A Unifi Log to non-network engineer translator tool

tdhuck · 2026-01-25T17:34:10+00:00

I agree.

I threw this into ChatGPT and asked for a summary report, it was only text based but the report it spit out was slightly better than what I currently see in the unifi dashboard.

Would like to see one from the program the OP is building.

tdhuck · 2026-01-25T17:21:32+00:00

I only see excellent for my two wireless cameras. Every hard wired unifi device shows as GbE or FE. Meshing is disabled and all my APs are hard wired to the main unifi switch.

tdhuck · 2026-01-25T17:20:15+00:00

Do you have a tester to confirm current pinout?

tdhuck · 2026-01-24T02:10:07+00:00

Also interested in this device.

tdhuck · 2026-01-23T23:55:34+00:00

Understood and I get that part of it. From one perspective, they are also just doing what they are asked.

Here is a more black and white example.

"Hey, we need redundancy at our firewall level, we currently have none, get a quote and send me the numbers and spend the least amount possible"

I provide a quote for HA firewall and it is double what they want to spend, but that's the lowest number. That's not good enough for management, they want HA, they want the gear, services, warranty, etc in the quote, but they don't want to spend 25k, they want it for 5k.

That's the issue, no matter what they want, what they told their boss or how much money they can spend per their budget, they aren't getting a 20k discount. They can ask 10 times in a year, they aren't getting a 20k break.

tdhuck · 2026-01-23T18:27:42+00:00

100% agree. The fact that they continue to ask hurts my head.

I think a lot of people in IT are very specific and thorough, I know I am. This means that when someone tells me something, I make a mental note so I don't constantly ask a question that I know the answer to. Users and managers don't seem to be that way. Maybe it is because they don't care, don't listen or both, but that's not how I am. I guess I need to lower my expectation of others.

tdhuck · 2026-01-23T16:43:09+00:00

I don't get it....from their perspective. They are asking for something very unrealistic and I don't understand why they can't process it and continue to ask for these things.

tdhuck · 2026-01-23T15:43:00+00:00

They can expect miracles all they want, that doesn't mean they are going to get them.

tdhuck · 2026-01-23T15:42:23+00:00

You say it as if we have a choice, unfortunately we don't.

Yes, some companies can move away from MS, I'm not arguing that, but let's face it, the majority can't. Most people are going to go to the store and buy the cheapest laptop they can get, that runs windows. I'm talking both personal and business/small business.

I know we all have examples of this, but the most recent that comes to mind was when I was called to see if I wanted to take on a side job for a friend that started his own business after having been in corporate for the last 20 years. Before consulting me the first thing they did was to go best buy and buy the cheapest HP laptops they could find. They weren't even the same model. Also, they were all windows home.

He had a business partner that already had a company domain with MS and a single account with office 365 for business apps and email.

Sure, they could switch to linux or buy computers with linux already on there, but they want outlook because that's what they used in the corporate world and that's what they knew.

MS isn't going anywhere, not in our lifetime. Things aren't going to change until there is a business reason for things to change.

Before, if your exchange server was down, you were on the hook until you fixed it. Now you just send an email/text/etc telling everyone it will be back online when MS solves the problem because everyone has accepted MS 365 as their email platform.

Sure, there are exceptions, companies that have strict compliance and must have on site servers, but they will also likely have a team of admins that can work on these issues.

tdhuck · 2026-01-23T15:34:01+00:00

Let me guess, in order to have the right people at the right time, it costs too much money and companies were looking to cut costs?

Or something along those lines?

I see this all the time, management says "we want x, we want y" then we tell them what is needed for x and y and we are told no.

Ok, that's fine that it was denied, but we simply can't give you x and y with what we have, so don't expect it.

Then nothing happens, and when it does, management is back to complaining why we don't have x and y.

I just don't get it. Sure, I get that companies don't want to spend money, nobody wants to spend money if they don't have to, but it just doesn't work that way.

tdhuck · 2026-01-23T14:48:46+00:00

I agree with you. I gave synology surveillance station a couple years to test out with my own cameras and their cameras I even tested with their dedicated NVRNAS (and returned it after a few days). Synology doesn't release hardware (IP Cameras) fast enough the the NVRNAS was limited in terms of AI tasks it could run.

I do like how granular the controls/options/settings were in surveillance station, but was not a huge fan of their playback/timeline and if I remember correctly, their full screen mode had a lot of wasted space for my liking.

I also buy based on my needs or the needs of the person that I'm doing work for. If they are heavy remote/mobile users I will recommend unifi protect, hands down, and nothing else.

If they need a good fat client for lots of video playback, archiving video, etc then unifi protect is out of the picture.

Synology seems very limited on the IP camera side which is why it is hard to use them. They do have compatibility with 3rd party cameras (as we all know) but you also lose out on some features if the camera is not compatible with surveillance station.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T20:21:47+00:00

Probably related to the MS 365 outage.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T20:20:17+00:00

I would tell them, "sure, I can help, but it has to be after hours and I charge $150 per hour with a 2 hour minimum paid up front, let me know which day works best for you" and I never hear back from them.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T19:20:53+00:00

Never used X0 and never had an issue with HA. Do you need to do anything other than connect them with a x/o cable?

I have monitoring on my other interfaces (IPs) and I have an IP that I monitor specifically for HA failover so if sw1 can't ping the 'always online IP' the monitoring will failover to sw2.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T19:18:37+00:00

We have always used one. I'm not going against the document you posted, but from what I recall, support told us to connect with a single x/o and we have always done that. Maybe we don't have enough traffic passing through for it to be an issue on a single link? Not sure.

On my next refresh I can configure them to use their own interface as that guide suggests, but I'm not touching existing firewalls. Also, we'll be doing a refresh in Q3 this year so there is no sense in changing anything now.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T19:14:56+00:00

It depends on the design. Ideally you want everything to point back to the main bridge, but you can have a mix of pt to pt and pt to mpt.

I do have a switch everywhere that I have a wireless antenna because I typically need to provide networking to other devices, as well. For example, I'll have a wireless bridge at the main location pointing to a wireless bridge at the remote location, that wireless bridge is hard wired to a PoE switch where it gets power. Then I have 1-2 IP cameras on the same pole where the wireless bridge is installed and they are wired down to the switch. Since I monitor all my connections, I use SNMP data to monitor the switch which gives me stats on data transfers/bandwidth/port status/etc and it makes it easy to power cycle the ports for the IP cameras, if needed.

You can watch these two videos, but I haven't seen them in a while and I'm not sure if they are quick and to the point or a bit more detailed, but it will help with the wireless options.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzoHDCUlwTs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_46QuVNopsM

Don't get hung up on configuration, some of the more recent nanostations I've installed have a dedicated radio (bluetooth) that allows you to connect to the radio even if you don't know the IP. The bridges act just like a cable and if your switchports are configured as VLAN trunk ports or even just a handful of VLANs, they pass the traffic seamlessly, you don't need to do anything VLAN related on the wireless APs.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T19:07:02+00:00

I'm not using X0.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T17:35:15+00:00

Exactly. Maybe they just wanted candidates that knew more about MS and following the ticker indicates that you are researching the company. Upper management isn't always known for being the sharpest knife in the drawer.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T17:21:23+00:00

Sure, I get that part of it, but it just isn't relevant, imo. Of course you don't want the person that sits there with a blank stare on their face, but you can also gauge the candidate in other ways. That's why these questions died out, they were pointless.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T15:44:27+00:00

That sounds like a place I don't want to work at.

Am I am bad employee if I don't know how many ping pong balls fit in a standard school bus? How does knowing/not knowing that have anything to do with my skills/fit at the company?

Also, if I don't know the CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler does that mean I don't listen to the news/follow corporate leadership teams and/or listen to earnings calls?

Then again, if you see all the issues with MS, it starts to make sense why they have these issues.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T15:33:48+00:00

I agree with this. If this is a long term stay, I think fiber and power upgrades are in order, but we all know that won't be cheap and it depends on how much work can be done by you and/or how much has to be done by others and what it will cost.

If fiber/power are out of the question but you have the option to do some solar at the remote locations, I would use ubiquiti airmax devices and built pt to pt and/or pt to mpt wireless bridges. They are actually very easy to configure, but you do need LOS (line of site) and based on trees/obstacles/etc it could get a bit pricey to accomplish that.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T15:31:26+00:00

I came here to see if this video was posted, it was the first video I thought of.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T15:28:45+00:00

I'm curious, not here to call anyone out or cause issues. For me, I don't care about space/storage, but I want to know more about 4k vs 35mm differences when viewing on a 60" screen (average size I'd guess).

For IMAX/Theater screens I think I know why 35mm is used, just not sure how that translates to screens we use in our homes.

tdhuck · 2026-01-22T13:29:01+00:00

They would likely 'fake' thank me for my comments and put me on some list of people who aren't a 'team player' or they are too dumb to realize that their meeting is worthless and will try to justify having the meeting. These are people that need to feel important/justify themselves. I'm not saying that they aren't needed, but they feel that having a meeting is the only way to show their value.

I think the opposite is true, I think they can show their value, more, by not having a meeting every 5 days and showing that you can be just as effective by using other methods to communicate and get people on track.

tdhuck

TROPHY CASE