Not so, if you already have a wired network.
Now maybe it’s a RTFM issue - I didn’t see any ‘warning’ about this issue. But I ended up with the Naim App and the Roon App not talking to any of my servers and players until I discovered the issue and re-routed even the wired network devices through the GoogleNest router.
The phone tech support people didn’t even know it worked like this; I had to figure it out myself. They had already authorized a return.
That is odd, I have never come across this situation myself, even my Google Wifi is routed to a Cisco switch via an Ethernet cable, every thing just works.
Btw, in my 2nd home, I use a Netgear Orbi, and I think it is much more powerful in range coverage and 30% to 40 % faster than the Google nest, even it has received lots of critiques as it is not a true mesh wifi as such, but it is fine with me as long as it works the way I want it to work.
alan, I want to order the Ubiqiti Switch 8
On Amazon they have plain ones and ones that list watts (60 or 150)
Need to know exactly which one to get
I am also ordering the Unifi AP-AC Lite as well
Please let me know the exact model I need to order
Thanks, David
Hi David,
You can use the cheapest version, since you are likely only to need one POE port (for the AP). I believe that one is listed as the 24W version, but I’m in Germany at the moment and Amazon,com looks a bit weird on my phone. Those are the ones I have, but I purchased a few years ago and the price difference (in Canada) was greater. The 60W version would give you 4 POE ports, also fine for you with future expansion (eg adding the Cloud Key controller or whatever) if that version is in stock or only a few dollars more. No need for the full 120W / all right POE ports.
Side note: if you buy the UniFi AP AC-Lite, it might come with a POE injector (a tiny box that has Ethernet and electric in on one side, and POE Ethernet on the other). If that is the case, and you want the simplest option, you could buy a (cheaper and simpler) unmanaged switch: TP-Link TL-SG105 at $15 or D-Link GO-SW-SG at $22. These work perfectly fine, so double check what comes in the AP-Lite box and just decide… you can always change later if the urge strikes you.
Good luck with the purchase and installation!
Regards alan
ps - the single pack AC-Lite “sold by and ships from” Amazon does appear to come with the POE injector; so maybe save some cash and go with the simple unmanaged switch to start with
The single UAP AC LITE access points do come with an injector… but to cut clutter down it might be best to use a PoE (802.3af) switch…
Note the current UAP AC LITE devices support one of the PoE standards, 802.3af. If you get a used one that is an earlier v1 model, then these only supported a proprietary PoE and so you would need the injector or PoE converter to operate them if you used a non Ubiquiti PoE switch , so perhaps get new to be safe.
You would not run into it if your entire network is downstream of the Google router. Well upon installation what you’d see is that everything is on a new IP address range.
With something like an Apple Airport Extreme, which one can use merely as a wifi source, there is clear documentation that you have the choice to turn off its internal dhcp and use it only as a wifi source. Not so with the Google Nest system. Which is ok; it’s a fine router. But this “feature” seemed un- or poorly-documented.
I too now have my entire home network downstream of the Google Nest router, and it’s a happy network.
Update : hooked up Ubiquiti Switch 8 60 w and UniFi ap -ac lite wireless access point. Works well and now get excellent WiFi signal in my hifi room.
One issue is the switch is very warm to touch. Is this normal?
Another issue is that the UniFi wap would not work direct wired to the POE port on the switch. It had to be used with it’s supplied lan/Poe power plug, and then hooked into the Poe port of the switch 8. Works but makes for more wires which is unsightly.
Meanwhile taking delivery of my new NDX2 which will be used with xpsdr and direct wired from my Ubiquiti switch.
I’m quite excited!
David
Switches do get warm so I wouldn’t worry about unless you can smell something unusually warm.
As far as the access point not working with the Ubiquiti switch… have you checked indeed the switch offers PoE and is enabled? That is you are using US-8-60W and one of its four auto sensing PoE ports.
It has 4 Poe ports. Not sure if they are sensing or not.
Will look into it, thanks
Turns out the UniFi light works straight from the UniFi switch 8 even those it isn’t recognized by the Ubiquiti software - so it doesn’t show up on the Ubiquiti dashboard.
As long as it works I’ll keep these 2 devices.
ndx2/xpsdr sounding amazing
David
I see now that various audiophile servers now come with built-in “ethernet-direct” ports for connecting directly to your streamer, and by-passing the switch/ router connection. I like the idea of this from a simplicity & design point of view but has anyone tried this and can comment on the difference in perceived sound quality when using this connection? I have a Unitiserve at the moment which works very well, but am considering a new Antipodes S40 which has this feature, at some point, thanks.
I’m a little wary of these dedicated streamer ports in audiophile servers, as I’ve heard a number of reports of issues where the streamer can see only the server, with access to some or all other services it supports being somehow blocked. The software controlling this switch port cannot be examined to see what’s causing the issue as far as I’m aware. Ethernet Networking was never intended to be a point to point communication between individual devices.
Whether or not these dedicated ports can improve or somehow change sound quality is another matter, maybe dependent on the operating environment. Only one way to find out.
What is the plus point of this over a simple MM/Audirvana? I think streaming from a MM/PC is immune to switch/router/Ethernet cables.
The cheapest unifi 8 porter only has POE passthrough, it does not itself provide POE.
If so, it has been updated since I bought mine: they each have one active and switchable POE port (Port8). When I looked on Amazon at the Ubiquiti, it had the same picture / labels as mine.
Mea culpa, however: the new Switch 8 is indeed labelled POE Out on Port 8, but described as POE Passthrough (from POE In on Port 1).
I’m glad David has it working, though, since he says it has 4 POE ports, he must have purchased the Switch 8-60 W… whew.
I’m a bit puzzled that the AP seems to be unrecognized by the Controller software… did it show up yet as a discovered Device ready for adoption @davidf? I’m not at home to check or help with a walk through to debug…
Regards alan
Thanks Chris. That makes sense too. You would be completely reliant on the server to provide the stream and internet connection presumably. And this could affect what native services remained available to the streamer. I just saw that more manufacturers were offering this feature and was trying to decide if it was a good thing or not. I guess I will just have to ask the shop to dem it for me and see if I can hear any difference.
Hi Quinn, I’m not sure if there is a plus point but it seemed to be a feature touted as " a good thing" and worthwhile by the companies selling these servers. I just wondered if anyone had any personal experience of this. Presumably there must be some audible difference or they wouldn’t be making the feature into a selling point. I don’t have any opinion on it, one way or another really. The test would be to hear them both, and hopefully determine which connection was better or if they were just different from each other.
To be honest I haven’t used one of these dual port servers myself, I’m just judging them on the basis of occasional comments here from people finding that they were unable to access online services through them.
If a normal switch wasn’t passing data correctly you could easily replace it, or possibly check it’s configuration and diagnose the problem, but apparently not with these servers, which makes me a little wary if them. Still, I dare say others who have actually used them think they’re an improvement.
There is nothing wrong with such a set up if done correctly, but to be clear the media server must be setup as a configurable router if to do this task properly and not cripple your streamer, and I suspect that would be beyond most audio enthusiasts to configure correctly, assuming the media server router had the capability.
Ethernet can be often used with these /30 or /28 subnets, but these are typically for connecting routers together.
Because our streamers typically have several applications using the network interface, such as UPnP control, proprietary control, Roon, cloud streaming and media transfer, then the media server’s router would need to handle these functions with configurable helpers/forwarders and multicast routing, since these function won’t be expecting to be routed and instead be operating in the same subnet (broadcast domain) as the wifi, UPnP media server and internet gateway.
Technically the only advantage is to reduce broadcast traffic such as ARP, discovery frames, network protocol management frame overhead being sent to your streamer. If your subnet is large with many active hosts (say 200 plus) this could be beneficial, otherwise I suspect not really… and by ensuring your switch supports IGMP snooping is going to filter unwanted multicast group data from your streamer which is more likely to be otherwise noticeable.
So all in all probably not worth the effort and almost certainly if not implemented and configured totally correctly could very easily be a bad thing to do getting in the way of musical replay enjoyment and cripple your streamer.
If you were worried by it, I would focus on decoupling the streamer from the DAC, which is what I do, or if you have the right equipment create an audio only Ethernet subnet and wifi SSID, that routes via your internet gateway. Also I would ensure my connecting switch to my streamer with the rest of my home network supports IGMP snooping.
BTW those with a 2960 switch can set ARP filtering by creating a trusted MAC address list… that is you will only forward specific ARP addresses… it needs a bit of config and you need to know the MAC addresses your streamer must communicate with… but again if ARP was worrying you because you had a very large network. you can do this… but not even I have gone to this extent…
I do wonder if some of these consumer products are peddled to people by exploiting the lack of knowledge for many customers of how these devices operate and what is important and what isn’t … or that just might be the cynic in me.
alan, the AC Lite does not show up on Ubiquiti software as discovered (does not show up at all though the port I am using (#5) does show on the Controller software.
Regardless the AC lite IS working well.
Not sure what else to do to get it recognized for adoption on the software but as long as it is working…
David