Re: Ghosts in our 6 New Ubiquity Pros - provision issues.

[Mel Beckman <mel () beckman org>]

Bob,  I've deployed tons of Ubiquiti gear, and have seen this problem before. It always turns out to be poor quality 
cable installation. POE does not tolerate low quality connectors, especially in outdoor environments. There are many 
aspects to a quality cabling job, so the best thing you can do is seek out a qualified installer with outdoor POE 
experience. 

The most common problem I see is people using crimp-on RJ45 connectors directly on the ends of their cable runs. This 
is not how structured cabling is designed to work, in particular because most crimp-on connectors are intended for 
stranded copper wire (such as that used in very flexible patch cords, designed to run horizontally over only a few 
dozens of feet), whereas the "riser" and "plenum" cable used for long-distance runs has solid core wires. The tiny 
teeth in standard crimp connectors are designed to penetrate stranded wire, to make a solid electrical contact. With 
solid core wire, they just bend to the side of the copper core, making tenuous contact, which will conduct POE current 
poorly (resulting in the resets you see) and eventually fail altogether as the improper connection corrodes over time. 

The correct installation process is to use "punch-down" RJ45 jacks at each end of the cable run, and connect from those 
jacks to your equipment (radio at one end, POE switch at the other). On the outdoor side, the jack/plug junction needs 
to be in a NEMA weatherproof enclosure, with weathertight fittings. And, for human and equipment safety, you must use 
shielded Cat5e/6 cable anytime you go outdoors, grounding only one end (usually the radio end), and protecting the 
cable with an inline lightning protector between the RJ45 jack  and the radio. 

If you haven't done that, then that's the first thing to fix. 

BTW, avoid homemade patch cables whenever possible. Quality factory cables are hydraulically pressed and the plug is 
hermetically fused for a vastly superior connection compared to anything you can do with simple hand crimpers. And all 
outdoor cables must be UV-grade cabling with weatherproof sheathing and water repellant inside (so-called "flooded" 
cable).

 -mel beckman

> On Jun 19, 2015, at 4:54 AM, Hal Ponton <hal () buzcom net> wrote:
>
> What version of the controller are you using, we're running 3.something at that works fine.
>
> We've turned off auto update on all of the sites on the server, and Nagios monitors them, we certainly don't see 
> reboots 2-3 times a day, the last time ours rebooted was when we lost power at our office.
>
> Contact me off list if you want me to take a look.
>
> Regards,
>
> Hal Ponton
>
> Senior Network Engineer
>
> Buzcom / FibreWiFi
>
> Tel: 07429 979 217
> Email: hal () buzcom net
>
> > On 19 Jun 2015, at 11:01, Bob Evans <bob () FiberInternetCenter com> wrote:
> >
> > Ubiquiti Networks UniFi UAP-PRO Enterprise WiFi System - hard to recommend
> > at this point. We saw people mention this brand here on the list - people
> > like them. So what could we have set incorrectly ? They drop link and
> > re-provision on their own at odd times day or night.
> >
> > We have completed everything tech support asked of us. (Really, lame
> > emails they respond with as if they didn't read your text - they won't
> > call and you can't call them). We used POE from ciscos - then changed to
> > their POE provided. They didn't recommend it, but we plugged them all into
> > APC UPSes..... no difference. They all re-provision at different times
> > even when no one is connected or in the building at odd hours like 2am.
> > Each one does this 2-3 times per 24 hour period.
> >
> > Has anyone else experienced this?
> > Anyone know what we may have set incorrectly ?
> > Is this normal - do people put up with the 2 mins the APs are unavailable
> > about 3 times a day? (UniFi support acts like it's not a big issues.)
> >
> > We use the UniFi controller on mac os x. We use their EdgeMax Edge Router.
> > All the latest software in everything UniFi.
> >
> > Thank You
> > Bob Evans