and UAP-AC-Pro are near-perfect substitutes for each other. The host says a home user will never max out an AC Pro or notice the nanoHD's 4x4 MU-MIMO, though a crowded office might. Even so, he expects Crosstalk to start deploying the nanoHD in place of the AC Pro for its MU-MIMO, smaller size and skins. He did no performance testing here and promises a comparison video later.
• The nanoHD costs about $30 more than the AC Pro. MSRPs are $179 for the nanoHD, $149 for the AC Pro and $349 for the UAP-AC-HD. On Amazon as of November 8 he found $160.99 for the nanoHD, $136.18 for the AC Pro with PoE injector or $125.90 without, and $286.09 for the AC HD.
• Headline throughput is an aggregate across many clients, not per-client speed. Ubiquiti rates the nanoHD at about 1,733 Mbps on 5 GHz, against 1,300 Mbps (3x3 MIMO) for the AC Pro, but the nanoHD has a single Gigabit port where the others have two. On 2.4 GHz the ratings are 300, 450 and 800 Mbps for nanoHD, AC Pro and AC HD; concurrent users are 200+, 200+ and 500+.
• The nanoHD needs 802.3af PoE and is indoor-only. It ships with a 48 V, 0.5 A Gigabit PoE injector, unlike the 24 V passive power of models such as the UAP-Lite. The AC Pro takes 802.3af or 802.3at, the AC HD only 802.3at, and both are rated indoor and outdoor.
• The nanoHD's accessories are its main draw over the AC Pro. They include an adapter bracket fitting existing AC Pro mounts, a recessed low-profile ceiling mount (on the website, possibly not yet shipping), and colour, woodgrain, marble and camouflage skins for places like theatres and restaurants. For high-density areas such as auditoriums the host still adds AC HDs alongside AC Pros.

2018-11-06 · open the original ↗

• The Algo 8180 is both a SIP loud ringer and a paging speaker. It needs two FreePBX extensions, one for ringing and one for paging, and has an external-speaker output, an amplifier output and a dry-contact relay. A button on the back reads out its DHCP address, and the default login is algo. VoIP Supply sent the unit, and the host says Crosstalk has sold "a ton" of them.
• Under chan_sip, the ringer needs its own extension plus Find Me/Follow Me. The host enables Follow Me with ring-all, initial ring time zero and both the phone and ringer extensions listed. He dislikes this because it ties up Follow Me, which you might want for ringing a cell phone.
• PJSIP lets the ringer register as a second endpoint on the phone's extension. Raise the extension's max contacts from the default 1 to 2 and give the Algo the phone's credentials. The Algo supports only one SIP server, so the pager extension must move to PJSIP too, and the server's PJSIP port (5160 on his system, against the default 5060) goes on the SIP domain.
• It is very loud. On the host's meter, a 44 dB room reached 107.6 dB at ring volume 4 of 10 and 123.6 dB at 10. For paging, Algo notes that most tones end in silence, so only the page-notify tone should be used; it also accepts multicast paging, and custom ringtones can be uploaded.
• One unit can ring for up to five extensions, each with its own tone. In a warehouse, that lets staff tell whose phone is ringing from far away. The relay can trip on ring, on page only, or be disabled, and the host believes it is what drives Algo's strobe and colour-light visual alerters.

2018-09-25 · open the original ↗

• Unprotected outdoor components fail within a year. The host's $50 Bluetooth dongle for the Victron BlueSolar 75/15 MPPT charge controller died after a year in a non-weatherproof box, so this rebuild moves everything into a locking 14 x 11 x 5 inch NEMA-rated polycarbonate/ABS pole-mount enclosure on an 8-foot cemented pole. He sized the box with room for a future switch.
• Brandon Yarborough would oversize panels after the Indonesia build. Crosstalk's wireless ISP expert powered each UniFi mesh access point from a 50 W panel for the Castaways TV project, but foliage cut direct sun to 3–4 hours of an expected 12, and the system had outages during the monsoons. In hindsight he would use 75 W or 100 W panels.
• A 100 W monocrystalline panel easily powers one NanoStation. Replacing a 45 W Harbor Freight panel with a Renogy 100 W 12 V panel raised yield from 10–20 Wh to 60–70 Wh a day. With only the NanoStation attached, the controller spent over 50% of each day in float (about 75% on sunny days), and the link never dropped in UNMS over a month of summer.
• The design stays DC throughout to avoid conversion losses. Power runs from the controller's load output through a 12 V-to-24 V boost converter into a gigabit PoE injector, then through a Ubiquiti ETH-SP surge protector grounded to a 4-foot copper rod. A camera can draw 24 V passive PoE from the NanoStation's passthrough port. Brandon says an inverter to 110 V would waste efficiency. Everything is fused, with a 35 Ah 12 V deep-cycle battery. The mount was made for 3-inch pipe, so the thinner pole wobbles.
• Adding a G3 camera exceeds this setup on the Oregon coast. At roughly 150 Wh a day of consumption the panel was maxed out. The NanoStation and UVC G3 ran around the clock for about eight days, then the controller's low-voltage cutoff left them up only 14–16 hours a day (off from about 5–6 a.m. to 4–6 p.m.). The host expects winter to cut that to about a third of the day. He guesses doubling to 200 W plus a second parallel battery might keep it up 24 hours but did not test it, so he removed the camera.

2018-08-04 · open the original ↗

• The Castaways network was a LAN-only Ubiquiti mesh for cameras. Brandon Yarborough, Crosstalk's wireless ISP expert, built it for an ABC survival show (premiering August 7) across seven miles of South Pacific coastline: 100-plus mesh locations, NanoStation backhauls, Rocket M5s with omnis, all on non-AC 5 GHz, static IPs, no DHCP or QoS. Cameras needed only 2–4 Mbps each against an expected 30–40 Mbps mesh; the job was privately funded, with no Ubiquiti involvement.
• Shaded solar, not undersized panels, caused the outages. Brandon sized the 150 W panels and 30 Ah sealed lead-acid batteries for 12 hours of full sun, based on his New Mexico tests, but the crews had hidden gear in trees and mangroves, leaving maybe 20% of rated output. Fixes were moving panels, adding panels at key relays, and swapping generator-charged batteries every few days; next time he would fit 250 W (or two 150 W) panels and twin batteries.
• Tides defeated a directional antenna on the anchored relay raft. Even with three anchors the pontoon swung too far, so it got two omnis on different frequencies. A planned airFiber link of just over 30 miles from an internet-connected island was dropped: towers tall enough to clear earth curvature and the Fresnel zone weren't feasible, and Brandon says tides can cut throughput up to 50% when the zone's lower lobe is blocked.
• The host and Brandon rate UniFi as SMB gear, not enterprise. They cite no switch port security and VPN that needs JSON edits to run site-to-site and client VPN together, which Crosstalk refuses to do, recommending an EdgeRouter X (about $50) instead. For hotels of 500-plus rooms the host would use Ruckus, not UniFi. They also advise against VoIP over wireless links and against UniFi's zero handoff.
• Budget a two-to-three-year access point refresh cycle. The host says moving client sites from a 5.6 to a 5.8 UniFi controller left older single-band UAP Outdoor units end-of-life: still passing traffic but impossible to update or provision, within two to three years of install. He recommends phasing out older equipment on that cycle rather than replacing everything at once.

2018-07-05 · open the original ↗

• 4G LTE routers suit backup, no-wireline sites and vehicles. David, presenting for Crosstalk, says failover still leaves a blip of about a minute but cuts overall downtime, and LTE can be the primary link where only DSL is available, as he sees often in central Pennsylvania. Ambulances, police departments and fleets deploy them for tracking and staff internet. He chose Peplink because he had them in stock and uses them a lot, naming Cradlepoint and MikroTik as alternatives.
• The MAX BR1 Mini is a near-standalone router for vehicles or small homes. Unlike the Enterprise it has built-in Wi-Fi, plus a 12-volt industrial power port, two SIM slots, SMA connectors for GPS, MIMO cellular and Wi-Fi, and a second LAN port usable as a WAN for a one-time fee of about $99. He believes it can also use known Wi-Fi as a WAN to offload the 4G link.
• External omnidirectional antennas mostly just move the signal outside. David says an omni antenna on the building adds little gain beyond getting past the walls, whereas a directional antenna aimed at a tower can materially improve signal; both attach to the router's SMA connectors over coax.
• The MAX BR1 Enterprise targets networks that already have Wi-Fi. It runs LTE-Advanced, pulling up to 300 Mbps down and 50 Mbps up if carrier and plan support it, and has no Wi-Fi, a USB port, a LAN/WAN-switchable port once unlocked, and a 12 V/48 V terminal block. It has more processing power and faster VPN/SpeedFusion; both models do IP passthrough, avoiding the double NAT that breaks VoIP.
• SpeedFusion makes cellular failover seamless where ordinary failover drops. Normal failover blips for 10–30 seconds depending on settings; SpeedFusion bonds VPN tunnels over each WAN to a SpeedFusion Hub (an ISO run on AWS or similar) or another Peplink site, and Peplink's own demo cuts the line mid-VoIP-call unnoticed. Both units also have a web GUI at 192.168.50.1 and InControl 2 cloud management at $30 a year, with serial-number pre-provisioning, GPS tracking and geofence alerts.

2018-06-25 · open the original ↗

• A volunteer-built community WISP aims at neutral, affordable service. Josh Shapiro, CEO and founder of the Community Broadband Project in Los Angeles, says it targets net neutrality, customer privacy and underserved areas stuck on DSL speeds; after about eight months of prep and two to three months of field testing it was in beta with about 50 signups, expecting 50–60 clients roughly two months later. His advice to new WISPs is to befriend other operators.
• Donated sector gear was planned onto a rooftop before testing. Cambium donated all the equipment and sponsored the video. Two ePMP 2000 sectors with smart beamforming antennas on a 17-storey Marina del Rey rooftop were planned in Cambium's LINKPlanner. Cambium's representative said a "90-degree" sector is really 60 degrees at 3 dB roll-off, and stretching it to 120 adds another 3 dB loss. He advised keeping one smart antenna on the shelf and buying more only where it improves a noisy sector.
• The vendor quoted list prices for the whole stack. Cambium's figures were Force 180 $99, Force 200 $129, radomes $19, ePMP 2000 AP about $599, sector antenna $219 and smart beamforming antenna $399. Per sector there is a hard limit of 120 subscribers, but the representative said package mix matters more: typically 10–20 subscribers per AP for 25 Mbps plans, with 30–40 seen.
• The longest links worked, but only marginally. At the Santa Monica Pier, 3.54 miles out and skimming a building, a first speed test gave about 25/9 Mbps. A Force 200 about three miles out link-tested at 74/10 Mbps, and an internet speed test gave 47.49/8.46 Mbps at 24 ms. A parking-structure site 3.5 miles out had an unstable signal, blamed on trees or a building.
• A short throw maxed the radio easily. At 0.3–0.4 miles a Force 200 reached about 65 Mbps down and roughly half that up at −50 dBm. Josh called three miles the worst case and the shorter throw the more common one, and named swaying palm trees as an LA-specific obstacle. The crew said 75/25 down/up frame split is typical, and recommended upgrading subscriber modules before the AP.

2018-06-22 · open the original ↗

• The two new EdgeRouters share the same internals. The ER-4 and ER-6P both have a quad-core 1 GHz CPU, 1 GB DDR3 and 4 GB flash, and Ubiquiti rates both at 3.4 million packets per second. Max power is 13 W for the ER-4 and 16 W for the ER-6P excluding PoE. The host rates both strong for home or small office, possibly medium, though he would pick an EdgeRouter Pro there.
• The larger model is essentially the smaller one plus PoE. The host calls the ER-4 the step up from the EdgeRouter Lite, adding an SFP port, and the ER-6P the bigger brother to the EdgeRouter PoE-5. The ER-6P has five gigabit RJ45 ports plus one SFP (not SFP+), with 24 V passive PoE on all five "from what I understand". The WAN can be the SFP for a fiber handoff.
• Bridging LAN ports costs CPU on these models. Unlike the EdgeRouter X, they have no switch chip, so a bridged LAN is switched in software. The host bridges anyway, arguing that a home or small-office network will be hard-pressed to max the device out.
• Change the factory defaults during the wizard. The router ships at 192.168.1.1 with ubnt/ubnt. The host moves the LAN off the common 192.168.1.x subnet and recommends a new strong-password user instead of ubnt. He resets Ubiquiti's odd default DHCP range, notes DHCP can hand out a UniFi controller address, and upgrades firmware 1.9.8 to 1.10.3 by upload, a roughly two-minute reboot.
• PoE is set per port, in UNMS or the GUI. Choose 24 V (two pair) or 24 V four-pair. The host says most Ubiquiti devices such as NanoStations and cameras want plain two-pair. He warns against enabling it on a port without a known-compatible device, and faults the PoE indicator for sitting on the side rather than at each port.

2018-06-13 · open the original ↗

• This bridge pair suits short point-to-point links. The NanoStation AC is a 5 GHz pair for links to an outbuilding, barn, guest house or remote camera. Ubiquiti rates it at 450 Mbps and up to 15 km, but the host would use other gear at that distance and calls it very good under about five miles.
• The full model justifies its premium over the cheaper variant. List prices are $99 versus $64 for the NanoStation AC Loco. The Loco ships without a PoE injector, takes only 24 V passive PoE and has no second Ethernet port. The full model takes 24 V passive or 802.3af and passes PoE through its secondary port, which the host uses to power a G3 camera.
• Setup runs over a built-in management radio. The UNMS phone app, which replaced uMobile, connects to it to set a static IP and new password. The radio then times out, and the host disables it on startup so the SSID stops broadcasting. He sets one unit to access point PtP and the other to station PtP, using WPA2-AES, firmware WA 8.4.2 and output power cut to 0 dB for the short test.
• The host's measured throughput fell far short of the rating. iperf averaged 165 Mbps outdoors. Realigning, changing channels and widths, adjusting power and clearing brush from the Fresnel zone left it at about 170. The built-in test averaged 213 receive and 154 transmit, peaking at 503 and 232.5 Mbps. Indoors five feet apart it was worse, at 93.6–120 Mbps.
• The host can't explain the shortfall but finds the speed adequate. He suspects long non-outdoor-rated cable runs of about 100 ft and 50–60 ft, or his test method, and asked viewers for examples above 300 Mbps. Even so, he says 170 Mbps sustained is plenty for a remote barn camera and some Wi-Fi.

2018-06-05 · open the original ↗

• This is a very fast bridge pair that needs no configuration. MikroTik's Wireless Wire works in the 60 GHz band and sells for about $140, a figure the host was unsure of, and is rated up to 1 Gbps and 100 m. The two radios come preconfigured, and plugging them in with two laptops on the same subnet just worked. Brandon Yarborough notes 60 GHz is very high-bandwidth but short-range and heavily line-of-sight dependent.
• The host measured near-gigabit throughput across a short link. It hit 850–860 Mbps over about 75 feet, with iperf running between laptops across the link. With the host standing in front of one radio, throughput fell to about 600 and then 500 Mbps. Trees were not tested.
• The host pitches it for temporary or emergency links. He sees it for cases where running a cable is not worth the effort, though he wouldn't trust its rain resistance outdoors long-term. He was told an extra $40 licence turns one unit into point-to-multipoint for up to three receivers, which could share one building's internet across rooftops.

2018-05-23 · open the original ↗

• Which camera wins at night depends on viewing distance. In the host's own overnight test of three variants, the standard UniFi G3 bullet, the G3 with the UVC G3 IR extender, and the G3 Pro, he concluded the extender and the Pro suit subjects further away, while the plain G3 suits close-up views.
• Brighter IR washes out faces close to the camera. On the G3 with the extender, the host was recognizable at about 20–25 feet but within roughly 10 feet his face became "a ghost". The plain G3 barely showed a person at 20–25 feet, yet he was recognizable at about 15 feet, where the extender-equipped camera washed him out.
• The extender-equipped G3 beats the G3 Pro on night-vision value. The host judged their night footage about the same, with the Pro perhaps slightly clearer from its better lens. At about $214 for the G3 plus extender against $299 for the Pro, he found the gap not worth paying for night vision alone; the Pro's advantages are daytime clarity and a wider temperature tolerance.
• The vendor's IR range claims leave the baseline unstated. The extender claims up to 25 m (82 ft), but the host notes the datasheets never say how far the cameras' built-in IR reaches. The extender cost $72.48 on Amazon at recording; fitting it meant forcing out the sun hood with pliers and backing out screws, and it stays dark until "Enable external accessory" is switched on under the camera's Video > Accessories settings in UniFi Video.
• A cheap standalone IR illuminator is the host's proposed next test. He bought one for about $22–24 on Amazon and wants to see whether it outperforms the $72 extender added to a G3 he puts at $140-plus; this is a plan, not a result.

2018-04-02 · open the original ↗

• Cloudflare pitches 1.1.1.1 as a privacy-first alternative to ISP DNS. Launched on 1 April 2018 (not a joke, per Cloudflare's blog), it joins resolvers like Google's 8.8.8.8 and Level 3's 4.2.2.2; Cloudflare cites censorship such as Turkey's 2014 Twitter block, and says it wipes query logs within 24 hours and never writes querying IP addresses to disk. The host calls it far more private than an ISP's resolvers but no substitute for a VPN.
• DNSPerf ranked 1.1.1.1 the fastest public resolver at launch. On DNSPerf's worldwide, last-30-days average it led OpenDNS, Quad9 and Google, with Level 3 outside the top ten. The host cautions it had launched the day before with little traffic, and wants to see where it stands in about six months.
• It supports encrypted DNS lookups from day one. Cloudflare launched with DNS over TLS and DNS over HTTPS, open standards the host notes are not yet widely used but expects to see adopted, since the original DNS standards, about 35 years old, ignored security and privacy.
• Changes to Cloudflare-hosted sites resolve instantly, with no TTL wait. Because the resolver is integrated with Cloudflare's network, an IP change to a Cloudflare-hosted site (or one node of a load-balanced group) needs no time-to-live expiry or propagation, which usually takes up to an hour; across millions of sites the host expects this to matter.
• Use 1.1.1.1 primary and 1.0.0.1 secondary wherever DNS is set. The host enters both as custom upstream servers in Pi-hole (not yet built-in options), notes they can go in the DHCP name server fields of a UniFi network, or be set per adapter under IPv4 in Windows 10; an nslookup of slashdot.org confirmed a quick answer from Cloudflare's resolver, though he did not benchmark it.

2018-03-20 · open the original ↗

• The W56P is a kit of separate base and handset models. The box holds a W56B DECT base and one W56H handset for about $150; each base takes up to five handsets with up to four simultaneous calls, and each handset can be its own extension, share one, or any mix. The host calls it his long-time go-to cordless solution.
• The W56 base is end-of-life; pair the W56H with the W60P instead. The replacement W60 base supports up to eight handsets and eight simultaneous calls and still uses the W56H handset. The host gives the W60P's MSRP as $189 US, with Amazon listing it at $149.50; extra W56H handsets are sold separately on Amazon.
• The W56H trades the W52P's compactness for more range. The host, who has sold the W52P handset in the past, says the older model is smaller but, he believes, does not have quite the same range; the two are priced about the same.
• The handset charger runs off USB, and battery figures are optimistic. The charging cradle's USB power means any USB port will do; he charged it from the front of a Sangoma phone system. Yealink rates the lithium-ion battery at 30 hours talk and 400 hours standby, which the host says he has never seen real-world use match.
• Manual FreePBX setup needs only the account fields and voicemail key. The base takes DHCP by default and its web GUI login is admin/admin; under Account, enable the line, use the extension number for label, display and register names, the FreePBX SIP password, the server's IP and port 5060, then set the voicemail code to *97. The host himself used the FreePBX Endpoint Manager, which does this automatically.

2017-12-19 · open the original ↗

• The edge router was picked for being released, not beta. The host says the firm does not deploy beta hardware at an important customer, so the still-beta USG-XG lost to the EdgeRouter Infinity; the Infinity (eight SFP+ ports, one Gigabit port, redundant PSUs, EdgeOS 1.9.7 hotfix 4) load-balances two Comcast gigabit copper handoffs 50/50 and feeds the switches over 10 Gbps fibre, leaving room for the client's possible 10 Gb upgrade.
• The design buys redundancy by doubling switches rather than consolidating. Under 48 devices would fit one 48-port 750 W switch, but two UniFi Switch 48 500 W units were installed so either can carry everything if the other fails. Twelve UAP-AC-SHD access points (4x4 MU-MIMO, for crowds of hundreds or thousands) are backed by a standard UAP-AC-HD spare in the server room.
• Four SSIDs separate staff, vendors, guests and a resellable event network. Internal office (untagged) and contractor run full speed; the guest network is client-isolated and throttled, first to 2 Mbps, then 1.5 Mbps up and down; a fourth per-client SSID can be renamed per event and sold throttled or unthrottled. EdgeRouter firewall rules built on network groups drop traffic between VLANs, each a /16, while the main LAN sees all but guest.
• UniFi's auto channel selection failed; its auto power setting worked. Auto put every AP on 2.4 GHz channel 1 bar one on channel 11, so channels were set manually on both bands. Power stayed on auto, and David's NetSpot survey (about 20 seconds per sample, occupied rooms skipped) showed coverage good enough that the host saw no need to adjust.
• Slow gigabit speed tests were the test server's fault, not the network's. Wired results of 281 Mbps down and 788 Mbps up persisted even plugged directly into Comcast's equipment; switching from Ookla's speedtest.net to Xfinity's test against a San Jose server gave up to about 717 down and 940 up. Wireless reached roughly 300 Mbps symmetric, which the host assumes is the wireless limit.

2017-10-27 · open the original ↗

• The A8004-VE is expensive but, in the host's view, worth it. He found it on Amazon for $1,091.63, against about $785 for Axis's smaller door station, and links it there as an Amazon affiliate. It has a 720p camera, two relays, four I/O ports, a microSD slot, IP66 and NEMA 4X weather ratings and 802.3af PoE; every Axis device he has tested has been rock-solid and highly configurable.
• Native SIP lets it call FreePBX phones and open doors by DTMF. The host registered it as FreePBX extension 258, rang a Bria softphone (206) and a desk phone (200) at once, and set DTMF code 99 to trigger the door relay for five seconds; the free Axis Companion desktop and iPhone apps can also answer and open the door.
• High-quality video made calls go to voicemail before the picture arrived. At 1280×720 and 30 frames per second the video came through so slowly that a phone rolled to voicemail; dropping to 15 frames per second brought the picture up much faster. The host suspected the quality setting rather than a fault.
• Size storage from Axis Companion's per-camera estimate, plus a buffer. At 720p and 30 frames per second it showed about 1.5 Mbps and 15–30 GB a day of continuous recording; the host multiplies cameras × GB a day × days kept and adds 25–50%. Motion-only recording uses far less, and the paid Axis Camera Station offers more than Companion.
• Tie actions to the relay or tamper switch, not the DTMF code. An audio clip triggered by code 99 did not play when the door was opened from Companion, so the host re-keyed it to fire whenever the relay goes active; a casing-open tamper switch can trigger calls or sounds the same way. He also raised microphone gain 12 dB, lifting the level from about −20 to −8 dB.

2017-09-12 · open the original ↗

• A surge protector shields indoor gear from outdoor-device lightning strikes. The host's example is a PoE-powered NanoStation M5 cabled back to a $200–300 24-port Ubiquiti switch in his office; a strike on the outdoor unit can send a surge down the Ethernet run into the switch. The ETH-SP is an Ethernet pass-through with a ground, so the surge grounds out instead of travelling the cable.
• The ETH-SP is sacrificial and is best deployed in pairs. The host expects the protector itself to be destroyed by a strike while protecting whatever is on its far side. The best case, he says, is one unit close to the outdoor equipment and a second at the other end of the cable near the switch.
• The unit is non-directional and grounds through its single screw. Both ports are marked in/out, so it works like a straight-through coupler either way round. The supplied metal screw and washer either go through that hole into a metal pole or, off a pole, anchor a grounding wire run to an appropriate ground.
• Pole mounting needs a hose clamp and a drilled hole. The host clamps the unit to the pole with a hose (Jubilee) clamp, then drills through the ETH-SP's hole into the pole with a 4.5 mm bit, or 3/16 in. in the US, before driving in the screw. He puts the unit at about $14.

2017-08-04 · open the original ↗

• About 50 watts of panel suffices for one NanoStation. The host runs a 45 W Harbor Freight kit (three 15 W panels, roughly $129–$149) on about 6 hours of sun a day and recommends 50 W or more. He would not buy that kit again, because a plastic support post has already snapped, and suggests two 25 W panels instead. The parts list in the description uses Amazon affiliate links, which he discloses.
• A charge controller with USB output is the key part. Two wires go in from the panel and two out to a single 12 V battery, which sits in a weather-resistant vented battery box. The controller's USB port powers a Ubiquiti airGateway Installer, a USB-powered 24 V passive PoE injector, which feeds the NanoStation. The host notes that alligator clips on the battery are not fit for a permanent install, and says he is new to solar himself.
• Three days in, the battery has spare overnight capacity. It falls from full to about three of five bars each night and recharges in daytime, and the host wants that headroom to last more than 24 hours through cloudy or rainy days. The solar-side link shows -38 dBm signal, 99% airMAX quality and capacity, an estimated 300 Mbps, and 1–2 ms ping over about 50 ft of clear line of sight.
• A week without dropouts will prove the design. The host graphs traffic and ping latency for the solar-side NanoStation in Cacti, running on a Raspberry Pi 2, so an overnight battery failure would show up as a gap. If the link holds for about a week, he will treat panel and battery as sufficient for one NanoStation.
• Adding a camera over PoE passthrough failed. With 24 V passive PoE passthrough enabled on the NanoStation M5's secondary port, a UniFi Video camera rebooted about every 30 seconds. The host suspects the airGateway Installer cannot supply enough power for both devices. Part 2 will report the uptime and test an inverter on the charge controller driving a standard Ubiquiti PoE injector.

2017-07-20 · open the original ↗

• Run the UniFi controller on a dedicated Cloud Key, not a PC. The controller software is free for Mac, Windows and Linux and has to be running to adopt and configure the access points. Because people replace computers every two or three years, the host prefers the Cloud Key, which is the same controller on a PoE-powered stick. He says the video's equipment links are Amazon affiliate links.
• The UAP-AC-Lite is enough for an average home. The host means 1,000–2,500 sq ft with 10–20 Wi-Fi devices, and he ran one centrally placed in his own home for over a year with no coverage problems. Ubiquiti's specs: indoor, 2x2 MIMO on both bands, 300 Mbps at 2.4 GHz and 867 Mbps at 5 GHz, rated to 122 m (about 400 ft) in ideal conditions, powered by 24V passive PoE. The single unit (about $79) includes a PoE injector; the five-pack (about $335) is cheaper per unit but comes without injectors.
• The host thinks the long-range UAP-AC-LR is mostly marketing fluff. Ubiquiti credits an "innovative antenna design" for its 183 m (about 600 ft) rating. The host asks why that design isn't in every model, and points out that a phone's small antenna may see the network at that distance but fail to send data back. He has never deployed one in production. The one use he suggests is a pair of LRs as a wired AP plus a distant repeater.
• The UAP-AC-Pro is the host's default access point for business. It is his best seller, used for offices, restaurants and hotels with roughly 100–150 clients per coverage area; he has used it in hotels by mounting one in the ceiling between rows of rooms. Specs: indoor/outdoor, 3x3 MIMO, 450 Mbps at 2.4 GHz and 1,300 Mbps at 5 GHz, 400 ft range, 802.3af/at PoE. A second, pass-through Ethernet port can feed a switch or camera. He finds the UAP-AC-EDU loudspeaker variant's software not yet usable.
• The UAP-AC-HD suits dense venues, not homes. Ubiquiti rates it at 4x4 MU-MIMO, 800 Mbps at 2.4 GHz and 1,733 Mbps at 5 GHz, on 802.3at PoE+ only. It publishes no range figure; the host assumes it matches the Pro, and says you buy it for throughput. He reserves it for stadiums, auditoriums and theaters with hundreds of devices, or as the wired uplink for a mesh deployment such as a campground. For a home he recommends one or more AC-Pros instead. At recording, the five-pack ($1,475, $295 per unit) cost more than five singles ($293.04 each, with injectors).

2017-06-29 · open the original ↗

• The host calls the Call Recording Reports module essential for recording users. The FreePBX commercial module lists at $99 MSRP; the host says it is a little cheaper on the Crosstalk Solutions web store, which he runs, and that it is also included in the System Builder Plus commercial-module bundle.
• It puts all recordings in one browsable, permissioned interface. Under Reports > Call Recordings, filtered by year and month, each call shows type (inbound, outbound, on-demand), source and destination, timestamp and duration, and can be played in the browser, downloaded as a WAV file or deleted; FreePBX lets you grant access to users who check recordings regularly.
• Its archive feature keeps recordings from filling the PBX disk. An archive limit zips every recording older than a set number of months (the host's is three years) into a Recording Archives tab and emails the administrator, who must log in, download the zip and store it somewhere safe off the server.

2017-06-27 · open the original ↗

• A VoIP door station's relay simply interrupts the door strike's power. The host, who says he is not an electrician, explains that a device such as the Axis A8105 network video door station or a CyberData keypad unit opens a door or gate by closing a circuit when a DTMF code is dialled from the phone that answers its call button.
• Whether a strike locks or unlocks without power decides the wiring. Strikes are rated NO (normally open, unlocked without power) or NC (normally closed, locked without power), and some can be toggled; the host's NC strike stays unlocked only while power is applied, which he demonstrates by touching the red lead on and off.
• Splice the relay's CO and NO/NC contacts into one power lead. He cuts the red wire from a plain wall power adapter, splices it to light doorbell wire running into one relay contact, and runs the other contact back to the strike, leaving the black wire direct; he thinks it does not matter which of the two contacts is used. Disconnect power and PoE before wiring.
• The relay holds the door open only for a short timer. In his demo, dialling 99 (his usual code) unlocks the strike for about seven seconds before it relocks; he says five or seven seconds is typical, and that the same green relay terminal block appears on other CyberData gear such as the SIP paging server, equipment he says he sells to customers regularly.

2017-06-13 · open the original ↗

• The EdgeRouter Lite's weak point is its USB-stick operating system storage. The host, who rates the roughly $91–92 router one of his favourite firewalls, says corruption is not common but not unheard of; the one he recovers was a client's, corrupted in an electrical storm. EdgeOS lives on a removable USB stick inside, reached by removing two case screws.
• Recovery starts from the serial console and a TFTP server. He connects a USB-to-RJ45 console cable (the kind shipped with FreePBX systems), finds its COM port in Device Manager and opens PuTTY at 115200 baud; the three files of Ubiquiti's "last resort recovery" EMRK image go on any TFTP server on the network, in his case his FreePBX system.
• Without DHCP option 66, point U-Boot at the TFTP server by hand. With a cable in eth0, he runs dhcp (or sets a static IP and netmask), then sets the server IP and the EMRK .bin boot file name, runs tftpboot, then bootoctlinux $loadaddr; the documented one-line command works only if DHCP hands out option 66.
• The reinstall must fetch EdgeOS over plain HTTP, not HTTPS. In the recovery software, emrk-reinstall reformats the USB stick and asks for an image URL; he copies the download link for his model from Ubiquiti's site and changes https to http. The download and processing took about 60 seconds before a reboot to a ubnt/ubnt login.
• Protect the router from power events once it is restored. After re-running the setup wizard from the default 192.168.1.1 and moving the LAN off that range, the host recommends a surge protector, battery backup if possible, and the rear grounding screw. He links an Amazon affiliate link for buying one, which he says earns him a referral fee.

2017-05-30 · open the original ↗

• The UAP-AC-HD is Ubiquiti's access point for very dense environments. Against the UAP-AC Pro's 3x3 single-user MIMO (802.11ac Wave 1), the HD has 4x4 multi-user MIMO (Wave 2); the host found the box and the downloaded data sheet disagree on radio rates (800 vs 600 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, 3.4 Gbps vs 1,733 Mbps on 5 GHz), and he could not say which is right.
• Size the HD by Ubiquiti's recommended user limits, not theoretical ones. The HD is rated for 500 users theoretical and 250 recommended, the Pro 200 and 70; MSRP is $349 against $149. The host would put one HD per movie theatre and use HDs in a football stadium, but expects AC Pros to suffice for a hotel. He links Amazon affiliate listings for the units.
• The HD also suits a mesh uplink serving several mesh APs. The host says its 4x4 MU-MIMO can handle several larger mesh access points uplinking wirelessly through it at once, giving far more total throughput than an AC Pro in that role.
• Wave 2 MU-MIMO serves clients simultaneously; Wave 1 serves them in turn. The host's analogy: spatial streams are highway lanes and devices are cars of 1x1 to 4x4 width; under Wave 1, even a 3x3 AP sends to one device at a time, whereas the HD's four lanes can carry, say, four 1x1 phones, two 2x2s, or one 4x4 uplink simultaneously.
• Adoption needed a manual set-inform over SSH to a cloud controller. The discovery tool would not send set-inform to the host's Amazon-hosted controller, so he SSHed in with default ubnt/ubnt credentials and ran set-inform http://<controller>:8080/inform twice. He runs controller 5.4.14 against the latest stable 5.4.16, staying a version or two behind to protect live clients; the HD drew 6.61 W idle, and he did not throughput-test it, lacking dense-client test gear.

2017-04-27 · open the original ↗

• Paging Pro adds features; basic paging is already free. Standard FreePBX lets you create unlimited page groups without the commercial module. The host puts Paging Pro at $95 for a licence covering the whole server, plus, he thinks, annual maintenance of around 10–15% of that price to keep receiving updates, and he judges it good value for what it adds.
• Busy page groups queue pages through valet-style record-then-play paging. The caller records the page and hangs up before it plays, as in noisy airport terminals, which avoids feedback. It can be set to always use valet or only when the page group is already in use, playing the queued page when the current one ends; a page announcement (e.g. "attention everyone") can be prepended.
• Multicast is the module's most important feature. Without it, paging 50 phones means 50 separate calls, which taxes the PBX CPU and can degrade call quality on calls in progress. Multicast sends one stream to an IP address that all the phones listen on, and the host's rule of thumb is to buy Paging Pro once a page group exceeds about 10 phones, depending on server size.
• The scheduler turns the paging system into a school bell. It sets a date range, days of the week, times and excluded dates such as holidays, and plays an announcement file (e.g. a buzzer) at each interval. Standard FreePBX paging does not include it.
• Dialling a chosen outbound route can trigger a page. The example is an emergency route: a 911 call from a warehouse phone goes through while supervisors' phones are paged with an announcement that someone dialled 911. The host says he has never used this feature himself.

2017-04-18 · open the original ↗

• Mesh suits many unwired access points across a large area. The host's example is a stadium with internet at one end and access points dotted around it; a small business usually does fine with a repeater or a standard UniFi access point in isolated mode. A mesh access point wired into the network is just an access point, gaining no mesh capability unless others chain off it.
• The AC Mesh takes external antennas; the AC Mesh Pro does not. Per the boxes, the UAP-AC-M is 2x2 MIMO, 867 Mbps on 5 GHz and 300 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, 183 m (600 ft) range, 802.3af PoE, and accepts any Ubiquiti 5 GHz antenna. The UAP-AC-M-Pro is 3x3 MIMO with the same range, 1,300 plus 450 Mbps, two gigabit ports and a 48 V injector; the host calls its combined "1,750 Mbps" figure misleading for any single device.
• Size the wired uplink access point so it doesn't bottleneck the mesh. His UAP-AC-Pro uplink matches one AC Mesh Pro's 1,300/450 Mbps, which is fine for one but not several. He suggests a UAP-AC-HD (800 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, 1,733 Mbps on 5 GHz) or other antennas, feeding a star of AC Mesh Pros with smaller AC Mesh satellites around them.
• Three wireless hops still delivered about 20 Mbps, which the host deems adequate. He measured 20.8 Mbps on iPerf3 and about 21 Mbps on speedtest.net, through trees at low signal, and calls the results anecdotal. That suits guest Wi-Fi, which he would cap at 2–5 Mbps, or a barn or boathouse; for more bandwidth he recommends a point-to-point bridge, which can do 400–500 Mbps or more.
• Self-healing failover must be switched on; it is off by default. The UniFi setting "enable automatic uplink failover" lets the controller pick a new uplink when one goes offline. When he powered down the AC Mesh Pro, the far AC Mesh went isolated and, after about five minutes, re-linked to the window AC Pro at 17% signal.

2017-04-07 · open the original ↗

• The US-8-60W is a cheap PoE gigabit switch for small deployments. At around $99 it has four standard gigabit ports and four PoE ports sharing a 60 W budget, which the host calls a lot of power for four ports, since by his estimate UniFi access points draw 2–3 W and a standard PoE phone about 5–6 W. The host links it via an Amazon affiliate link.
• Its PoE ports are 802.3af only, with no 24 V passive. Ubiquiti gear powered by 24 V passive, such as NanoStations, some cameras and lower-end access points like the UAP-AC-Lite, needs Ubiquiti's 802.3af-to-24 V passive adapter. The rear also has a grounding point, which the host recommends using.
• Adoption was automatic because the switch shared the controller's network. Otherwise the host says you must find its IP address and run set-inform, or use a Ubiquiti device-discovery tool on the same network. After adoption he upgraded it to firmware 3.7.49 on a 5.4-series UniFi controller running on a Cloud Key.
• The host traced a slow iPerf result to screen-recording overhead. An iPerf3 test to his laptop over a USB 3 network adapter gave about 866 Mbps while he recorded his screen and 941 Mbps without recording, repeatably; he suspects the disk writes from recording and is satisfied the switch delivers gigabit.

2017-02-28 · open the original ↗

• Porting is carrier-to-carrier, and the losing carrier decides. The customer gives the new carrier a letter of authorization (LOA: the numbers, address and company details, plus consent) and usually a copy of the latest bill from the losing carrier; the new carrier submits the port, which the losing carrier accepts or rejects. The host notes that some very small rural carriers cannot port at all, so check that first.
• Losing carriers reject any imperfect request because porting loses them business. The host says they are obliged by law to port numbers but have no incentive to make it easy. In his experience about 75% of port requests are accepted first time, and most of the remaining 25% fail for the reasons below.
• An address mismatch is the most common reason for rejection. The address with the new carrier and on the LOA must match the losing carrier's billing address exactly; "Street" spelled out against "St." is enough to have a port rejected, so copy the address from the old bill.
• Bundles, account numbers and contracts each block a port. Phone service bundled with internet or TV may have to be split into its own account first. Where the main number doubles as the account number, add a temporary number as the account number before porting the rest. Under contract, keep one number with the old carrier until the term ends, and watch for automatic renewal at expiry.
• Ports happen on a set day with no time window. Once accepted, the losing carrier gives the new carrier only a date. The host advises having the new service fully configured beforehand and watching it closely that day so the numbers ring through correctly the moment they move.

2017-02-21 · open the original ↗

• Both ends of a fiber link must match in type, speed and fiber. SFP is 1 Gbps and SFP+ is 10 Gbps; the modules on each side and the patch cable must all be the same speed and the same fiber, single-mode or multimode. LC-to-LC is the standard patch-cable connector. The host demonstrates with 1 Gbps multimode between a UniFi Switch 8 150W and a 24-port EdgeSwitch Lite.
• Installing the link is plug-and-click once the parts match. Remove the rubber stoppers from the modules and switch ports and the white caps from the cable ends; modules fit only one way and click home. In his demo a persistent ping dropped when he pulled the Ethernet cross-connect and resumed as soon as the fiber went in.
• The host used 10Gtek modules only because Ubiquiti's were unobtainable. Ubiquiti's own SFPs had been released but were out of stock when he bought, and he says new Ubiquiti products typically take 2 to 3 months to become widely available. He paid for the 10Gtek modules, says they are not a sponsor, and found them about the cheapest available and reliable.
• Ubiquiti's own SFPs are probably the safest bet for Ubiquiti gear. He has not used them yet but believes they cost about the same as 10Gtek. For other third-party modules he points to Ubiquiti knowledge-base articles and forum posts listing compatible SFPs. His description links to both are Amazon affiliate links.

2017-02-07 · open the original ↗

• The host chose UniFi here for remote manageability, not as a default. The client, a new-build retirement home in Texas, had no local IT person able to manage the gear while he is in Oregon; UniFi lets him make changes himself at any hour instead of arranging remote-desktop sessions with someone on site. Price was about the same as the EdgeSwitch/EdgeRouter line, and he says he still picks per customer need and budget. He would not have trusted UniFi at this size before controller 5.3.8.
• He would now use UniFi fiber switches instead of EdgeSwitch XGs. Each of three closets has an EdgeSwitch 16 XG and two UniFi Switch 48s, with a USG Pro on Comcast Business, 26 UAP-AC Pros and a Cloud Key. The UniFi 16 XG was not supported until controller 5.4.9, still in beta when he ordered, so he used EdgeSwitch XGs with every port a trunk. He was disappointed the USG Pro's SFPs are WAN-only, forcing an Ethernet LAN link.
• The cabling contractor switched to single-mode fiber mid-project. Multimode was unavailable, so the 10 Gbps closet-to-closet links became single-mode while switch-to-XG cross-connects stayed multimode, leaving him with spare modules. Third-party 10Gtek SFP and SFP+ modules worked on every combination, bought because Ubiquiti's were out of stock; he rates Beyondtech patch cables well above his old ones. An iperf test across the single-mode link hit 823–833 Mbps, limited by the 1 Gbps client NICs.
• Three networks separate management, main LAN and guest traffic. Management is the native VLAN 1 on 192.168.1.0/24, reachable only from XG ports and ports 1–2 of each 48-port switch; ports 3–42 put devices untagged on VLAN 10, a 172.16 range far larger than needed with DHCP locked down; the last six ports carry access points, addressed on management and tagging VLAN 10 and guest VLAN 20, which is bandwidth-limited and secured with UniFi guest policies.
• Set access-point channels and transmit power manually in dense deployments. Using the UniFi map of the property's 24 placed APs, the host staggered channels on 2.4 and 5 GHz and set power to medium on 2.4 GHz and high on 5 GHz for good overlap without interference. He estimates the network will serve about 200 devices, up to 300 including Wi-Fi.

2017-01-03 · open the original ↗

• Ordinary page groups don't scale, because each page is many calls. FreePBX opens a separate channel to every device in the group at once, and since setting up a call costs Asterisk far more CPU than keeping one going, FreePBX caps page groups at 40 devices. The host says some lower-end servers cannot handle even 40.
• Multicast paging sends one channel that every device listens to. Asterisk opens a single channel to a multicast IP address and port, and the phones and paging devices subscribed to that address all play it. The host calls it "absolutely the way to go" for large paging deployments such as hospitals, schools and retirement homes.
• Any multicast address works if every device in the group matches. The CyberData paging server defaults to 234.2.1.1 on port 2000, then 234.2.1.2 on port 2002, and so on; Wikipedia lists 234.0.0.0/8 as unicast-prefix-based space and 239.0.0.0/8 as private-use under RFC 2365. The host says he is still learning multicast and asks viewers to correct him.
• FreePBX's built-in page-group multicast needs a newer Asterisk. It requires Asterisk 13 or higher, and on his Asterisk 11 the Page Pro commercial module's RTP multicast option is greyed out. Multicast still works by setting the address in Endpoint Manager phone templates: comma-separated addresses join one phone to several groups, and a Sangoma S500 line key can page a multicast address directly. He tested this with an S500 and a Yealink T23G.
• A self-contained paging server is his pick for hospital-scale paging. The CyberData VoIP V3 paging server registers as one FreePBX extension (251 in his lab). Callers dial it, enter a two-digit zone from 00 to 99 and, optionally, a security code. It also bridges legacy analog paging over RCA line in/out, and has a relay, a night ringer and up to 10 custom audio files.

2016-12-23 · open the original ↗

• Holiday time conditions need updating for this year's observed dates. The host warns that Christmas 2016 is observed on Monday 26 December rather than the 25th, and New Year's Day on 2 January, so FreePBX holiday entries left on the usual dates will not route calls to the holiday destination on the actual days off.
• Put a holiday time condition ahead of normal call routing. In the host's design, inbound calls hit the holiday time condition first: on a match they go to a holiday announcement (then voicemail or hang-up); otherwise they flow on to an extension, the main IVR, or a further business-hours time condition.
• Holidays live in a time group keyed only on dates. Under Applications > Time Groups the host builds one "holidays" group using only month-day and month ranges, ignoring times and weekdays, then points a time condition at it. Because holidays such as Thanksgiving and Labor Day move each year, he sets a calendar reminder for early January to re-enter the whole year's dates once.

2016-12-22 · open the original ↗

• The CyberData SIP paging amplifier makes a loud, simple SIP paging system. The host lists MSRP at about $550 for the amplifier and about $76 for a CyberData horn speaker, adding that nobody pays MSRP. In his own test, without the +4 dB volume boost, a page was clearly audible outdoors at about 30 yards from one horn.
• Power comes only over PoE, and the PoE standard limits horns. The unit has no separate power input, so it needs a PoE switch or injector; it runs one horn on 802.3af and two on 802.3at, and auto-senses which. CyberData's documentation gives a 25-foot maximum per speaker run and claims about 5,000 sq ft of coverage at full volume.
• FreePBX setup uses two extensions and Endpoint Manager. The host registers account one as the pager (extension 250) and account two as a "night ringer" (extension 252) that just plays a stored audio file. He provisions with the CyberData template plus DHCP option 66; SIP accounts and two backup servers can also be set by hand.
• Endpoint Manager leaves the default admin/admin login in place. Unlike other devices it provisions, where the password gets changed, the host found this unit's web login stays admin/admin even after configuration, so it has to be changed separately.
• The unit does far more than the host uses it for. He points to a DTMF-triggered relay (code 123), a slot for a CyberData strobe, a sensor input that can fire the relay, 10 multicast groups, and up to 10 custom audio files. He has not worked out how to dial in and play stored files, or what the relay is for in a paging setup.

2016-12-15 · open the original ↗

• Factory-defaulted UniFi gear works at once and shows solid white. The host's build is a USG, a UniFi Switch 8 150W, a UAP-AC-Pro and a Cloud Key, each reset by holding the button about 10 seconds. A solid white LED means "ready for adoption", blue means adopted. The USG defaults to 192.168.1.1 and hands out DHCP, so a DHCP client gets internet before any configuration.
• The Cloud Key's setup wizard adopts everything in one pass. The host sets WAN type (DHCP, static or PPPoE) on the USG's own page first. He then finds the Cloud Key with Ubiquiti's Discovery Chrome plugin and runs its wizard on controller version 5.3.8. The wizard adopts all three devices, creates the main and guest SSIDs, and links to Ubiquiti cloud access.
• Move the LAN off the default subnet, with fixed infrastructure addresses. He re-addresses to 192.168.99.0/24, giving the USG .1, the switch .2 and the Cloud Key .3, while the access point stays on DHCP. DHCP runs from .100 to .254 so statics have room, and DNS points to the USG first and 8.8.8.8 second.
• Changing the subnet strands the DHCP devices until rebooted. A running ping shows when connectivity returns. Power-cycling the PoE switch also reboots the Cloud Key and access point it powers. When the discovery tool failed to find the Cloud Key again, the host deduced its new address from the order in which DHCP had handed out leases.
• The Cloud Key's static IP is set on its own configure page. The host sets it there, not in the UniFi controller, and sets the switch's static IP under its configuration in the controller. Each change briefly drops whatever hangs off the switch. He finishes by upgrading each device's firmware, and says his product links are Amazon affiliate links paying him about 3–4%.

2016-11-08 · open the original ↗

• The 150-watt UniFi Switch 8 suits a small office powering phones. It has 8 gigabit ports with 802.3af PoE and 2 SFP ports, any port settable to Ubiquiti's proprietary 24V passive PoE for its cameras and lower-end access points; MSRP is $199. The host reckons the 150 W total budget would easily carry four or five demanding devices such as UAP-AC Pros or VoIP phones.
• Cheaper eight-port UniFi switches are coming, per Reddit photos. One, shown at WISPAPALOOZA in Las Vegas, takes AC or 802.3af PoE in on its first port and passes PoE out on its last, with no PoE to other devices, useful where there is no AC power, such as an attic. A 60 W version powers only its last four ports. The host assumes both will undercut $199 but has no price or ETA.
• The host's first review unit arrived dead on arrival. It showed no fans or lights across several cables and outlets, and the RMA replacement took about 20 days; meanwhile he bought two new units for the customers they were meant for, and the replacement powered up normally.
• Adoption needs the set-inform command sent twice. He found the switch in Ubiquiti's Device Discovery Chrome plugin only under the UniFi family filter, sent set-inform to http://<controller>:8080/inform with the default ubnt/ubnt credentials, and adopted it; it then went disconnected until set-inform was repeated, which he says also applies over SSH.
• The host still prefers full EdgeSwitches to UniFi switches. He concedes the UniFi controller is quickly catching up in capability, offering per-port VLAN trunking, mirroring, aggregation, port isolation and storm control, but thinks much of the UniFi switch's popularity is Ubiquiti marketing: users liking every bubble green on the controller dashboard.

2016-10-17 · open the original ↗

• The EdgeSwitch 48 is a data-center switch priced well below HP or Cisco equivalents. The host quotes about $760 US for the 48-port 500 W model and about $875 US for the 750 W model; each has 48 ports plus two SFP+ and two SFP ports, and he says he has installed a number of them without problems. Ubiquiti forum threads list which SFP modules are compatible.
• Size the PoE budget by how many ports carry PoE. Rather than adding up each device's wattage, the host tells customers to buy the 500 W version if half or fewer of the 48 ports will power PoE devices (phones, access points, cameras), and the 750 W version if half or more will; he says the rule has not let him down so far.
• Out of the box the switch takes a DHCP address and default credentials. Find it with the Ubiquiti Discovery tool or the DHCP leases and log in as ubnt/ubnt. The host changes the password first (best practice would also change the username, which he skips here), then sets a static IP under System > Connectivity > IPv4; the browser does not follow the switch to its new address.
• Changes must be saved explicitly with Save Configuration. On the shipped 1.0.1 firmware a popup warns of unsaved changes; on later firmware the Save Configuration button in the upper right glows red instead.
• Firmware is upgraded through the backup image slot, then a manual restart. The host uploads the new image (version 1.6.0, as of 19 September 2016) as the backup firmware, which takes about four to five minutes, and sets it as next active; contrary to what he expected, the switch does not reboot on its own and must be restarted under System > Utilities.

2016-08-18 · open the original ↗

• FreePBX ships a little-known caller-ID blacklist, installed by default. Under Admin > Blacklist, numbers on the list are routed automatically to one blacklist destination. The host urges setting that destination even if it only terminates the call, so a listed caller is hung up on immediately, every time, for as long as they stay listed.
• The destination can be Lenny rather than a hang-up. In Settings the host points blacklisted calls at Lenny, which keeps telemarketers talking to a recording, and links his separate video on setting Lenny up in FreePBX. In his demo, a blacklisted number calling in reached Lenny straight away.
• Feature code *32 is the easiest way to add numbers. Dialled from a phone right after a call, it blacklists the last caller's number after reading it back for confirmation (press 1). Numbers can also be added in the GUI with a description, or with feature code *30 by keying in the number followed by the pound key.

2016-06-02 · open the original ↗

• Keep your day job and build a client base first. While still employed, the host did after-hours and weekend work for local businesses he knew, charging less than half his current rate, and had five or six regular customers when he went independent. He says those customers then supplied referrals and larger jobs, such as a phone system or website. This was his second try: the first failed after about a year and a half, and 18 months into this one he was only just matching his old salary.
• Save a full year's living expenses before quitting. The host says you can't count on any income at first, so rent, car, food and the rest come out of savings. He expects new income to stretch that cushion to about two years. He suggests cutting expenses under a plan of up to five years to build it, or using a windfall. He funded his own start by cashing out his 401(k), which he does not recommend to everyone.
• Cast a wide net, then narrow to what pays. At first the host took any job he could do well (websites, phone systems, networking, computer repair), then cut back to specialist services as work grew. He treats marketing the same way: with no billable hours, he says, marketing is your full-time job, at least eight hours a day. Of his channels (Google AdWords, Craigslist, the Chamber of Commerce, door-to-door, a newspaper ad), YouTube paid off most. The newspaper ad brought no calls in four months. By then he made two to three videos a week, which plus word of mouth was nearly all his marketing.
• Once established, charge your worth and turn customers down. The host's maxim is that you pay a consultant for the value they bring to the hour, not for the hour. He says a customer who won't pay that is probably not one you want. He uses the first consultation partly to vet the client. He turned down a home EdgeRouter user who wanted his Wi-Fi shared with a neighbour but locked down far past best practice, and could never say why. He notes this contradicts the wide-net advice and applies only later on.
• Don't spend time on people fishing for free advice. Because the host gives away a lot of information on YouTube, he gets many emailed questions and has to sort real leads from the rest. His rule is one emailed answer or five minutes on the phone, spent deciding whether the person will become a paying customer. His example: a FreePBX viewer sent a long list of SIP trunking and caller-ID questions, and when offered the hourly rate, replied that a consultant should answer for free. The host deleted it, saying a proper reply would have taken an hour.

2016-04-15 · open the original ↗

• A script can build the Polycom directory from the FreePBX database. Polycom phones read their contact directory from XML files in /tftpboot (with Endpoint Manager defaults): a global 000000000000-directory.xml, the twelve zeros standing for a blank MAC address, or per-phone files named by MAC. The script, saved as /usr/local/sbin/polycom-dir.sh and made executable with chmod +x, is another author's; the host only changed it to suit FreePBX's default blank MySQL password.
• FreePBX's passwordless MySQL root is not the security hole it looks like. The host passes on the FreePBX project's explanation: MySQL is locked down to localhost, so using it as root already requires root access to the server, and someone with that access can do far worse than tamper with MySQL.
• Test-run the script as the asterisk user, and expect a first-run error. He runs runuser -l asterisk -c '/usr/local/sbin/polycom-dir.sh', since that is the user cron will use. The first run reports it cannot remove the directory XML file because none exists yet; the second runs cleanly. He then checks the new file is owned by asterisk and carries the current timestamp.
• Schedule it hourly in /etc/crontab rather than the hourly cron folder. The hourly folder would run it as root, so he adds 0 * * * * asterisk /usr/local/sbin/polycom-dir.sh to /etc/crontab, which regenerates the directory at the top of every hour as extensions are added, removed or changed.
• Phones only pick up an updated directory when they reboot. Watching tail -f /var/log/messages filtered for TFTP, he shows a rebooting phone request its MAC-specific directory file first and then the global one. He tested on a SoundPoint IP 450 and a VVX 410, and expects the same file layout to work on all Polycom phones.

2016-02-06 · open the original ↗

• RingCentral's entry plan lacks features most businesses need. The host says the $24.99-per-phone-per-month plan omits inbound caller ID name and multilevel auto attendant ("press 1 for this"), so most customers end up on the $34.99 plan; that is the plan he prices against.
• RingCentral's real monthly bill runs well above its list price. For 10 phones the host reaches about $503 a month: $34.99 × 10, roughly 20% on top for fees and taxes (911 regulatory fees, DID number fees), and about $63 a month to rent nine $5 phones and one receptionist-console phone (rentals run $5 to $20 a month). Customers still configure the system themselves, with RingCentral support available.
• The host's own Crosstalk Cloud PBX bundle costs more upfront, far less monthly. It is $3,120 one-time for the phones plus best-practice configuration done by the host, then about $90 a month with taxes and fees included: $50 for the hosted FreePBX and about $40 for a five-channel SIP trunk plan (five simultaneous calls), his usual plan for 10 phones.
• The host's bundle saves most after the first year. By his figures, five-year savings come to $21,660. First year: $6,036 on RingCentral against about $4,200 for his bundle, a saving of over $1,800. After that his bundle runs just over $1,000 a year against about $6,000. Five-year totals are $30,180 against $8,520, which he likens to legacy Avaya and Cisco PBX pricing.
• The host calls per-phone hosted VoIP pricing "a total racket". This is his opinion, and he is selling the alternative. He says 8x8, Fonality and MegaPath work the same way as RingCentral: they advertise a low per-phone price, then move customers onto higher plans.

2016-01-15 · open the original ↗

• FreePBX voicemail is reached three ways, depending on the phone. A desk or soft phone's messages button (labelled message, voicemail or an envelope) goes straight in; *97 checks the mailbox of the phone you are on, and may skip the password on a desk phone; *98 from any other phone asks for the extension and then the password, each followed by the pound key.
• Playback keys let you scrub, skip and delete mid-message. Once logged in, press 1 to hear new messages; star rewinds and pound fast-forwards 3 seconds per press (three presses moves 9 seconds), 6 skips to the next message, and 7 deletes the current one immediately and moves on.
• Record your name so the dial-by-name directory can find you. The host recommends always doing it: log in, press 0 for advanced options, then 3, speak the name, and press pound to accept it.
• The unavailable and busy greetings cover different missed calls. The unavailable greeting, the main outgoing message, plays when you don't pick up (0 then 1 to record); the busy greeting plays when you are already on a call (0 then 2); end each recording with pound.
• The temporary greeting overrides both standard greetings until erased. It is meant for absences such as vacation: record it with 0, 4, then 1; while it is active the system announces that it overrides the standard greeting, and 0, 4, then 2 erases it so the normal greetings return.

2015-12-24 · open the original ↗

• The T48G is a cost-effective executive phone, preferred over Ubiquiti's UVP. The host found a best online price of about $210, against $300–$400 for some comparable display phones. He prefers it to the Ubiquiti UVP because the UVP has no tactile buttons and, in his view, does not integrate well with FreePBX. He was setting this unit up for a customer, and says it is fancier than he would want himself.
• No power adapter comes in the box, so budget PoE or one. The phone takes 802.3af PoE, so without a PoE switch you need a 48-volt PoE adapter or a separately bought DC adapter, which raises the price. The box holds the phone, handset and cord, an Ethernet cable, the stand and a quick reference guide.
• A 7-inch touchscreen replaces the usual physical line buttons. The display is 800x480 colour, with on-screen soft keys down each side, so the host says buyers who want tactile line keys should look elsewhere. It has dual gigabit ports (network in, PC out), an EXT port for an EXP40 sidecar, and a USB port he understands takes a Bluetooth dongle but has never tried.
• The T48G reboots far slower than other Yealink phones. The host guesses the large display's interface is the cause, and contrasts it with the quick reboot cycle of the Yealink T23G.
• Manual FreePBX registration needs only server address, SIP username and password. Pressing OK on the phone shows its IP; the web GUI's default login is admin/admin, and the line registered without a reboot. Extra line keys, BLF (which also speed-dials), *97 voicemail and park keys go on the DSS Key tab, but the host recommends FreePBX's Endpoint Manager (MAC address plus a T48G template) for anything beyond a few phones.

2015-10-12 · open the original ↗

• A wireless bridge pair replaces cable where trenching or distance rules it out. The Ubiquiti NanoStation M5, top of the NanoStation line, works on 5 GHz with a rated range of 15+ km, point-to-point or point-to-multipoint. The host's examples: a client's two buildings split by a paved alley (about 30 ft, near 100% signal, over 300 Mbps), and a barn a kilometre from the house.
• Configure both units on the same LAN before deploying the remote. Both ship at 192.168.1.20 with login ubnt/ubnt; the host moves the bridge to 192.168.1.10 and the station to 192.168.1.11, sets DNS (4.2.2.2, 8.8.8.8) so the unit can find firmware updates, and changes the admin password. For a window mount, the mount's thumb screw has to be moved to the bottom for clearance.
• Both ends of the bridge must run identical firmware. The host updated each unit from XW 5.5.9 to 5.6.2, and cites a case where a customer's customer updated only one side and the bridge would not connect at all. He recommends running AirView to pick the least-used channel, but skipped it because his area has nearly no 5 GHz traffic.
• The main unit is an access point, the remote a locked station. The main unit runs in access point mode with transparent bridge enabled and WPA2 AES; the remote, in station mode, finds the SSID by site survey and is locked to that access point. The host's link at about 30 ft read −35 dBm, 100% quality and 300 Mbps, and a speed test from the remote side matched his 60 Mbps Charter cable service.
• The remote's secondary port can power a device by PoE pass-through. The secondary port supplies 24 V passive PoE once PoE pass-through is enabled under Advanced. In the host's test, a Ubiquiti AP AC Lite powered up from it, with one PoE adapter indoors powering the whole chain. He has not yet tried repeater mode.

2015-09-29 · open the original ↗

• The host rates the EdgeRouter X a good cheap entry-level router. Ubiquiti lists it at $49 MSRP, but the host could only find it for about $59; it is a small five-port router. He did not test performance against the standard EdgeRouter series, but expects it to be more robust than typical all-in-one SOHO Wi-Fi router/switch units.
• The "WAN + 2 LAN2" wizard gives one WAN and four switched LAN ports. Out of the box the router is at 192.168.1.1 (login ubnt/ubnt), with link lights only on top of the unit. Ticking "only use one LAN" makes eth0 the internet port and eth1–eth4 a single switch0 network on 192.168.1.1; after applying, you must move your PC off eth0.
• Update the firmware first; it shipped one release behind. The unit came on version 1.6.6 while 1.7.0 was current at the time of recording; the firmware downloads as a tar file, is uploaded under System's "upgrade system image", and takes effect after a reboot. The wizards were unchanged on 1.7.0.
• The host replaces Ubiquiti's DHCP and admin defaults. The default DHCP pool runs from .38 to .243 (206 addresses), which he changes to .100–.254, setting DNS to 8.8.8.8; he also changes the ubnt admin password. Port forwards go under Firewall/NAT, with eth0 as WAN and switch0 as the LAN interface.
• PoE pass-through powered an access point even from the bundled adapter. The data sheet says pass-through supports a single airMAX device and needs 24 V passive PoE in or a 12 W adapter not included; the bundled 12 V 0.5 A adapter is 6 W by the host's arithmetic. Yet with pass-through enabled on eth4, it powered a 24 V UniFi UAP, as did 24 V passive PoE into eth0.