Here’s a youtube video
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Close to 2.5 million views as of this moment Fri, 10/14 8:20AM PDT)
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Close to 2.5 million views as of this moment Fri, 10/14 8:20AM PDT)
Wow, BrittleRock, that is a lot. I did say it was an awesome video! It should end up with a lot of sales.
Saul
Thanks Saul,
I sent the link to our network admin. Our business is small - a group of engineers, field construction superintendents, accountants, and estimators plus 100 shop employees. We are spread over roughly a city block with four buildings.
We had trouble staying connected to our wifi until earlier this year. We replaced Cisco routers with Ubiquiti’s UniFi access points. I asked why he chose Ubiquiti and our net admin said he researched it and found these were the best out there for keeping connected between buildings. Our guests and smartphones now have better, faster service too. I’m technology impaired so I don’t know the details but this video has some wow-factor.
Joe
Long UBNT
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I’m not very tech savvy…can someone explain to me whether this product speeds up whatever wifi speed you currently have? That’s what the video seems to suggest.
At the same time, the video started out by suggesting that the purpose of the product is the make sure everyone within a large space remains connected to the available wi-fi.
So is this new consumer product for increasing speed or ensuring connection, …or both?
I also did not see anything in the video to suggest the price of the product.
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I did some research, and still don’t know the answers to the questions I posed in my post above.
I did, however, learn that the price ranges from $149 to $349, basically depending upon how large of a space within which you need wifi coverage.
I also learned of one potential drawback to this product:
the lack of an onboard firewall. Based upon a review I read regarding this product, most routers on the market today have an onboard firewall. So, if you rely on your router to keep your network safe, this product might not be the best choice.
Not trying to dampen spirits here; I just think it might be helpful to know more about the product before getting overly excited.
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Well Windows also comes with built-in firewall.
Whether you want to rely on it or not is your preference.
Not it won’t increase your internet speed.
You have one connection between your house/office and your ISP. That’s your internet connection. The speed is usually determined by
- The advertised speed
- The distance between you and the telephone exchange
- How busy/congested the line is (i.e. if the link/cable between the telephone exchange and the ISP is small and there are a lot of users). So at peak times your connection might slow.
So that’s your internet speed, from your modem to the ISP.
However, you also have a connection between your computer to your modem. If you have more than one PC, this is usually done via a router, or often the router and modem are in one piece. This is typically done via a cable or by wifi. If you’re using a cable you probably won’t have a problem. However if you’re using wifi, this may be the bottle-neck to how fast your internet experience is.
The further away from your router via wifi connection, the more your speed and reliability is affected. Amplifi just uses extenders to extend the range of the wifi router. If you’re in a small house/flat, probably not useful. If you use a large office or have a large house, or have a garden that you might want to connect something to your wifi network from the other end of the garden…pretty useful!
Incidentally, a relatively cheap router will give you 50mbps wifi connection if you’re in a small flat with not too many connections going on. ( like myself). However, this is cool that’s for sure.
Definitely room for improvement and making more options stuff for power users. This is UBNT working themselves into the consumer market which is great.
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A firewall on my PC doesn’t protect the whole network. A networked printer or drive for example don’t really offer firewalls. A firewall on the router that connects to the outside world does. That device is generally provided by the ISP. If the broadband router/modem that connects you to the outside world includes a firewall (mine does, or claims to) you are all set.
Thanks you Billy. I sure appreciate all the information!
I think the distinction of whether the router has a firewall or not is significant. I am outside of the realm of the usual non-business user … and, indeed, many business users … in that I have my own mail server on the network. This means that outside users have the IP address of the WAN side of the router as the place to send mail and any SMTP traffic the router receives is routed to the mail server. But, this is incredibly isolated compared to all traffic being routed to every device.
I also learned of one potential drawback to this product:
the lack of an onboard firewall
Is it being used as a router or a wireless AP? You could always just plug it into the router which will have the firewall and just use it for as a wireless AP
“Is it being used as a router or a wireless AP? You could always just plug it into the router which will have the firewall and just use it for as a wireless AP”
I’m confused by your response… it IS a router.
az5speedy: I’m not very tech savvy…can someone explain to me whether this product speeds up whatever wifi speed you currently have?
While that is a cool marketing video, in reality AmpliFi does nothing to speed up a network connection. What it does is ensure you get the maximum possible speed out of your WiFi connection (or at least improved speed) by providing a stronger WiFi signal.
az5speedy: I also learned of one potential drawback to this product:
the lack of an onboard firewall.
I just looked through the user guide … AmpliFi does have a firewall, it just doesn’t make a big issue of it because it is a very basic firewall with minimal features exposed to the user. This was clearly a choice to keep the interface simple. Firewalls get very complex very fast and this is a device designed for extremely simple setup.
For a simple setup in a home or small business this will be fine. Anyone who needs a more advanced firewall will already have a separate device with the appropriate capabilities. I see this as a good choice for Ubiquity.
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I hate to rain on the parade but as investors all of you need to be aware that this is not a revolutionary product. Merely evolutionary. A very important evolution filling a very real need, but still merely an inevitable evolution in network technology.
AmpliFi solves a known problem in wireless networking with a known solution.
The Problem
A wireless access point emits a WiFi signal from a single location. As the a connected device (your smartphone, for example) gets further away from the access point the signal gets weaker, errors occur, and transfer speeds decrease.
Anyone using WiFi has likely experienced this problem. Using WiFi at a restaurant? Perhaps some tables it works great but other tables you cannot even connect. WiFi at home? Perhaps it works great on one floor of your house but you have problems on another floor
The Solution
The solution is simple: Add a WiFi repeater. (Ubiquiti is calling this a “mesh point”) A WiFi repeater extends the range of the WiFi access point signal in a way that is transparent to the user. This has been a common solution for almost as long as WiFi access points have existed.
Here is a good article explaining some details:
https://www.repeaterstore.com/pages/wifi-booster-repeater-ex…
How is Ubiquiti AmpliFi different?
There are a few difficulties in the above solution which are solved by AmpliFi:
- Average users don’t know the solution exists.
- Repeater setup is confusing to average users.
- Many repeaters provide poor performance (slow speeds)
- A badly configured repeater may cause new problems.
AmpliFi is primarily a device which takes a known solution to a known problem and wraps it in a simple user interface which “just works”.
How exciting is this as an investor in UBNT?
As a potential user I am excited by the ease of network configuration.
As an investor I am interested but not excited.
This is a “first of breed” type product which will likely give a boost to UBNT but it has no inherent moat. Nothing that cannot be easily repeated by another company. Given the increasing prevalence of wireless devices I expect to see a large variety of such integrated solutions in the near future.
The real news: Ubiquiti cares about user experience
A very recent change in the tech world is an awareness of the importance of carefully designed human-computer interfaces. Geeks of the world are happy to tinker with complex interfaces but average users need simplicity and easy setup. Bravo to Ubiquiti for being an early adopter of this concept in networking technology!
As an investor, here is the question I am asking after seeing this new product:
How long until other companies realize the importance of an improved user interface?
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The solution is simple: Add a WiFi repeater. (Ubiquiti is calling this a “mesh point”) A WiFi repeater extends the range of the WiFi access point signal in a way that is transparent to the user. This has been a common solution for almost as long as WiFi access points have existed.
This is not quite true. Mesh is nothing new but it works a bit different than repeaters. Each Mesh point talks to each other but repeaters only talk back to the central point
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/wireless-repeater-vs-mesh-net…
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/wireless…
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I’m confused by your response… it IS a router.
The few wireless routers I’ve used allowed me to use it as a stand alone wireless endpoint, so you turn off NAT and any firewall and use another router for those functions. If it lacks a firewall or has a limited one, you can probably plug into your existing router by the gigabit port and then use to just for the better wireless performance.
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Exactly Othalan. I have used a router downstairs with a very cool wifi repeater upstairs for years now. It is a very compact 1 inch white cube that has a wall outlet plug. Solved my upstairs connection issues perfectly. It is a slower connection speed, but for my Web browsing use I see no change in performance.
However, when I play online multi-player games even the downstairs WiFi router is too slow with the latest Linksys. I had to run an ethernet cable thru the floor to make that work with no lags.
My point is that UBNT product would give the near ethernet performance using WiFi. If you are in need of that kind of bandwidth wirelessly in multiple locations, that product is the solution. If it is a big market I guarantee other competing products will be on the market with the same performance very soon.
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jdc115: This is not quite true. Mesh is nothing new but it works a bit different than repeaters. Each Mesh point talks to each other but repeaters only talk back to the central point
Oops, you are exactly right. That is what I get for writing a post in the middle of a sleepless night, forgetting my own well known facts! Still … same basic issue. The mesh network isn’t even close to the interesting thing to me as an investor.
Some believe that others will enter this space if UBNT shows there is demand in the market. Recall that UBNT has a major advantage over most companies it competes against. UBNT doesn’t have to pay a sales force. This allows UBNT to compete at price points lower than everyone else. Surely competition may drive the price down, but if a price war ensues, UBNT shouldn’t have a problem competing.
And, for now, there don’t appear to be better options available so they are in the lead out of the gate. Or should I say, I’m not aware of better options.
Just a thought.
AJ
Currently i do not hold UBNT. My first reaction to this product was, well, it seems pretty cool, but how is it different from an inexpensive repeater?
Someone here (I forget who) described the differences and advantages of this product. I’m not sure it’s enough of a difference to make a difference to most people.
Another post said that this product has a “friendly user interface.” Well, I’ve designed a lot of user interfaces in my former job. So here’s the option, add a repeater to your existing router or tear out your existing network (after the modem) and install this thing fresh.
What do you think is the simpler interface, add what pretty much amounts to wall-wart to your existing network, or scrap everything and rebuild it with this device? OK, some folks are going to want the added wifi speed they’ll get with this product, but I would venture that most of the folks that lust for speed are in the geek category (I think the primary market for this gadget). Most other folks will not want the extra hassle and expense.
I’m having a lot of trouble trying to figure out who will buy this box under what circumstances. I just don’t see a big market for it. I think most people will decide that the easiest, cheapest route is good enough if they truly have problem to begin with (which I’d venture is a small segment right from the get-go).
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