Point to Point Unifi Setup

Technology Networking
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I like to keep things short and simple so if you’re looking for a point to point set-up, then this “guide” is for you.

I looked into a few different PTP set-ups and eventually went with Ubiquiti NanoBeam ac Gen2 High-Performance airMAX ac Bridge (NBE-5AC-Gen2-US) since I have some of their equipment and was hoping it would integrate well with the rest of the equipment. Spoiler Alert… it does not appear on the controller as a device but only a client.

Needs:

  • Quick
  • Easy Deployment
  • Not networking savvy
  • Set-it and forget it attitude
  • Less than 50 meters. Basically from my house to a neighbor across the street

The set-up:

  1. Plug-in one unit, go to the default 192.168.1.20 assigned to the device and set it up. If your network is on a different subnet then manually change it to 192.168.1.XX.
  2. Under wireless, set up a SSID and password. This is for the management radio not the WIFI the end client will use.
  3. Wireless mode: Access Point PTP or in the newer firmware, i believe it is AP PTP.
  4. Be careful not to set your Output power too low. Mine is set at 6dBm and distance is 0.1 mi.
  5. Under network, everything was kept as default except I allowed Management Network Settings to use DHCP and applied a fixed IP to it in the unifi GUI. Fill in the fallback DHCP IP to the fixed IP.
  6. Under System, i changed the device name to help differentiate.

Follow the exact same steps for the other one, except this time the Wireless mode should be station.
POE Pass-through ON if you’re going to power only 1 AP.

That’s it for set-up. However, I did notice that if I used a different DNS in the unifi controller under my LAN settings, the AP attached at the end would not get connected. I am still using Pihole under WAN and that works except now, all queries are from my router rather than the individual internal devices.

My signal strength on a clear day is -43 and when it is raining it is about the same plus or minus a 4.
Throughput is as advertised so really no concerns there.

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How is this setup holding up, months later?

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So if you had asked me about a month ago, I would have said great, had an issue during a storm that blew out the ethernet port. I thought it was a little odd, but to amazon I went and bought two more to replace them.

Starting about last week, the wireless access point receives a different IP address so it’s not resolving properly. I did some troubleshooting and couldnt figure it out. Now the PTP does not not even light up even though they are both plugged in. There’s some more troubleshooting to be done such as changing the ethernet wire, but that’s in the attic to the outside of the house; which is not ideal for one person.

Will try when life is a bit less hectic but as of right now would not recommend.

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