Hi,
I’m a Ubiquiti installer with > 200 sites currently under management. Our distributor has made us aware of Alta Labs during the initial release of the access points and Switches. Due to not having a router, it wasn’t attractive to us in most of our use cases. So now, with the release of Route 10, we have started to become more curious about the ecosystem. I’m moving soon, so I was already creating a setup for my new home. What’s a better test site than my home, where I have my office and work out most days? This is my first 24 hours with Alta Labs.
Our distributor has an excellent “getting started package” that includes:
- Route 10
- 8-port Switch
- Wifi-6 AP
- Wifi-6 AP Pro
Disclaimer: I’ve not moved yet; I just upgraded the current system. I plan to stop using meshing in the new place and wire all the access points.
I signed up for an Alta Labs account and needed to choose the controller situation to get started. In our Ubiquiti situation, we‘ve got a large-scale controller that is self-hosted in a data center. The local hardware controller was a no-go for us, just like the Ubiquiti cloud consoles. I hate that I can’t access the controller when the network is unavailable. So, that left the choice between the free cloud version and the license to self-host it. For my evaluation, we’ve decided to pick the cloud controller. It’s not definitive for the future, but it’s okay for now.
With all the hardware in stock, I was genuinely surprised by Alta Labs’ supply chain management. There is a good stock of all items; even Route 10 is already in stock with > 100 pieces. I love this. We’ve even had the issue this week that, using all 6 of our Ubiquiti suppliers, we couldn’t get our hands on the UXG-Pro due to a lack of stock.
Adopting the gear to the cloud controller was as simple as giving it power and a network, opening the app, and clicking a button. When adopting Route 10, you get a couple of questions about how to configure the WAN interface. It’s very simple and really intuitive. In the beginning, I had a little popup with the explanation to upgrade some firmware as it was too old. The instructions were clear, well explained, and an easy procedure.
Once the devices were adopted, I started to explore the cloud portal. It’s a lot fewer settings than the Ubiquiti. Is this a bad thing? No. It seems the ecosystem is set up with sensible defaults and still the correct amount of fine-grain control. Grouping the devices with colors is amazing and easy. A management VLAN number is just configurable; awesome. REAL-TIME STATISTICS: Yes, coming from the Ubiquiti ecosystem. It makes it so easy and useful. I’ve run into some small bugs/issues/improvement opportunities, but I will go into this a bit later.
Configuring the wireless was a breeze; it was so simple, clear, and nicely explained that I could probably let my partner do this with ease. The different passwords for routing to a VLAN/internet only/etc. It is just amazing. The amount of control is amazing to me. The coloring system makes a comeback, of course. What actually amazed me was the ability to share an SSID with all the different passwords between sites. This is a godsend when managing 3/5 sites for a customer with regular changes to passwords. And somewhere near the end, I spotted a toggle that grabbed my attention: “Power-User.” Alta actually allows me to persist options that are not exposed in the UI (yet). This has been a dealbreaker with Ubiquiti in the past. Getting a gateway.json text file on our server has been a hassle, and we usually get a different router if that need arises.
Next to all the great things, there is still room for improvement. I went into the ecosystem with little knowledge about Alta Labs, and then I browsed the website, watched the Route 10 Q&A, and read some reviews about the access points. So, what do I think should be improved about the ecosystem? It would be nice if I was able to select the VLANs like in the Ubiquiti controller when assigning them to ports. It’s great that I can choose a VLAN number, but besides that, I would like to select VLAN 5 when I create it on Route 10. Just to make it easier. In some of the bigger sites, I can’t remember all the VLAN numbers.
I do find the web UI overall to be a bit clunky and thrown together by an engineer. This means that all the things I want to find are in the locations I expect as an engineer, but some things could be improved. I’d also be happy to advise with a video call or something if Alta Labs is interested.
To test Route 10, I’ve put it behind my router in a DHCP network. When it was fully configured, I was ready to change the WAN over from my existing router to Route 10. I went into the controller and changed the WAN settings. (Added PPPoE, VLAN, and custom DNS servers) The device disconnected as expected, and I’ve switched the cable over. Unfortunately, this didn’t work, and the device wouldn’t connect. In the end, I needed to delete the device from the controller, reset it to factory defaults, and go through the setup once again. To my surprise, it did not lose the VLAN settings when it was adopted again, so that was nice.
The wireless meshing had me thinking and googling for a bit. In the beginning i was unable to get it to work by meself. After a bit of googling I noticed someone said it would mesh with all devices in the same color. So after giving my accesspoints a color it magically started to work in no time. But it wasn’t that intuitive to get started with.
If I take a look at the product line for Alta Labs, I’ll be positively surprised. The WiFi stack is great with an entry-level indoor access point, a pro with better throughput, IP54, and the outdoor model is IP68. Great, this is a full stack without confusion. Please keep it this way, Alta. The switch stack is still a bit lacking. 8, 16, and 24 port options are great; It would be nice to have a version with 48 ports and a switch with more SFP+ ports. Four at the minimum or more like the USW-Aggregation to compare to the Ubiquiti stack. A switch like the USW-Ultra has saved our asses more than once. A small switch with POE in and out is great. With the recent changes going on, I’m also missing the 2.5 GB equipment. The price of network adapters for PCs is dropping quickly, and even 10G is not out of reach anymore. In terms of routers, there’s only one choice. Route 10 is not ready for deployment at customer sites, in my opinion. But with the clear roadmap that has been laid out and all the features that are coming quite soon, I’m not too worried it’s going to stay that way for long. It has me excited. A router that is < 200 euros retail, with 2 SFP+ ports, 2.5GB, and 2 SFP ports. This is the ideal router for most use cases. In the future, I would love to see a version with at least 4 SFP+ ports for dual 10G WAN and LAN connections.
All in all, the conclusion to the story. Alta Labs is showing it’s here to stay. Aggressive pricing, a great experience for the user, great tools, a free cloud solution, and great commitments to the community. The devices are amazing, and the price to performance seems to be excellent. My first experience wasn’t flawless, but it was without a major headache. I’m very positive in the end, but you can easily notice that Alta is a young brand, and the products have just been released. It seems Alta Labs is willing to listen to the community and build great products.
I’m so excited to work with Alta for the first time. I hope they can keep all of their promises and deliver greatness. Once Route 10 has released all the features on the roadmap, we might give it a go at a customer site. So, for now, No, I’m not deploying it at customer sites. But that might change very quickly.
Sincerely,
Kevin van Oosterhout