Ghosts in our 6 New Ubiquity Pros - provision issues.

Fri Jun 19 14:19:52 UTC 2015

Mel,
Thanks, for all the detail.

Everything is in doors and directly connected by new 3 to 6 foot
manufactured cables on a cisco switches. All cables have been changed -
even tired crossover cables - same results.

I'm thinking it has something to do with the controller
communications...All these APs shouldn't need a controller after
configuration and boot up. But we leave it up.

Thank You
Bob Evans
CTO

> 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 at 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 at buzcom.net
>>
>>> On 19 Jun 2015, at 11:01, Bob Evans <bob at 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>