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

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.

The basics: Goodbye consumer wifi! In the last few weeks i've implemented 3 UAP-AC-LR access points, 1 UAP Outdoor 5, and 1 Unifi Security Gateway. I've replaced networks at two separate locations and am amazed at the difference between high end consumer wifi and what Ubiquiti has to offer. While Ubiquiti products do require more product know-how than your typical consumer gear, there is a tremendous amount of online support. Details: The two sites I manage are my home and a fire station. Both utilize a 150mbps connection from Comcast (cable), both have always needed more than a single wifi access point (AP). Traditionally, both were served by wireless range extenders. Because range extenders are some of the worst consumer electronics available (regardless of manufacturer) the range extenders were eventually replaced with wired access points. This created two problems: devices had to be close to power, and the two networks created were horrible at handing off devices that moved from the area around one AP to another. The main router at the firestation was an 802.11n device with gigabit LAN (typical cost $50, typical speed of 80mbps down) and the router in my home was a linksys AC3200 (typical cost $200-300, typical speed of 175mbps down). In deploying ubiquiti gear to each site, I decided to utilize a similar setup to the old one since cat6 cable was already in place. At home I am using 1 UAP-AC-LR, 1 UAP Outdoor 5. At the firehouse I am using 2 UAP-AC-LR and 1 USG. Physical setup is rather straight forward as long as you have a drill/driver set and a decent plan for whats going to go where. The use of the included Power over Ethernet (POE) injectors is simple and liberating. No need to worry about being near a plug, and only one cable to run. I did use Cat6 cable in place of Cat5 cable, mostly because it was already in place, and it was already in place because I find it much easier to push the more rigid cat 6 than cat 5, as long as there aren't sharp corners. Network setup gets a little more complex. I opted to use an Amazon Web Services system for running the Unifi controller. Note that these devices are not controlled by onboard software as many other products are, but are managed and controlled through a cloud controller. This cloud controller can be run locally on a computer on your LAN, or remotely on a cloud server like AWS. Understand that I know next to nothing about AWS, about the Ubuntu instance i'm running, about SSH, very little about port forwarding... but I still made it work, thanks entirely to the online Ubiquiti support community (if you're like me, go slow and read about what you're doing before you do it so you don't create a security nightmare as you go). With the AWS cloud server setup it was as easy as using the Unifi discovery app to detect devices I had plugged in, and telling them to "inform" to my cloud controller IP address on the correct port. The device is then "adopted" in the cloud controller and a couple of minutes later everything is ready to go. Creating wifi networks, changing DNS servers, and managing clients is all done right in the unifi controller. Setting up a second location is simple and easy, as is moving a device from one to the other. Performance has been exemplary. Devices are seamlessly handed off between one AP and the other. Individual users don't even realize it's happening. Speeds are great, but the days of 175mbps down are gone. Even standing directly under the UAP-AC-LR speeds top out around 110mbps. Range on the UAP-AC-LRs is well above any consumer hardware i've ever used, partly due to the power of the device but also due to its ability to adjust to the RF environment it's in, avoiding interference from other networks. Both networks have been hosting 25-75 clients/day without incident. One thing to be aware of is the amount of information that is collected. If running a cloud server, you'll see a good deal of traffic data. You'll also get basic user data as the devices log when a client migrates from one access point to the other. The introduction of the unifi security gateway and usage of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) produces a concerning quantity of data. It is very useful, especially if monitoring a network with resources limited by either high demand or low bandwidth, but caution should be exercised. DPI will collect overall network data about whats being done and where. It may indicate that 13GB have been used for "streaming media" and 7GB of those 13 were for netflix, 4GB youtube, 1GB pandora, etc... and it will also break usage down per client, which begins to border on privacy invasion. At the very least, your controller should be protected by a very strong password, and data collection should be limited to whats necessary. In my case, and for these specific deployments, i've made the decision to turn DPI off unless a problem arises that requires that level of network supervision. If I were to deploy an open, public network I would see more of a use for DPI. If you have the time to set up a Unifi system I can't recommend it enough. These three Ubiquiti products are genuinely impressive. It might not be plug and play, but the effort in setup will likely alleviate a great many frustrations down the road.

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.

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.

*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!

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.

Don't let the 'Enterprise' word fool you. These are seriously easy to set up. For geeks like me don’t let the ‘Easy’ word fool you these offer a lot of options and settings to mess around with. I bought these for my parents, they have had Wi-Fi problems in their house since forever, primarily due to the size and layout. We have tried many different access points, locations, etc. But nothing really seemed to fix the problem without introducing another one somewhere else. After eyeing the unifi routers for a while I was hesitant to pull the trigger, due to the fact that at the time only the most expensive AP they sold had AC. I did not want to purchase an already obsolete 802.11 infrastructure, which would end up having to be replaced anyways. So I waited. A couple weeks ago, my family was asking me what kind of AP they should get for the house, so I did research, and to my surprise Ubiquiti had released the UAP-AC-LR access point. So I pulled the trigger. Now there are many ways to set these up. You can run them without a controller, you can buy the Cloud key (which is basically the cloud controller hosted on a small device that you plug into your network) or you can set up your own cloud controller. I sprung for setting up my own cloud controller, in an Amazon EC2 instance at that. Although not necessary its wonderful being able to log in remotely and perform diagnostics if needed. The best thing is that the cloud controller can be hosted off premises, so no VPN tunnel or anything is needed. One of the other things I loved is the setup. At the purchasing these, I was relocated away from home for business, none of the people in my household are that savvy when it comes to setting up network equipment, maybe plugging in a cable or two, but certainly not configuring the device. This is where the cloud controller shined. Even before the product was delivered, I set up the cloud controller. From there you can configure and set up the ‘Site’ that the AP’s will live in (information like SSID’s and network keys). These access points configure themselves automatically from whatever is on the cloud controller, the only thing you need to do when you get the access point is something called ‘Adoption’. This process basically pairs the AP with the cloud controller, and can be done in a very useful iOS/Android app. Once the adoption is done, the AP’s update their firmware, get their configuration data and just start working. So when the devices arrived I just had to ask my little sister to download an app, log into the cloud controller and use the app to scan the barcode on the back of the AP and that was it. They have been using it for about a week and I have not heard any complaints about it yet. Monitoring the signal strength of the devices, it appears to be a net gain in coverage and bandwidth compared to our old AP. For 90$ this was money well spent.