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Why?
I was using the Asus ZenWiFi BQ16 Mesh Router since November 2024. After the initial trial and error of various settings to make it stable due to its buggy firmware, it was stable for over 6 months, including surviving a power shutdown.

However, things changed one weekend in July 2025. I woke up and noticed none of my home automation is running. To my surprise, all the wireless networks in my home are gone. First, I plugged my Ethernet cable into the BQ16 to determine why. To my horror, I did not get an IP from DHCP. Tried a couple of restarts of the BQ16, but the issue remains.

I tried the first factory restart, and it worked for a while. After about an hour, it returns to the original issue: the wireless network disappears, and DHCP assigns no IP.

The second factory restart is where it works, and I have to reconfigure all my settings back to my initial settings. Sadly, after doing that, it is not as stable as the original state of the router. My IOT devices refused to stay connected, so they were always in a perpetual state of connecting and disconnecting. I don’t know what changed, and as far as I can remember, the settings are the same.

I always wanted to move to Ubiquiti because that is the end-state of home network setups. So this outage caused me to move forward without any hesitation.

Buying Ubiquiti Products
Asking any newcomers to Ubiquiti, the number one issue with Ubiquiti is not the products, but buying them, because the latest ones are constantly out of stock. It doesn’t help when you can only get it from authorized resellers like Sinseng Components or TGN Technology as the Official Ubiquiti Store Singapore doesn’t carry the latest products.

Both Sinseng Components and TGN Technology have stores on both Shopee and Lazada. I got mine from Sinseng Components’s Shopee Store because they usually list the latest Ubiquiti Products and allow most Shopee platform vouchers to be used.

Two of the most popular UniFi products right now are the UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber and UniFi Pro XG 8 PoE. Both of them are constantly out of stock the moment they arrive.

What I Bought?
On the same day of the outage, I was browsing the Sinseng Component Shopee Store. I noticed that the UniFi Pro XG 8 PoE was in stock, so I immediately purchased it along with the UniFi E7 and a 1m 10G Direct Attach Cable. I paid S$1,510 for the three products.

Since I need more than 16 ports, the UniFi Pro XG 8 PoE wasn’t enough, but again, I don’t need 10Gbps for all ports, so I bought the UniFi Flex 2.5G 8. I also needed another DAC to connect the UniFi Pro XG 8 PoE to UniFi Flex 2.5G 8, so I bought another 0.5m 10G Direct Attach Cable. I paid S$213 for this order.

What’s missing is the UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber. Again, I happened to chanced upon someone from the Ubiquiti Official Singapore Facebook User Group recommending people to get it from Getic, which is based in Latvia, a country in Europe.

I am lucky that UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber was in stock. Of course, I bought it immediately. I paid US$258.64 (S$333) for it, but there is a credit card fee of US$7.94 (S$10). Delivery is US$35.42 (S$46) for FedEx Priority. The difference between FedEx Priority and FedEx Standard is only a few dollars, so I chose the fastest. All in all, I paid US$302 (S$389). I did not need to pay 9% GST in Singapore because the amount was under S$400, and Getic is not a registered company in Singapore.

FedEx Priority is fast; I received it within 3 days.

Summary of items I bought and the prices I paid for them.

• UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber (UCG-Fiber) – S$389
• UniFi Pro XG 8 PoE (USW-Pro-XG-8-PoE) – S$809
• UniFi Flex 2.5G 8 (USW-Flex-2.5G-8) – S$194
• UniFi E7 (E7) – S$680
• UniFi 1m 10G Direct Attach Cable (UACC-DAC-SFP10-1m) – S$23
• UniFi 0.5m 10G Direct Attach Cable (UACC-DAC-SFP10-0.5m) – S$23

More Purchases
After setting everything up, I went to buy another Access Point (AP), which is the UniFi U7 Pro XG as there are some blind spots in one of my rooms.

I also bought the UniFi Flex 2.5G 5 (USW-Flex-2.5G-5) to upgrade my unmanaged TP-Link 8-port switch in my TV console.

Summary of items I bought and the prices I paid for them.

• UniFi U7 Pro XG (U7-Pro-XG) – S$261
• UniFi Flex 2.5G 5 (USW-Flex-2.5G-5) – S$71

All in all, I spent almost S$2.5k on Ubiquiti Unifi products.

Rabbit Hole
Those already in the Ubiquiti UniFi will always tell you it is a rabbit hole. It always started with routers, switches, and APs. Slowly, you will move into other categories, such as Doorbells, security cameras, and Network Video Recorder (NVR).

I am already looking into it and will consider replacing my Google Nest Cameras with the UniFi G6 Instant since I don’t have Ethernet cables at all my camera locations. But I need to get the NVR before that.

My Ubiquiti Unifi Setup
I will probably blog more about my Ubiquiti Unifi setup in a few weeks once my setup is more or less stable.

Pardon the messy cables.