
Amplifi Alien Wi-Fi 6 Router - fastest963
https://amplifi.com/alien
======
altmind
It feels like ubnt tries to capture the audience of what airport extreme used
to be - mesh networks, self-contained device, minimal config, telemetry and
services lock-in. The same for unifi dream machine pro.

They are almost explicit that these devices are not for tech entusiasts, who
used to be their largest customer base.

~~~
r00fus
What telemetry do they gather, and why is it a big deal? (honestly asking).
Simple duck/goog searches don't yield anything other than this [1], which
seems innocuous.

[1] [https://community.ui.com/questions/Update-UniFi-Phone-
Home-P...](https://community.ui.com/questions/Update-UniFi-Phone-Home-
Performance-Data-Collection/f84a71c9-0b81-4d69-a3b3-45640aba1c8b)

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noodlesUK
Does this mean that the unifi line is getting wifi 6 some time soon? I can’t
really see why anyone who wants such a router would use amplifi now things
like the Unifi dream machine exist (which are fantastic).

~~~
LeoPanthera
The Unifi machines don't pass the "mom" test. I would never give something
that has anything like the Unifi management UI to my parents.

~~~
tinus_hn
The point is that you can manage it remotely and they have exactly 0 buttons
to push. They don’t have to manage anything at all.

~~~
windexh8er
Amplifi is also going full remote support. If you're willing to log in with
Facebook you can do it already.

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AdrianB1
What is the use of the display on a Wi-Fi router? I did not touch mine since I
have installed it and the next time I will touch it will be when I will
replace it. It is as fire and forget as possible.

~~~
awill
none. You'll look at it once, and then never again. It's not a good use of
resources. Still, this is targeting the average user, so it looks cool.

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walrus01
I use ubiquiti stuff but I absolutely don't want to combine the functions of
router and wifi. There is value in having the two things separated. I can make
changes on the router without rebooting the APs, and vice versa. Or I can add
additional APs hanging off the small managed Mikrotik switch that the router's
LAN interface is connected to.

For up to about a 800 Mbps residential internet connection, the NAT and
routing abilities of a $49 Edgerouter-X (model ER-X) are more than sufficient.
If you have true symmetric gigabit service you'll probably be looking at one
of the slightly larger edgerouter models. It runs an OS that is derived from
Vyatta, you can ssh into it, it's a little embedded debian linux box inside.

The $79 Unifi AP AC Lite (802.11ac, dual band, 2x2 MIMO) is sufficient for my
purposes. If I really wanted 3x3 and ac wave2 I suppose I could buy some $199
APs. But I really don't see the need just yet.

This thing looks like a slick consumer product which is designed to be more
easy to use than the average HN reader needs. As competition for Google's home
wifi gateway/router device, sure... I suppose it has its place.

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cmer
Ok I'll sound like such an amateur, but that's one nice router. Probably the
nicest one I've ever seen.

I hope it's a commercial success. Unifi/Amplifi makes good hardware.

~~~
gouggoug
Since you mention Unify,

I've come to absolutely despise the Unifi (from Ubiquity) wifi routers and
avoids them at all cost, here's why:

In order to set them up, you need to download a terribly confusing software
(the "Unify controller") that has never worked well on my mac os machines.

Said software then needs to "adopt" the wifi routers you want to configure.
The configuration is then saved onto your computer (as opposed to "applied" to
the wifi router).

This means, you can not easily manage your access points from any computer.
You _need_ to set up a permanent machine to host the configuration, or, you
need to somehow move the configuration from computer to computer.

To add insult to injury, if like me you happen to loose the configuration
files, "re-adopting" the access point will force you to take your router
offline, which is less than amazing for an enterprise product that an entire
office depends on to get work done.

Once you've gone through the hoops of download, installing, debugging the
proprietary software, you have to deal with its utterly confusing UI.

~~~
zamadatix
I think unifi is meant to be managed via cloud/cloud key. They also have the
dream machine which is an all in one for smaller deployments.

~~~
gouggoug
A few years back, they did not offer the cloud solution and only offered that
"controller" software. I haven't tried their cloud solution, but it's in my
opinion not ideal to depend on a cloud solution to configure my internet
access.

~~~
cafxx
Your previous message used the present tense ("avoids") though.

Also it looks like their "cloud solution" is not really (public-)cloud based
at all, it looks like a standalone piece of metal: [https://unifi-
protect.ui.com/cloud-key-gen2](https://unifi-protect.ui.com/cloud-key-gen2)

~~~
gouggoug
Haa, the nitpicks, let me be more explicit: through my past (and current,
because I still own those routers) experience with Unify, I've come to
avoiding them, because of [everything I explained].

I'm glad they offer an on-premise hardware turn-key solution (it wasn't
available in the past).

Now, see my other commment[0]: I understand that my user experience might very
well be due to Unify not being ideal for my use case.

[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21589894](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21589894)

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r1ch
I thought WiFi 6 mandated use of WPA3? According to the specs this only
supports WPA2 which means either WiFi 6 is not implemented properly or the
listed specs are incorrect.

~~~
mikelabatt
Indeed WPA3 is required for "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6" only, but Ubiquiti already
stated in a post that they are working on WPA3, even offering it as a software
upgrade for many of their older models:

[https://community.ui.com/questions/WPA3-for-existing-
Unifi-f...](https://community.ui.com/questions/WPA3-for-existing-Unifi-
family/63dcdb1c-31d1-44a3-bb95-62fb3f4efc4c#answer/fd3b3070-4b82-4af9-aebe-4f1be60f0e6f)

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pazimzadeh
Do you have to buy multiple of these to have a mesh, or can you use one as a
central node that can be extended with other routers?

~~~
fastest963
I think they only mesh with themselves so you can't use another router and
have it mesh with these ones.

~~~
arghwhat
You are probably able to mesh with other Amplifi models though.

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m0zg
That's the first time I've seen one of those weird "evolved" antennas in a
consumer device. Scroll down the page to see it.

~~~
zamadatix
I'm not sure it's actually an evolved antenna or not. It could just be a very
dense dual band antenna array weirdly outlined by marketing.

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cafxx
Sigh. I have a NAS that saturates a single gigabit link pretty easily. If only
they included at least one 10GbE (or even just 5GbE) port...

