I am currently running ubuntu 14.04 LTS on a laptop.

When I cruise in my sailboat I use a wifi extender manufactured by Ubiquiti. This device is configured by accessing its internal webserver, via an ethernet connection. By default, it is configured to respond to the address 192.168.1.20

For several years, I have been able to configure access this device with no difficulty. Now that I am running 14.04 LTS, every time I browse the address 192.168.1.20, I get an Apache2 default web page. It appears that the ability to access local IP addresses directly has been blocked, apparently for security reasons.

How can I restore this simple capability? I do not want to run a web server. All I want to do is access a physical device at 192.168.1.20

Incidently, I cannot change the device address without first accessing the device.

I configure and deploy Ubiquiti equipment as part of my job. As long as your laptop is assigned with an IP address in the same range as the radio network management address, you should be able to access it ok.

Check your assigned address. It's not using 192.168.1.20 perhaps?
Can you ping the Ubiquti device successfully?

I assign the ip address 192.168.1.2 to eth0

ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2 up

Then I make 192.168.1.20 be the default gateway

route add default gw 192.168.1.20

Since 192.168.1.20 is the address to which the Ubiquiti device responds, this has in the past allowed me to access the web server built into the device.

Now, for a reason that I do not understand, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is configured to have apache2 sitting on that address.

When I ping 192.168.1.20, I get a response, but I suspect that is apache2 and not the Ubiquiti device

Have you tried stopping the apache2 service?
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-...he-web-server/

There should be no need to add a gateway, since the laptop address is part of the same subnet. You should be able to reach the Ubi directly.

Reset the wifi extender to stock/oem config with reset switch.
Set your ip in the subnet and range of the extender. If the stock is 192.168.1.1 then put a static .2 in your system. Then try to reach the config page.

I'd think it is almost impossible that the update to 14 did this or has anything to do with it.

The default IP is 192.168.1.20 for these units. It's not clear to me as to why the web interface is not accessible.

The other thought that I had - check that your netmask is correct.

Still reset it.