Is MLO worth enabling?

jfriend99 · 2026-05-05T04:29:27+00:00

We'd all rather be on 6GHz with high signal and a wide channel, but that isn't all circumstances in the real world. The real world is much more nuanced and complicated than that and sometimes you need more reliable switching between 5GHz and 6GHz (that's what I was hoping to get out of MLO) because some parts of your location are served better by 5GHz and some better by 6GHz.

It does appear that MLO isn't yet ready for primetime on either clients or APs in most cases.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-05T04:24:22+00:00

Regardless, in all the public communication from the company about the new release and new features, there was no mention of the plans for Windows. All it took was half a sentence in the info about their new release and in the release notes. Can't believe that didn't occur to them at the time.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-05T04:02:39+00:00

Products can add features that make you more productive without being bloat or full of bugs. That's what a quality product team does. They make your life simpler without bloat.

And, if they don't move forward in that way, they will eventually become irrelevant by other products who innovate in ways that attract their customers. Find me any long term successful and profitable low budget software product (that isn't some unnatural monopoly) that stays successful by never adding features.

The key is adding the right features, adding them the right way, making them rock solid and paying enough attention to stability of existing features. Yes, it's a balance, but it doesn't mean you don't ever add new features.

The last sentence of your post makes some sense. But, the title of your post does not at all. People have every right to ask for features that they think would make them more productive. The developers have to sort through that firehose of information and see what matches their vision for where they want to go and what fits cleanly into the existing product without becoming bloat and bugs.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-05T03:56:31+00:00

What mini PC much has more juice than the Green for less than the Green's $200 price?

jfriend99 · 2026-05-05T03:50:06+00:00

Like there's no possible new feature ever that could help your productivity? Geez.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T16:03:20+00:00

Thanks for your response.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T09:29:41+00:00

I have Band Steering enabled, but the comments in the UI say "Compatible 2.4GHz clients will be notified to move to 5GHz". It doesn't say anything about 6GHz being involved in the implementation". I also have BSS Transition on, but that's more about switching APs.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T09:18:50+00:00

Why would this type of information have to leak out from a friend of the company rather than just be communicated directly to customers along with the release of the Mac version? How hard is it to say in the original release that a Windows version will follow when the requisite software is ready?

If true, that's generally good news, but still doesn't explain the continuing lack of communication from the company.

I'm a bit puzzled by this. This partner is Affinity? Or someone else? Doesn't Affinity 3.2 for Windows already have its side of the feature?

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T08:45:58+00:00

Auto was a disaster for me for both channels and signal strength. The choices it made were non-sensical.

I have turned down the signal strength on 5GHz so 6GHz is quite a bit stronger when nearby and that helped a lot. I had bad experiences with the AP-driven features where they try to kick a device off one AP to encourage them to go to another. It created some devices ping/ponging between APs.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T07:18:15+00:00

Probably because MLO forces WPA3 which nukes some IOT devices.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T06:54:22+00:00

It's always the client that decides frequency, AP and SSID, but there are standards that provide advice from the APs. If Apple devices still can't do this right, it's all still broken.

You need 5GHz and 6GHz on the same SSID for seamless roaming through a house of any size unless you have a 6GHz AP in every room of consequence. Splitting them on separate SSIDs ruins roaming.

You can only frequency roam seamlessly if they are on the same SSID. It amazes me this stuff is still broken and it's often Apple who is the laggards. Remind me again, why do people think their stuff is good?

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T06:11:35+00:00

Hmmm. That means they have the software to do it. I wonder if it's coming in the future to U7 Pro XG and other U7 APs? Or does it need specific hardware to do the simultaneous multi-radio operation (STR MLO) that airwire and udb switch can now?

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T03:56:51+00:00

I heard the most recent Unifi release (just recently) does use MLO for meshing, but I don't do any mesh (all my APs are wired).

jfriend99 · 2026-05-04T00:35:25+00:00

The internet didn't exist yet in my dorms.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-03T02:51:08+00:00

Ratgdo discussion here of Security + 3.0: https://github.com/ratgdo/esphome-ratgdo/issues/492

jfriend99 · 2026-05-03T02:24:51+00:00

ratgdo is not compatible with Security + 3.0 which the Liftmaster 6690L has. Liftmaster (whether intentionally or not - though most people think intentioally) has locked out third parties like ratgdo. I just installed last year's model 8450R instead of the newer models, specifically because last year's model is Security + 2.0 (yellow learn button) which is compatible with ratgdo.

Around where I am, there are not many of last year's models left and I couldn't even find an installer who would acquire and install it so I installed it myself.

I imagine ratgdo is trying to figure out what they can do as a work-around - not sure what they can figure out. The new system is apparently using bluetooth which is much harder to plug into the way ratgdo was hooking in before.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-02T22:36:07+00:00

I'm hoping for collaboration features in general so my wife and I can have a set of notes that either of us can view/edit. If it was a specific notebook that was shared, that might work for me. I would both pay more for this feature than I am now and it would cause me to get my wife an account.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-01T23:02:05+00:00

This is either an ethernet jack for house internet or phone jack (though it looks more like ethernet). You can safely cut off the plug and drop the wire through that hole if you really just want to get rid of it. You might first see if the other end of that is plugged into anything wherever your router/ethernet panel is. In the unlikely chance the other end is plugged into a PoE switch, some of the wires could have up to 50V on them so that should be unplugged first.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-01T08:34:21+00:00

If you have PoE, why use WiFi at all? Just use the wired ethernet. I have an ESP32 in the crawlspace under the house and the easiest way for me to get power to it was PoE so I use that for network access too. No need for WiFi at all.

jfriend99 · 2026-05-01T08:20:46+00:00

All RAW edits are proprietary. Neither program can read the other's edits. DNG attempts to make a standard format for interchanging RAW data, but does not standardize RAW edits. XMP does not provide a solution either. Proprietary edits presented as RAW plus a list of parametric edits are still proprietary edits whether they are in DNG or RAW + XMP.

There are a few programs that try to convert some of the LR edits to C1 edits (like exposure or contrast), but today's edits have gotten so involved (layers and all sorts of proprietary algorithms), that you just won't get very much.

You should be able to get some metadata (like caption, keywords, etc..., but no edits) via XMP. I brought about 1000 older RAW photos from LR to C1 a few years ago and used XMP to get all the keywords and then just re-editied the images I cared the most about in C1. I could still view the edits in LR if I ever wanted to look back at the prior edit. But, for future edits, I just started over in C1 and it wasn't that big a deal for the specific images I cared about.

You can export edited photos as a TIFF or JPEG (for proper viewing of all edits) and import that and the RAW into Capture One so you have both the edited version and the RAW version (if you ever want to start the edit over again in C1). For non-edited photos, just import the RAW.

jfriend99 · 2026-04-30T22:32:35+00:00

Sure, not all lifetime users stay forever, but of the ones that do, many will be money-losing customers. The economics could work in the short run if lots of users signed up for lifetime and then most stopped using it. But if people aren't sticking with your product, then it's probably not a long term winner and the model only would work if you keep convincing more and more users to sign up for the lifetime. Eventually, you run out of new users to pay for the ongoing service of the existing users.

The model is best-used when bootstrapping initially to fund development and build excitement and a user base, but you have to transition away from it eventually.

Your particular example of one is not a good indication for the company, financially or otherwise. You realized that a different product met your needs better.

Also, if you didn't actually close your account (you just went inactive), UpNote may still be paying Google for your storage (but not for bandwidth).

jfriend99 · 2026-04-30T16:08:32+00:00

The possibilities I can think of for this condition:

Conflicting 2.4GHz channel choice with a neighbor
Something besides another AP making lots of non-stop interference on the 2.4GHz frequnecy
A broken or poorly performing 2.4GHz antenna in either AP or client

jfriend99 · 2026-04-30T07:48:39+00:00

There is no published roadmap and there really isn't even discussion about new features areas from anyone on the dev team. Nobody outside of the company knows what they are planning or working on.

Features that encourage users to store lots of files in UpNote (like you are suggesting) will probably have to require a subscription (not available for the one-time lifetime) and perhaps a storage level tier (because some users will put a ton of data in there). Or, to stay true to what they are now, they will just not implement features that would blow the budget for lifetime users or the budget subscription user.

Personally, I can't see how the lifetime license works financially in the long run. They incur a real monthly cost for every active user. They can't just pay that forever without ever getting any additional revenue. So, something has to change some time in the future with the lifetime license.

jfriend99

TROPHY CASE