This post covers my Dangersouly Average experience with the Ubiquiti Unifi Dream Machine or Ubiquiti UDM. This device is an awesome way to bring big-boy equipment into your house with no extra hassle and an affordable price.
During Covid, I was working from home a lot more. Well, not just a lot more, but pretty much only from home. Now my Cisco EA3500 typically does what is needed for ME. The problem is not just ME for once. The major change has been that everyone else is home.
We got three kids who are now being home-schooled. Every day they are watching or posting assigned videos, attending Zoom calls for their classes, and use two or three required online platforms for their school work.
At my job, I have a HUGE influx of meetings via Microsoft Teams and Lifesize Cloud. Just to get work done I was running a desktop VPN connection back to the Corporate Mothership. To top it all off, Wifey is now at home trying to keep her sanity with some YouTube Therapy, so the EA3500 we were rocking was falling short.
The rest of this post is a 1st hand account of my thoughts and experience with the Ubiquiti UDM after about 2months of running the device.
A couple of things about me we should Unifi together first. At our company, our main IT guy is off-site. I get stuck doing the light-end work of network infrastructure in the office. Like new employee hires. My role is to go to our server room and plug cables into the switch, so the ethernet ports at their desk are ready for network and VOIP phones. So, I basically know nothing about network management. JSON this, SSH that? It all means nothing to me.
Why this matters is that I have a very basic and simply childish understanding of the of POE and what is switch is. It also means I had heard of the Ubiquiti Name. Our offices run Ubiquiti Access Points (AP) and we have a Ubiquiti 48port Switch. So I spent some time looking at the shiny silver server rack with blue lights at work.
With being the office IT guy at work, I am qualified to be the de facto CTO at our house. Yes, when my kids smash a Kindle, I am asked to “fix it”. Which is usually fixed by a $59 spend at Amazon. Did I set up the aforementioned Cisco EA3500? Yes, I set that “up”, by plugging it in and giving our WiFi an SSID called “FBI Surveillance Van”…
So, having the house moved to a business-class solution was a little intimidating.
Don’t be intimidated…
The UDM is so fricken easy,
and ADDICTIVE
The Initial Set Up:
The setup was a total breeze. The one little setup hiccup might be if you have a Static IP address. So, you have to enter the network information a little differently. It is all on the setup tutorial. It was as easy if not easier than the last wireless router I had. I would go deeper on how to set it up but this is a review about how Dangersouly Average the device can make you. If you want to see the set ups. I highly recommend the videos over on CrossTalk Solutions or Willie Howe. These are 1st class guides from people who do this for a living.
Basically, I am trying to keep my post to my experience and thoughts. Because if you are looking to go with the UDM, you may want a little inspiration, and confidence to help you make that decision.
The Configuration:
The configuration is as deep or shallow as you want to go. Straight out of the box, it does what you want and pretty much just works as a no-frills drop-in replacement for whatever gateway/router you were running. A couple of things I would note are:
The UDM Dashboard is a Hybrid between the old and the new. So a lot of the things you watch online for the Unifi Controller may look different. There is a setting to get to Classic Mode. Enable it so you can follow along easier.
I set my device to Manually Update the Firmware. I don’t like it when things magically brick. So by setting this, I can update when I have the time or patience to expect the unexpected. As a late adopter, I can wait for a week or 6 to ensure the firmware is solid.
As you can see from the image above, the dashboard will let you know when your device(s) have pending updates.
The
Dashboard Views:
Okay, the thing about business class equipment is you get some features that are very cool, even if you don’t really know what they mean or how to use them. Take for example the Dashboard View. “Everything is Great” and I have 99% network uptime.
But there is more, there is so much info you can pull to understand your environment. This is where Dangerously Average people really start to Geek Out. The tabs on the left side of the Management Studio show you:
Network Statistics
Network Map
Network Infrastructure Devices
Network Clients
Unifi Network Insights
Note about the insights, the default panel shows info that looks like Charts and Graphs. I am showing this chart because the UDM can scan your neighborhood to identify where you have radio interference. You can set the UDM to automatically adjust your network channels to help keep your connections rock solid. This feature is maybe not so great in the ‘burbs but in an Apartment, or strip mall? It could be a lifesaver.
As you can see, you can get very in-depth with customization and options. The GUI for the Dream Machine gives you easy access to magnitudes of options above what you have ever had. So, if you are a Tech-Enthusiast at heart, and natural-born tinkerer then this is a System you need to take a serious look at. If you are SYS Admin/Network Professional and looking for some absurdly controllable command line interface this will disappoint.
Future Expandability
Here is where I think getting into the Unifi family of devices really shines. In my home office I have a VOIP phone that can use POE (Power over Ethernet) The phone HAD a separate power supply and a network cable.
I added to the network (Adopted as Unifi calls it) an Unifi US-8-60W. This device is an (8) position-managed switch with 4 standard network ports, and (4) POE ports. Don’t let the word “Managed” scare you off. Plug it in, and it works just like any dumb ‘ole switch. So, when I plugged in my Synology NAS and other devices they just worked. When I plugged my VIOP Phone into the POE Port, it auto-sensed, and the phone just worked.
I want to emphasize The “Managed” part just means you CAN do more. Not that you have to fiddle fuddle around with configuring it. The switch just worked for me. Plug it in and your stuff just works.
With the Unifi GUI you can DO MORE!
And more I did… See the thing is you will have all these options to tinker with, and these options gave me the tinkering bug. So with my Unifi Dream Machine and Unifi Managed switch, I put them to use.
One way to put all of this to use is with VLAN’s. A VLAN is a virtual Network. It is kind of like having two networks on the router/gateway device. The intent of a VLAN is to put one set or family of devices on a different network, which is “Separate” from your Hulu/Netflix connection.
In some articles, people swear you need a VLAN for your IoT Devices (Nest Thermostat, Ring Doorbell, Samsung Smart Fridge, Google Home Hub, Sonos, Samsung Washing Machine). The internet is here, and now IoT is not going away…
Beyond the intellectual exercise and truly academic need, here is a real-world example of home use of a VLAN, a Managed Switch, and why it might make sense…
Oh have I mentioned yet that the Unifi GUI and Set up is so easy that even I could do it on my first try!
I have (2) X-Box One’s on our home network. The family does quite a bit of on-line gaming, and X-Box prefers that you run your equipment on Open NAT. Now some people are sensitive about opening their entire network. I’ll let you google whether or not open NAT is truly dangerous, but the way I understood it is as follows: Open NAT is not as bad as you might think, because if the device in your house is “Trusted” then it will make connections to other Devices that it “Trusts”. So, it is a little dangerous, but maybe not as bad as doomsday sayers might say.
I believe the Open NAT haters are System Admins, and this is rightfully so. Think about that crowd. They are business orientated people, and business people really have to protect their data. So, in that lens yes an Open NAT would be an unnecessary risk. As a Dangerloulsly Average user, Open NAT may not be as bad as you would think.
But for the Acemedic Use, and because Unifi can, I can too. So, I created a VLAN on my home network. I won’t detail the steps as you should just look up more videos by Chris at Crosstalk Solutions or Wille Howe. So in broad brush strokes:
- Using the Unifi Controller Dashboard I created a new Network for the VLAN
- Using the Unifi Dashboard, I “Managed” the switch and paired two of the US-8-60W Switch Ports to that VLAN
- I connected the Ethernet cables for the X-Boxes to the correct ports on the switch
- Technically I did not plug in anything I just “Mapped” the X-Box Network to the Switch Ports
- The Unifi Dashboard told me what ports the X-Box was using
Sure enough, first shot, and our X-Box’es have Open NAT on their own secure VLAN. Now matching making is a little better, and I got to learn about VLAN’s in the process. If for some ungodly masochist reason you are playing over WiFi, then #1 you’re wrong, and #2, You could also create a separate WiFi Network and map that to your VLAN.
God, I hope that makes sense, but as soon as you understand that, then this makes sense too…
If you are working from home, chances are you have to VPN into your companies Mothership as well. So to take this VLAN a step further
I no longer have to VPN into our office.
Why? VLAN I say! (and some heavy persuading to our IT Guy)
I have a VLAN that is a VPN connection to our office. This VLAN is “Managed” on the switch so the docking station for my laptop is always on VPN connection. I had to pinky swear to our IT Guy I would not also put our company network on a separate WiFi and broadcast it into the neighborhood.
With a Ubiquiti Unifi UDM you can do all this and so much more.
Drawbacks and Hiccups:
First off for the initial set up, the UDM was set to use QoS (Quality of Service) settings. The UDM calls it Smart Queues. It is found under:
Dashboard Settings > Networks > WAN > EDIT > Enable Smart Queues
This throttled my connection and I had to turn it off. The Smart Queues might be great if you got several systems (Phones, Servers, Users, Access Points, etc) on your network. At home, I don’t think it is really needed unless you want to channel your inner SYS Admin and overlord your own home network. From what I have found, home users should just leave it off.
With all of that said there are two things it can’t do, that the typical Unifi Controller would do. To be honest, I don’t think what is missing is even a big deal for 98% of the Target Market. So what can’t it do?
- NVR or Network Video Recorder
- Adopt to other networks
Let me address these. The NVR I do not think is a loss. Homes are now wired with some version of a Nest Camera, or “Ring” solution. This means that as a home user, you most likely would not need to take advantage of the Unifi NVR anyway.
If you are not a connected home, then at a minimum you most likely have some small office at home and have a NAS of some sort. If you are a home user who does not have a NAS and are using an external Hard Drive to store your extra files then
#1 you’re wrong,
#2 home NVR was not going to be a real consideration anyway.
The last major “drawback” is the lack of ability to adopt other networks to it. Unifi Controller is a pretty powerful cloud-based platform, and in a traditional IT Sense, you might have a mothership office and several satellite offices. So the mothership where the IT Cyborgs work would have a master controller, and all of the satellite offices would be adopted/controlled by this master on the mothership.
Well the UDM can not be the Mothership of devices. It can Adopt to your mother-ship, but it can’t be the mother-ship. For the home user, this should not be a problem. If you are a small business, you should have something a little heavier duty at the corporate office, If your small bakery, or coffee house, this would work great for one location. When you grow to the point you need more cups of coffee, or places to bake bread well you can invest into a larger controller at that time.
Again for 98% of home/office users, this is not a drawback, but I believe is a very reasonable compromise. When looking thru the lens that I do, the UDM is fantastically balanced.
Conclusion:
The Ubiquiti Unifi Dream Machine gives you 3-4 critical infrastructure components in one compact unit. It closes the gap between general consumer-grade equipment and the prosumer / SOHO (Small Office/Home Office). It looks great and functions awesome, and leaves you with tons to headroom to expand.
Our house has noticed a significant improvement in drop rates and the quality of WiFi. It is a noticeable difference in the way that you notice how your car drives. You notice the things right away, like how it sounds, if the transmission clunks between gears, or if the brakes feel soft. Now those around you may not care to look or notice the way you do. THAT is often the problem with network infrastructure. It is just expected to work and is only a problem when it fails.
Do I have more range, Yes!
Does the family complain less, Yes!
Have I asked if anyone cares? Nope!
I don’t ask because if I asked, they don’t care how great it is, as long as it works. They only care when it stops working.
The Ubiquiti UDM just works!
It works and frankly; I no longer reset my router weekly or power cycle it either. The paramount thing I notice is the measurable improvement and I am sure that 99% uptime is legit.
In the end, maybe that is why they call it the Dream Machine. Not because it is an all-in-one unit of super awesome capability, but because they know I would sleep better with it under my roof.