UniFi Setup and Troubleshooting

While Ubiquiti offers a powerful solution that is much simpler to set up than most of its competitors, it can sometimes be challenging and many of our clients choose to contract our services for installation and management.

However, for those who would like to go ahead and set up your own network, we wanted to share a how-to guide to help you along. You are still welcome to contact us for advice and assistance on any tricky parts, but we know how rewarding this can be as a DIY project!

Step 1: Initial Setup

So now you have your UniFi Access Point of choice, such as the AP AC PRO that I mentioned in the previous blog post.

Physical hardware that you will need:

Your UniFi Access Point
PoE injector and clover power cord (these items are included in the box with your access point)
2 x Patch leads
An available 3-pin wall plug
Desktop or laptop

Step 2: The Network Setup Use the steps below to setup your new home wireless network:

UniFi Cloud Controller (www.ui.com/download/#!unifi) This will be a simple click-to-run app; complete the base install and create the account.
Once the base setup is complete as well as the login you will be able to sign into the local controller. It will open as a web portal in your default browser.
The Advance IP Scanner (advanced-ip-scanner.com) and Putty applications.

Step 3: The Hardware Setup

Connect your PoE Injector to the 3-pin power point.
Take one of your patches leads and connect it to the access point.
Connect the other end to the port labelled ‘PoE’ on the PoE Injector; you will now see the access point power up.
Take the second patch lead and connect it between your router and the LAN port of the PoE injector. This will then supply the access point with a network / internet connection.

Step 4: The Software Setup

Log in to your newly created Local Controller. Once you have created your controller using the instructions from step one, A desktop shortcut will be created, you can access your controller from there.
In the top left-hand corner select the ‘Current Site’ tab, At the bottom of the dropdown select the ‘Create New Site’ option and give your new site a name e.g. ‘Home WiFi’.
Once the site has been named and created select the settings icon from the bottom left of the screen.
Within the Settings tab, select the ‘Wireless network’ option.
From here, select ‘Create new wireless network’.
Enter the SSID/Network name you would like to use and, under the security section, select the WPA Personal security’ method.
Lastly click on Save.

Your site is now created as well as the SSID that you are going to be using.

Step 5: The Adoption Process

Without the adoption process, the access points will not show up within your controller.

Open the Advance IP Scanner application that you downloaded in Step 2.
Start an IP scan of your local network. This will give you the IP address and Mac address of the UniFi Access Point.
Copy the IP address and open the Putty application.
Confirm that your connection method within Putty is set to ‘SSH’. Access points require an SSH connection to run the adoption script.
Copy the IP address into the IP address bar and click ‘Connect’. A black screen will appear to start the connection.
You will be prompted for a username and password. Since the device still has default settings, the username and password will be as follows: Username: UBNT Password: UBNT
Once logged in you will need to run the following command line: set-inform http://ip-of-controller:8080/inform
In the command line you will need the IP address of the PC on which the controller is installed. Your command will now read: set-inform http://10.0.0.45:8080/inform
Once you hit ‘enter’ to run the command, you will see your new access point appear in the controller as a device labelled as pending adoption.
Select the ‘Adoption’ button to start the adoption and update. The device will now appear in your controller as a connected device. At this stage, the device will start downloading the latest firmware and will restart once installation is complete.

You will now see your new WiFi network on all your devices and you can start connecting.

Your basic UniFi setup should now be complete, and you should have a much stronger wireless connection than before.