 So Ubiquiti offers a wide range of products. And today I want to talk specifically of how to get started with just their Unify line of access points. They're very fast, they're very cost effective, and the performance on them is just the overall usage of them. Absolutely amazing. We are thrilled with them. That's why we've done something in reviews and we've deployed a lot of them for clients and assisted other IT companies even with projects setting these up. They're also great for home users as well. But I wanted to answer the question because this sometimes is with the confusion because there's so many products is how do you just get started with them? What do I gotta buy? Well, let's take a look. So we filtered, this is the store that Ubiquiti Networks has and we filtered just for the Unify product line. But the reason we're focusing on Unify is the Unify software runs all the Unify products. They have a software to run the edge series of projects. They have other software to run some of the U fiber, air fiber and everything else. So this is just for the Unify and their access point system. Now, the good news is with the controller software, the Unify controller, which is not a physical device, it can be, but it's a piece of software referred to as a Unify controller. So it's not something you have to buy. It's free software they give you that you can download and run on Windows Mac or Linux. So once you picked out which wifi you want and there's a big variety of them from your base models here that the Unify APHDs, ACLR, AC Pro, you can read through the specs and figure out which one is a fit for you. Even down to if you just want a single room wifi. Now all of these work on the same controller software, the Unify controller software, and they work simultaneously. So you can buy one of each of these, 10 of one and five of the other, or any combination you can come up with and add them all to the same Unify controller. This makes it very simple. So as you upgrade your network, maybe you started with one section of a building with one Unify, you loved it so much. Next thing you know, you're installing it throughout the entire building. Same controller, same wifi, just keep plugging more devices in and adopting them. Now, the confusion comes in sometimes about the cloud key. Now, you do not need a cloud key. The cloud key is an option if you want to run the Unify software on that as opposed to running it on your own computer. So instead of dedicating a computer, dedicating a computer, which doesn't have to be dedicated for that purpose, but using a computer and leaving that software running all the time on there, you can use a cloud key instead. For a lot of small businesses that have a basic Windows server setup, we frequently will just load it on there and instead of loading out a cloud key. Now, if the Unify controller software is turned off, the access points continue to work. This is a distinction. A lot of people think that the controller software has to run persistently. That being said, what you lose when you turn off the controller software is the telemetry data that comes from these devices to tell you who's connecting, when they're connecting. Cause the devices themselves do not have a lot of storage. They're designed to talk to the controller software, but they will keep broadcasting with the WiFi. They will keep functioning without the controller software running, you just lose any telemetry data. Now, there's a couple of exceptions. If you use some of the advanced features like the captive portal, that does happen around on controller software. Now the Unify gateways all run on the same controller software in our control there, but you do not need a gateway to get this set up. So we're gonna focus right now on just turning the software on and setting it up with one Unify APC ALR cause I happen to have one in stock. Now, purchasing them. If you get the single units, they're gonna ship with a POE injector. If you buy the five pack, and it like it says right here, please note the five pack does not include POE injector. So you can get started with a single Unify ACLR comes with everything you need in the box and you get the software from the Unify site. You can buy it directly from them for 109. You can buy it on Amazon for $97 right now. So that's pretty reasonably priced and all the ones I've ever seen from Amazon are the same thing. If you get the singles, they come with a power injector that you need to operate them. If you buy the bulk packs, they do not. But they're assuming if you're buying a bulk pack, you're probably plugging it into a POE switch to power these. So let's move on to the software itself. So the current version of the Unify controller here in June of 2018 is the 5.7.23. They do still offer 5.6.37 for people who are running an older version and want to continue in the old version. We've chose to go with the newest version right here. So if you're starting out, definitely start out with the latest version. I won't get into the details, but there are some legacy reasons that some people want to run this. Unify still offers older versions of their software for people who want to run it. So we're gonna start with the 5.7.23. We're on Windows. I've done a more in-depth of how to set this up on Debian and Linux. This is just a quick get started video. And we're gonna start in Windows because I'll assume a lot of people are gonna run this on a Windows server. So we're gonna head and download the file. Now, I've already plugged in my Unify device. It's booted up and ready to be programmed. As long as it's on the same network as your computer and there's a server like a DHCP server to give it an address, the Unify software will automatically find it as soon as we're done installing it. So we're gonna open it up. Next. Now, sorry, I gotta download Java. Java is a requirement for the Unify software. All right, now the Java's installed. The Unify controller software finished the install. Now we can start Unify controller after installation. So we go hit finish. If prompted, you wanna allow access. And now the controller started. Now, the controller software itself does not have a GUI interface. It has a web interface. So once the controller software started, you want to launch a browser to log in. It's gonna go to localhost 8443 and continue the setup. Pulls you right into the wizard. Time zone, enable backup. If you're doing this from a reload and you have a backup, this is the spot where you can restore from a backup. So the configure files should be backed up. That way, if you ever have to reset up the controller, you'll have to re-adopt everything. Or you can just use the backup file and all your settings will come back. So this is a new install. At the same time, it found our Unify. So we're gonna go ahead right here, configure the devices. And it doesn't have any other name than the Unify APSR and IP address here. So we're gonna go ahead and next, what do I wanna call my Wi-Fi? YouTube. Oh, I spoke YouTube right. Demo. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. In my ultra less than secure password. Admin name, Tom. I put a so-so password in there. And I think it won't let me. Nope, it does require a better password. If you have a so-so password, it will not let you pass. Now this is device authentication. You don't really have to worry about this, but this is so you can log into the devices directly. It'll auto create a password, a higher entropy one here. You can view this later, or you can change this to something custom if you want to. So for now, for the most part for getting set up, you can just leave that. Finish. And this is if you wanna enable cloud access, so you can access anywhere. We're gonna skip that for now. I don't wanna set it up with a cloud account, cause this is just a demo. Tom, and then we put the password in. And that's it. We are set up with Unify. It's up and running. Now I've done more in-depth review of the software, but there's the device. Here's all the tools. It's provisioning it right now and setting it up. We'll actually call it demo, Unify, hit save. Now the settings, just real quick. You go down here to settings at the bottom. We're gonna go to wireless networks. And this is where you set up the wireless network. So here's that one we set up in the wizard. And we called it YouTube demo. And we gave it the fancy password of 12345678. But this is all you have to do to get started with Unify. Now if you wanted to change these networks, you can change them, or you can create new wireless networks. You're allowed up to four networks on a single device. So this also is the way what makes the Unify work so well is by changing the network settings here, you don't change them at the device level. You can, that's an advanced feature, but it's now provisioning all those settings. And if we add more Unify devices to this, it will push it out to all of them at once. Kind of their namesake being Unify is it creates a unified network. But this is all you really need to get started. It's provisioning. If I shut the controller software down, once it's on provisioning and pushing the settings, that's what it says right here, it will stay working and continue with those networks. I just can't make any changes to the networks until I start at the controller software up. So if you're running this like as a home user, absolutely no cloud key needed, just grab the controller software, load it on your laptop, set up the Unify device, provision the network you want, turn off the controller software, it'll keep working perfectly fine. This is all you need to do to get your Unify started, you get going at what you need to buy. Just pick any Unify device and I will warn you, once you buy one device, you'll go, I could also use wifi in this room, in that room, and next thing you know, you have all the devices. Thanks for watching. If you liked this video, go ahead and click the thumbs up, leave us some feedback below to let us know any details what you like and didn't like as well because we love hearing the feedback or if you just want to say thanks, leave a comment. If you want to be notified of new videos as they come out, go ahead and hit the subscribe and the bell icon that lets YouTube know that you're interested in notifications, hopefully they send them as we've learned with YouTube. 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