Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine All-in-One Router

Product Information

The UDM-SE features PoE (802.3af) and PoE+ (802.3at). It doesn't support the latest PoE++ (802.3bt), required by some latest Multi-Gig access points. But there's no point in supporting PoE++ when the ports themselves are Gigabit. Source: Harish Jonnalagadda/Android Central (Image credit: Source: Harish Jonnalagadda/Android Central) If you want to use them with a non-Ubiquiti device, such as a managed Multi-Gig switch, set the third-party device's SFP+ port in DAC or Auto (and not SFP+) mode. Else, no SFP+ copper cable will work. 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 Now, the key differentiator for the UDM Pro is that it can deliver up to 3.5Gbps bandwidth with Ubiquiti's intrusion detection (IDS) or intrusion prevention system (IPS) enabled. With IPS enabled, the UDM Pro will safeguard your home network against active botnets, malware (including ones targeted at mobile devices), and trojans. You can also disable access to P2P or TOR clients entirely, and with five levels of protection to choose from, there is a lot of customizability here.

The UDM is the first UniFi product that works well as a home router, thanks to its friendly design. In a way, it's a bridge between the two product lines. The UDR further solidifies that approach, making the UDM-Pro or UDM-SE applicable to demanding homes.

Overall, if there’s something the UDM doesn’t do yet, do not count it getting added in the future. UniFi Dream Machine Competitors 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. Finally, the UDM-SE has eight PoE Gigabit LAN ports. You can use them to host any wired devices, including PoE cameras, IP phones, access points, and more. Since the UDM is an all-in-one, it’s natural to compare it to a lot of the normal consumer routers you find in a big box retailer. If you are only interested in the speeds and feeds, you will find higher numbers elsewhere. A lot of the value of the UDM is tied up in the software and the UniFi ecosystem. The best thing about the UDM is the controller software. It’s better than what most other consumer-grade routers give you.

Hardware-wise, it has more PoE ports, multi-Gigabit support, a larger internal storage option, and much higher capability. But software-wise, the two are identical since both are UniFi controllers. As the name suggests, OpenVPN is a flexible VPN protocol that uses open-source technologies, including OpenSSL and SSL. Besides the built-in Wi-Fi, the Dream Wall is practically the UDM-SE with a wall-mounting design and a larger touchscreen. The UDM-SE hardware leaves much to be desired, especially on the network port front. The console would be much closer to a dream come true (for me) if it had a few 10GBASE-T ports. Still, it's vastly superior to the UDR, as shown in the table below. Ubiquiti UDM-SE vs UDR: Hardware specifications Overall, the console's Protect worked extremely well with supported cameras in my trial -- it makes an excellent home surveillance system.

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

If you're looking to build a top-notch multi-Gigabit-capable network, the UDM-SE is the ultimate router that will be relevant long in the future. And today, a year after the launch, I'd still confidently call it cutting-edge. As a network controller, the UDM-SE has everything the UDR has and much more. You can run multiple applications with the UDM-SE, of which the Network app is the default. I’m also getting the U6 enterprise as I have a smart home and the 2.4Ghz network is getting congested (not sure if it will help as most smart sensors have very basic radios but let’s see). Create new RADIUS profile. This will allows you to enable a RADIUS assigned VLAN for wired or wireless networks, and specify a RADIUS server if not using the UDM.

Specifically, the UDM-SE continues the trend, first made available to home users by the UDR, where it works as an encompassing controller device -- it's a console -- for multiple hardware categories called "applications". Currently, there are six of them, including: 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). First implemented in Windows 95 and has been part of the Windows operating systems and many other platforms since PPTP is well-supported and the easiest to use.Video surveillance is just as easy to set up. The appliance accepted our Seagate 10TB SATA drive without a murmur and instantly made it available for recording incoming video. After we’d added a UVC G4 Bullet IP camera to our account, we were able to view its live feed from the portal, enable smart detection and set up custom motion-detection events and recording actions. The point is: a non-Wi-Fi router's relevancy is independent of Wi-Fi. And you can easily add Wi-Fi to it via an access point. Here's my UDM-SE being tested with the U6 Enterprise access point. The two work well together, but you need a Multi-Gig PoE switch to maximize the AP's performance. We were also able to use the iOS app to add the USW PoE switch to our account, and were blown away by its clever augmented reality (AR) feature: point your device camera at the ports and a live overlay immediately pops up, showing which ones are active and what’s connected to them.

However, it's also the least secure. It's better than no VPN at all, and it does its purpose of making a remote device part of a local network. 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.I do want the protection though. Ok, if you say so I guess I’ll have to shell out another 450 for this . Another question, is it possible to move all my smaller smart-device/bridges to power them via the console now? This would allow them to benefit from the UPS. They are all super low power. My ZimaBoard tops out at about 16W though technically it has an adaptor that can do 36W so I’ll assume that. All the other little bridges and gadgets barely draw 3-5W each. So with a bit of googling I realized I could use PoE splitters to power them from the console! In fact, coupling the UDM-SE with the U6 Enterprise and you'll get a better Wi-Fi solution than the Dream Wall with a couple of hundred US dollars to spare. (The console can manage any UniFi APs via the Network application.) 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. 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.