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Ubiquiti Rolling Out HomeKit Support for AmpliFi Alien Router

dlewis23 said:
A wifi router that did not let you choose your wifi 6 radio channel till recently because of complaints, defaults to channel 36 in auto mode for 5 GHz no matter whats going on around you and then doesn't let you choose the upper channels of the 5 GHz band is crap.

Trying to make it easy and not be as customizable is fine, but then don't auto select a channel your neighbors wifi is using leading to horrid performance at a high price. There is noting wrong with making the software simple if it actually worked. Eero and Orbi do this far better.

I have dealt with every brand of networking gear, from consumer to commercial. Ubiquiti makes great products, this is not one of them.

They charge $379 for this when you could now go and get a Ubiquiti dreamrouter for almost half the price that is a much better product. And if you really want simple, just get an Eero.
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Their NAS appliances are cheaply made crap. Until very recently, the OS and configuration data was hosted on a cheap USB thumb drive that is glued to the system board. We've averaged between all of our clients them lasting less than a year before they fail.

Their rackmount switches also fail regularly. It's why their products are relatively cheap compared to their competition regarding enterprise grade network equipment.
 
I had two of these, but returned them. Was buggy and speed was just ok. You couldn't specify where it would get its speed data from. Looked cool though.
 
I just had to chime in and add my experience to this discussion.

I am very excited to have HomeKit support added to the Alien. It was totally unexpected and a very nice bonus.

I have had my Alien mesh system (the matched pair) for a couple of years now and they have been by far the most reliable and very performant WiFi system that I’ve ever had. Updates for the router come out regularly, 2-4 updates/year and have never caused any problems. It’s always nice to walk by the router and see that there is an update available and being able to initiate it all without ever touching the app. I rarely use the app, which works well, as these really are a true set-it-and-forget-it appliance. With the Alien system, I have never experienced a WiFi networking issue <knock on wood> and the performance is very close to if not equal to what I saw on my Netgear Orbi system, which is the fastest system I’ve tried.

I have had many WiFi systems over the last few years and will usually give a new system a try to see how I like it during the return period many of which I’ve kept. I’ve had ASUS, Netgear Orbi, Linksys, and Eero systems all of which caused or had some sort of WiFi issue with some of my equipment. Many times they required a regular reboot to keep the systems operating and some ran into trouble due to bad updates that fixed one issue, but caused others. Many of them didn’t provide connections anywhere near the Orbi speeds. I had the Orbi system in use the longest, but it too had its issues that would occasionally cause network failures and connectivity issues, but they provided very fast connections. When the Alien system came into availability locally, I decided to try it out to see what would happen and low and behold all of the niggling connectivity issues vanished overnight. I was very pleasantly surprised.

I’m not saying that the other systems were terrible or are garbage, but they each had a couple of recurring issues that were a bother to have to deal with on a fairly regular basis. They all have their pluses and minuses, but I have yet to have anything come close the the reliability, compatibility, and overall performance of the Alien mesh system.

That’s my two cents.
 
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My Alien is super fast and works with everything except ROKU. Maybe the new firmware will resolve that.
Printer, iPhone, iPad, VOIP server, Alexa dot, iMac (Ethernet connected) all work and this is my second firmware update. I have Infinity router in bridge mode to the UbiquitI.
 
MacRumors said:


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.

Article Link: Ubiquiti Rolling Out HomeKit Support for AmpliFi Alien Router
Click to expand...

It would be nice if there's detailed Homekit documentation about this. I'm very interested in what specific network rules are set for all kinds of devices in every situation. Maybe I can set the same kind of rules in other router/firewalls manually, like PfSense.
 
TimmKook said:
The "router is crap" is a false statement. You might not like the customizability of it, but the range and speeds are fantastic. I'm a network architect and deal with many different routers and networking equipment daily; this is a great "set it and forget it" router. Price is high, but it works, and customers seem to love the ease of use.

Router is not crap. Router is good. But feature-wise, yeah it could use some extra features for power users aka the <1%
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I will be very interested to hear from you on which is the best brand for a wireless mesh system. I was going to go with this one but its price, US only market, and obscurity made me opt for the much more popular Orbi...which has a satellite that keeps disconnecting.
 
mattaaron said:
Hey 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 say :) I 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
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Yeah, updated the firmware and it will not allow homekit in mesh mode. Is this for all mesh configurations (router and dedicated node or two routers in meshmode)? I hope this is addressed later.
 
MacBH928 said:
I will be very interested to hear from you on which is the best brand for a wireless mesh system. I was going to go with this one but its price, US only market, and obscurity made me opt for the much more popular Orbi...which has a satellite that keeps disconnecting.
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I don't use mesh at all (in home applications). I am surprised so many people do, especially people with small houses. I have a decently sized house 4,000+ sqft and I have 1 AmpliFi Alien that reaches the entire house, all 3 levels, plus the garage...and down the street even. I don't understand the obsession with mesh (with any network system for a moderate/small home) and all I ever hear about is problems.
Perhaps a super old house with 10ft thick brick walls or something but barring that I don't know.
So I don't know how well the Alien does in a mesh environment from firsthand experience so I cannot say.
 
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BaracksPhallusPalace said:
Their NAS appliances are cheaply made crap. Until very recently, the OS and configuration data was hosted on a cheap USB thumb drive that is glued to the system board. We've averaged between all of our clients them lasting less than a year before they fail.

Their rackmount switches also fail regularly. It's why their products are relatively cheap compared to their competition regarding enterprise grade network equipment.
Click to expand...

Heard and seen a lot of this. But I have been using their Edgerouters forever and their AP's and never had a failure of a single one.

I have 3 of the U6 LR access points in my house and they are the just about the best performing wifi networking for the price. Blows away any consumer wifi.
 
TimmKook said:
I don't use mesh at all (in home applications). I am surprised so many people do, especially people with small houses. I have a decently sized house 4,000+ sqft and I have 1 AmpliFi Alien that reaches the entire house, all 3 levels, plus the garage...and down the street even. I don't understand the obsession with mesh (with any network system for a moderate/small home) and all I ever hear about is problems.
Perhaps a super old house with 10ft thick brick walls or something but barring that I don't know.
So I don't know how well the Alien does in a mesh environment from firsthand experience so I cannot say.
Click to expand...

Actually it depends a LOT on the infrastructure and materials your house is made off too just as much as it’s size. New or old. I get WiFi all round my home but I get half the signal upstairs I do down when using one router downstairs only, so I use a MESH system to boost it all. It does make a difference as the weaker the signal the slower the slower the speeds.
 
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TimmKook said:
I don't use mesh at all (in home applications). I am surprised so many people do, especially people with small houses. I have a decently sized house 4,000+ sqft and I have 1 AmpliFi Alien that reaches the entire house, all 3 levels, plus the garage...and down the street even. I don't understand the obsession with mesh (with any network system for a moderate/small home) and all I ever hear about is problems.
Perhaps a super old house with 10ft thick brick walls or something but barring that I don't know.
So I don't know how well the Alien does in a mesh environment from firsthand experience so I cannot say.
Click to expand...
You hit the nail on the head for my house. My 1906 home is a WiFi nightmare with thick (but not 10ft thick) walls, floors, and ceilings, plus detached garage 50ft from the home. Making things worse are the plaster-and-lath walls. I have just under 4800 sq. ft. and have eight (yes, 8) eeroPro’s distributed throughout and in the garage. I have fiber to the home and get 300mbps synchronously. In most home locations, I get about half that for WiFi speeds, and about 30mbps in the garage, and the full 300mbps on Ethernet connections. Wish WiFi was better but at least I have coverage pretty much everywhere.

My eeroPro setup replaced a Linksys EA9500 and range extenders which in turn replaced an Apple Airport Extreme and Base units. To date, the eeroPro’s have delivered excellent reliability and speeds as mentioned above. I have about a dozen or so HomeKit smartplugs which are iffy and usually go offline whenever a router reboot takes place. Most of these smartplugs are iHome devices and a few are WeMo; WeMo units have worked flawlessly, not so much the iHome ones.
 
TimmKook said:
I don't use mesh at all (in home applications). I am surprised so many people do, especially people with small houses. I have a decently sized house 4,000+ sqft and I have 1 AmpliFi Alien that reaches the entire house, all 3 levels, plus the garage...and down the street even. I don't understand the obsession with mesh (with any network system for a moderate/small home) and all I ever hear about is problems.
Perhaps a super old house with 10ft thick brick walls or something but barring that I don't know.
So I don't know how well the Alien does in a mesh environment from firsthand experience so I cannot say.
Click to expand...

My house is basically a concrete box, wifi does not go through it very well at all. If I did not have a mesh system but had just 1 wifi access point 75% of my house would not be covered. My home is only about 2000 sq. ft. Where I live this is how most new-ish homes are built because of hurricanes. We also have impact windows here that make it very difficult to get a signal outside.
 
My house is about 12,000 sq. ft, two floors, all brick. I have the UDR and 6 APs (U6 Mesh). Doesn't help that the fibre cable comes in at one side of the house, so I need to plan accordingly to get the entire house covered. Two APs are wired, not possible for the others. I have an extensive HomeKit setup (mostly Hue lights, and some smart plugs, cameras etc) and since I've installed the UniFi system, it all works flawlessly.
 
OK. This is both bizarre and a pleasant surprise.

A few months ago, I had bought an Eve Weather, which supports Thread, to record the temperature in my garage. I was disappointed to find out that the device only seemed to update the temperature history in the Eve app when you browse to the the accessory and wait for several minutes. Turns out, this is a major criticism on Amazon, to the point where, because you have to manually pull the data, it can't be used for home automation. Yesterday, my Amplifi Alien updated to support HomeKit Secure Routing. Since HomeKit Secure Routing has been enabled, the Eve Weather updates the temperature information instantly. It's like this has secretly been a firewall issue all along, and HomeKit Secure Routing fixed it, but no one knows about this.
 
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MacRumors said:


Ubiquiti earlier this week announced that it is rolling out firmware version 3.7.0 for its AmpliFi Alien router, which delivers HomeKit support.

amplifi_alien_hero.jpg

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
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I gave this router… absolutely live it!

Best router ever! Just stuck an apple logo on it… call it the extreme alien … the lcd is sweet…. I’m surprised apple didn’t buy thia company to fix the airport line…
 
mattaaron said:
Hey 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 say :) I 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.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that won't work if you have two Alien routers it will suggest to disable Mesh. Otherwise, it's great device and speeds are insane.
IMG_2741.jpeg
 
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TimmKook said:
I don't use mesh at all (in home applications). I am surprised so many people do, especially people with small houses. I have a decently sized house 4,000+ sqft and I have 1 AmpliFi Alien that reaches the entire house, all 3 levels, plus the garage...and down the street even. I don't understand the obsession with mesh (with any network system for a moderate/small home) and all I ever hear about is problems.
Perhaps a super old house with 10ft thick brick walls or something but barring that I don't know.
So I don't know how well the Alien does in a mesh environment from firsthand experience so I cannot say.
Click to expand...

Your house might be built with more flimsy material like gypsum and wood. For houses built with bricks and metal beams I assure you the limit is about 2 walls and nothing further not to mention the degrade in bandwidth.

Even if you do get a signal, if you pay for 100mbps all you will get is 25Mbps so its not about is there wifi or is there no wifi but the quality of the signal too.
 
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Don't get too excited about HomeKit support, as there's a problem. Check out comments on Ubiquiti's Facebook group. Yes, FB, as they're shutting down their support forum and are using FB for their support.

I've had my Alien & Meshpoint (hardwired backhaul) for over a year. Love it, but don't like the idea that they're not going to support multi-gig ethernet and no word on WPA3.
 
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MacBH928 said:
Your house might be built with more flimsy material like gypsum and wood. For houses built with bricks and metal beams I assure you the limit is about 2 walls and nothing further not to mention the degrade in bandwidth.

Even if you do get a signal, if you pay for 100mbps all you will get is 25Mbps so its not about is there wifi or is there no wifi but the quality of the signal too.
Click to expand...
Brick house (exterior, not that that matters). I pay for 350mpbs and I get 350mbps throughout the whole house. Basement. First. And second floor. Only place it drops is far outside the garage and there I get 250-300ish (still, can't complain).

Optimal placement of the router is essential. Don't put it in a drawer in a closet in a basement like most tech-impaired folks do and you'll be fine. I see this every day with different clients. Bad placement.

And no, my interior walls are not bricks. I don't live in a barn or commercial warehouse or 300 year old house so I don't have to worry about that. Just a nice residential suburban house.

Trust me, if I was getting 25mbps I'd be beyond pissed and would get a mesh network.

Everyone's house is different though, so hey, they can do what they gotta do to get the right speeds that satisfy them.
 
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