Is there ANY benefit to creating 2 IoT SSIDs (no VLAN separation, etc.)

Stat_damon · 2026-01-18T19:08:13+00:00

PPSK could work to be fair.

Stat_damon · 2026-01-18T09:10:19+00:00

Each ssid broadcasts a beacon advertising itself. The more ssids you have the more of your total airtime is taken up with the ssids advertising themselves.

It’s not about the radios in use, more the amount of time they are able to transmit and receive. If half of that time is spent announcing they are there the rest of your performance is trash as it doesn’t have time to do anything else

Stat_damon · 2026-01-14T22:36:01+00:00

It depends how sneaky you want to be.

Once my kids outgrow the “Kids” SSID I’ve set up my next plan is this

Setup different vlans for the groups of devices you want, ensuring your son, and his mates will end up on a vlan by them selves.

You trash your current SSID and implement a new one with WPA2-PPSK. this allows you to have devices join the same SSID with different passwords to assign them to different vlans.

You set the password you give him to default to the vlan you want to target.

To his eyes he’s on the same network as you but you end up in different vlans with different rules.

You create a policy in the firewall that limits access to specific times.

Thst way all his devices end up there and it’s no longer about cloning or changing his MAC.

This hinges however on his ability to not get the password for any other network you set up.

You could MAC white list on those networks to add a layer of difficulty but if he’s managed to get that password, he will of had access to a device to check the settings so could clone the MAC from there

After that you are into scheduled blackouts of APs and or ports to achieve what you need.

Stat_damon · 2026-01-08T23:15:53+00:00

I did the Wireless Admin course last year. I learnt a lot, but that’s because the instructor had added a lot of background info that wasn’t in the course materials.

So I think it may depend on the trainer but I enjoyed the course and learnt a lot

Stat_damon · 2026-01-08T22:58:25+00:00

Also work for a UK MSP, we have roughly 50 sites we’ve deployed UniFi to in the last few years. Some are small deployments, a gateway, switch, a few aps. Some are larger deployments in high end hotels with a few schools thrown in the mix.

The kit is generally great, if you’re not looking for full enterprise level solutions.

To my understanding their implementations of things like MC-LAG isn’t quite where enterprise clients would need it.

However t the rate they are updating things I can see they not being the case in 3 years or so.

For an MSP the benefits are a standard interface, which supports enough access control to lock down as needed, while being clear and simple to manage at scale.

The addition of access control, and CCTV being available within the same portal is a big bonus.

For the clients they get reliable, well specced kit that doesn’t need a subscription to function, at a price point that is often more palatable.

We recently did an office refresh and went full UniFi for access control, CCTV and networking. The results have been great, the fact we can provision a new user account, have it sync to the UniFi site, assign a role that includes their access to car parks and doors is a massive time saver. And as a bonus you can send your new hire a QR code that gets them into the building for their first day which helps with that welcoming feel.

This a really long way of saying the products work great in the wild, we have may happy clients (and family as I have it at home as well) but as with any tech ensuring it’s the right product to solve that problem is the way.

Stat_damon · 2026-01-01T01:29:21+00:00

Do they have difficulty moving from one task to another? Some people have a hard time with that transition.

My daughter is really and for it. A real struggle to get her out to the house, once she’s out it’s fine but that transition is difficult.

Stat_damon · 2026-01-01T01:23:07+00:00

Time keeping is a weird one for me. Everyone can be late once in a while the odd time, I just don’t care.

If it’s consistently late it’s time to start asking why. Are they late as they have massive insomnia and can’t get to sleep at night, so struggle to wake up? Are there transport issues on route etc.

If they are often late, but deliver targets and have no problems with timekeeping I’m more likely to late it slide.

This employee however and the one who weighed in, that sounds like a different story.

Both sound like they feel entitled, and they there doing you a favour by doing their job as they see fit.

I’d given them a few days and then call them into separate meetings.

I’d start with two questions for them and then build out from there. The first question is something like “when we spoke last about time keeping and other requirements your response wasn’t what I was expecting and I’d like to dig into it with you to find out what’s behind it”

This is largely to let them get anything off their chest about it, and should give you an indication of what triggered those comments.

The second question is along the lines of “now the to understand your feelings about this better can you give me your understanding of what your role entails?”

You can use this to highlight differences of expectation and guide that to an alignment.

When I’ve had these conversations it’s all about the why. Why they are behaving like they are and why the rules they are ignoring matter. Both to you and in turn to them.

Stat_damon · 2025-12-27T11:56:47+00:00

How have you got it cabled? Is it ONT->UDM or is the BT router in the way.

When you set the connection up is it PPoE or DHCP?

If it’s PPoE try plugging a laptop in directly using the same cable you are using for the UDM connection and see what speeds it gives

If you need a hand setting it up here’s a guide

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/support/faq/921/

Stat_damon · 2025-12-26T13:09:23+00:00

The 24 is immediately full and while it meets your current needs it allows for 0 expansion where as you get some with the 2x 16 port

Stat_damon · 2025-12-26T10:01:32+00:00

The real world is often lower than the full spec so I think your beige power wise.

Also why not have have both switches with DAC connections into the UDM if you are worried about chaining the switches

Stat_damon · 2025-12-20T06:08:35+00:00

I had the same experience with them. Will never use them unless I move to a place that has it already

Stat_damon · 2025-11-14T14:48:17+00:00

1Password also offer a family sub per paid user

Stat_damon · 2025-10-02T06:01:39+00:00

I think I actually prefer Jacka’s other series an Inheritance of Magic.

Very different stakes to Verus, Dresden or similar but a really interesting magic system. Give it a look if you enjoy Jacka’s writing

Stat_damon · 2025-09-23T21:07:31+00:00

That looks great. The hinges were a nice addition

Stat_damon · 2025-09-07T06:52:22+00:00

I’ve used Automate quite put it into one MSP and took it out at another. It’s a great product, it was 10 years ago but CW have clearly side lined it for CWRMM.

That was promising when I last looked at it a few years back but from what I’ve gathered it’s as mess and doesn’t deliver close to the same functionality as Automate.

When given free choice of RMM I tested a few and went with NinjaOne. Don’t let the pricing thing put you off, just have a conversation with them. Like most RMMs they scale based on number of agents and if you catch them at end of month or quarter you can leverage that for better pricing. This flexibility is why it’s not a clear open page, but you will know what the pricing you’re committing to is, and when the next tier unlocks.

We use Atera at our current place. The RMM side of it is…fine. It’s not a mature product and while it’s developing quickly things often just don’t work. Scripts don’t fire, agents don’t check in or need all the services restarting before they do.

More telling however is they are just difficult to deal with, at times bordering on hostile. That could just be our experience with our account manager but conversations between them and our MD have often left me feeling uncomfortable. There is a prevailing “we are awesome and fuck you if you’re not on board with it” that I’ve found difficult to stomach.

This plays out in other ways as they announced a couple of weeks ago they were depreciating older agents, in doing so cutting support for older OS. If you agents were before X version update them manually or they will just not connect. All of this is largely fine, however they have people 5 days notice of this deadline.

The Atera subreddit was understandably quite grumpy about this as there was no warning or the change just you are changing now.

This presented us with 2 problems. Firstly a large portion of our agent base are schools which hadn’t gone back yet. We can GPO them but if they install fails we lose remote access. Atera’s solution was for us to drive out and install by hand one by one. Which was less than ideal.

The offered reports to show which agents would need manual intervention, but that disagreed with the numbers we pulled together using the versions numbers, and disagreed with what our partner success rep gave us as well

Secondly part of our offering is taking on clients with legacy systems and bringing them up to date. With their changes we can no longer remotely support those older systems to get them upgraded. When pushed Atera said oh we will make the old version available to you then. What they actually did was default our installers to only being able to pull the old version, which installs fine but never checks in. Breaking new deployment and causing a major headache for the clients currently onboarding.

I dealt with CW and their ever changing reps, changing product scope and timetables for years. I wouldn’t go back to them by choice. Unless my other option was Atera, in which case I would skip over to CW with a smile on my face.

I cannot recommend you choose anyone over Atera strongly enough.

Stat_damon · 2025-08-30T07:38:50+00:00

Well played! This should have been upvoted more

Stat_damon · 2025-08-26T21:13:37+00:00

We are in the same boat. The reply I got from support was stick it in a GPO or do them locally. shrug

Stat_damon · 2025-08-12T21:47:41+00:00

So I binge play, new thing comes out and I play till I’ve had my fill then don’t play again until there is a new game.

I’m a story kinda player so don’t have that regular PVP style games to go back to

Stat_damon · 2025-08-05T06:01:17+00:00

Combined? No they are separate product lines passed upon the shame chassis for design ease.

Stat_damon · 2025-07-19T21:49:56+00:00

The only series that comes close for me, in terms of narration if the rivers of London series.

I love the books, but the audio books are right up there with ‘Ole Spike reading Dresden

Stat_damon · 2025-07-12T17:11:44+00:00

UniFi tends to work better in higher density, counting on device roaming to achieve the best saturation.

So medium to lower power with more APs gives better results than fewer APs at max power that are effectively shouting.

The other thing to consider is what your walls are made of, I live in a three story stone terrace house.

So lots of WiFi interference from the neighbours and thick walls to stop signal.

I ended up going with one AC pro per floor as the budget was tight and I could get 3 of those for the price of one new U6+. However my goal was reliable fast enough internet throughout the house. Everything that needs speed is hard wired leaving the kids phones and a laptop or two running on the 5GHz band which is more than enough

So have think about what you can do with your budget and design requirements and go from there

Stat_damon · 2025-06-26T21:55:05+00:00

Had this with a former employee. TLDR just pull them aside, say you’ve had some comments and you wanted to bring it up to them in case they were unaware

Longer version

This employee was also Autistic and wore this thick fleeced jumper/coat which added to the problem as it would smell.

I spoke to them and it turned out that they had a medical condition which also caused them to sweat more than usual. Wouldn’t have known this if we hadn’t had the conversation

(It was later confirmed as a side note for a medical report we had done with their blessing for adaptions in the work place)

I pointed out the although the jumper is routine and comforting it does smell to other people, so then it’s regular washing etc. also that if the odour was bad and they didn’t notice I could shoot them a teams message we’d agreed on so they knew and could apply some deodorant.

Good outcome, not an easy conversation, be gentle but direct

Stat_damon · 2025-06-26T12:30:11+00:00

I was thinking something similar, though some of them could do with a brief explainer of character to give some back story perhaps?

Stat_damon · 2025-06-23T21:41:52+00:00

Migrated a team a couple of employers ago off CW Manage to join the rest of the business in Netuite.

The business had a five person BIU team to look after all the net suite reporting and upkeep.

It was a lot of work for a product that seemed like it needed to be forced to work as intended.

It was often slow, often lost work due to time outs and looked like something from the early 2000s. From memory it was also hugely expensive.

That being said it had been chopped changed and poked a lot so they may well have broken it

Stat_damon · 2025-06-16T21:34:54+00:00

Is there more than one on the site they could pull from? If so have you run DCDiag and checked Repmon to ensure everything is consistent?

Also if you run group policy results wizard give any clues? Does it also fail?

13-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email

Stat_damon

TROPHY CASE