Recently I was involved in helping a local church evaluate and consider many options for their wireless network.
- What was being considered and how was it currently being used?
- What ways could it better be used in the areas of ministries throughout the week?
- As well as how can it work across the building for everyone without having to switch networks for each area?
Whether the church your involved in is new or been around for years, these are the universal questions that must be considered in order to upgrade or install a WIFI network on your church campus
Location, Location, Location
Since this was an upgrade to the current network, the first thing we did was evaluate the equipment they currently had in house, it’s location, and how well both of those serviced the people in the building. This step is often overlooked when installing existing equipment but one that should be considered when installing or upgrading equipment.
Luckily the location of the equipment was placed in excellent places. This allowed for the consideration of equipment being upgraded over changing locations of wireless access points. The equipment will make or break a wireless access for any building. The current building had 4 WIFI Access Points or “APs” each with its own SSID broadcasting its location in the building. These access points were then all wired to a basic router and from there they were given IP addresses. Each access point also had its own firewall and each one seemed to be set up approximately the same way. But sometimes there were issues for users who would walk from one end of the building to the other end of the building (It should be noted that the current Access Points they had were all different equipment and brands which would have caused issues also).
Talk About Options
We talked and discussed what issues were happening on the current network and what they would really like to see from it or a possible upgrade. They wanted multiple SSID’s broadcasting one with a password on one of the SSID’s. They also felt it important that people could print from the password protected SSID. The Second SSID they wanted as an open guest network that could be set up to broadcast during certain times people would be visiting.
When all the research onsite was done, I then began to research what they wanted with what was available. After talking to many friends who deal with networking, I came up with Ubiquiti’s AP system. What the church really liked about it is the controller would communicate with each access point that was setup and they could communicate with each device and work better together. Which is one of the issues they were having with the old system.
Ubiquiti AP
The Ubiquiti AP’s come in many different styles depending on the signals and devices being used on the network. There are AC, N, and AP Pro available with different features available for the styles. This church decided on going for the AP’s alone, not the AP Pro’s which get better distance or the AC’s with the better distance along with stronger signals. They felt they could upgrade these devices later if they felt needed to.
I was shocked at how light and small these are. As you can see by the images above and below, there’s really nothing there. I was tempted to take one apart and see if there was really anything inside the device, but didn’t want to break it. 😉 It really could not be any easier to set up one of these devices either. All the mounting hardware and screws are provided in each device which makes mounting the it a breeze. It included a metal halo mount for ceiling tiles and a plastic halo that would screw into ceilings. The plastic halo would then hold the access point by sliding it clockwise until it snaps or locks into place.
Installing the Access Points
What we did was take down all the old hardware and in it’s place we placed the new hardware which then showed our first issue with this straight transfer. The old equipment was not POE or Power Over Ethernet. So this slick neat clean look would be completely distracted when using the POE adapters that come with each unit. We’d have two Ethernet cables going into the provided boxes and then one into the AP which provided network and power. It became really ugly, really quick.
That’s not a big deal if you think ahead and have power near the devices and they can be hidden in the wall or ceiling. Unfortunately for this network, only one was ceiling mounted and the rest were wall mounted near outlets. It would have looked very unprofessional, and for those who didn’t know what it was, could have unplugged it to use an outlet.
Thankfully,Ubiquiti recommended a switch that we acquired to use. Ubiquiti ToughSwitch 5 port was easy to set up and simple to use. The ability to turn on and off POE was simple and spelled out well in the included instructions:
During set up, one thing that needs to be taken into consideration is old equipment replacement if it’s an upgrade. I say this, because I had an almost near fire with one of the switches they already had on the network. I was using the POE boxes and not the ToughSwitch. The current switch they had, came with 8 ports with 4 available so I plugged everything into that. The switch was about 10 years old and showed it by smoking and nearly starting on fire with all 8 ports being used at the same time. It could have been much worse than an almost melted switch. This also was the pain of part of my set up. It took me a bit longer to do as each AP would go online for about a minute and then stop and I couldn’t figure it out. After replacing the old switch with the new ToughSwitch everything come on line smooth.
Setup
When setting up the access points, there’s an LED in the center area that starts out yellow. It will turn red if there’s no internet or error occurs. It will turn green if it’s got network, internet and is adopted by a controller. It will stay yellow if it’s not able to connect to the controller or get internet. After resolving the switch problem, we took the entire network off line by unplugging the switch from its power and moved the network from my mobile laptop to the computer it would stay on. This was not a bright idea. When installing these devices, have the computer you are going to use as it’s controller have the software already installed. This caused a headache and about 20 more minutes of resetting each device by climbing ladders, taking down devices, and then ensuring it reset properly. This could have been easily avoided if we had just installed it on the right computer in the first place.
The finished product looks nothing different than a smoke alarm and we were pleased with the ease of mounting and setting up after troubleshooting issues that should be considered when installing. I was shocked at the range of the access points. The Pro AP’s are suppose to go much farther, but these reached farther than expected and worked great together. I was also impressed with the ability to walk from one end of the building playing a video and walk to the other areas and not have a large issues with loss of signal.
In all the Ubiquiti AP’s with controller software is impressive in capabilities. The Controller software doesn’t have to constantly be running after set up is complete. It’s needed if you want to track internet usage and devices. The ability to block devices by mac address as well as see what is being accesses where and when has helped this church better serve the people who are using the building. A big plus is the SSID broadcasting with scheduled guest access. This has cut down on bandwidth usage when no one is in the building.
Pro of the equipment:
- Form factor is great.
- Controller software is easy to use and set up.
- Devices are light.
- Devices are easy to hide.
- Range of devices were beyond expectations and impressive for the location installed.
Cons of the equipment:
- POE is wonderful, but without the ToughSwitch, it’s ugly when mounting if not thought ahead.
- Can be a pain to set up with having to fully hard reset devices.
If your church or building is thinking of upgrading your wifi network, I would consider the Ubiquity family of devices. With it’s overall easy to use controller software and nice sleek looking devices, they are definitely an upgrade from many older routers and access points.
Sean says
AS I mentioned on Twitter, I am a HUGE fan of Uniquiti’s Unifi line. The controller is incredibly easy to set up (can be virtualized if your infrastructure is set up that way) and auto-discovers compatible devices on your network. I wish the ToughSwitches were able to be brought in to the loop as well but I understand why they only have that for their larger switches.
I just did an install of 5 ap’s and we are budgeting for a few of the camera’s as well. Super impressed with the platform and highly recommend it for both home and office.
Auggie says
I loved the install even though I had problems with what I was doing because of some hack wiring I found out later it was great. Agree I wish the toughswitches would be brought into the loop but they have their reasoning.
Brian L says
I am also setting up a Ubiquiti UniFi network for my church. Networking is not my strong suit, but I am learning. Could you tell me a little more what you mean when you say you wish the toughswitches would be brought in the loop?
Auggie Mueller says
Its more about the fact that tough switches at least the smaller ones are harder to network. There is some small set up you can do but the controller doesn’t control it at all so it’s not “in the loop” of the controller
Chris Chapmond says
We have our POE injectors right next to the router right now and that way the cable run can be clean to the AP. I just bought one of the 24 port UniFi switches and about to upgrade to that which will take care of the poe issue and allow us to have seperate VLANs.. Also they just announced the UniFi Cloud Key which you can run the controller on without having a computer dedicated to it. It is somewhere around $80.
Auggie says
I thought the POE’s were better when put next to the router and then sending it out, but I ran into some problems at first so I had them next to the AP’s. I loved that they have the Cloud option for the controller. That’s nice. This install prefers to have it installed on their secretary’s computer. She’s kinda the tech person. Plus it’s fun for them to see what’s going on.
Sean says
POE injectors can be put anywhere along the run and provides the same amount of power and data. I usually put them near the start of my run as it’s typically in a closet/wiring room and cleaner when there isn’t one near the AP but it’s purely aesthetics.
Auggie says
I didn’t have the room for hiding them which is why we ended up going with a switch again. make it look a little nicer.
Alex Graham says
It wasn’t necessary to climb any ladders to do a hard reset of the devices. There were two easy options that could have saved this step:
1.) you could have backed up the controller on the original PC and then restored it to the final location. Before I ran my controller in the cloud, this is the method that I used to stage implementations ahead of the equipment install in a number of churches.
2.) As part of the installation of the controller, a Unifi Discovery app is also installed. If you have the password from the original controller, a hard reset could have been initiated through that utility to clear out the old controller association.
Another point worth mentioning is that the APs will continue running in the absence of communication with the controller, so for many users, it isn’t really necessary to have the controller running all of the time.
As another poster already commented, I. The absence of a Tough Switch, the PoE injectors could be centrally located rather than being placed by the APs themselves, so wire clutter at the mounting location of the AP should never be an issue. The Tough Switch is a no-brainer, though. I use on all new installations if there are 3 or more APs.
If anyone else has a similar experience, perhaps this could save a headache.
Auggie says
I agree with you it’s not necessary to climb the ladder usually to do the hard reset. For some reason with the way it was set up with the POE’s and this router we couldn’t get them to reset let alone hard reset even with the discovery tool. Part of the issue we ran into is it would adopt the AP but 30 minutes later it wasn’t adopted and had a different IP. This IP would not allow network or internet access. After putting in the toughswitch and removing the POE’s we found this resolved our problem.
WE did try the POE’s right next to the router but this caused us some kinda issues that caused our AP’s to not communicate with the router. When we put them near the AP, the AP was able to communicate with the router. I assumed it had to do with the wiring.
I love that the AP’s will run without the controller. This was a huge up sell to the church upgrading. One thing we figured out quickly though, if the controller isn’t running during high traffic it may cause issues with not getting IP addresses. For Example Sunday Morning they have to have the controller running or half the people don’t have internet or network access.
IN all though even with the minor issues I had in install pretty simple products to install and if you do the POE’s in one location or do a toughswitch it all seems to be pretty seemlesss as long as corners are not cut.
Brodie Krause says
I love Ubiquiti’s products. One thing I always do is to set the Controller software up to run as a Windows Service (if on a Windows OS, of course). Otherwise, you have to leave a user logged into the server with the UniFi Controller App running the whole time.
http://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205144550-UniFi-Run-the-controller-as-a-Windows-service
Auggie says
That’s a great idea. I’ve never thought about that. Next time I will do it for sure. That’s helpful hint for sure!!!! Great additions in all these comments.
Eric Dye says
Slick!
Auggie says
It really does work great. With lots of different ways it can be set up the client feels like they are in control
dendad51 says
I too set up a couple of UniFi APs at our Church, and originally used a raspberry Pi as the controller. Now it has a UniFi Cloud Key instead.
Here is a mount I printed up to attach the APs over the Ethernet wall plate.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1372158
Also, the server rack has an old rack mounted Ethernet switch case containing the Ubiquity Edge Router, the 2 x AP power injectors and a PogoPlug connected hard drive.
It all went together very well.
Auggie Mueller says
Dude DIdn’t see this till today. Man legit stuff there. I love the link you gave. Really cool stuff. Unbiquiti ain’t for everybody but the 2 installs I’ve done are pretty solid.
dendad51 says
Yes, I really like these devices. When I’m able, my home will be changed over to them too. At the moment, my home runs 3 different APs and I have to change the one I log into depending if I’m in the house, my shed or my wife’s studio. With the Ubiqiuty system I’ll be able to roam all over and the system will just connect me to the closest physical AP transparently.
Recently we had a convention at the church and had close to 200 delegates. I did have one AP drop off the controller but it may be a power problem, time will tell. It is still going ok after a restart so I don’t know what the problem was. It could be overheating as the AP in question was just sitting on a shelf, not mounted on the wall as it is now. All in all, the delegates were very happy with the internet connectivity. Another thing I hope to install when funds permit is a network of Ubiquity cameras. My friend has them at his place, and using some Sonoff modules http://www.itead.cc/wiki/Sonoff and some Node-Red code he has written, has the motion detect of the cameras turning lights on and off.