For two years now I’ve had a Wireless Point To Point (P2P) network between my house and my father’s house. The goal of this network is sharing security camera footage and giving access to my NAS for safe data storage. Ubiquity make a wide range of networking and wireless solutions and we used their NanoBeam AC Gen2 for this project. The Ubiquiti NanoBeam AC Gen2 is designed for use as a P2P bridge or as a CPE device deployed by a WISP. This post contains a mix photos from 2019 when they were new and recent photos.
YouTube Review
Ubiquiti NanoBeam AC Gen2
The devices came with all included hardware for mounting them to a pole or screwing to a wall. The ball connector allows you to angle the device in a wide range of directions for lining it up. Including a level on the device is helpful as rotation can have a big impact on performance, you’ll want these devices aligned right.
The unboxing experience makes you feel you have bought a premium product. Packaging is mostly recyclable giving some bonus point. Pealing the plastic off the dish is very satisfying, more bonus points. Included in the box is the proprietary Ubiquiti 24V PoE injector. I would rather these devices run on standard PoE as it would remove the need for an injector.
Device Setup and Management
Setup is straight forward and Ubiquity have done a great job at getting you up and running fast. Configuration is done through the management WIFI interface with the UniFi Network App or straight from the web gui. I recommend configuring these before install as it’s much easier for trouble shooting and testing on the ground.
My devices are setup to carry multiple VLANs over the network and have their management interface on VLAN 200. There are lots of options in Advanced configuration mode. However Simple mode enables VLANs to run like they’re on a regular wire, leaving the tags intact.
Installation The NanoBeam AC Gen 2
I have my Ubiquiti NanoBeam AC Gen2 installed to a metal post on the side of my house. Here it’s extending approximately 2 meters above my roof. There are no double story houses in our street so line of sight is great.
During the last 2 years there has been no maintenance or drama caused. It’s rock solid up there and loves living the high life. The only thing I would do different is using outdoor rated cable. I used indoor rated cable and insulating tape that is designed for extreme outdoor conditions. However I admit this is a bit dodgy. When installing outdoors include a drip loop so water doesn’t flow far along the cable.
On my fathers house I installed the device attached to his TV Antenna. Line of sight is perfect here and single is very strong. He lives 100 meters away from me which means there are 6 houses between us.
The 24v PoE injectors include a wall mounting plate. It’s neat when setup properly and wall mounted. However if you can’t wall mount I can see this injector causing more cable mess. Here you can see the bracket has 2 screw holes and the injector slides down on to it. It’s nice and secure when installed.
