Miami Training
This past week in Miami wifi-U taught our largest class yet of 34 Micro Center “Champions.” 🙌🏻 They came from all over the country and were best sellers in their stores!
Our instructors taught UFSP and UWA over 3 days ☀️
Can’t wait to see what’s next, big congrats to all of our students and instructors!
  
wifi-U lands in Aruba 🌐
This month, we teamed up with Setar Networks—the powerhouse behind Aruba’s Cellular, Wi-Fi, and IPTV—for a private training at their HQ. Our crew trained 12 brilliant minds in Full Stack, UWA, and URSCA.
Big shoutout to our newest instructor, Cody Palmer, who wrapped up URSCA with a perfect finish: 12 smiling faces, 12 certifications. ✅
Island views were stunning, but the real highlight? Watching a team level up together. 💪
📡 6GHz vs. 5GHz — What’s the REAL story on coverage?

15 years ago, moving from 2.4GHz to 5GHz meant cutting coverage in half. Now we’re stepping into the 6GHz era… but how does it stack up?

  • At first glance, 5GHz and 6GHz APs have similar coverage areas.
  • BUT client devices on 6GHz must transmit at lower power (6dB less), due to FCC rules.
  • That means the effective range for devices is smaller, even if the APs look similar on paper.
  • To keep performance consistent, we’ll need to lower AP transmit power and move APs closer to users—just like we did during the 2.4 to 5GHz shift.
  • Planning for 6GHz? Build smart. Design tight.
Author: Eric Weber
🚫 UniFi Owner Lockout: The Problem

When the user with UniFi Owner privileges leaves the company, you’re stuck. As of now, there’s no password reset option for the Owner account. The only recourse? A Factory Reset of the Console—which can trigger a cascade of device resets across the site.

✅ Ways to Mitigate the Impact

1. Super Admin Workaround

  • If you only have Super Admin access:
  • “Forget” all devices before performing a Factory Reset.
  • After the reset, once the Console is back online, you can re-adopt the devices.
  • ⚠️ You won’t be able to restore from a backup, as that’s reserved for the Owner.

2. Preserve Your Naming Scheme

  • Before resetting:
  • Take screenshots of the Devices page to retain names and configurations when re-adopting.

🛡 Best Practices to Prevent This Scenario

Option 1: Shared Owner Access

  • Create a role-based email (e.g., support@it.net) and assign it the Owner role.
  • Share credentials among trusted staff.
  • ⚠️ Trade-off: Shared access complicates accountability and auditing.

Option 2: Use a Managed Email Account with Recovery

  • Assign the Owner role to a mailbox within a managed system like Microsoft 365.
  • Benefits:

– Admins can initiate password recovery without factory resets.

– MFA can be reassigned or reset via centralized email tools.

Author: Eric Weber

Challenges Network Admins Face in Maritime Environments

During our training in Fort Myers, I had the pleasure of meeting Juan Mayorga from Ecuador. He had traveled there to participate in the URSCA course.

Juan is responsible for managing the network infrastructure aboard four cruise ships that operate between Guayaquil and the Galápagos Islands—a role that presents numerous technical challenges.
One of his most pressing difficulties is maintaining reliable network connectivity while at sea and on the islands, where logistical constraints make it nearly impossible to receive replacement hardware. His primary obstacle involves overcoming signal interference caused by metal barriers, which significantly impairs Wi-Fi coverage onboard.

Since the Galapagos is a Scuba diving adventure spot and I had just got back from Scuba diving in Curacao, you can imagine that we got sidetracked quite a bit!

We had a great week of training, including the UFSP, UWA and the URSCA.

Author: Eric Weber

AI Turret Test Rig

Personalize your all-weather, vandal-proof 4K PoE+ turret camera with enhanced AI capabilities and IR and visible LEDs for night vision as you like!
We tested the loitering and cross-line detection.

 

 

Author: Ryan Haag

 

Top 5 Tips for Better Wi-Fi Performance

Top 5 recommendations for better Wi-Fi performance in residential and small business environments.

 

  1. Placement: Make sure your AP is close to where it will be used by your devices. At full power (not recommended) the highest throughput rate for a U7-Pro XG is 2.16Gbps. At 18 ft the data rate drops to 1.95Gbps, at 40 ft the data rate drops to 650Mbps.  Many residential Wi-Fi routers are placed in a closet, or out in the garage. Move that beautiful router out in the open.
  2. Power: Turn the power from Auto, which equals High, to 15dbm. This will cause your coverage to decrease, which is a good thing.  All clients share airtime so clients that are far away from the AP will take up more airtime than those that are close, but the result is bad for everyone because even those with a strong signal will be affected by the weaker signal devices.
  3. Use DFS Channels in 5GHz: The middle of the 5Ghz spectrum has 16 20MHz channels that often go unused. If your AP or Router makes those channels available, you can use them.  DFS is a method used to share this airspace with outdoor radar devices.  They rarely interfere with indoor wireless systems but if they ever do DFS is a way to automatically resolve the problem.
  4. Use smaller channels: In 5 GHz  20 and 40MHz channels are best, 80 is a killer and 160 well… If you deploy 80MHz channels you almost certainly are going to suffer from other devices using the same channels.  There are 25 – 20MHz channels in 5GHz, 12 40MHz channels, and only 6 80MHz.
  5. Add lots of APs: Preferably wired APs. Every time a mesh device is placed in a network it cuts the throughput in half.  So if you have expected throughput of 500mbps and you have four mesh APs your throughput is going to be 30mbps. Don’t let an installer put mesh APs throughout the house.  Have them wired as much as possible.
  6. BONUS: Use the Ubiquiti Wi-Fi calculator to determine throughput https://wifi.ui.com/ and then use the Design Center https://design.ui.com to place your devices and get an idea of your equipment requirements. This will help you have a great Wi-Fi experience.

Author: Eric Weber

Veteran’s Day Remembrance

On this Veteran’s Day 2024 I wanted to give all our Vets a shout out and say thank you for your service. I served in the Army for 17 years and got to retire early at the age of 37. I served as an Infantry Officer and when people ask me what I did, my standard answer is; “mostly I just waited in line.” But that’s more to get a reaction than anything else. Here’s what I did in the Army.

I joined in 1977 and the Army was in pretty bad shape back then. There were a lot of people that had served in Viet Nam that had left the military but couldn’t find jobs and so they came back in Army because they couldn’t find anything better. In general, they were terrible soldiers, they hated the country because they felt like they had been treated badly, and they didn’t like the Army much better. There was a lot of talk about fragging the LT and skipping out and going to Canada when the Soviets invaded, which they all felt was eminent. My first duty station was at Ft Carson, CO and it was a lot of Guard Duty and hanging out at the Motor Pool.

Then in 1980 two things happened that significantly changed my life. First, Ronald Regan was elected president and the mood in the Army seemed to change almost overnight. With the release of the Iranian hostages, we seemed to gain confidence and training exercises became opportunities to learn how to defeat the enemy, rather than run from him. At Ft Carson we went from dopers to patriots in a matter of months, and the tattoo shops went from selling Weed tats to selling American Flags (GI’s love their tats). Things changed and best of all we got a 13% pay raise. Almost as good is that we changed chow too. Instead of eating C rations, we now were eating MRE’s. That was a huge morale booster for the infantry!

The other thing that happened is that I got stationed in Germany. This was a turning point for me. In Germany, I felt like I had an important job to do and I did. My unit took turns guarding the border between East and West Germany in an area called the Fulda Gap. It was an area where the border of West Germany extended far to the east creating a sort of peninsula that was surrounded by East Germany. Tom Clancy, the famous author, wrote a book called Red Storm Rising where he talked about how the Soviets would over-run Europe and that they would start by rolling through the Fulda Gap. During the time that I was there we all knew that was the plan, and our plan was to survive the first wave and then fight a counter-offensive from behind the lines. It sounded like desperate means, but all we talked about is how we could survive those Soviet Tanks and then fight our way back. It was so much different than the attitude of desertion that was so prevalent just three years prior.

The Army was good to me in many ways and after my tour in Germany I was selected to go to Officer Candidate School in Ft Benning, GA. It was like boot camp on steroids, but I came out of there as a 2nd Lieutenant and they sent me off to Korea to guard the other border. There aren’t too many people that can say they served on Freedom’s Frontier in both Germany and Korea, so maybe I did more than just stand in line.

In my time in the Army I got to serve as a Squad Leader, a Platoon Leader, and a Company Commander. I like to think that I helped men prepare for the battles in life along with contributing to the defense of this great nation.

Now, our great nation has given me back so much more than I deserve. I’m recognized and thanked at church, and concerts, and even at Home Depot and Lowes where they give veterans a 10% discount. I got a paid for a college degree through the Army too. But most of all, I got to grow up shaped by strong men who served this country out of duty and honor. I have to admit that I didn’t come into the Army with those values, I was one that didn’t have a lot of options, but I was surrounded by great men that were driven to do their best to defend the land they loved. For that, I will be forever grateful for the time I served in the United States Army.

Author: Eric Weber