Hello pals,

As in the title, is there any opensource or friendly open Wireless Access Point? or DIY solution ? I don’t ask for easy one, as long as it is performant.

I have actually two UniFi AP but these cloudy devices are getting on my nerve and honestly.

    • Dandroid@dandroid.app
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      1 year ago

      Openwrt is really cool. I was the lead engineer on a router that was essentially a fork of openwrt. If you’re willing to learn Lua and figure out how it all works despite their nearly non-existent documentation, you can customize the UI, add new UI elements, or even add whole new UI pages. For example, on our router, we added an IPsec package, so I had to make a UI page for it.

      The whole gimmick of our router was that it could be configured by the smart home controller that the company was already selling. So I designed and implemented a whole REST API in Lua on it.

      It was a really fun project. But then a mega corporation bought us, so I bailed because they sucked.

        • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          How do you manage to flash them, as OpenWRT states that of 2018 they aren’t supported anymore. (Ubi decided to sign the firmware)

          • SmoochPooch@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You have to do some digging to get downgrade firmware. This site has a working link to v3.2 https://www.kiwivoip.co.nz/support/unifi-uap-lr-old-firmware-upgrade/

            I’ve never actually done the process tbh. All I know is I keep cleaning them up and people keep buying them in packs of 3 🤷

            I refuse to install Unifi equipment nowadays. They’ve alienated professional installers over the years in favour of targeting prosumers.

            • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Ah, ok. That’s for the old ones. I’m using the nanoHD and a gifted AC lite. The devices work nicely, the software however, I’m not liking it a lot. As long as they work they can stay, but already I’m battling to keep their software running, as I’m running Debian trixie and unifi wants a mongodb install that isn’t available anymore.

    • jeanma@lemmy.ninjaOP
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      1 year ago

      I would have expected something with Atheros, they were known to be FOSS friendly. but yeah, I didn’t encounter such chip for a while now. I don’t mind too much the drivers are closed sources - even though Broadcom is known to be a pain in the ass - as long as the “OS” and control software are opensource.

      • Lrobie@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There’s support coming for wifi 6 Qualcomm Atheros chips. The images are still in the snapshot/release candidate stage, so not a full release yet, but they are working.

  • palitu@lemmy.perthchat.org
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    1 year ago

    I didn’t realise I could do this with unifi APs. Looks like a good option for out of support ubiquity APs.

    Is there a reason you don’t run your own unifi control software?

    • jeanma@lemmy.ninjaOP
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      1 year ago

      Not opensource, I don’t want to install their stuff on my smartphone (bluetooth and position required) or need a VM. I am not fond of leaving such blackbox devices on my network which needs cloud! EDIT: OH and I remember the issue with the control software due to MangoDB drama.

      It is used for now on guest only network, sure I use Wireguard on top but still, find it annoying. And tbh, it has been suggested and the to-go solution but I notice that people are just blindly recommending what they read chatty techie’s blogs.

      thanks @Palitu!

  • blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk
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    1 year ago

    Not what you asked, but I’ve been very happy with my TPLink EAP WAP. You dont need to use a cloud account with it if you dont want to. Nice management interface that’s doing it’s best UniFi impression.