Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine All-in-One Router

My home network has been neglected over the years with just my ISP Wi-Fi router and the odd Wi-Fi router to take over Wi-Fi and add Ethernet ports. My house is partially hardwired but none of the points suit current locations of equipment nor appeals to have them on show.Being tech savvy I knew full enterprise equipment was going to be overkill but I needed a robust system due to the ever increasing Wi-Fi devices in my house. 3 kids, wife and myself and smart IoT devices meant 20+ devices.I had purchased recently the Google Wi-Fi mesh solution with 3 points but lacked customisation and the backhaul network is not great when on different floors of my house with solid brick walls etc.I had thought about a switch and multiple access points dotted around the house, but would either need a PoE switch or powered APs. Did I want a managed or unmanaged switch. My conundrum continued for several months.I work in buildings which are littered with APs and I have access to server rooms and know the kinds of kit you can buy. Everything overkill. I knew of Ubiquiti and there line up of kit and Unifi seemed the best solution for me.I didn’t want multiple boxes (the wife) nor the cost of them. Although extending my ISO coax to my loft is doable, and may still consider but they’ll charge me if I have to call them out to a fault.So the Unifi Dream Machine was my solution, well, a good part of it.Move the ISP box to point of entry to my house, pop it into modem mode. Take external Ethernet from Port1 to outside around the front and back in, hidden behind skirting boards to UDM WAN port. From Port1 of UDM back outside with second cable up to my loft to a UAP via a PoE injector. Drop the cable through the ceiling at the top of my stairs. This will be the AP for upstairs and front of house IoTs and mobile devices, whilst all media/lounge equipment via the UDM.Fairly streamlined compared to full rack mounts and less patchy the mesh Wi-Fi. Total cost less than £450 for devices and cables etc.It works.The Unifi GUI isn’t anything I haven’t come across before ad there are plenty of tutorials online/YouTube etc. setup was easy either via the iOS app of via web browser IP or unifi.ui.com.ProsSetting up VLANS to separate different types of equipment. IoTs on one, kids iPads on another and medial devices and work devices on others.Great threat managementGood GUIThe wife requires a secure connection for work, although she connects via a work VPN, this separates her laptop from all devices. I did once connect to her laptop by mistake and saw stuff I shouldn’t have. This stops mistakes.The kids iPads are setup fairly well via iOS but this gives better security over what they access as I sometimes forget to enable restrictions after I’ve used their iPads. Again, keeps them safe from getting attacks.IoT devices can be easily accessed/hacked should anyone want. Although my network is more for leisure than business, this allows me to isolated these easily hacked devices from all other devices and put firewalls up to stop them access other LANs.Assigning dedicated VLANs and Wi-Fi bands to each group is great. Anything that can happily run on 2.4ghz means my media devices don’t get bogged down on 5ghz.The fan noise on startup is just that, ramps up full and then drops down to quieter than a whisper.ConsI’m constantly looking at the GUI as the information of my network is amazing.For home enthusiasts to SMBs, I’d recommend Ubiquiti Unifi Dream Machine.

I had been using a Security Gateway, AC Pro, and a Raspberry Pi as a Cloud Key previously but eventually decided to put up the dosh for an all-in-one unit, and I'm very glad that I did.LOOKSThe unit is small, quite a bit smaller than I thought it'd be. But it looks clean, so much so that I took it out of my network cab and placed it on a cabinet.There's quite a bright blue light on top, which will flash or change colour depending on the state of the UDM. If you find the light annoying it can be disabled via the console.SETUPThe setup was surprisingly smooth, so much so that I was able to complete the entire process on my phone!By the time I had finished the process on my phone the unit was fully configured and there was very little for me to do on my PC besides just renaming devices. As I previously already had a Security Gateway I did have the option of exporting and importing a backup, but I opted to start fresh.PERFORMANCEIt's not Wi-Fi 6 but with the equivalent of a Nano HD inside I found that it's more than powerful enough. And the unit itself is strong enough to provide coverage all over the house! The signal is still strong upstairs so I've been able to sell off my old AP.ISSUESEverything with the UDM has been smooth sailing, so I'm quite hard-pressed to think of anything to complain about. The only thing I've noticed is that if I'm downloading something and then attempt to log onto the console, the fans on the unit will kick up to 100%. It's not too much hassle as I'm rarely on the console for very long, but it's something to keep in mind if noise would be an issue for you.ANYTHING ELSE?I'm really pleased with the unit, and I hadn't realised how much nicer having everything under the one dashboard was. Updates are completely automatic (although you can change these settings), and backups are too. I never have to restart it, never have to check on it, it just chugs along.

Having used Unifi Access Points at work and seen how well they have worked and how easy they have been to configure, when I needed to improve the Wi-Fi at home, I decided to go with the standard Dream Machine. I was already using a BT G.Fast modem so it was a simple matter of fitting the UDM and then configuring it for my BT connection. Immediately I had better Wi-Fi through most of my home (I still had a dead spot for an outside camera) and have been able to get near full speed virtually everywhere too.The biggest benefit to me though is that I have been able to configure multiple Wi-Fi networks and separate my IOT devices from the main network. This should improve the security of the network as IOT devices can no longer interfere with my PC's and storage devices - important given how poor IOT device security has been in the past.The web interface and app are great and give so much information along with the ability to lock down use based on time and data content - provide router based parental features and block those sites that most wouldn't want to go to regardless of age (like known malware sites).I have since added a U6 Lite AP as well (was amazingly simple as it just needed plugging in and adding when it was detected by the UDM) which has resolved my black spot issue too and added Wi-Fi6 to my lounge as well (not that I stressed Wi-Fi5 though).For anyone looking for more than what the ISP router supplies, I would recommend going for Unifi (or perhaps the sister Amplifi consumer brand).