This router looks sooooo cool. I mean, I'd get it just for looks presuming it works at least as well as what I have now.
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Ubiquiti Rolling Out HomeKit Support for AmpliFi Alien Router
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I don't know where you're drawing those conclusions from... Ubiquity have released a LOAD of stuff in the past 36 months. Router-wise: UDM, UDM PRO, Dream Router, UDM Special Edition, Dream Wall and Dream Wall pro. Then network-wise: countless flavours of Wifi 6 access points and switches.... and that's not including the raft of Unifi Protect hardware: doorbells, cams, door locks etc... Getting stock is the only issue I can seed over at their store.
Plus, their unifi controller software has been updated countless times in the past 12 months along with the firmware for all their routers, switches and AP's.
That’s under the Ubiquiti umbrella, some have even said they are releasing far too many new products leading to their existing ones to suffer from poor firmware.
Under the Amplifi umbrella on the other hand they haven’t released anything since the Alien router 2 years ago, hence the comment by the person you quoted.
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Eero dropped HK support on the 6E Pro. They didn’t want to keep updating it. Apparently it’s resource heavy to maintain?
Ubiquiti earlier this week announced that it is rolling out firmware version 3.7.0 for its AmpliFi Alien router, which delivers HomeKit support.
HomeKit support allows the router to be managed from the Home app across Apple's platforms to adjust security settings for various HomeKit accessories installed in the home. The functionality serves to firewall HomeKit devices by allowing them to communicate only with other approved devices, helping secure potentially sensitive accessories such as cameras from unauthorized access.
Only a few brands such as Linksys and Eero have supported HomeKit on select routers so far, so Ubiquiti is a notable addition.
Ubiquiti says the firmware update is a staged automatic rollout, but instructions for manually updating to the latest version are linked in the announcement. Users will also need the latest version of the AmpliFi WiFi app for iPhone.
(Thanks, Scott!)
Article Link: Ubiquiti Rolling Out HomeKit Support for AmpliFi Alien Router
I've had this router for two years now and it's been the most solid router I've ever had when it comes to Homekit based automations. I even have 4 eufy cameras on the network, which if you do any searching on them you'll see homekit issues galore, but with this router, I've never had any issue with them let alone any homekit device and the whole "updating" or "no response" or any of the weird stuff you get with many homekit issues.
It's not cheap. There are more bang for your buck devices out there for sure. But this is by far the most solid router I've ever had and that includes even over my Apple router I had (pre-homekit). But I will say this router feels like the closest to an apple product of all the routers I've had and I set up all my families routers too. So in our family there are Linksys Velop (lots of homekit issues), Netgear (pretty good) and Eero routers (pretty good), and then my Alien.
Only thing I'd suggest is that if you need two Aliens. Buy them individually. The one that comes as a pair are hardware linked and only create limitations on expansion.
It's not cheap. There are more bang for your buck devices out there for sure. But this is by far the most solid router I've ever had and that includes even over my Apple router I had (pre-homekit). But I will say this router feels like the closest to an apple product of all the routers I've had and I set up all my families routers too. So in our family there are Linksys Velop (lots of homekit issues), Netgear (pretty good) and Eero routers (pretty good), and then my Alien.
Only thing I'd suggest is that if you need two Aliens. Buy them individually. The one that comes as a pair are hardware linked and only create limitations on expansion.
If my memory is any good. I am pretty sure the Alien router was one of the first Wi-Fi 6 routers. Does it need updated: hell yes.
Does the company make great networking gear - yeah (just never seems to be in stock, and generally not under the AMPLIFI brand but their Unifi brand).
Edit: just looked at their site
store.ui.com
Might be a better alternative (would need to check HomeKit)
Does the company make great networking gear - yeah (just never seems to be in stock, and generally not under the AMPLIFI brand but their Unifi brand).
Edit: just looked at their site
Dream Router
A UniFi OS Console with an integrated WiFi 6 router and multiple PoE ports. Capable of hosting the entire UniFi application suite, the Dream Router offers a complete UniFi solution particularly ideal for home users. Features: 5 GHz WiFi band with a 2.4 Gbps throughput rate 2.4 GHz WiFi band...
Might be a better alternative (would need to check HomeKit)
I specifically upgraded to Eero because this one didn‘t support HomeKit… Guess I’ll be upgrading to amplifi!
Does this router store it‘s configuration locally? I currently use Eero and everything is in the cloud. If you miss configure your DNS or something like that, it will lose connection and you’re required to factory reset to get it working again. The reason why this matters to me is that once Eero LOST my vlan and PPPoE settings overnight and I lost internet for a long time before I could figure out what happened. Because it’s stored in the cloud, if you type your password wrong, you have to RESET the router. IT’s awful.
Is the amplifi Like that or is it stored locally on the routers?
I have this one, and love it. Very very stable, never have had issues so far. But it does not have HomeKit Support.If my memory is any good. I am pretty sure the Alien router was one of the first Wi-Fi 6 routers. Does it need updated: hell yes.
Does the company make great networking gear - yeah (just never seems to be in stock, and generally not under the AMPLIFI brand but their Unifi brand).
Edit: just looked at their site
Dream Router
A UniFi OS Console with an integrated WiFi 6 router and multiple PoE ports. Capable of hosting the entire UniFi application suite, the Dream Router offers a complete UniFi solution particularly ideal for home users. Features: 5 GHz WiFi band with a 2.4 Gbps throughput rate 2.4 GHz WiFi band...
Might be a better alternative (would need to check HomeKit)
Well this is good news as I've been wanting to jump into Homekit for a while. This helps. And about this router being crap, it isn't. It happens to be reliable as Hell. My wife's music school was having a hard time with three different mesh networks over a 2100 sq ft facility that has a lot of metal in the walls and ceilings. Constant drop outs were unavoidable. This includes Wifi6 mesh systems from Netgear Orbi, Asus and Linksys. All of them failed to various degrees. I bought two individual Aliens (not the matched pair) and it has been rock solid ever since. I've wanted to run a cable to connect them through a wired backbone but I haven't really had to as the 5ghz backbone works just fine. I've had a couple of rare Iphone connection issues but thats about it, and this is in a facility that's running about 30 concurrent connections at a time, several conducting classes via streaming.
I bought the same setup for my home, but in this case I bought the matched pair. Again, solid and reliable. And the screen has been quite useful because I can see what's going on with the router at a glance, without having to pick up my phone or use a computer. Have a firmware update? Press the "update" button on the screen. Wondering what the network health is? Just look at it. Wanna know who's connected? Yep, just look at it. Everything you need is there.
I bought the same setup for my home, but in this case I bought the matched pair. Again, solid and reliable. And the screen has been quite useful because I can see what's going on with the router at a glance, without having to pick up my phone or use a computer. Have a firmware update? Press the "update" button on the screen. Wondering what the network health is? Just look at it. Wanna know who's connected? Yep, just look at it. Everything you need is there.
The only issue I ever had with the Alien router was maybe 18 months ago when a 5GHZ device connected to the router and the Additional 5 GHZ radio was on. The connection was spotty. Called support, and they went through the config, identified the issue very quickly, recommended that I turn off the second 5ghz radio and all was good with the world. While it is only a work around, they informed me that a firmware update would address the problem, and it did. They even checked back in with me once the firmware release. I really like this mesh setup (again, with two routers and not the dedicated mesh node).
And let's also hope the UDR comes back in stock sometime soon....
Edit: I ended up pulling the trigger on a UDM-SE instead. The UDM and UDR fetch close to the same price on resell which is ridiculous. So while it's a bit of money, I won't have to buy another router for the foreseeable future.
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Homebridge which runs on Node.js has excellent Unifi Protect support. Even supports Apple's secure video.
GitHub - hjdhjd/homebridge-unifi-protect: :video_camera: Complete HomeKit integration for all UniFi Protect device types with full support for most features including HomeKit Secure Video, and more. https://homebridge.io
:video_camera: Complete HomeKit integration for all UniFi Protect device types with full support for most features including HomeKit Secure Video, and more. https://homebridge.io - hjdhjd/homebrid...
github.com
I am 2 rooms away from my alien, and its performing excellent! 920MB on fast.com via my gigabit connection, and not mine also is not on 36. my mesh point (which is actually another router in mesh mode) is on a DFS channel and also working great.
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This… and Ubiquiti has been a bit… uhhh, shall we say "unresponsive"… "slow to respond"?… to calls from the community to add back features or straight FIX features that never really worked properly, like the HomeKit issue (since mDNS that HomeKit uses extensively has effectively been broken in UniFi Networking since inception; see the use of mDNS Reflector vs Repeater, and all the bad things with the former). It is a real head scratcher why Ubiquiti has been so slow on some of that kind of stuff while the world progresses around them. And it is only going to get worse as things like Matter/Thread show up more in commercial IoT. (Plus… can they JUST put NTPd/SNTPd on the UDMs already??)
I started to see the "former Apple employees" problem quite clearly when they released UniFi Protect with NO support for ONVIF devices. The NIH syndrome. Was absurd. And now that you can't even get their cams… just not a sustainable business model in the Enterprise space in which they claim they're targeting. I'd considered getting a UDR to replace my eero system… but… no… not going to drop that cash until Ubiquiti shows it will be worth it… and I'm a guy who sits in front of the UniFi Dashboard daily for a living.
I’ve had my Alien since the beginning. It’s been a fantastic powerful router. Very reliable and stable with the best customer support bar none. Usually router companies tell you to go pound sand but our online community has brought issues to their attention and they were always fixed. Even more so, features that didn’t ship with the product at release, were added over time. To name a few; DFS channels, 160mhz channel width, now HomeKit and WP3 is on the horizon.
Edit: Also whenever serious router vulnerabilities/hacks are reported, the Alien is never on the list, but everyone else is!
Edit: Also whenever serious router vulnerabilities/hacks are reported, the Alien is never on the list, but everyone else is!
That’s a great example of taking the cloud too far and not thinking their decisions through. That PM needs to be let go.
Yes the Alien settings are all local. You can access them with or without internet.
UI just needs to fix their supply chain logistics issues other than that their products are getting better and better.
but it displays temps in Fahrenheit?? gross! I hope that's configurableHey I’ve got this router, 2 of them in fact, I’ve had 0 issues, such a good, fast, sleek router, nothing but good things to sayI wish it supported more then 1Gbps, but there’s not a lot of routers that do right now.
Downside of this announcement is it only works if you use 1 Alien router, if you have 2 it won’t. Hope that’s a fix they’ll be rolling out.View attachment 2029721