discussion Unifi Dream Machine (UDM)

[Prickly007]

I set up my UDM tonight and thought it worth while to document the process, given the paucity of reviews to date. Initial set up was relatively straight forward save for two issues, first (after placing my Shaw modem in bridge mode) the UDM would not connect to the internet. Not sure what the issue was, a bad patch cable or the order I powered up the two devices. The second issue was far worse. Upon completing the set up, I was presented with:



Excellent, right? No! None of the links worked, The unifi.home link pointed to https://unifi. It took me the better part of an hour to find the correct link (which I'll add tomorrow, when I am sober) via reddit/google.

 

[Prickly007]

reserved

My god, the number of things to configure/tweak.

 

[Marzipan]

what is the link? a www.ui now?

 

[JD]

Excellent, right? No! None of the links worked

Possibly due to not having Internet access during the setup?

"unifi.home" I'd assume is making a DNS entry locally, but maybe that failed as well.

 

[Entz]

Yes .home is not a valid TLD and only useful on local networks (similar to .local etc) . I am guessing it is using a zeroconfig type service (like bonjour) that isn't working properly or something is blocking it.

I prefer direct IPs for that reason lol

 

[Sagath]

Possibly due to not having Internet access during the setup?

"unifi.home" I'd assume is making a DNS entry locally, but maybe that failed as well.

pi.hole is the same. This makes sense.

 

[Prickly007]

Forgot to add to the first post that the packaging is very Apple-ish, power cable has two built-in cable ties. No manual is included, just a QR code and web link.

Set up would not start until Internet access was detected, so that was not the issue.

The manual said to point Chrome to https://192.168.1.1, but I don't believe that worked either. After much googling, I was able to get access to the Dream Machine via the Cloud Access Portal at unifi.ubnt.com. Who knows what the issue is/was, perhaps some tweak I made in services.msc years ago. On the other hand, Bluetooth and the UniFi SDN app is the first option presented in the Quick Start guide... maybe that should have been a clue.

UniFi Network & DM settings are now accessible at 192.168.1.1/home

With IPS turned on, DM performance stats:

CPU load: under ten percent,
Temp: 60 C
Memory: 881/1.83 GB
Storage 1 (eMMC): 1 / 12.2 GB
Storage 2 (backup): 10.5 / 120 MB

Average device experience score, more or less out of the box, is 98%. Network status is excellent. With the Shaw modem, the older tablet, which is upstairs, was largely unusable. It's been stable as a rock, running beermoney videos, all day despite the twenty four other 2Ghz networks in range. Dashboard shows ten neighbouring 5G networks, as well.

And I haven't had any complaints about the wifi today, so mission accomplished? It's too soon to say for sure, but we might not need any additional APs.

Uploading a floor plan to see the wifi signal and how additional APs would effect coverage is pretty cool; however, explanations of the different options would help, i.e. one can use designer or legacy floor plans. I had to try almost every option to get it to work, key setting seems to have been switching to a legacy floor plan. No idea why.

Over the coming days, I'll be poking around the settings & doing a LOT of Googling.

 

[Prickly007]

Sagath's question in another thread was the impetus to finally finish this post.

It has been 93d, 23d, 9m since I last rebooted my UDM. Wifi has been absolutely flawless, no need for any additional APs; with my new hobby, I'll be spending time in the garage but have no idea how the signal will be effected by passing through multiple walls.

That said, it has been roughly four months since I bought my UDM and, according to the web-portal/interface, my software/firmware is still up to date. Automatic updates are disabled. r/Ubiquiti has alluded to updates, but nothing official has been released! Given the number of alpha & beta features, to say nothing of the general lack of documentation, this is (somewhat of) an issue!

A few examples:

Logs give little or no information, which makes it difficult to tell if one has misconfigured firewall rules. Security alerts are largely meaningless. GeoIP filtering, however, appears to work quite well. I blocked a few countries (China, Russia, etc) and the number of alerts dropped to almost zero.

If one wants to add DNS filters, you choose from three: "security", "adult" and "family". According to Unifi, the security one block "malicious domains (phishing, malware)". It also blocks, as I discovered, common photo sharing platforms. And who knows what else! I have it enabled on the IoT network, but disabled for my PC, Plex server, etc.

It is possible to add DPI restrictions from an extensive pre-populated list of applications/websites. For example, if facebook is added, the site will never load on any device. But I can still ping facebook.com. Is tracking actually blocked? Not a clue; remember I am still very much a networking n00b.

If one wants to add a specific address/website, say for example metrics.plex.tv. It can only be done by inputting an actual ip addresses, which makes it largely useless as addresses like metrics.plex.tv are not static. I tired looking up a few addresses but they were listed as belonging to Amazon's Web Services.

How secure my network actually is very much an open question. Haven't looked into installing Pie-hole in a VM yet.

Wi-FI AI makes occasional changes to signal strength and/or channel assignments. I am not really sure if this makes any difference, or is just for show. But I have not recieved a single complaint about the wi-fi in the last 93d, 23d, 9m, which was the reason for buying the UDM.

While I have no regrets, I am not sure I would recommend an UDM to anyone. Four months without any update for a product that is in many ways still in development is a red flag.

I have not read much about it, but my impression is the UDP-Pro has many of the same issues. Unifi hardware is great, the software side not so much!

Edit: If anyone has specific questions, I'll try to answer them.

 

[lowfat]

Lots of people like to sack ride Ubiquti, but they absolutely have some major issues. 'Beta' products, dropping features on release, poor updates. Although my AP-AC-PRO has been great its unlikely I'd buy another one of their products.

 

[Sagath]

Thanks for the review. I've read a lot of reviews about the UDM both prior to and post release. General consensus is that its still Alpha, and should have never left EA. Your review parrots the same...

I feel Ubiquiti has become a victim of its own success at this point. A lack of consensus on direction (look at their product stack!) with their products, and growing too fast has lead to some cracks showing.

The scary part is that there really isnt a comparable competitor. The AIO solutions from companies (like ASUS) leave a LOT to be desired. I dont think its much to ask for a prosumer grade product, that isnt junk or expandable (in a true networking sense) for the 300 bucks ASUS wants for a router today.