Small office replacement network
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So I have a very small project that I am going to do "pro bono" for a homeless shelter in my town. Requirements are very basic. They need a new Firewall/router, 12 port PoE switch, and probably 2 WIFI access points. In previous times, my "go to" for an inexpensive but great solution for something like this would have been a Ubiquiti edge router 4, a TP-link or Ubiquiti Edge switch (poe), and a Ubiquiti Access point or 2. I have not been impressed with Ubiquiti lately however. So I'm looking at other options. Has anyone used Aruba InstantOn switches or APs or Engenius? Again, this is a small (prob 12 people) non profit homeless shelter that has a very small budget. I'm doing the work and install for free, but they will be paying for the equipment. Any suggestions from the group on the above?
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@AdamF What hasn't made you happy with Unifi? That's what I'd be deploying.
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@scottalanmiller said in Small office replacement network:
@AdamF What hasn't made you happy with Unifi? That's what I'd be deploying.
The APs are still good.
However, Unifi routers aren't that great, and their network switches are more expensive than the competition. Edgerouters seem to have been silently discontinued. I really like the Edgerouters, but am not confident they'll be getting needed updates going forward. I'm at a point where I'd just pick a router without integrated wifi and call it good.
For a network switch, I'd consider looking at used gear. For work, we use old Juniper gear all the time, they're rock solid all the way back to EX2200 models. If you care about warranty, you could pickup a used HPE.
There is something to be said for ease of usability/management. I think Ubiquiti makes some products that would do almost everything you need in 2 products that you would manage together. The time savings could well be worth it for a small one-off place like this.
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What is everyone putting in for SMB firewalls these days? With the stock issues with the Edgemax line, I know we all have been either looking to move to something else, or waiting it out.
There are many rumors about UI EOLing the Edgemax line, but they may be just rumors of course. Are you all still putting the Edgemax line of firewalls in?
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Been a while since I had looked at Ubiquiti's store, but it looks like they're not bothering to show EdgeRouter 4 as an out-of-stock option anymore.
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@EddieJennings said in Small office replacement network:
Been a while since I had looked at Ubiquiti's store, but it looks like they're not bothering to show EdgeRouter 4 as an out-of-stock option anymore.
There is a lot of chatter on the forums regarding the website not displaying items properly. A UI person did confirm this on the forums. If you search for ER-4, it does show up, and it is in stock. A couple days ago, a UI person stated that they are in fact NOT EOLing the Edgemax line. (https://community.ui.com/releases/EdgeMAX-EdgeRouter-v2-0-9-hotfix-7/2693d34c-f878-45d3-90af-32da2b4895a2#comment/04920424-98a9-4d65-bad2-935f63edef12) About half way down the page.
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@AdamF I stand corrected and good to know.
