Burned installers are leaving Ubiquiti

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fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
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They're a skeleton staff of sales and marketing. Engineering is mostly done by Chinese manufacturers. If they can squeeze another 1% revenue from something like this then Ubiquiti will.

This is too dumb to happen if anyone competent is at the helm.
probably the most accurate description of Ubiquiti I've seen. Let's not forget that time they willingly violated a bunch of sanctions and sold to Iran: Ubiquiti Networks Pays $504,225 for Violating the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations | Export Compliance Training Institute
 

BoredSysadmin

Not affiliated with Maxell
Mar 2, 2019
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while it's not a most encouraging piece of news I've ever heard given I do have small 3 wifi APs UBNT deployment at home. I have to say I'm surprised about so-called Chinese engineering. Yes, Video product division had made some "unusual" decisions, but networking stuff seems solid.
I mean they have hired Chris Buechler as a principal engineer and he's been with them over 3 years... that alone should count for something I presume. The network controller is software that I host as VM and its a pleasure to use vs any consumer device or got forbid comparing it to a horrid Cisco Wifi controller interface.
 

Spartacus

Well-Known Member
May 27, 2019
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Austin, TX
Well thats disheartening, I really like my Ubiquiti stuff, alot less so if they're starting to pull this crap.
 

ttabbal

Active Member
Mar 10, 2016
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This is making me glad I only have one AP, and it looks like it is supported by OpenWRT.
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
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This is definitely not good news. For now I have my firewall blocking the FQDN UniFi uses for the data collection but I'll keep monitoring this.
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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- Only for AP currently?
- What version firmware does this start occurring in?
 

Deslok

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2015
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This is really disappointing, I have piles of UAP-AC-Pro units that I absolutely love but this is discouraging, I guess I should start taking a more serious look at the mikrotik hAP and wAP devices.
 

gigatexal

I'm here to learn
Nov 25, 2012
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Dawg10

Associate
Dec 24, 2016
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That’s all they paid for aiding a foreign state? Isn’t that treason?
"In determining the settlement amount, OFAC found that Ubiquiti did not voluntarily disclose the apparent violations but that this constituted a non-egregious case."

I interpret this as claiming stupidity and throwing themselves upon the mercy of the US Treasury.

Ubiquiti Networks settles with OFAC for alleged violations of Iran sanctions - Lexology

e: The Lexology link has been moved behind a paywall; the root info is here:

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/CivPen/Documents/20140306_Ubiquiti.pdf
 
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Dawg10

Associate
Dec 24, 2016
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Ubiquiti has begun deleting early references to its phone home scheme:

Ubiquiti Community

(/community.ui.com/questions/What-is-trace-svc-ui-com-and-why-are-my-devices-trying-to-connect/c4be2292-9c0d-4d19-8a10-36afb6b6c0cc)

From what I've read, the scheme was discovered while troubleshooting a problem 23 days ago and it took 11 days for UBNT to formulate a response, leading me to believe it was done without front office knowledge. Maybe even covertly, China being China.

I have a EdgeRouter-8 and really like it, but now I'm curious about what it may be collecting and forwarding to the mothership. I have been searching for a way to monitor the WAN stream for router generated traffic; I can easily mirror the router WAN port, tap into the stream and use Snort or Wireshark, but how would I separate 'normal' traffic from router-generated? Using Wireshark to catch calls to anything.ui.com is shortsighted, as that destination is likely to morph real soon.

Any thoughts on how to monitor an EdgeRouter for covert activity?
 
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rigor

New Member
Jan 6, 2024
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while it's not a most encouraging piece of news I've ever heard given I do have small 3 wifi APs UBNT deployment at home. I have to say I'm surprised about so-called Chinese engineering. Yes, Video product division had made some "unusual" decisions, but networking stuff seems solid.
I mean they have hired Chris Buechler as a principal engineer and he's been with them over 3 years... that alone should count for something I presume.
While it is over 3 years after this post, it bears mention that, accordibg to his LinkedIn profile, Chris Buechler left Ubiquiti in September 2023.
 
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BoredSysadmin

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Mar 2, 2019
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While it is over 3 years after this post, it bears mention that, accordibg to his LinkedIn profile, Chris Buechler left Ubiquiti in September 2023.
Hmm, It's been more than a few months, and his new position is still hush-hush. No new position on his LinkedIn page, his personal site, or Twitter, which he hasn't posted since 2017.
 

Railgun

Active Member
Jul 28, 2018
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If, while under his "leadership" they now have the products they have...don't know I'd call that a success.

Blinky ports on switches. Still have crappy "L3" features/functionality. Good set of priorities there. The switches still behave/function oddly.
 
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rigor

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Jan 6, 2024
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Hmm, It's been more than a few months, and his new position is still hush-hush. No new position on his LinkedIn page, his personal site, or Twitter, which he hasn't posted since 2017.
Likely he was fired and can’t find a new job. Between pfsense and Ubiquiti he’s racked up 20 years of fail.
 

BoredSysadmin

Not affiliated with Maxell
Mar 2, 2019
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Likely he was fired and can’t find a new job. Between pfsense and Ubiquiti, he’s racked up 20 years of failure.
This is a bit more than a "little" harsh statement. Remember that engineers aren't actually running companies.
Any company's primary goal is to make money, not to make the best product possible. I'd also argue that both PFsense and Ubiquiti were revolutionary products and that both, unfortunately, lost some of their original core goals and were ruthlessly copied by competitors.
Chris shouldn't have any problem finding a job on his LinkedIn alone.
 
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