Hi
Amen PhilipD.
I have no idea why Ubiquiti kit gets the following it does. I had no idea you had to use an installed program (let alone a java one) to manage things... what gives?
Many corners of the internet recommend their stuff without question.
I bought into as well as the first ceiling access point I got was a Uni-Fi after reading up about options on the Internet. I'm sure there stuff isn't terrible, I just don't consider it good at the price and can't understand why people rate it so high. I suspect though once a network manager has made the decision to go Uni-Fi and a company is flooded with their kit and echo system costing thousands of pounds, it becomes very difficult for that IT manager to turn around and admit that perhaps it wasn't the best kit after all and they should be fired :-) So perhaps everyone keeps up the pretence.
I think its because for a while at least, they were about the cheapest provider of commercial grade (as in, better than consumer) equipment.
They seem to get there by releasing Beta firmware at launch of products, which often still makes them better than consumer gear (which feels like Beta forever in some cases) but rather problematic if you actually need commercial quality.
Yes you are probably right there, they sort of came about first and offered an alternative to Cisco type kit that is the opposite end of the price spectrum.
The nanoHD doesn't look too bad, but my god the Zyxel here looks like a proper industrial design intended to last a long time in a commercial space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH4GW4rzN90
The nanoHD does look a bit better build wise but still appears to be the cheapest design possible, you can see what I mean about the snap together case, just cheap, and feels cheap. Granted they don't need to built like tanks being mounted high up on the ceiling, but even so.
Regards
Phil