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🏡 Home » Reviews UBIQUITI UNIFI DREAM MACHINE (UDM): THE ULTIMATE WI-FI 5 ROUTER FORNERDS
Dong Ngo • March 12, 2021November 26, 2019 • 68 Comments*
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The Ubiquiti’s latest Wi-Fi 5 router, the UniFi Dream Machine or UDM, is my new favorite. It’s an advanced enterprise-class system packed into a beautiful and compact home-friendly hardware box. You can use it as a simple single router via a sleek mobile app like it’s no big deal. Or you can dive into the web user interface and get overwhelmed by _so_ many things it has to offer. Among those things, the UDM can work as the center of a robust mesh and security system when supported UniFi hardware units, such as theBeaconHD
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jump into the mix. But that’s a topic of a different review. This time around, I looked at it as a single-unit Wi-Fi solution. And there’s already so much to unpack. Here’s my quick take. Like most things, the UniFi Dream Machine is not perfect. But it has more than enough for anyone wanting a total and complete Wi-Fi solution to look past whatever minor shortcomings it might have, including the semi-beta state and the relatively hefty price of $300. So, go ahead and get it now, you probably can’t gowrong with it.
The UniFi Dream Machine is a compact yet powerful router. UBIQUITI UNIFI DREAM MACHINE8.9
PERFORMANCE
8.0/10
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FEATURES
9.5/10
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DESIGN AND SETUP
9.0/10
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VALUE
9.0/10
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PROS
* Built-in UniFi Controller with lots of useful features * Fast and reliable Wi-Fi performance * Beautiful design, responsive web user interface, excellent mobileapp
* Mesh ready
CONS
* Threat Management feature reduces Wi-Fi speeds * Many features still in beta/alpha state * Requires an account with UniFi * No Wi-Fi 6, not mountable Buy it now on Amazon (*) The Asus RT-AX89X is Arguably the Best Wi-Fi 6 Router to DateReport this Ad
Contents
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* Ubiquiti: UniFi vs. AmpliFi * UniFi Dream Machine: A simple yet sophisticated design * Large status light, big fan, loudspeaker * UniFi Dream Machine: Detail photos * UniFi Dream Machine: Hardware specifications * UniFi Dream Machine: Excellent mobile app* Easy setup
* Excellent Wi-Fi overview with deep packet inspection * Optional remote management * UniFi Dream Machine: A sophisticated web-based system*
* Lots of advanced enterprise-class settings and features * Robust online protection feature* Some shortcomings
* UniFi Dream Machine: Excellent performance* Conclusion
UBIQUITI: UNIFI VS. AMPLIFI These are two major lines of networking devices from Ubiquiti. As the name suggests, the Dream Machine belongs to the _UniFi_ family, which aims at business/pro users. The _AmpliFi_ family, represented bythe HD Wi-Fi system
or the Alien
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on the other hand, is for the home environment. READ: Ubiquiti AmpliFi Alien Review: A Peculiarly Excellent Wi-Fi 6Router
Though both are about Wi-Fi, UniFi and AmpliFi serve two different demographics and therefore have different architectures as well as separate apps and interfaces. The Dream Machine is the first UniFi device that will also work well as a home router. Its beautiful design helps it blend in any household with ease. In a way, it’s a bridge between the two product lines. UNIFI DREAM MACHINE: A SIMPLE YET SOPHISTICATED DESIGN The UDM comes in beautiful packing that resembles an Apple product. At first sight, the tall square box briefly reminded me of the Apple Airport Extreme . But the similarity ends there. (For one, the Apple product is long dead, andfor a good reason.)
Out of the box, the UDM looks super sleek in an elongated egg shape that measures 7.25-inch (184.2 mm) tall and is 4.33-inch (110 mm) in diameter. At 2.32 lbs (1.05 kg), the compact device feels solid and has a good heft — it stays put on a surface and won’t toppleeasily.
There are five Gigabit network ports on the back, one WAN and four LANs. And that’s it. The whole thing is beautifully simple from the outside. By the way, it’s worth noting that the UDM has a built-in power supply and will work with any standard 2-prong power cord(one included.)
LARGE STATUS LIGHT, BIG FAN, LOUDSPEAKER The moment I turn it on, the UDM made a loud sound that startled me a bit. That turned out to be the fan revving up for a brief moment. You might experience this with a computer, especially a laptop, but that was the first for me in a home router. So yes, there’s an internal fan, which can be an issue since fans generally mean tricky maintenance. However, in my testing, other than during bootup, the fan never turned on again, even during extendedoperation.
Another odd thing is the UDM has a built-in speaker, which makes different sounds during the setup process and a three-tone welcome chime each time the router boots up. And I’m talking about relatively loud chimes here, similar to those preceded airport public announcements. Keep that in mind, don’t restart the router late at night. Finally, the UDM has a large ring of light on top that changes color or flashes to show its status. For example, solid-blue means the router is working as expected — you see this most of the time — flashing white means the router is booting up, or flashing blue means the router is in recovery mode. Unlike the chimes, I couldn’t figure out a way to turn them off; you can manage the light using the mobile app. UNIFI DREAM MACHINE: DETAIL PHOTOS The UniFi Dream Machine comes in a elongatedegg shape.
------------------------- There’s a ring around its top that dubs as thestatus light.
------------------------- The UniFi Dream Machine has the usual four LAN and one WAN ports. All are Gigabit. ------------------------- The UniFi Dream Machine has a flat round base, there’s no way to mount it. ------------------------- The UniFi Dream Machine is quite compact but it has a good heft to it. ------------------------- The UniFi Dream Machine’s status light in action. You can manage it via the mobile app. -------------------------The
UniFi Dream Machine can work with this UniFi AP BeaconHDhere
to create a mesh network. UNIFI DREAM MACHINE: HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS The UDM has one of the most potent hardware specs I’ve seen. It runs a 1.7 GHz quad‑core processor, one of the beefiest on the market. But what knocks all other routers I’ve seen totally out of the park is the amount memory. The UDM has 16GB of flash storage — tens of times more than usual — and 2GB of RAM system memory, which is also many times higher than the next router.Full Name
Ubiquiti UniFi Dream MachineProduct Type
Dual-band 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 RouterCPU
Quad-core 1.7 GHz, 16 GB of flash storage, 2GB of system memoryDimensions
4.33-in (110 mm) in diameter; 7.25-in (184.2 mm) tallWeight
2.32 lb (1.05 kg) Networking Interfaces Four Gigabit LAN ports, one Gigabit WAN port Max. Power Consumption26W
Power Method
2-prong standard AC power cordPower Supply
Internal AC/DC Power Adapter,(24V, 0.6A) Supported Voltage Range100 -240VAC
Max TX Power
2.4 GHz: 23 dBm / 5 GHz: 26 dBmAntenna Gain
2.4 GHz: 3 dBi / 5 GHz: 4.5 dBiWi-Fi Standards
802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ac-wave 2Wireless Security
WEP, WPA-PSK,WPA-Enterprise (WPA/WPA2, TKIP/AES)Mesh Ready
Yes
Special Feature
Built-in Ubiquiti UniFi Controller Operating Temperature -10 to 45° C (14 to 113° F)Operating Humidity
5 to 95% Noncondensing UniFi Dream Machine’s hardware specifications. The reason for these over-the-top specs is the UDM is no ordinary router. It’s a system that includes an UniFi controller, a 4-port managed Gigabit switch, and a 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 access point. All routers have similar components but of much lesser capabilities, such as a simple routing function and an unmanaged switch. So, the UDM can do a lot more than a typical Wi-Fi router. UNIFI DREAM MACHINE: EXCELLENT MOBILE APP But first and foremost, the UDM is a Wi-Fi machine that anyone can use. You can enjoy it even you don’t care about any fancy features.EASY SETUP
To start, you’ll first need to download the UniFi Network mobile app, which will walk you through the setup process. You’ll need to create an account with Ubiquiti, which will also work as the credentials to use the UDM’s web interface. The setup process was smooth and fun, but make sure you do it at a time or place where the router’s noise won’t bother anyone. Mine was straightforward; there was nothing unusual I needed to note here. If you have a smartphone, understand the idea of a Wi-Fi network — namely the network name and password — and have used some apps before, you’ll be able to set up the UniFi Dream Machine. The UniFi Network app, for the most part, is a pleasure to use to manage the UniFi Dream Machine EXCELLENT WI-FI OVERVIEW WITH DEEP PACKET INSPECTION For most users, the mobile app is enough. Upon launching the app, you’ll get an overall Wi-Fi rating using a percentage point, the number of connected clients, and a detailed live graph chart of real-time Wi-Fi activities. Digging deeper, you’ll find access to some basic, and a few advanced settings of the router, such as IP reservation, connection statistics, and deep packet inspection (DPI). DPI is part of the router’s Internet Security feature — more on this below — and displays the Internet connection to a specific client in detail. As a result, you can find out what website a particular connected computer is accessing in real-time. So if you’re a nosey one like me, you’ll love this feature. Overall, the app is great when you want to check on your network quickly or manually block a client if need be. You can also change the settings of the Wi-Fi network. OPTIONAL REMOTE MANAGEMENT By default, the app has the remote access feature turned on. As a result, you can use it to manage your UDM even when you’re out and about, as long as your phone has Internet access. Clearly, for this to work, the app connects to Ubiquiti, which connects to the UDM, and the whole thing might pose privacy risks — Ubiquiti can potentially know the activities of the router. I have contacted Ubiquiti on the privacy matter and will update when I get the response. But you can turn the remote access off in the Settings section of the app. Now the app will only work when your phone connects to the local Wi-Fi network of the UDM. It’s unknown, however, if the UDM still ping the vendor with thisfeature turned off.
UNIFI DREAM MACHINE: A SOPHISTICATED WEB-BASED SYSTEM The UDM’s web user interface, available at its IP address (which by default is 192.168.1.1), opens up to the whole different world. There two separate web interfaces. One of the UDM itself and the other for the UniFi controller it houses. There are two web interfaces, one for the UniFi Controller and the other for the Dream Machine itself. The UniFi Dream Machine’s interface allows for some essential functions, including views of its hardware, updating its firmware, changing its name, and so on. It’s the interface of the UniFi controller — designed to control all supported UniFi devices — that allows you to customize your network to the max. LOTS OF ADVANCED ENTERPRISE-CLASS SETTINGS AND FEATURES First of all, there are so many settings and features, some of those you might have never known existed. The controller is that of enterprise applications that allow lots of in-depth configurations. Take the Wi-Fi settings; for example, you can create up to four virtual Wi-Fi networks, each with a completely different set of in-depth parameters. There’s also Wi-Fi Ai, a feature that automatically detects and excludes specific busy channels so the virtual network(s) won’t use it. The UniFi Controller’s interface has lots and lots of settings and features. For the Guest network (or hotspot), you have the option to create a captive portal for the guest users to log in, or accept the term of service before they get connected. You can even choose to charge users for the Internet connection, and in this case, also issue coupons fordifferent rates.
You can also manage each LAN port and assign each one for a particular purpose if need be. And needless to say, the UDM can have all features you’d expect from a high-end router, like QoS, Dynamic DNS, and soon.
What impressed me the most was the online protection feature. ROBUST ONLINE PROTECTION FEATURE The UDM can guard the entire network against online threats via a feature called Internet Security. It’s similar to the Netgear Armor or Asus’s AiProtection , but it’s much moreadvanced.
For example, there are two levels of Threat Management, including the Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS). The former detects and alerts users, and the latter does all that plus automatically blocks the threats. Hey Canada! Just a quick test, eh? Internet Security also includes GeoIP Filtering, which allows for blocking traffic from specific countries on a world map. It will come in handy when there’s a wave of, says ransomware attack, from particular parts of the world. I spent quite some time with Internet Security, which has a few more functions, and it worked well. It’s free to use, but there’s a catch. Once Threat Management is turned on, the UDM’s max Wi-Fi speed now ca is throttled down to 850 Mbps at most. By the way, it’s worth noting that many settings and features of the UDM are in beta, or even Alpha, state. I have asked Ubiquiti about its plans to finalize these settings and will update when I hear back.SOME SHORTCOMINGS
Apart from the beta designation, which might keep you hanging, the UDM also has a few other minor flaws. For example, in my testing, a large number of connected clients weren’t consistently identified, if at all, by names. Instead, they appeared on the network map as their MACaddresses .
While you can manually name a client to your liking, knowing which client is which can be hard if you have lots of them. The majority of routers I’ve tested had trouble figuring out _all_ clients’ hostnames, but the UDM definitely could do better on this front. Another thing is the UniFi Network app isn’t exactly designed purely for home users. It includes a lot of settings and features and uses technical terms for the advanced audience. It’s not all bad here, but if you’re expecting something completely layman-friendly, similar to that of the AmpliFi HD,
you’ll be in for a surprise. UNIFI DREAM MACHINE: EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE I tested the UniFi Dream Machine for more than a week, and it grew on me. For one, it was generally fast to get things done. The router could apply many settings without restarting, which was helpful considering the chimes mentioned above, and most changes took effectinstantly.
Both the app and the interface were responsive, and things just worked as intended, including the beta settings and features. Overall, the router was a pleasure to use. As for throughput performance, the UDM wasn’t the fastest 4×4 Wi-Fi 5 router I’ve worked with, but it wasn’t slow at all. I tested the Wi-Fi speed the Threat Management turned off, and it delivered a sustained rate of more than 830 Mbps on the 5GHz band at a close distance. From some 40 feet (12 m) away, it now registred some 530Mbps.
On the 2.4GHz, things were a bit worse, but the router was still fast enough for most Internet applications. Keep in mind that the speed on this band varies a great deal and, therefore, not a reliable factor to judge any router. It’s only for references. The UniFi Dream Machine passed my three-day stress test with no disconnection at all. It proved to be a reliable router. As for coverage, it has about the same range as a typical high-end Wi-Fi 5 router, like the Asus RT-AC86U or the TP-Link Archer C5400X. Generally, if you have a house of 2000 ft² (186 m²) or smaller, a UDM placed in the middle will take care of it. Shop Related ProductsAds by Amazon
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CONCLUSION
With lots of advanced features and settings, the UniFi Dream Machine is overkill for any home — it’s a router for pro users. Also, the fact that it has some features still in the testing phase (beta) means it’s not entirely ready. But its beautiful design and easy-to-use app make it fit anywhere. And then, the reliable performance and fast Wi-Fi speed won’t disappoint. That’s not to mention many add-on hardwareand
features you’ll be able to expand your home network with goingforward.
So, if you intend to hold up on the move to Wi-Fi 6,
as you probably should, this is
a Wi-Fi 5 router worthy of taking a chance on right now.*
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Categories Reviews Tags Wi-Fi 5 Routers , Wi-Fi Routersand Mesh Systems
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Ubiquiti’s First AmpliFi Wi-Fi 6 Router Is an Alien! EnGenius ESR580 Tri-band Mesh Review: Not so Ingenious 68 THOUGHTS ON “UBIQUITI UNIFI DREAM MACHINE (UDM): THE ULTIMATE WI-FI 5 ROUTER FOR NERDS”*
James Bailey
March 10, 2021 at 8:03 am I am a somewhat unique use case in that I need a high quality and durable access point for use in a live sound production, that I would like to be able to plug in at home when not working. I was looking at the UDM to be my main router at home (2,500 Sq ft, 2floors, lots of walls, but wired with cat6 to every room) and use a UniFi Flex HD AP or UniFi Mesh AP as an AP at home and for my production needs. Production needs boil down to low number of connected users, great signal strength to overcome hundreds of cell phones in a small outdoor space, mostly line of sight operation and ideally rated for outdooruse.
Is this a cost effective /good solution?Reply
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James Bailey
March 10, 2021 at 8:17 am Another option is a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X and one of the APsReply
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Dong Ngo
March 10, 2021 at 9:39 am That’s too specific of an use case, James, and I’m not familiar with it. It looks like a good setup, though.Reply
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Ahmed
December 28, 2020 at 5:00 pmHi Dong,
What an incredible amount of useful info you put out – thank you! I have been running 4 Linksys Velops (the original v1) for over 2 years and am really sick of it – mainly because the best I have been able to get out of it is speeds of 200ish off a 1gb connection. My ISP modem is in the basement, and I run ethernet to devices (iMac, Apple TV etc.) and the Linksys router for wifi. That’s daisy chained to another Velop on the main floor and one on 1st floor. I also have a wireless Velop in the kitchen on the main floor (can’t run a cable there and that is at one long end of the house and the wired Velop is on the other end on the main floor). Try as I might (I put the Velop in bridge mode, that improved things a bit), even with the wired ones, the best speed I’ve seen is around275.
So I narrowed it down to getting the Dream machine, one AP and one BeaconHD (for the kitchen where I can’t run a cable). Question is: would even be worth it waiting for wifi 6 Unify products (specifically the UDM)? I can see they have started to roll out APsthough.
I’ve read a lot that says for home use, it’s not going to matter a lot for a long while – while I want to future proof as much as possible, I would love to hear your thoughts on this aspect.Thanks
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Dong Ngo
December 28, 2020 at 5:21 pm If you want to be future-proof, definitely go with a Wi-Fi 6 set, Ahmed.
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Ahmed
December 28, 2020 at 7:12 pmThanks Dong,
So just so I’m clear – if I want to stick to the Unifi solution – is the current UDM + their Wi-fi 6 AP constitute a Wifi 6 setup? Or do I need to wait for their Wifi 6 Dream Machine?Thanks
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Dong Ngo
December 28, 2020 at 4:50 pm I’ll work if you turn off the UDM’s Wi-Fi and use it solely as aUniFi controller.
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Ahmed
December 28, 2020 at 4:56 pm Many thanks – that’s brilliant! I did not think of that.Reply
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Cib
September 21, 2020 at 1:28 pmHello Dong,
I’ m still hesitating between Asus solution (AX88U) or the Ubiquity(UDM).
I will use a stand alone router at the beginning but would add a wired access point later if needed. Which one would you choose between Asus and Ubiquiti ?Thanks !
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Dong Ngo
September 21, 2020 at 1:47 pm I’d go with the former, Cib. Among other things, it’s a Wi-Fi 6 router. But even the RT-AC88Uis still better if
you’re thinking of extending your network later.Reply
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Cib
September 22, 2020 at 1:22 am Thanks for your reply. So you prefer Asus as a solution ?Reply
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JP
November 6, 2020 at 11:44 am I bought ASUS. ASUS AImesh is a DISASTER. Endless clients disconnecting, some wouldn’t connect, high jitter signals, constant crashing. Oodles of options, none of which work or make any difference. There is even an option to reboot your router on a daily schedule. What router should need that?!!! It is genuinely not fit for purpose. If you want it’s plus points – I agree that the signal from the wifi 6 is quite powerful. Otherwise avoid like the plague. I sold it and now run UBIQITI UNIFI It is INCOMPARABLY BETTER.Reply
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Scotty
August 17, 2020 at 11:44 amMr. Ngo,
I have read your articles about the Dream Machine and Alien. I wasn’t even considering Ubiquiti until those articles. I currently have a last gen Apple Airport Extreme and a Netgear PROSafe GS752TPS as my backbone. I feel like the Airport might be getting a little long in the teeth, might be time to consider an upgrade. My Routers of choice currently are the Linksys MX5 Velop AX5300 and the Unifi Dream Machine. Very very briefly the round Asus was up there also. Unfortunately it would take considerable amount of work to fab a wall mount for my Router location which is up on the wall in my kitchen, high and centrally located.Reply
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Dong Ngo
August 17, 2020 at 12:31 pm Just call me Dong, Scotty. I don’t see a question, but it looks like you’re going in the right direction.Reply
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Scotty
August 17, 2020 at 1:01 pm Oh sorry I meant to ask your opinion but based on your reply I’ll take it as one. Do you know if there are plans for Dream Machine to support WiFi6. I am looking to upgrade an don’t know if the performance better or same as what I currently have to justify it. Love your site an thanks youReply
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Dong Ngo
August 17, 2020 at 1:07 pm That’s a no, Scotty. The current UDM will not support Wi-Fi 6, but there might be a newer similar device that does. Only Ubiquiti can answer this question by the way. It has had no Wi-Fi 6 router so far.Reply
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JP
November 6, 2020 at 11:45 am Buy a UDM Pro and you can upgrade the access point later.Reply
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Dong Ngo
November 6, 2020 at 12:41 pm The Pro is a full business router, JP. I don’t think it’s really applicable to the home environment. But you’re right.Reply
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Jeff
July 16, 2020 at 1:56 pm I tried out PiHole for a short time with my previous router but it had issues blocking certain things I didn’t want it to block. I might revisit that in the future if I pick up a Unifi DM router. And my need is to do device-specific DNS. (Kids use different DNS thanmy wife and I).
I may have back-burnered the new router at this point. The Asus RT-AX58U is working better for me now (we had some issues with the internet service that have now been resolved – there was an LPF to block outgoing MOCA signals on the incoming cable line that was interfering with the signal, and removing it has made things more stable – along with assigning fixed channels to the wifi).Reply
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Jonathan
July 16, 2020 at 12:26 pm This is certainly an interesting question and I wonder if the reddit /r/ubiquiti or /r/unifi folks might have a good answer for you, since it’s pretty specific. Most corporate/pro/business routers/etc these days do not have parental controls or DNS filtering. That ends up left up to the admins. 🙂 I know that Cloudflare recently came out with a Families version, and perhaps something like Pi-Hole might work too?Worth a look!
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Dong Ngo
July 16, 2020 at 1:08 pm If you’re so savvy, you can do that yourself via DSN. OpenDNS for example has a good set of Parent Control that will work with ANYrouter.
Reply
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JEFF
July 9, 2020 at 12:37 pm Since this is more of a commercial/pro model of router, does it have something akin to parental controls (not necessarily the scheduling type of controls, but content-based filtering or DNS-level filtering)? I am looking to upgrade my Asus RT-AX58U (which runs Merlin firmware), and it has the capability to specify different DNS servers for specific clients (by MAC address). I use this to lock down the connections to my kids’ devices using cleanbrowsing.org’s predefined filtering DNS servers. I need to get better reach to one end of my house so I would likely add a BeaconHD to the hallway where these bedrooms are. We only have 400Mb internet, and I don’t see paying for Gigabit anytime soon. I would LIKE to have WIfi 6 support, but only one device in the house has a Wifi6 radio in it (soon to be one more, but it isn’t critical to me). I know the Alien Router is Wifi 6 but I don’t like the increase in cost, unless it was strong enough to broadcast my signal without a mesh. My parental controls question would apply to the Alientoo!
Reply
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Dong Ngo
July 9, 2020 at 1:20 pm Your question is very specific so I’m not sure, Jeff, but the Beacon does have lots and lots of options for you to configure. Chances are it will have what you need. And it will also deliver in terms of coverage if you get some mesh nodes with it. Note the odd design ofthe BeaconHD
though (it works with other better-designed mesh points, too).Reply
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Jonathan
July 2, 2020 at 11:28 am We have a 100% Apple household and since 3 months ago, a UDM and have had zero wifi drops or problems. Speeds are great too. Ubiquiti seems pretty slow at firmware updates for this device, though, and there are some noticeable bugs (see reddit threads) but if you just have 1 access point and fairly normal needs, it’s decent.Reply
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Hrvoje
May 31, 2020 at 1:57 am Hi Dong. Based on your tests, UDM’s performance seems pretty mediocre, especially in the 2.4 GHz band (in comparison to the likes of Asus and TP-Link). Your overall satisfaction and rating of the device seems to be higher than the tests suggest – why is that?Thanks!
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Dong Ngo
May 31, 2020 at 2:13 am It’s not mediocre at all, Hrvoje. Where I live, the 2.4 GHz is problematic due to the sheer amount of devices in the neighborhood and should be used for reference only. As for why I liked it, if you read the review in its entirety, you’ll find out. 🙂Reply
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Angelo
May 17, 2020 at 9:23 am The Dream Machine is actually at a temp of 63 – 70 c which is way higher then the 45c. Do I have a system that is defective? Can someone that has been using this device for a while state if it gets this hotfor them?
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Scott
May 17, 2020 at 12:00 am Thank you for the quick reply.Reply
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Scott
May 16, 2020 at 10:35 pm I am currently in a 1470 sq ft house and I am using a Synology RT2600AC. I get good signal throughout but hate this synology. My Wifi drops connections to cameras and Apple TV and on accation my macbook seem to be sluggish. There have been people on the Synology forums talking about moving to this UDM because of no firmware updates from Synonlogy to fix the issues with the WiFi. I was thinking to do this. It really looks like a good setup. I am IT and work with networks in a large campus enviroment. If my place was bigger I may go with AP and a seperate router but this really seems to fit the bill.Reply
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Dong Ngo
May 16, 2020 at 10:38 pm To be honest, I’d blame Apple stuff first, Scott. The RT2600ACis quite
great, or at least it used to be. You’re right that Synology seems to neglect its networking products lately. So sure, the UDM is quitenice.
Reply
*
Angelo
May 15, 2020 at 7:31 am I’ve been hearing some negative reviews on YouTube and UniFi own website about this product. Will the management threat work? Will it be able to maintain 500 speeds up and down with security feature on? Does unifi usually has a history of fixing their products via firmware updates? Does it overheat has did not see a lot of ventilation on thisproduct?
Reply
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Markus
April 30, 2020 at 3:36 am Hi Dong, i know about the 26W. I plan to use the UDM in a solar & battery powerd holiday home. So i have to convern about every watt. I read in a blog that the UDM Pro uses 15W idle (33W Max. in the datasheet). So thats why i want to know whats the real word consumption of the device. Thanks, MarkusReply
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Dong Ngo
April 30, 2020 at 9:46 am Got it, Markus. Very interesting. Hope it works out.Reply
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Markus
April 29, 2020 at 5:35 am Hi, perfect review. Can you give us a hin about the real world power consumption? Thanks!Reply
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Dong Ngo
April 29, 2020 at 9:56 am Thanks, Markus. I don’t test routers’ power consumption, but the UDM uses no more than 26W, about the same amount of energy as any other high-end router. I wouldn’t be too concerned about that.Reply
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Joe Albrecht
April 20, 2020 at 5:54 pmHi Dong,
Sorry if this has been asked before… wanted your take on best Router wired to Mesh or AP. Meaning if I want the best router controls (monitoring traffic, parental, security), and then want the fastest wifi via wired Mesh or AP units, what would you recommend? They don’t have to be in the same unit for my setup. The UDM looks interesting because of advance security (like packet inspection) and hefty options of control. It supports VLAN Wifi if I’m not mistaken? My internet is cable (960/20), and comes in the corner (garage) of my 4,000 sqft house. Cable modem -> Router -> main switch with cat5e to all rooms. I’ve had two Asus routers (before AC87U). One in the garage, and one on the other side of the house in AP. I had some dead spots so purchased Google Wifi 3pk which worked great. Loved seeing the ISP speed, each device speed real-time, and scheduled parentalcontrols.
Recently with everyone WFH my upload was getting saturated will 3-5 zoom meetings at once, plus ring and amazon cloud cams. I need a way to divide and throttle my network upload. IoT devices (I have ~40), Streaming devices (~10), and work (~5). I can buy multiple routers and double NAT a few on a manages switch with VLAN 1-3. Or should I use something like UDM to manage it all along with Unifi AP or Meshpoints.
Finally (sorry for the long post). Mesh vs AP units. If both are wired does it matter if it’s Mesh or not? I’m reading conflictingstatements.
Reply
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Dong Ngo
April 20, 2020 at 8:18 pm Hi Joe. For mesh vs. AP, check out this post. The UDM is
probably the most capable home router you can get, but its functionality depends on Ubiquiti who can release a firmware update and make a huge change. For your home network, you can get almost any dual-band 2×2 Wi-Fi6 or 3×3 Wi-Fi 5 (or faster) system with wired backhaul and you’re set. Don’t use mesh systems from Google or Amazon. Check out those from Asus, Netgear
, Linksys
or TP-Link in that
order. Good luck! 🙂Reply
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stuart
March 27, 2020 at 7:43 pm Dong it was version 1.5. I auto updated to it and lost access to controller. Ubiquiti sent me link to Beta 1.6 firmware and this resolved issue. A lot of people had this issue here is link to Ubiquiti Community thread: https://community.ui.com/questions/Controller-will-not-start-on-UDM/63f7a40e-409c-4793-8181-061486b008e9Reply
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stuart
March 22, 2020 at 7:43 pm If you buy this, disable auto update and do not update firmware as you will be unable to access the controller. I My firmware auto-updated and now controller is offline. There is no posted firmware to enable you to get controller online again. Very disappointed in Ubiquiti.Reply
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Dong Ngo
March 22, 2020 at 7:57 pm That’s interesting, Stuart. What firmware version are you using? I’m using the latest and was still able to use the access to the controller just fine, as recent as my review of the Beacon.
Reply
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Scott
March 11, 2020 at 7:27 am It’s the worst router I’ve ever used. Completely unusable for gaming, endless lag spikes and dropouts, support were unable to resolve it after over a month of diagnostics. Sent the unit back and went back to my old Asus RT-AC68U which didn’t suffer from any ofthe same issues.
Reply
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Vernon
March 3, 2020 at 1:40 am Thanks, great review. How well does the UDM “manage” the unifi APs and optimize the wifi network? and would it do a better job than 2 standalone Asus zenwifi or similar mesh/AP systems/Reply
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Dong Ngo
March 3, 2020 at 1:44 am It has more advanced and professional features, Vernon. It’s hard to say that’s better or not, which is depends on your taste, but itsure is different.
Reply
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Rob
March 1, 2020 at 7:15 am Can the UDM support the Amplifi Meshpoints? I like the UDM, but would like to use the Amplifi Meshpoints to increase coverage in my house.Reply
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Dong Ngo
March 1, 2020 at 9:49 am No, Rob. It’s an Unifi product so it only works with UniFi mesh points, such as the Beacon HD or the Flex.
Reply
*
John T Davis
February 22, 2020 at 6:56 amDong,
Good morning. Thanks for your answer to my other question. Is there any reason you would recommend just buying the Asus WiFi mesh system and using that, instead of the UDM with a WiFi 6 AP later? My understanding was that the WiFi 6 standard is not yet 100 percent finalized, so I wanted to try to avoid buying expensive hardware that might not be fully capable of doing finalized WiFi 6. If I hooked it up, say, to the Asus WiFI 6 mesh product and enabled threat protection on the UDM, would I still see the mid-range WiFi speeds shown in your review, or would they be better? (Not that 500 Mbit/s is *slow*, but and my current internet is ~230mbps down, but I’m interested in getting gigabit ethernet when it’s not quite so expensive.) I tend to hardwire as much as I can, but with laptops and phones around, there’s only so many wireless radios I can turn off. I live in a small two bedroom apartment now, but hope to move to a larger home sometime in the next couple years, so I was thinking it would be good to learn the UDM now, and then be ready to use it as the center of a larger, more complex home network later.Reply
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Dong Ngo
February 22, 2020 at 9:33 am Sure, John. All existing Wi-Fi 6 routers will work as final products when the standard is ratified, via firmware updates. No, the Wi-Fi speed now depends on the Asus hardware and is limited only by the wired cont between the UDM and the Asus, which is 1Gbps. If you only care about online threads, Asus routers have similar feature called AiProtection. So, you can skip the UDM.Reply
*
John T Davis
February 21, 2020 at 1:58 pmHello,
Thank you for this great review. I found your YouTube channel first, and it’s always great to find detailed write-ups paired with YT videos. Though, I imagine it’s a ton of work to do all this. 🙂 I’m assuming it will eventually be possible to pair a WiFi 6 AP with the Dream Machine and turn off the DM’s 5GHz radio and have everything work, correct? Would using an external AP (WiFi 5 or 6) wired to the DM and placed some distance away (e.g., hung on the wall ~5 feet away or so) raise the theoretical wireless speeds of the DM, or is that more a limitation of the internal CPU/RAM/security software?Thanks!
Reply
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Dong Ngo
February 21, 2020 at 2:20 pm Glad you found me here, John! And yes, you can actually do that right now. You can get a Wi-Fi 6 AP (or routers in AP mode) and use it with the UDM. You can even use a Wi-Fi 6 mesh system and use it in AP mode with the machine. All Asus Wi-Fi 6mesh can work in AP
mode, by the way. And in this case, you only use the UDM as a UNFI controller and router (not a Wi-Fi broadcaster).Reply
*
Seth
February 17, 2020 at 1:47 pm Hello Dong, I am kicking around either purchasing a UniFi Dream Machine plus a Unifi Flex HD Access Point connected with a wired backhaul or buying 2 AmpliFi Alien Routers (when they are back in stock) with one operating as a mesh point also connected via a wired backhaul. I currently have a gigabit internet connection and I do not have any WIFI 6 capable devices at this time. I run all our video entertainment on four Apple TV 4K’s with bitstreams that average 29 Mbps. We have multiple phones, ipads, laptops and PC’s and we have a PS4. Which one of these two options would you recommend for my use case or would you suggest a different option? My current configuration includes 2 Asus RT-AC66U routers (One is a wired AP) and a switch to wire some of the devices. I do have some dead zones and I do notice a delay with the handoff between devices. Not to mention I can no longer get firmware updates and I am lookingfor good security.
Reply
*
Dong Ngo
February 17, 2020 at 1:57 pm If you have 1Gbps internet, I think the Alien is a better fit, Seth. The UDM will give you only 867Mbps top if you use its security features, which you should. Also, considering you have a wired backhaul. A good set of two Asus AiMesh routers will work very well, too, and gives you more features. Consider the ZenWiFi AX, or even the
ZenWiFi AC
,
both are lot cheaper than the Alien set.Reply
*
Michael A Ferer
February 3, 2020 at 8:26 pm What AP’s Work with the Dream Machine?Reply
*
Dong Ngo
February 3, 2020 at 11:49 pm All APs work with all routers, Michael.Reply
*
wayner92
February 3, 2020 at 5:24 am You say that the UDM is the first Unifi device to work well as a home router. What do you mean by that as Unifi has had the USG out for years and it works very well as a router? I have had one of the those and five UAPs in my house for several years. Do you mean that this is the first device that is like the typical home router/Wifi access point? (By the way, when did the term “router” come to mean a device has WAP capabilities – maybe I am being pedantic, but routing functionality has nothing to do with wifi.) Personally I like my router not being a WAP. The reason for that is that I own a single family house in Canada. Therefore the best spot for my netwoking gear is a corner of my basement where my cable/phone enters the house and where my cable modem (or whatever) will be situated. But that is also the worst place in the house to put a WAP.Reply
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Dong Ngo
February 3, 2020 at 10:05 am I meant in the sense that the UDM is also easy to use, Wayne. Other UniFi devices require quite a bit of networking knowhow to set up. And you’re right on the Wi-Fi routers, in many homes, it’s good to separate the Wi-Fi AP and the router but again, that’s quite a bit of work, running cables, etc. Since all home routers now have Wi-Fi capability, nowadays, routers generally mean Wi-Fi-enabled routers.Reply
*
Adrian
January 28, 2020 at 4:01 pm Actually I ran Cat6 to every room from the central location already. So you just plug the mesh point into any available cat socket forwired backhaul?
Reply
*
Adrian
January 27, 2020 at 3:13 pm Hi Dong. I am building a new single level home ~1900 sqft. I was going to get the Amplify Alien mesh kit but as I am in Canada that is not an option. Do you think I would probably be ok with the dream machine to cover my house or would I be better to get a mesh solution like synology? I would like to have wifi6 but not a deal breaker. Thanks!Reply
*
Dong Ngo
January 27, 2020 at 8:07 pm You should make running CAT5e or CAT6 as part of the project, Adrian. Run a cable, or two, to each room from a closet where your Internet drop is. When that’s in place, you’ll have a lot of options. You can go with any mesh system that supports wired backhaul. AiMeshand Synology Mesh
are just some of the options. UDM works, too, but make sure you get wired mesh points (instead of wireless).Reply
*
Shawn
January 20, 2020 at 6:45 am Hello, Do you know if the UDM supports 802.11r and also WPA3?Reply
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Dong Ngo
January 20, 2020 at 9:43 pm Too of my head, I’d say yes on 802.11r though I haven’t tested it in a mesh yet. As for WPA3, it’s just a matter of firmware updates.Reply
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Bob Severtski
January 4, 2020 at 1:51 pm Will the UDM assign 2.4 or 5 ghz to whatever device is connected to it automatically? Thank you.Reply
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Dong Ngo
January 4, 2020 at 1:54 pm Yes, Bob. That’s called band-steering and the UDM has advanced settings on that front which works well.Reply
*
Ivan Caetano
January 4, 2020 at 8:30 am What’s the 5ghz range on this machine?thank you
Reply
*
Dong Ngo
January 4, 2020 at 12:18 pm It’s similar to that of most high-end Wi-Fi 5 routers, Ivan. There’s no specific number because that depends on many factors, but you can expect it to be about 150 feet (45 m).Reply
*
svenwindhorst
January 2, 2020 at 3:33 am Some Amazon.com users say that it has poor wifi performance through walls. what is your opinion?Reply
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Dong Ngo
January 2, 2020 at 7:21 am This depends on the type of walls though walls are never good for Wi-Fi signals. But I didn’t find the UDM particularly worse than any routers on this front.Reply
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Ivan Caetano
December 28, 2019 at 9:01 am I need an opinion from you please. I want to up grade my routers I need a router with mesh/ap I do like ubiquiti i have their ap pro should I get the UDM with ine of their 4×4 aps or should I go for wifi 6 and if so which one do you recommend? thank you and also thank you for the great reviews/workReply
*
Dong Ngo
December 28, 2019 at 7:47 pm For your needs, I think the UDM is a good fit right now, Ivan.Reply
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