Ubiquiti Networks Unifi Dual-Radio PRO Access Point
Deploy the UniFi AC Pro AP indoors or outdoors, in wireless networks requiring maximum performance. Sporting a weatherproof design, the UniFi AC Pro AP features simultaneous, dual-band, 3×3 MIMO technology and convenient 802.3af PoE/802.3at PoE+ compatibility.
- 3 Dual-Band Antennas, 3 dBi each
- Max. Power Consumption: 9W
- Features auto-sensing 802.3af/802.3at PoE support and can be powered by any of the following: Ubiquiti Networks UniFi Switch 802.3af/802.3at PoE+ compliant switch Ubiquiti Networks Gigabit PoE Adapter (48V, 0.5A)
NealioNealio –
My 1650 Sq. Ft. home finally has perfect 5G band wireless coverage at every corner. My old ISP modem/ wireless router worked well if I was close to it. Running a computer for streaming on my TV, plus mobile devices proved to be a real struggle until now. When running a speedtest my old wifi would get full speed 100/100 in the same room as my ISP modem. It would drop down to 30/30 in the living room and in the far corner of the master bedroom it would go down to 5/5 or 10/10 on a good day. Now I get full speed 100/100 everywhere in the house. Just one of these centrally located in my single story place does the trick 🙂 It also performs well without having it mounted to the ceiling or wall. My wife didn’t want to see it, so I placed it above the doorway leading to our kitchen. It just sits flat, completely hidden above a door and works perfectly. I ran a flat Cat 6 cable along the baseboard to connect it and that is also unnoticeable as it matches the color of the baseboard.I’ve personally had enough of consumer grade products and went for the enterprise grade and I’m sure glad I did. The Unifi controller is very easy to work with and fairly intuitive if you have a basic understanding of how to setup and manage a network. Even if you are a complete newbie you can get this up and running without much difficulty. Before creating and connecting to your wireless networks I recommend upgrading your firmware and running a RF Environment scan. It was neat to see how congested some of the wireless channels are in the 2.4G band, mostly from the neighbors and their wireless networks. Once that completed I was running on the least utilized channel. There are endless cool features available to a nerd such as myself to mess with. I highly recommend this AP. Considering the cost of the “High End” consumer routers and this, it’s a no brainer.
NunyaNunya –
This is not your typical home Access Point; it’s what an Access Point should be! The form factor, features, installation, and Power Over Ethernet support are all awesome. I especially like that a ‘power injector’ (think “AC Adapter”, with ethernet ports) is included in the box, in case you don’t have a POE switch. This AP is designed to be flush mounted on your ceiling (or a wall) and includes all of the mounting hardware needed. You can twist and remove the AP from its base by sticking a straightened paper clip (or a really flat/thin/small screwdriver) into a small opening in the side of the unit, where this lifts a small tab that allows the unit to be rotated and removed from the base. If you need to use the power injector, it also has a mounting plate which can be mounted on the wall, allowing you to easily remove the power injector should you need to.The main difference between this AP and your typical/cheap home AP is that Ubiquiti products are managed remotely via ‘controller’ software. In a nutshell, the controller software exposes a local web interface which has all the GUI features you need to identify, ‘adopt’, and configure the AP. The software is available for all major operating systems and they even include a Java-based version of the app, for cross-platform compatibility. I found the web interface to be intuitive and fairly straight-forward, but I’m a programmer/devops guy who’s used to network/subnet configuration. Regardless, the web interface is sensible and I think even a n00b can muddle their way through it.The only niggling/minor complaint I have is with the license agreement on the controller software: “…you agree that Ubiquiti may from time to time collect and use device information (such as hardware model, firmware version, device identifiers, device performance information and device operation parameters), collected in a form that does not personally identify you…”. There is no way to opt-out of this data sharing, though you could configure outbound blocking rules in your firewall to drop any packets from your AP which are being sent to the IP range owned by Ubiquiti (52.8.33.107 > 52.8.0.0/16, 52.9.75.216 > 52.9.0.0/16), but a lot of home routers may not be up to this task. If running a Linux-based firewall/gateway using IP tables (which I do and highly recommend), you can add the appropriate rules in no time.Otherwise, I love, love, love this Access Point and would buy it again in a heart beat!
Z –
I have installed three of these so far in my house coupled with an EdgeRouter Lite. I love the setup so far.FYI this is really more for someone with IT knowledge experience and may take some learning. If you are not tech savvy, or willing to do some research, you may struggle with the install and configurations.I have a local server in my home, I installed the controller software on my server. You can allow the connections to the appropriate ports (from the server software firewall) to allow other local systems to access the controller.The performance and configurations have been great and performing rock solid. It does take a little bit of time to familiarize yourself with the controller and settings, but I found it pretty intuitive and love the setup so far. In a 2 story house with family of 5 and lots of devices that connect.I have not had to reboot a single access point yet other than when they did a recent firmware update. No reboots to fix wifi issues etc.. like I always had to do when I used consumer grade products (many makes, models etc…)Was worth the money and investment for me.Note if you buy them one at a time, they come with the POE injector for power. If you buy a bundled set they do not come with the POE injector and you will either need a POE switch or to buy the injectors separately.
D. JenkinsD. Jenkins –
Update:Almost 2 years later and 20 helpful votes (thanks by the way).. All are STILL rock solid. Do be sure to boot up your AP config software every blue moon to check for firmware updates for overall security purposes. Nice touch is you can implement a rolling upgrade automatically so coverage impact is minimized. I always seem to forget where the dang wireless settings are. Bottom left is your answer.I stand by my original review and will most likely never use another consumer grade wireless router again… Period.****************************************Rock steady reliability and performance.I will let other reviewers state technical facts. If you are here, you most likely already know anyways.Rock steady Wifi AP w/802.11AC/N/G with POE+ 48v gigabit connectivity that looks nice… I’m not sure humanity can ask for more at this point.This WILL rescure you from the plague that is consumer grade WiFi.Configuration:Only goofy part is the Java based Ubiquiti configuration software and a laptop/PC/MAC that you need to have in your hands to access/configure them once out of box. This software is NOT required for them to function, only for initial configuration and administration access. Currently “UniFi 5.6.29 Controller for Windows” is the name of the configuration/administrative software at the time of this writing.I have now installed 4 of these at several locations. AP has 2 ports, MAIN (in) and Secondary (for daisy-chain) to another AP.Wifi Coverage is fantastic, aesthetically most think it’s a smoke detector, and the blue light serves as a classy night light (can be turned off if so desired)FYI I have used BV-Tech POE switches as well as WiFi Texas POE 12-48v rack mount injector. Both work great.I feel it important to note that perhaps the average Joe consumer would have issues getting this up and functional. I am an IT professional with 20 years experience from wiring to servers so I had no issues. This is perhaps more professional grade and physical installation and POE requirements may push this beyond most common consumers tools/technical abilities. This is not meant to be sitting on a desk in a home. It’s meant for ceiling installations.It does come with a POE injector which can reside patch panel side if you don’t have a POE switch, which I thought was nice. I would like to request Ubiquiti offer this model WITHOUT the POE injector for less $$$ for those that don’t need it due to other POE solutions that are likely already in use.If installing multiple AP’s, you may want to draw a floor plan showing which MAC is located where BEFORE installation. The configuration software is also able to grab GPS location for each AP and overlay onto a blueprint drawing as a map within the software but I have not had the opportunity to test this feature (great idea though).
Giselle –
After TP-Link Router stopped recognizing wired connections and allowing WIFI connections to it after 1 year, I hunted for something better. After reading reviews left and right about the “Nighthawks” and other nonsense routers that cost $3-700 (and failures were common) for a serious gamer/bandwidth household, I found Unifi.Now of course there are options you need to configure to make this run it’s best but I wouldn’t rule this out as meant for average home users.What separates this from the average plug and play home user is you’re required to read and follow directions to get it up and running, not many people like that concept in 2018. Highly recommend watching a Youtube video by Battlenonsense about Unifi router setups. It applies to the router Unifi sells and this access point and is very easy to follow. You’ll get this running better than any other Wifi router you might have owned in about 15-20 minutes.Best part about this AP is the range. As many have said in a 3000+ squarefoot home you have 5G speeds on your devices that ends up making it possible to play any video game as if you have a direct wired connection into your computer. Cellphones and any other connected device has the full speed of my router flowing through it.Any extra settings you may need, I highly encourage you to google what you’re thinking/need and you’ll find a solution.
BorisBoris –
So I have had this installed and have been using it for about 3 weeks. I have a good amount of experience with enterprise setups at large installations (100-200 APs) Currently I manage two locations one all Cisco and the other Aruba. I say this so you get an idea of my experience with wireless and you know what i’m comparing this AP too and what I expect from it.I purchased one of these for my home wireless because the “High performance” consumer so called wireless routers simply couldn’t keep up with what I needed. I currently have 4 AC and 2 N clients that all require allot of bandwidth.The AC-PRO has been able to more than keep up with everything I have thrown at it. It comes with everything you need to mount it and get it up and running. From plugging it into power it took about 3 minutes to get my first SSID setup and devices connected.Pros:- Very easy to setup and use- Comes with everything you need to mount it- Great price for the performance- Does not require a controller- Small and sleek design- Comes with a power injector device supports 802.3at PoE+- Guest wifi and guest portal (When using the controller software)- Able to be used outdoors. Ubiqiti says weather proof- The software is easy to navigate and full of featuresTo many to list check more here: […]Cons:- If any I guess it runs hotter than other AP’s I’ve used.I look forward to getting another 1 or 2 of these for my house and testing out the seamless hand off functions. I recommend this to any small business or home owner that wants the best performing wireless. These would even work for larger businesses.This is my new go to recommendation for friends who ask what AP I recommend for them (Maybe the UAP-AC-LITE model instead of the PRO)
Raleigh Rhino –
These bad boys are the jam. Quit wasting your time with all the consumer retail garbage that dies in a year. I have two of these on two different floors of our house and connected to the UniFi software running on a Debian VM (this isn’t required, but it’s really nice for real time metrics and configuration, nice iPad app too). We have a 1Gbps fiber connection to our ISP. Even over WiFi, I can pull about 650Mbps down, and about the same up. That’s phenomenal for home WiFi especially when we have ~50 other devices connected at the same time. So far we haven’t been able to throw anything at them that they cannot handle. Been running for 2.5 years with no issues.I originally was scared off by all the (old) comments I saw about heat, but I haven’t experienced any of that. I suppose that’s something they improved in their SW, which they update about once every month or so (good luck getting that level of support from the crappy consumer APs).
Tyler Forge –
I purchased this to go with a
Ubiquiti Unifi Security Gateway Pro
I got through the Vine program. It has been one of my better technology purchases over the past few years. I have no idea how it operates when separate from the security gateway. I do know that it is fantastic with the gateway. If you know your way around a network, this Unifi gear is pretty awesome for home and small offices. In fact, you can manage both your home and your office from the same control panel. Yeah.To be clear – this isn’t consumer grade gear and home networks are probably not the intended use. But… this stuff is oh-so-good for homes with lots of networking bits – which will soon be just about every home. Another point is that this access point looks like a required first hop for the Unifi mesh nodes. Mesh networks are wondrous. You want one.Following is the review I wrote for the security gateway. It covers the access point too because they operate as a single system.———– This thing, along with the
PRO Access Point
, has really simplified my networking life. My home network is somewhat complicated because there are the various IOT devices and gadgets that I want to keep isolated from my serious systems that are used for work. The reason this Ubiquiti gear has simplified things is that I’ve gone from a cluster of routers/access points down to a nice clean install. The WiFi part of the network can have four SSIDs from that one access point. This is a nice improvement over the purely consumer grade stuff that is being supplanted because I’ve been partitioning via multiple WiFi routers with each having its own SSID.My knowledge level is that I’ve used lots of consumer grade equipment and have turned linux boxes into poor man’s routers. Basically, it’s been setting up SOHO stuff at the start-up level and then getting out of the way when corporate IT types show up with all that fancy (and expensive) CISCO gear. I’ve always been one to suffer a very inexpensive pile of gear over a costly install in a rack. This Unifi gear has me questioning those life choices because the price point drew me in and because it is so much easier to deal with this gear than my old rats nests.The configuration bit isn’t that difficult but there have been a few frustrations along the way. For example, WiFi devices having the same SSID can see each other period. I was hoping to isolate them using firewall rules, but that simply did not work. It would be fantastic if this had worked. Instead, I had to set up additional SSIDs on different VLANs. Regardless – having the flexibility to do this is a huge step forward over my previous headache. Another huge plus is that it is now far easier to install new WiFi devices. My netgear and tp-link devices made it a pain in that they are aimed at the consumer who isn’t very concerned about security. That said – I’m still looking for a MAC whitelist ability in the Unifi software – I really like to lock things down.I currently have the Unifi control software installed on an old laptop and it runs fine. Even so, I’ll certainly be looking into the cloud key and cloud control capabilities. The capabilities of the Unifi configuration/control software are amazing in that it is so much and so easy to get to.The other thing I’m eager to put in place at home is load balanced WLANs. I currently have a cable modem and connect through Comcast. When Comcast craps itself, I’m out of luck. Also, Comcast can’t support a blazingly fast pipe into my house – the wires won’t support it even though they’ll sell me “up to” some impressive speeds. Century link is about the same – there’s fiber nearby but the copper in between ain’t all that. So, it’s now time to get a connection through centurylink, hook it into the WLAN2 port, and see if the two service providers (unknowingly working together) can give me a nice fat pipe.Another thing on the to-do list is setting up VPN through this box so that I can retire the linux box that has been handling that chore.I’m really loving this Unifi gear.If there’s anything disturbing its that this Unifi gear appears to not support IPv6. Yeah, we’re doing OK with just IPv4, but it would be nice to get that IPv6 goodness going just to see what else is enabled.
Dave –
Once again the wifi in our consumer router is starting to die; no matter the brand these things are built to fail after just a couple years. I bought the Ubiquity as an accesspoint to my existing router… was just going to turn off the old antennae. I watched at least a dozen videos, and no dice: the install was a freaking’ nightmare. Gotta install “putty” (oh joy, take me back to the DOS days). Gotta do IP tricks because the default AP is the same as the default Netgear. What a hunk of garbage, I thought, and packaged it up to send back to Amazon. Next day I watched yet another round of install videos, and this time found a reviewer in India who said “Don’t even bother with the stupid Win 10 software – just install the app on your ipad.” An app you say? Found the app, installed it, and it was a completely different experience. The AP was recognized right away, updated the firmware, everything was very easy and just worked. With the old Netgear wifi I was getting 55Mbps in the above bedroom on 5ghz; this speed fell off fast, and then defaulted to 2.4ghz, as the 5ghz signal only went to one room away. With the Ubiquity I got 220Mbps! And at the most extreme corners of the property I still got well over 100 in 5ghz. The 2.4ghz performance was actually not quite as good as the Netgear, but the signal was far more consistent around the house, and I can go into the neighborhood and still connect. Pretty impressive performance, and I doubt this thing will fail. I liked it so much I bought another one as a gift.
Richard F. Weber II –
Basically I bought this as a power-user and have a 2 story colonial, and my previous WiFi router (Netgear) had a hard time reaching all corners of my house due to how it was constructed. I bought this WAP on the recommendation of my brother thinking I might actually need to get 2 in order to have full coverage of my house. Long story short, I need one, I have great coverage and speed. My family (users) are happy!The management software is really powerful and is a power-users dream. It does require a separate system to run on. To start off with I set it up on my Windows PC, then migrated it to a dedicated Linux server in my basement. The software lets you tweak radio strength and channels, provides alerts on unusual activities (like Radar scans being detected), breakdowns on what wireless clients are connected, what channel they’re on, how much bandwidth they’ve used and so.It looks like there are associated security Gateway to provide firewall/VPN and other services as well. Plus that in theory integrates into the management software to give greater insight into your internet performance and reliability. I haven’t bought one of those yet, but I’d love to take it for a spin to seeLong story short, if you understand the acronyms and what I’m saying in this review, then get this WAP. If you don’t understand some advanced networking and wifi terminology, this might not be the best solution for you.Pros:* Great coverage* Management software is very powerful and lets you dig into a ton of details* Management software can run on a separate server/system and isn’t tied to your device.Cons:* Runs a bit hot (wouldn’t put in an attic)* Requires a separate system to run the management software.