Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine All-in-One Router

Product Information

I'll get this out of the way before starting with the review. The UniFi Dream Machine does not have Wi-Fi 6— it is based on the older Wi-Fi 5 standard (802.11ac Wave 2). And before you point out that Netgear has a Wi-Fi 6 router that costs half as much, that particular model has less than half the range you're getting here, and in real-world usage it is nowehere as reliable. But what makes the Dream Machine stand out is that it's just as easy to set up as a Nest Wifi. UniFi's Android app guides you through the initial configuration, and it's about as straightforward as it gets: just connect the bundled wall plug to the router, insert the LAN cable from your modem in the WAN port, and wait for the router to boot up. The UniFi Network app has a host of features that include traffic statistics, all the devices that are connected to the router in real-time, as well as an overall rating for your connection. If you don't care about all the network management features on offer, you can just use the mobile client and the UniFi Dream Machine will work just fine. The UDM supports common networking features like port forwarding, SIP, uPnP, mDNS, Dynamic DNS, and custom DNS filtering. It supports IGMP snooping, DHCP snooping, and some custom DHCP options. Adding networks, VLANs, static routes and firewall rules are all pretty simple. If you want to setup a separate network for IoT or untrusted devices, the UniFi software makes that easy, too. You can customize your DHCP scopes and the DNS servers on a network level. I have my own internal DNS server, a Raspberry Pi running as a Pi-Hole. This provides DNS for my main wireless network, and is set under the “DHCP Name Server” network setting.

The whole setup worked well, and I could easily keep tabs on the network. The UniFi mobile app has almost the same access to the system as the web user interface, which is helpful. The Ubiquiti UDM-SE's wired performance (via SFP+-to-10GBASE-T transceivers.) While the UDM doesn’t have all the flexibility of the older UniFi products, it makes up for that in being convenient and cost effective. If you went out and bought all the equivalents, you’d end up spending more and getting less in a few ways. The USG and USG-Pro can’t match the performance of the UDM. You still have the option to expand your UniFi network, even if the UDM is where you start. UDM Expandability Also, since the router has just one 10Gbps LAN port, I put it in a double-NAT to copy data from my 10Gbps-capable server via its other 10Gbps WAN port. This setup is also not ideal for performance. That's another area where the router has an advantage. It strikes the ideal balance between simplicity and extensibility — you can just configure it and leave it alone, and it will continue to work day in and out. But if you're like me and like to tinker with your home network, Ubiquiti offers a set of tools that you won't find on any other consumer router. As Ars Technica's Lee Hutchinson found out a few years ago, there's an unending list of configuration options possible with UniFi gear, and the UniFi Dream Machine makes it easier to delve into that world. The biggest benefit of the UDM is the UniFi controller software, which you can demo here. UniFi lets you do things that most home networks either don’t do, or don’t do well. Most equivalent systems either have a dumbed-down interface, or don’t support easy expansion with additional managed switches or wireless access points. For all it’s faults, UniFi is still a locally-hosted consumer networking ecosytem, and there’s not much else like it.

An affordable security gateway that can take care of a wide range of security needs

This is where the UniFi Dream Machine shines: it is powered by a 1.7GHz quad-core Cortex A57 chipset, and has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. That's eight times the RAM of the RT-AC5300 and 128 times the amount of storage. The beefier hardware is because the Dream Machine also has UniFi's network controller built in, as well as a managed switch. The UniFi family -- represented by the Dream Machine (UDM), UDM-Pro, the Dream Router (UDR), or UDM-SE... -- aims at business/pro/enterprise users. They are comprehensive consoles acting as the central controllers of various products, of which networking devices are only part of the picture. UniFi can also be self-hosted on a Windows/macOS/Linux machine, but this is only recommended for users proficient with network administration, because it requires constant and precise attention. You’ll need to manually configure your network for sufficient communication between UniFi Network and all of your networking devices. Success hinges on your ability to continuously navigate various third-party software, firewalls and other networking devices. The point is L2PT/IPsec is great when it works. And it does in most cases, which ultimately depends on whether the local network of the remote device allows it to pass through. PPTP Overall, the console's Protect worked extremely well with supported cameras in my trial -- it makes an excellent home surveillance system.

On the other hand, the AmpliFi family, represented by the HD Wi-Fi system or the Alien, is for the home environment. They are simple Wi-Fi routers, easy to use but with a limited feature set.In terms of local throughput performance, I measured the UDM-SE's network ports by using a couple of transceivers, which might have adversely affected the console's network throughputs. Regarding Internet speeds, in my anecdotal real-world experience, the UDM-SE generally delivered the sustained broadband speed of around 6.5Gbp out of a 10Gbps Fiber-optic line -- as shown in the screenshot above. One handy feature of the USG and UDM is the ability to add a remote access VPN. The UDM uses RADIUS and L2TP with IPSec for encryption. You can roughly follow these instructions to set it up. There are a lot of edge cases that I am not going to cover, but here’s how I did it: Short for Layer 2 Tunnel Protocol is the second most popular VPN protocol -- it's also a built-in application in most modern operating systems -- and an interesting one. Wireguard is the latest VPN protocol. Debuted in 2016, initially only for Linux, but since 2020 has been available cross-platform (Windows, macOS, BSD, iOS, Android).

You can get Wi-Fi 7 router today, but the standard is not yet ready, and nobody knows how exactly it will be when it's eventually certified. You can do virtually anything you'd want to do with the UDM-SE's ports or connected clients, and in comprehensive ways. And the console has everything you can think of regarding network, Wi-Fi, and mesh configurations.Generally, all UniFi controllers share the same basic features and settings, but their capabilities vary depending on the hardware specs and port configurations. As a network controller, the UDM-SE has 128GB of onboard SSD. But there's a tray in the middle to add a hard drive or SATA SSD of any capacity. This storage space is for its many functions. It'll hold the video footage for the Protect application or Talk's recorded conversations. And using a router and a few access points is the best way to build a serious Wi-Fi network. Ubiquiti UDM-SE: A powerful network controller