I’ve been a citizen of the Internet for a long time. Over almost 30 years, I remember having a dial-up modem, coaxial cable running on the roof and some more modern, but still simple all-in-one routers. Our last setup included OpenWRT and some TP-Link access points, but I guess it was time to get closer to the bleeding edge...
Don’t get me wrong, OpenWRT based setup with Deco M4/E4 routers (in this case working as access points) were quite OK for most part. I guess it was the combination of poorly performaning mediocre TP-Link router and sometimes finnicky Deco units pushed me over the edge. To be more exact, aging TL-WDR4300, despite being stripped out of the radio was constantly struggling with low memory and storage and for some reason, Deco access points sometimes went crazy with self-assigned IP addresses and I had to reset them to make it work again. Also, at some point we’ve migrated from coaxial cable network to an optic fiber and Deco’s WiFi 5 meshing through the thick brick walls was somewhat struggling.
The reason or the heart?
Or rather perfectly capable MikroTik versus nice and shiny Ubiquity’s UniFi... I’ve started asking around, including some network people from work and everything was pointing to humble routers from our Latvian neighbours. Everyone said it’s reliable, simple and configurable. I was slowly moving from 5 port hEX PoE to a bit more fancy and expensive L009UiGS-RM, but then I’ve started... watching YouTube reviews...
UniFi setup started being more and more attractive. Easy to use, pleasant to the eye graphical interface, while still being able to access CLI (Commad Line Interface) was very appealing. The price was a little to steep but I guess the trap has been already sprung. It made MikroTik Windows app based management look like an old crusty socks.
Shut up and take my money!
There was plenty of consumer and wallet friendly solutions from Ubiquity, like UniFi Express or slightly more expensive but still reasonable Dream Router. But it was me simply being me. I couldn’t go with less expensive options, depriving myself of possible future compatibility and options (I know that’s total BS). I decided to buy...
A machine that is capable of 3.5 Gbps IPS routing managing over 100 UniFi devices and over 1000 clients and running full UniFi application suite, including managed door access, security cameras support, etc. Meet the 19″ rack mounted gateway - Dream Machine Pro!
Initially I’ve got only the gateway, still utilising Deco as access points but I was quickly drawn into the abyss of UniFi gear…
The Lineup
The entire setup consists of:
- UniFi Dream Machine PRO gateway
- two USW-Lite-8 PoE switches
- two U6+ PoE access points
The configuration is very simple. Switches are both connected to the gateway via ethernet cables and said switches are powering up those access points through the magic of Power over Ethernet, because that’s what PoE stands for.
Of course I had to name the devices in some weird way, after made up spacecraft from movies. So we’ve got Discovery One controlled by evil HAL 9000, the brain of the operation. It was then only Icarus II from the movie Sunshine connected, but it was having problems powering on an access point in the kids bedroom over an old cat 5E cable I’ve put in the wall long time ago. I decided to put another PoE switch in there and name it Icarus I (because I had some issues deploying it and in the movie, Icarus II was tasked to find out what happened to it’s missing predecessor). The living room work horse, Slave 1 (I hope I don’t need to explain this one) is placed where we spend most of our time during the day, while Serenity (Firefly) is covering bedrooms.
It was a little bit tricky to place them where they are, because our flat is not particularly adapted for cabled network, but with some flat white ethernet cables and 3M double-sided tape I managed to kind of hide them in plain sight.
Apple of Networking
Ubiquiti’s pitch for UniFi is it’s professional grade equipment but with a twist of ease of use. While you can go full pro and surf the CLI, it was easy enough for me to configure several VLANs, WiFi networks, network separation and some firewall rules. You don’t have to be a networking expert to make a good use of it. And even if you didn’t want to go into detailed configuration, connecting everything together was just a few minor steps away from making it work just out-of-the-box.
It also offers some nice features, like you can easily find which device or service is hogging your ISP connection, it can inspect your traffic and assess if its something malicious and block it. You can also see traffic from which countries you’re getting and you can even block things per country.
And the best part is that crazy responsive and fast WiFi 6, a very welcomed improvement over what TP-Link’s Deco had to offer.
Is it worth it?
Well, that’s a tough question. It depends what are your expectations and how deep are your pockets. Getting Dream Machine Pro was a weird move, but it offers so much more than just a fancy router. It can also serve as a Network Video Recorder with security cameras (which I plan to use), door access system and professional grade, low latency audio, communication systems and all sorts of connected EV charging station (of which I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna use). Sure, you can accomplish all this with far less money and some more knowledge digging, but will it be so fancy, easy and fun to use? Unless you’re a networking geek, I don’t think so!
The only drawback is, I now have expansive plans of even more overkill network extension and over the top monitoring system and my wallet is in a serious pickle...
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