airCRM

[sirhc]

I am sure it is pretty slick looking and as soon as they have a local version I will look at it.

[iggy05]

Signed up for it yesterday not realizing it was cloud based and now that I find this out I am kind of disappointed. I will try it to see what it is like but I am not holding my breath. Worst thing is nothing in my network is connected to the internet. As of right now I have no use for a billing system and I am just looking for monitoring.

Sounds like there might be something started here but does anyone suggest anything to look at? Biggest draw for Aircontrol at the time was that it was easy enough for the support staff to understand when troubleshooting from phone calls and such but I really need something that will be able to start monitoring Airfibers in the very immediate future. Our first test site is basically live right now and I have no current way to tell if it is up or down at the moment.

[adairw]

I can't even figure out how to get devices in to it? Although I haven't really put a lot of effort in to it.
I saw a blip on the ubnt form that you had to have 5.6 running? I'm running 5.6 beta 5 (or something like that) on a test ap with 5 subs and didn't see anything in there to tell it to be added to the controller? what am I missing?

[sirhc]

what am I missing?

A local installation!

[adairw]

No doubt, it's only a toy in my mind until I can install it on my own server and have IT discover my network.

[rebelwireless]

you drop a special aircrm firmware (a beta of 5.6) and then from the radio's webui you register with your aircrm login. it actually works pretty well.

[adairw]

Ah, I wondered if I needed a "special" 5.6 beta version.
So I have to do that on 1000+ devices???
Once it's on a device is there a way to scan for other devices or what?

[rebelwireless]

Ah, I wondered if I needed a "special" 5.6 beta version.
So I have to do that on 1000+ devices???
Once it's on a device is there a way to scan for other devices or what?

No, it's one device at a time. good thing you're only putting this on a couple to play with right :|

It includes a deployment tool that you can use with an airGateway that will drop the appropriate firmware in and register it in one pass.

[sirhc]

You know it is a shame this is cloud base only at this time as I would so love to use it. I can not wait until they make a local installed version.

I have no problem sharing telemetry data such as device name, type, location, signal strength and such but NOT passwords. I am even nervous about sharing IP addressees but that alone would not be a deal breaker.

The problem is UBNT "had" a great super user group that they refused to use to their potential. The last time I was out there with the group and AC3 was discussed and the cloud thing came up we all expressed our dis-like of the idea. Since this group was supposed to be some of the best and also a cross section of their customer base they should have taken advantage of the opportunity to express what they wanted to achieve and we could have brain stormed to come up with a compromise that would work but as always we were dismissed like parents do to their children as if they knew better what we needed or would except.

I am also going to make a "guess" that the promise of a local install version is a stalling ploy to make people try the cloud base version and have people go OH I HAD NO IDEA and agree that now cloud is OK.

But the problem is I do not think they understand that if the network is DOWN we can no longer get to our airCONTROL.

airCONTROL is used to see how much of the network is down and where the breaks are which is impossible if my internet feed is down.

Soo many times people in the SU group warned of problems and were just ignored, I would start a list here but somethings would violate my "promise" with them NOT to share.

Which brings me to this paranoid distrust that UBNT seems to have of people. I heard a rumor that the SU group would no longer be allowed access to labs at their office.......really? I hope for them that this is not true.

It was funny when you walk through the labs you would see competitor gear completely torn apart and dissected (everyone does this not just UBNT). Hell all of my shield kits were outside their test chambers...... DUH

But this brings me to one of Robert's statements to the effect of a few people create value and tons of people prey or copy off them......LOL Really?

He was so upset once when some company was trying to poach his programmers but I was thinking that you took them from Ligowave I think?! LOL

Anyway I believe in being as open and honest as possible and let my customers guide me not me trying to steer them.

I am rambling but anyway I am still hoping for a local installed version as I can not use anything else.

[rebelwireless]

Chris, I think you hit on an important point here. It's mistrust. Mistrust breeds mistrust, and you can see over in the ubnt forums that mistrust of ubiquiti is surging.

I don't think that it's a lost cause at ubiquiti, but they leave the door open for customers to step out because they are losing loyalty fast. Another competitor comes along with good products it could be a dangerous thing for ubiquiti right now.

I've been in software development a while now and in a few industries at this point in my life. What just happened with airCRM I've seen before and it didn't turn out well for those vendors. Customers are waiting on a product, wait wait wait. Product finally arrives but it's not the product, it something else that was SPECIFICALLY not what they asked for. Customers that were (im)patiently waiting throw hands up and source products elsewhere or worse, hire and in-house development (I did this, what a jerk right!?) because customers now know that the vendor can't hear them. Vendor backtracks and scurries to 'fix' it but it's too late. Trust and loyalty lost.