Pakedge Network Devices

[esanto1]

Hi All,

Looking for user feedback on Pakedge network devices. Haven’t found much online. Current using Unifi but at a point where I want to either upgrade my Unifi gear or move to something else like Pakedge. What functionality will I lose? Does Pakedge offer ssm like Unifi? Does it have IPS/IDS capabilities?

Thanks

[Matt Lowe]

I have had pakedge now for 3 years, and the network has been rock solid only ever needing to reboot the modem on occasion. Although this is handled automatically via my pakedge pe-09 has it monitors all my devices connected and if anything becomes unresponsive it can power cycle it for a specified amount of time and number of attempts.  also nice as my rk-1 is setup to do speed test at a certain interval so i can review 1 day 1 week or 1 month of speed tests on a graph. can also print a network map and network list. Albeit the last few options our for bakpak logins only which is not set up for client access yet. Easy enough information to obtain from me at least for my clients. The quality also is much higher than any of equipment i have had with heavy duty materials and power supplies and cooling solutions.

[esanto1]

I’m an end user, not a dealer. Can I self manage the newly work myself or at least have access alongside my dealer? I come from a network background so know what I’m doing and have been managing my Unifi network for years now. 
Unifi has a great USG (Security Gateway) that offers IPS/IDS, firewall, DPI etc. Do Pakedge have a security device as well?

Edit: A bit more investigation and it looks like it will be able to self manage a Pakedge network myself

[ILoveC4]

I have a Pakedge network (router and WAP’s) and I’ve set it all up myself. 

[esanto1]

2 hours ago, ILoveC4 said:

I have a Pakedge network (router and WAP’s) and I’ve set it all up myself. 

Great to hear! Do you have a dealer that also has access?

[ILoveC4]

5 hours ago, esanto1 said:

Great to hear! Do you have a dealer that also has access?

I do not - my situation is unique but the short answer is no. I wish as an end user I could use Bakpak. Oh well...

[ejn1]

Im not 100% but i think you need a dealer for remote access / changes and not sure if it's additional charges.   That's one of the things I like about Ubiquiti / Unifi is that you have free cloud access to your full network.   Some have commented here that it is not "approved" for C4 but I haven't had any issues (at least that I know about) linked to my network with C4.

[esanto1]

3 hours ago, ILoveC4 said:

I do not - my situation is unique but the short answer is no. I wish as an end user I could use Bakpak. Oh well...

End users/customers can’t use Bakpak? I would have though that if you configured it yourself you could use all the features?

What other features aren’t available to end users?

[ILoveC4]

5 minutes ago, esanto1 said:

End users/customers can’t use Bakpak? I would have though that if you configured it yourself you could use all the features?

What other features aren’t available to end users?

That’s all I’ve found. I tried to setup but I need a dealer login to do so. 

[Tokead]

That’s all I’ve found. I tried to setup but I need a dealer login to do so. 

We’re you able to set it up and monitor attached devices? I’ve got a RK-1 and WAP that I set up myself, it looks like i need Bakpak to log in and set up monitoring. Not sure if I’ve missed something.


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[ILoveC4]

2 hours ago, Tokead said:

We’re you able to set it up and monitor attached devices? I’ve got a RK-1 and WAP that I set up myself, it looks like i need Bakpak to log in and set up monitoring. Not sure if I’ve missed something.


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I want to do all of that, but unfortunately haven’t had a chance to even try yet. I do have 3 WAP’s setup, but I just login to them each individually (which there really isn’t any reason for me to do aside from firmware updates).

I’m going to investigate “Bakpak” more. If you could share any findings here I’d appreciate it. 

[esanto1]

8 hours ago, ILoveC4 said:

I want to do all of that, but unfortunately haven’t had a chance to even try yet. I do have 3 WAP’s setup, but I just login to them each individually (which there really isn’t any reason for me to do aside from firmware updates).

I’m going to investigate “Bakpak” more. If you could share any findings here I’d appreciate it. 

Does Pakedge have a centralised dashboard like Unifi has to provide a view of all managed network devices or is that only in BakPak?

if I go down the route of replacing my gear, I’d be looking at an RK as a main router, unmanaged switches in the rooms and one or two wireless routers. Also want one managed switch because in one room I have devices on different vlans.

[ILoveC4]

3 hours ago, esanto1 said:

Does Pakedge have a centralised dashboard like Unifi has to provide a view of all managed network devices or is that only in BakPak?

if I go down the route of replacing my gear, I’d be looking at an RK as a main router, unmanaged switches in the rooms and one or two wireless routers. Also want one managed switch because in one room I have devices on different vlans.

The Pakedge RK1 supports VLAN with what they call Bonding Zones. I haven’t seen a centralized interface, but I also can’t see any of the Bakpak stuff. I do know they make an appliance that allows you manage all the WAPs in one place. 
 

I have 2 Luxul switches - the Pakedge stuff knows nothing about them beyond their MAC and IP, so far as I can tell. That makes sense though. 

[esanto1]

Does the RK1 have IPS/IDS capability or only a firewall? From what I’ve read, it only has a fw. I really like the IPS functionality of the Unifi USG so want to use that. Do you think I could connect an RK1 to a Unifi USG? 

Searching the Internet, vlans in Pakedge gear doesn’t look popular. Most put all the gear in one big subnet. Is this due to dealers lacking expertise in setting up and supporting vlans/zones? My local C4 dealer only sells unmanaged switches but I have rooms with devices in multiple vlans so want the separation. Or do they just do zones on an RK1 and the unmanaged switches just belong to one vlan each for simplicity?

[ILoveC4]

In your last paragraph I think it’s the latter. 

Regarding IPS/IDS - I don’t know what that is. Sorry!

[BraydonH]

Unifi has way more features and a much better UI. Overall I do think it is a better system in some regards.

I actually don't really care for the UI of the pakedge devices, but it is functional.

Having to log in to each device to make changes just seem so archaic at this point. The unifi dashboard and UI is top notch. I'm still getting used to the BakPak way of doing things.

With that being said I have an all Pakedge setup at home. I have an RK1 router, and it is expensive, but it hasn't missed a beat ever. The price point is very hard to justify compared to a USG for example. But I will say in my 1 year since getting the RK1 I have never ever rebooted it or power cycled it. Also it does make my rack look sexy. Way better than a USG on a shelf.

I also have 2 x WA2200's and once again the spec is nothing compared to the spec of unifi APs. (Unifi Nano is 4x4. WA2200 is 2x2 and costs more than double) But If you don't read into the specs too much the WA2200 does perform really good and I have great wifi everywhere. I have a 300 MBPs connection and I speedtest all the time (fast.com) and I can't remember a time I got less than say 270 no matter how far away from the WAP I was. I nearly always get the full 300 Mbps.

 

If your a guy who likes to read into the specs you probably won't really like pakedge. If your a guy who just wants to use the system and doesn't dig too much into things I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the RK1 / WA2200 combo. (price aside)

That being said we primarily sell Unifi in our setups. What sucks is that you really get no tech support with this product. Pakedge tech support is top notch. The main driving factor for using unifi over pakedge is simply price. When I tell people my router and two access points cost $2110 CAD (+ Network switches) they almost don't even believe me, or just think i'm an idiot for getting something so expensive. But reliability has been great. So there is that.

 

[ILoveC4]

I called Pakedge support and they wouldn’t talk to me. I asked him what I should do if I don’t have a dealer that can call on my behalf and he suggested I throw it out and buy something else. 

[esanto1]

@BraydonH thanks for your reply. Great insight. 
Sounds like you’re a dealer? Does Pakedge have a way for customers to monitor their networks remotely like the Unifi app? 

I am a tinkerer myself with a network background. I’ve got all Unifi gear (USG, AP HD’s, switches) and multiple vlans setup both on my main and room switches, fw rules, IPS/IDS, etc. My normal av dealer will setup C4 for me next year so I’m just investigating whether it’s worthwhile leaving Unifi for Pakedge. I really do like the ease of managing a Unifi network and especially like the IPS/IDS functionality. I like that fact that it notifies me when it detects malware/ransomware signatures in my network. From what I’ve read, the RK-1 doesn’t have IPS/IDS capabilities. I am intrigued by the whole ‘zones’ concept as an easy way to do vlans. 

At this point, I’m thinking I may stay with Unifi for my main network devices and just use Pakedge switches in the rooms. I like that the ports are rear facing so not visible. Unfortunately, I’ll lose visibility of that switch and connected devices but...

Definitely, the price for Pakedge is steep. The RK-1 is $1000 AUD! The Unifi usg pro for comparison is about $460 AUD. 
 

[BraydonH]

18 hours ago, esanto1 said:

@BraydonH thanks for your reply. Great insight. 
Sounds like you’re a dealer? Does Pakedge have a way for customers to monitor their networks remotely like the Unifi app? 

I am a tinkerer myself with a network background. I’ve got all Unifi gear (USG, AP HD’s, switches) and multiple vlans setup both on my main and room switches, fw rules, IPS/IDS, etc. My normal av dealer will setup C4 for me next year so I’m just investigating whether it’s worthwhile leaving Unifi for Pakedge. I really do like the ease of managing a Unifi network and especially like the IPS/IDS functionality. I like that fact that it notifies me when it detects malware/ransomware signatures in my network. From what I’ve read, the RK-1 doesn’t have IPS/IDS capabilities. I am intrigued by the whole ‘zones’ concept as an easy way to do vlans. 

At this point, I’m thinking I may stay with Unifi for my main network devices and just use Pakedge switches in the rooms. I like that the ports are rear facing so not visible. Unfortunately, I’ll lose visibility of that switch and connected devices but...

Definitely, the price for Pakedge is steep. The RK-1 is $1000 AUD! The Unifi usg pro for comparison is about $460 AUD. 
 

Yes I am a Dealer. PCNA Certified. I am also UEWA Certified (Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Administrator)

Without a doubt for a person like yourself (pretty techy, likes to tinker, money doesn't grow on trees) go with Unifi. It works great within the C4 world regardless of the fact that C4 blacklisted it. I know you will be much happier with the Unifi app and such. It has so many more features than Pakedge its crazy. Pakedge really has nothing to tinker with at all. There are the basic settings and that's about it. Where as Unifi is basically in a perpetual state of beta and is always implementing so many new features its very hard to keep up with.

As far as the whole 'Zones' thing. Even after I did the PCNA training setting up the zones in the RK-1 was still very confusing and I had to call into support for them to help me out. I'm pretty sure if I did it again I would have to call into tech support again because I wouldn't remember how to do it and it was pretty complicated and the UI did no justice to make things easier to program or install. I have 3 seperate VLANS at my house and they are all working great, but setup definitely wasn't super simple and the whole pakedge way of rebranding VLANs into Zones doesn't make it any easier. For example without proper settings Zones 3 on the Router is different from Zone 3 on the Switch is Different from Zone 3 on the WAP. It is all very confusing and coming from unifi where everything works together as one system pakedge is the opposite where everything works stand alone and you have to go out of your way to make it all work in harmony.

Pakedge accomplishes similar network monitoring features things through BakPak, but you have to be a dealer in order to use BakPak. So all that remote monitoring your after basically won't work the way you would hope as an end user and not a dealer.

I have never used OVRC before but I think if you went that route and got the Araknis products you could use the OVRC Home app and get the remote monitoring your after. I will be taking a stronger look at OVRC and Araknis in the future now that C4/Snap are one in the same.

 

Cheers,

[ILoveC4]

I got a little help from a friend and was able to setup a Bakpak account. It’s pretty cool! It isn’t as in-depth as the Unifi stuff was at my old house, but does have some good reports and makes it easy to categorize/label devices and get alerts when certain things happen. 
 

I still have more playing around with it to do. I also haven’t taken the time to create and VLAN/Zones just yet (and may not).

[Tokead]

On 11/27/2019 at 1:46 PM, ILoveC4 said:

I called Pakedge support and they wouldn’t talk to me. I asked him what I should do if I don’t have a dealer that can call on my behalf and he suggested I throw it out and buy something else. 

I phoned their support when I bought the RK-1 and WAP. They were very helpful: I did tell them I wasnt a dealer

[Tokead]

On 11/28/2019 at 10:14 AM, ILoveC4 said:

I got a little help from a friend and was able to setup a Bakpak account. It’s pretty cool! It isn’t as in-depth as the Unifi stuff was at my old house, but does have some good reports and makes it easy to categorize/label devices and get alerts when certain things happen. 
 

I still have more playing around with it to do. I also haven’t taken the time to create and VLAN/Zones just yet (and may not).

So are you able to monitor all the devices? That's what I was looking for with Pakedge

[ILoveC4]

21 minutes ago, Tokead said:

So are you able to monitor all the devices? That's what I was looking for with Pakedge

Yes. 

[Tokead]

Yes. 

Are you able to share how, or was there a cost to it?


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[Destroyer of Worlds]

Not a dealer, but a home user and I have access to an NK-1 with 3 AP's (mix of WX and WKs).

I really am frustrated by it's continuous issues:

1. Old SSIDs (even if you delete them and their security profile your wifi devices still see them even after reboots)

2. I'm stuck now with guest wifi working, but no main wifi (stays as connected, no internet).

3. My dealer is fairly responsive in general, but during any holidays it's a week or so.

So I've done a ton of learning and get how the NK-1 gets it's LAN config, it's AP's associated to it, then security profiles drive the main and guest Wifis.  But the above issues and weird connectivity (I'm on 3rd floor office but my phone connects to guest access from 2nd, not 3rd floor AP) are just bugging me.  I had much better wifi pre-C4 using mesh router from Google.