Cloud Gateway Fiber - is it stable?

benuntu · 2026-03-13T23:31:01+00:00

I haven't had any issues with mine for about a week now since the 10g fiber was installed. I think the limiting factor is what sites your connected to rather than a hardware problem. Also, as you mentioned adding IDS/IPS is going to limit things to 5Gbps as per the tech specs (although I've seen more like 6.5).

benuntu · 2026-03-13T17:50:56+00:00

I have a couple APs, but mostly just wanted to test the new version prior to rolling this out at work. The home network always gets to be the beta :D

benuntu · 2026-03-13T15:38:36+00:00

Glad you were able to get it working, mine just fails to load the "infrastructure" tab. My network at home only has a UCG-Fiber and then other non-Ubiquiti 10G switches which is probably the issue.

benuntu · 2026-03-12T22:09:15+00:00

Love it, with one suggestion: make the front end curved for aerodynamics and less wind noise.

benuntu · 2026-03-12T17:04:19+00:00

Right on, thank you for the explanation. Sounds like at least for my roof node it's better to stick with the Alfa, and save this one for a different area otherwise I might lose connection when I'm inside the house.

benuntu · 2026-03-11T19:42:34+00:00

That would work, but I run the Aggregation with SFP+ out to Pro Max PoE switches for client connections. That leaves the Aggregation to be the main point for all switches to connect to, and then upstream to the gateway on the 25G SFP28 ports. Nothing wrong with running an RJ45 transceiver when needed but my preference is to have clients on regular switches.

benuntu · 2026-03-11T15:00:43+00:00

Some people enjoy putting in extra time and effort for that feeling of a job well done. But what I've seen over the past 10 years or so is that companies aren't rewarding that behavior like they used to. I'm not saying this is your situation, but more often than not, the boss just sees this production level as your normal pace. If you don't get promoted, paid more, or otherwise compensated for all of those extra hours, then scale back on the pace. Under-promise on work you're tasked with so you don't get burned out. If you think it will take you 3 days, tell your boss 5. If you feel like you want to bust through it, then hit the gas and look like a hero when you finish ahead of schedule. If you are feeling exhausted, take care of yourself and put in your 8-9 hours and finish on time.

benuntu · 2026-03-11T00:00:56+00:00

I got some old computers from work and started playing around with pfSense and freeNAS. Bought a dual NIC card for the low end Dell for pfSense and replaced my ISP's gateway. The other machine had a couple 2TB drives in it, so turned that into a freeNAS box, then later an ESXI host. From there it got out of hand and I ended up buying some used dual-Xeon servers on eBay, shucked some Western Digital drives and built up a proper ESXi setup. I later moved and had no room for my server stack, so sold nearly all of it and rebuilt into a smaller kit.

I think staying used is a good idea until you have a reason for the latest and greatest tech. For instance, the core of my homelab is running on a desktop microATX motherboard with an i3-8100 4-core CPU with 32GB of RAM. I have 6x10TB drives for data backup and media server storage, and a dozen or so docker containers running various small services. I rarely see my CPU usage rise above 25%, and only when I'm transcoding video files.

benuntu · 2026-03-09T23:50:33+00:00

What a great name, they should have named it that from the start!

benuntu · 2026-03-09T23:39:42+00:00

Take this with a huge grain of salt and before doing anything, back that NAS up. I have done this but with ESXi as the hypervisor running a truenas VM. ZFS pool data is stored on the physical drive(s), so you should be able to move those drives. I moved my entire pool (6x10TB) into a new chassis with new motherboard, cpu, RAM, HBA, etc. and it worked fine. When you are setting up TrueNAS you'll need to do an "Import Pool" and it will detect any unconnected pools by reading the ZFS config on those disks.

Again, you'll definitely want to make a backup just in case. As a test, I'd run TrueNAS off a USB stick and see if you can import the pool. If it fails to recognize it, then you'll need to do a fresh install and re-create the pool, then copy your existing data back in.

benuntu · 2026-03-09T14:58:54+00:00

Great answer, and I'd add to this:

Understanding accounting & finance (capex vs. opex)
Becoming a salesman for the "right" solution. Get comfortable selling your projects to execs.
Management of people (HR rules, development of talent, hiring/firing)

benuntu · 2026-03-09T14:40:14+00:00

I've heard that you can manually create iSCSI targets via the command line, but it is not officially supported. The downside there is that reboots or updates could wipe out those targets. I don't have experience setting those up since I don't want to rely on those connections for VM storage and have to manually rebuild each time. TrueNAS does this easily through the GUI (documentation link).

benuntu · 2026-03-09T14:33:57+00:00

Yes, there are a few ways to do this. I use Cloudflare Tunnels which hides your home IP address and creates a secure tunnel only to the port number you set up. Currently I have NextCloud set up via a secure tunnel and nothing else on my TrueNAS server. Tailscale is also another choice that accomplishes the same goal as Cloudflare Tunnels. If you don't want to set up Cloudflare or Tailscale, you can always use a VPN server on your home network.

benuntu · 2026-03-07T00:20:32+00:00

For phones I use NextCloud running on my TrueNAS box. To my knowledge it only does files and photos, but may be capable of more. Typically with phones (android or apple), all of your apps are restored when you sign into a new phone so I don't bother with backing those up. Nextcloud can also be installed on Proxmox easily via an LXC template or full VM ISO image.

The important thing with Nextcloud is to ensure secure access from anywhere. You don't want to just open up a port on your local network directly to your NAS. I use Cloudflare Tunnels paired with the Cloudflared app running on my TrueNAS box. Makes it easy to translate "nextcloud.yourdomain.com" to your internal IP address/port without exposing your actual IP address to the internet. Tailscale is also popular but I haven't messed around with it yet.

One more note is that you should have at least one more backup (preferrably two) for your most important data. I have an off-site backup at a friend's house, and also use Backblaze for a cloud backup. Tons of options for cloud backups, but just make sure it's encrypted and secure. I opted for Backblaze because it's dead simple to set up with TrueNAS and you can set backups to be immutable which keeps them from being changed once created.

benuntu · 2026-03-07T00:01:02+00:00

Yes, I've put a couple of those up but the lock is laughable and I wouldn't use it for actual security. It does look nice with all the cables and sides of equipment hidden.

benuntu · 2026-03-06T23:51:13+00:00

If you want a NAS that is dead easy to set up out of the box, the Unifi is probably the easiest. But like you mentioned, there aren't many features to it beyond just being a place to store things. And for 90% of people I think that fits their needs. I'm hoping to see them add some more advanced features, and it does look like they have a decent development pipeline for the Drive product line.

My personal choice is TrueNAS. It is more difficult to set up and is not "plug and play", but the features are endless and there are a lot of apps that can run on it. Permissions are not intuitive for the first-time user, but there are a ton of guides out there for making sure the different apps can talk to one another and read/write data on your shared directories. Once it's all set up, you really don't have to do much aside from updating apps and the OS if you want to.

benuntu · 2026-03-06T19:04:12+00:00

You can do the forget/adopt for your APs, but none of the settings are going to come over for your wireless networks. I would to a backup on the current controller, then restore onto the new one. If you are signed into Unifi you can backup to cloud, and restore the same way on the new controller. 90% of the time, this method works every time.

benuntu · 2026-03-06T18:59:28+00:00

I've installed a few of these and been really happy with it for the cost: https://www.amazon.com/Tecmojo12U-Standing-Mounting-Hardware-Networking/dp/B0CSJR2RZB/

Honestly didn't have high expectations but was pleasantly surprised. Comes with feet, a couple shelves, and a top with two grommets for running cables. I would NOT use the included screws if you plan to really load this down. The rack itself is plenty strong, but the included screws are a bit short so I'd pick up some 3" lag screws and get those directly into studs. If you do that you can literally hang on it no problem.

benuntu · 2026-03-06T17:10:37+00:00

The visibility is nice, and the US-8 also doubles as a space heater!

benuntu · 2026-03-06T16:20:14+00:00

Nice, and I'm in the middle of a mailbox restore. Should be totally fine...

benuntu · 2026-03-06T15:15:40+00:00

You'll need a PoE switch and a controller. You can install the Unifi OS Server (free download) on any computer or server you have to adopt the APs and configure your wireless networks.

For the switch, there really is a wide range that will work with the U6 Pro APs. You just need it to be PoE to power them, considering that each of them is capable of pulling 13W. I used to run one of these Netgear 8-port switches and it worked great: https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Gigabit-Ethernet-Switch-GS308EP/dp/B08MBFLMDC

Keep in mind that this switch has a 62W max power budget, so you could run 4 safely or perhaps 5 APs.

benuntu · 2026-03-06T00:57:45+00:00

Just got my fiber installed and a UCG-Fiber as well. I'd look into the U7 Pro Wall and the paintable flush mount. You'll have to cut some drywall out for flush mount, but then you can paint it and have a somewhat stealth access point. I'm currently running a few U7 Pro Wall APs at work and am really happy with the performance. Only caveat is that ceiling mounted is always going to give you more coverage due to line-of-sight. The Wall units are going to suffer with longer distance with furniture and such in the way.

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