UniFi Dream Machine

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. Pros Setting 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 management Good GUI The 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. Cons I’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.

Met Ubiquiti heb je altijd wel kwaliteitsmateriaal in huis. Dit toestel verenigt 3 componenten: Gateway Switch Cloudkey De setup neemt nauwelijks enkele minuten in beslag en zoals je dat van deze fabrikant mag verwachten krijg je een zeer gedetailleerd en helder overzicht van de werking van je netwerk

Had trouble. Refunded not questions.

My 2nd device. Installed in a huge house, extending coverage with UAP-AC-LR. Scalable - I can extend coverage in future for one more distant house with additional AP. Easy deployment and everything just works. Will never go back to standard consumer routers.

Llevo ya unos años y ha sido un antes y después en casa. Cuando viene gente y ve el dashbord y las posibilidades que tiene junto con la facilidad de uso... terminan queriendo uno siempre. Altamente recomendable.