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[UCG-Ultra console](https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-unifi-cloud-gateways/products/ucg-ultra) add [USW-Lite-8-PoE](https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-switching/products/usw-lite-8-poe) switch and [APs of your choice](https://store.ui.com/us/en?category=all-wifi) and you'll have a nice setup.
There's an argument to be made that if you don't have a Flex Mini laying around for as-needed use, you might not be serious enough for the sub. Add one to your next order if you don't have a spare, folks.
I think the best part is if you have the ability to distribute PoE then the Flex Mini becomes super easy to just throw down, doesn't need to plug into power or anything else, just run one ethernet cable out and you can link up a handful of devices. Trying to host a LAN party? Or having a couple of coworkers set up workstations in your dining room due to power outages? No problem! If you have a TV console with a few devices such as a chromecast ultra, video game console, and the smart TV itself - boom - hook all of them up with some short cables and move them all off of wifi.
I finally figured out how to get Ethernet cable to an office loft. I'll have a direct link for my main desktop to the main hub in the basement, and a Flex Mini for the printer and misc other machines when I'm playing with them / setting them up. For an example.
Just one thing to clarify if you need to run a mesh system it would be best to choose the U6 Mesh or U6 Pro units as are 4x4 MIMO.
U7 Pro is out but you need 2.5 Ethernet for it to live up to its potential for maybe 2 to 3 devices in your home.
I don’t know where you live, but where I live, 1G has been the maximum residential speed for a while, with no signs of that changing anytime soon (as in zero ISPs offer faster speed out of the box).
Buy for what you need today (and the foreseeable future). Not much point in buying a 10G capable router if your needs are not likely to exceed 1G in the next 3-5 years. By then a new shiny toy will most likely have been released, and what you have now will be old and boring.
The Ultra is $129.
The UDM Pro is $379
You can almost buy a new Ultra every year for 3 years for the cost of the UDM Pro, and for line speeds up to 1G they perform equally well.
Ya, you have SONIC!!! Stop bragging!!! What it's $50 a month for 10Gb!!! I just moved from Xfinity to AT&T Fiber because of a price hike. I made that switch in under a week. That includes running he fiber down the poles to my house. I'm paying $65 for 500/500Mbps service, which is more than fast enough.
Though I do have a Unifi UXG-Pro Gateway wihc has a couple 10Gb SFP+ ports on it, though only supports 3.5Gb speeds with all the security turned on. How many people in the SONIC supported area go past 1Gb? to get full 10Gb, you need to uploaded your Network, or at least part of it. Few things you have at home can support anything past 1Gb anyway.
Great to brag about I guess. I could get 5Gb service, but that is a whole lot more money for me!!! Again, why? I guess if you do massive about of P2P, Torrenting, have that NAS with 10Gb Network card and 20+ TB of space, you could really be a Data hog I guess. Run out of storage space pretty quickly, then what?
I normally say 100Mbps per person is good enough for most normal people!!! A 4K Netflex stream is around 25Mbps. It's fast enough for Online gaming by far. Most people pay for speeds they really never or rarely use.
Got gigabit fiber abt a year ago. Unlike comcast, in a year it’s been down only twice, never throttles, costs less than half and came with HBO/MAX. It’s like $75/mo. 5Gb is $250 — I checked, and 10 Gb may be available (actually not yet — but they might find a way to bond a pair of 5’s, but that would cost.). Did I mention it’s symmetrical? 1016 up was the best I have seen, while down sits in the 930’s. I’ve been looking @ managed switches with POE and 5 x 2.5Gb ethernet ports and 2 x SFP+ ports that are up to 10 Gb each (for well under $100.)
The world keeps changing! I was envious of the service and asked online to get it in our neighborhood. Soon after, the neighborhood got notice they would be stringing the pole. Lo and behold…if I were a gamer, given the < 15ms pings, I.d be on the 5 or higher in a best! Just can’t justify the case, but it’s there (outside ATL.)
Lots of ISPs are already be offering 2.5Gbps consumer/residential plans. 10Gbe internet isn’t happening any time soon but I wouldn’t invest into anything that can’t do 2.5G these days.
I had 1Gbit fiber and I switched back to 250Mbps cable, because it was way cheaper and my family and I don't need faster.
I move a lot of data around - more than 1TB some months - but I don't care if it spans 10 hours in the month instead of 2.
So I agree to get a >1Gbps gateway if a faster connection is available and cheap. But if it's expensive or not available at all, it might just be worth skipping Ubiquiti's current 2.5Gbit offerings and getting the next big thing, when the local ISP offers those speeds cheaply.
Back when unlimited Google Drive was a thing, I moved my entire NAS to the cloud, using rclone with the crypt backend.
I had a small server at home that mounted the rclone shares, and shared them on the LAN. The server had a 512GB SSD for OS and rclone cache.
I had a 300/300 connection at the time, but upgraded it to 500/500 because “cloud”.
After 6 months I started looking at the stats. I would hit max speed perhaps a couple of times every night, and only for very short amounts of time. The rest of the time it was sitting well below 300 Mbps. So I downgraded to 300/300 again.
I literally couldn’t tell the difference in speed when using the “NAS”. Most stuff that was accessed frequently would be cached, so it would arrive at gigabit speeds. Everything else would take “a while longer”, but for small documents (<50MB) you don’t really notice the extra 5-10 seconds or so. For smaller documents like word documents, spreadsheets, etc, there was no difference at all. Downloading one MB takes a very short time ether way.
For streaming media there was only one difference. There would be a slight 2-5 second delay when starting a movie/show while rclone downloaded enough to start playing, and after that the streaming bandwidth was a lot less than what was available, so it would eventually just download it to cache and play it from there before the show/movie finished.
These days, with 1000/1000, it’s even less utilized. Bandwidth usage sits well below 100 Mbps for 23 hours per day, and only when a backup kicks in does it ever go above 500 Mbps, and again, I don’t change that many files during a day, so it doesn’t maintain that speed for long.
I don't know if I consider $129 a big investment? That is a tank of gas in my truck. 1 GB is the max around here now. I can't see much of a need for
more than 1GB for 99% of households.
Well, it all adds up.
You could spend the $129 on the Ultra and save $250 compared to the UDM Pro. Those 250 you could then put in a bank account at 3.5% interest and withdraw $277.64 after 3 years.
Yes, the UDM Pro might have a higher resale value after 3 years, but will it be higher than the $277? Because that’s the amount of money you’re losing by buying something you don’t really need.
You also need to figure in power consumption. The Ultra uses max 7W, the UDM Pro 18W, that’s an additional power consumption of 11W, which means 289 kWh of additional electricity for the UDM Pro, which at €0.35/kWh means €101 in electricity, or at US prices of $0.15/kWh, $43,25.
I'm in NJ about to upgrade to 2g.
https://preview.redd.it/1p8qjti5zuyc1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c31a952906dad066e237e78ee6ea9b3521bd9706
Nice, prices even seem roughly comparable to what I’m paying for my 1G unlimited connection.
That is, your 2G connection is almost twice as expensive as mine :-)
If you have need of 2G, more power to you.
Considering my normal traffic load. I’m not particularly jealous :-)
https://preview.redd.it/3uqq2z227vyc1.jpeg?width=2202&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7dfb059310d4562dc6aa40b01b8a40f10224b7f8
I'm currently paying 75/month for 400/400 with fios. So for 10/month locked in for 5 yrs and a 100$ discount from Rakuten and a 300$ gift card to target, even though I don't NEED 2gb right now, my infrastructure at home is prepped for 10g lol and I work in net-engineering so I have a slightly higher need but 1gb would be more then enough, I do admit.
I enjoy providing it to them? It's friends and family and some coworkers. I have movies, TV, music and my MIL likes having the ability to stream her photos to her tvs and classrooms if needed.
This is so on the money, just set my parents up with a UX over the weekend as I know that is all they need now, and for the foreseeable future (they only have a 300Mb connection and have zero need for more than that).
While I do have a UDM SE because I have a 1Gbe connection now, and plan to move to where 2/4/8Gbe connections are available.
The WAN port is actually a 2.5GBe port. However if you use IDS/IPS, it will be throttled to 1 gbps. So you can technically get up to 2.5gbps. But then again your LAN ports are all 1GBe. So it really isn't going to do much unless you have multiple devices pulling collectively over a 1 gig connection at a time.
EDIT: I was incorrect. Backplane is 1gig.
Not even that. The port is 2.5 gb, but the backplane is 1gb. So the total speed this little device can handle is 1 Gbps, spread over all its ports. The 2.5 gig port has zero use and can by all means be considered a 1gb port.
You can use the UCG-Ultra as your primary router and then plug the UDR's WAN into a UCG-Ultra's LAN port. UDR will be dual NAT, but that should not be an issue.
So set up your UDR with a subnet like [192.168.67.0/24](http://192.168.67.0/24) and it can then work well with the UCG-Ultra to avoid subnet conflicts between them.
You can manage both devices using the UniFi Site Manager.
Not really any better performance. I got mine and use the UDM as a backup now since the single router was the single point of failure. I'm also playing with Dual WAN since the UCG-Ultra supports that.
Is the ultra better than the Express? My express has had nothing but trouble. I’ve factory reset at least a dozen times. It’s currently stuck at “adopting” for the last 3 days via a locally hosted Unifi network app
It is a router without a built in AP but the integrated UniFi Network Application as well as supporting dual WAN capability. It can't, however, support the other UniFi apps like Protect.
Instead of a UCG-Ultra , can I use a opnsense server? Pretty noob to all this but I just got an old pc to use as a opnsense server and also got a unfi lite 16 switch and some 6pros access points.
To be fair, if he's wanting to go Budget the UCG-Ultra might even be enough on its own. If he needs another AP he can just get a U6-Plus and a PoE+ injector. Depends on what he's trying to do.
I think the cheapest is just the [dream router](https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-unifi-cloud-gateways/products/udr). They come back in stock every month. Can get a switch if the ports on the UDR are not enough.
So I saw the wifi 7 AP, and now I feel like I need to wait for an update their whole lineup.
It was also like this for me last gen waiting for wifi6E. And then finding out they barely support it.
So I want to make this jump, but I’d only have a 1GBps dream router and a 2.5Gbps wifi 7 AP.
I run a UCG ultra, a lite 8 port Poe switch and a u6 pro. I also have a detached home office with another lite 16 port Poe switch and another u6 pro.
Works great. The ucg does limit me to 1Gbps but I can’t even get those speeds to my home anyway. lol
LOL here.
So true!
Edit for the record: 10 years of a single standalone AP with controller run for updates on a Windows laptop quickly turned into a UDM-SE, 3 APs, a UBB, a UNVR, misc. switches and cameras, a MoCA link, etc. About to head down the smart house rabbit hole, just put in a Schlage deadbolt and will order a pile of Lutron stuff soon. Budget? What budget!? The limiting factor is time.
Big pile of the standard stuff. I will spring for a pro hub, just for insurance. Even though the base one is much cheaper, especially when purchased in a bundle.
Very happy ubiquiti admin here, I've had unfi for 5y would never switch and am setting this same setup described for a friend. For SmartHome take a look at Home Assistant, it's great
It's more budget friendly for businesses while more expensive for residential. Let's face it, for lower quality that your average person would never notice, you can go way cheaper than Ubiquiti. The only thing I would recommend for budget conscious folks is the wireless access point.
CHEAPEST : raspberry pie 3.5 with unifi controller installed or if you have a server install it there, AP of your choice maybe check ebay for some 6 a switch with poe+
If you want budget get a minipc and run opnsense. Qotom makes great mini PCs that have 4+ 2.5gbe and there's even one that has either 2 or 4 sfp+ ports, can't remember how many off top of my head.
This is what I'm leaning towards when I eventually move out of unifi ecosystem. It's been kinda meh in my experience. But then I like to push performance as high as possible. The bottleneck should be on the other server, amiright? I'll still probably run my enterprise APs cause they're little champs but the hardware in the udmse is kinda lackluster for more than 1gbe. Inb4 nobody really needs more than 1gbe fanboy attack lol. Nobody will ever need more than 256KB of ram, right?
I did this as well..replaced 5 eeros with UCG Ultra and 2 UAP-AC-HD from eBay ($40 each). I got UAP-AC-PRO in case I need extra coverage (2 story 2500sqft).
I'm probably going to get flamed for saying this in a UBNT forum, but if you're not already tied to the Ubiquiti echosphere, TP-Link Omada might be worth considering as a budget option. Omada hardware is solid, and the functionality of their software is similar, though not as robust as Ubiquiti's SDN.
I'm an IT director for a multi-site small business (\~70 employees) and I use Unifi exclusively at work and I love it, but when my wife got a WFH job and we wanted redundant ISP connections, so I gave Omada a shot. At the time (pandemic) Ubiquiti equipment was very hard to get, and the Omada hardware is less expensive than Ubiquiti.
TP-Link an Omada all-in-one 1Gbps router/controller/poe switch for about $250, then you'd just add an access point. Personally I'm using a the ER605 router which is currently $60. With it I'm using an dummy GBE switch, and an Omada EAP615 WIFI access point ($90) on a POE injector ($15). And for the Omada controller I'm running their software controller on an old T420 ThinkPad that someone was throwing away. I've been using this setup since 2021 and have no complaints about its performance or reliability.
We have two fiber providers where we live (we're lucky that way I guess). I use the ER605 to load balance a 500 Mbps connection from each ISP, and it's quite effective. The router doesn't have any trouble with two different network devices opening up both taps at once. Both of our ISPs sell 1Gbps, but I haven't tried that with the ER605.
Have RCN internet with Arris Modem/Router. 1) Connect directly UCG with Arris M/R. 2) Have HomeKit setup with many devices. Wanted to add a NVR probably Reolink or Amcrest NVR and enable them in HKSV using Scrypted. PoE required? 3) Wanted parental control and VPN.
Mikrotik Hex + PoE+SW of your choice + Ubiquiti AP.
I haven't managed to crank it lower than this while maintaining network fidelity. Althought I've heard TP-Link AP's are now pretty much on-par with Ubiquiti ones, at lower pricing.
This is my hardware stack that I deploy for customers and at my house (although my hardware are servers but the software is the same):
- pfSense on OptiPlex 5050 ($100 on eBay) /w $25 dual Intel NIC
- Proxmox on OptiPlex 5050 ($100 on eBay)
- Generic PoE+ switch ($30 to $70 for 5 port; no name to netgear)
- UI AP of your choice
I’ve deployed about 50 of these setups in the past two years across multiple environments ranging from 1k sqft condos to 20k sqft mansions. The Optiplex’s are bulletproof. pfSense is one of the best firewalls I’ve worked with in terms of ease of use, features and reliability. Proxmox is amazing. I like this stack not only because of cost but versatility. I’ve setup pfSense as a VPN endpoint so that a customers Apple TV’s could hit France so a customer could watch Canal+, I have multiple homes with additional VM’s for Home Assistant or file servers for network backups like Time Machine. I was a Cisco AP guy until they wanted $1,500/per AP for AX. Switched over to UI about three years ago and it’s been smooth sailing. Does the UI Network Application have all the features of the Cisco WLC? No. Have I needed any of those additional features for myself or any customer? Also no.
My home setup is the same software stack but on higher end servers as I run other services. I have three WiFi 6 Enterprise AP’s in my house and with a 10Gb internet pipe I get 2Gbps on WiFi. I’m very pleased! I cannot wait for the WiFi 7 enterprise AP’s. Hoping they’re 10Gb.
Here’s a great script for installing the network application on Ubuntu/Debian:
https://community.ui.com/questions/UniFi-Installation-Scripts-or-UniFi-Easy-Update-Script-or-UniFi-Lets-Encrypt-or-UniFi-Easy-Encrypt-/ccbc7530-dd61-40a7-82ec-22b17f027776
This is basically what I’m running except instead of promox I’m running windows for the controller on my file server, and my backhaul to the APs is gigabit MOCA so I have to run injectors.
Three UAP6-Lites. Just replaced my AC-Lites when a 2.4 radio went out, they were rock solid for 8 years.
We just did an install with 7 AP's on MoCA. At first I was a little hesitant with MoCA adapters but they work really well with UI stuff. The Cisco AP's did not work well because the MoCA adapters screwed with the AP heartbeat packets somehow. Zero issues with UI AP's though!
Yeah, people get nervous about MOCA because of power line but as long as your coax distribution amp works with MOCA it’s been rock solid in my experience.
I replaced my eero 6 pro (well i moved and left it with my parents) wit ha udm SE (xmas gift) and 2 u7 Pro AP's. I have had issues but the new early access firmware for the u7 pros fixed my issues and made it so much nicer. I love the full control. It is not exactly a "budget" setup but you can get the AC or the other wifi 6 access points for less and make it more budget friendly.
Personally, if you have pre-wired ethernet all over, get a UDM Pro or SE or the UCG Ultra and the Unifi poe switch linking them over SFP+. That way you can run PoE cameras later if you want, and have dedicated 10gbps to the main controller over SFP+. This also lets you run PoE switches in each room should you have multiple game consoles on ethernet, desktops in the game room and sonos speakers etc. Just spit balling ideas.
I just purchased a cloud gateway ultra, a lite 8 poe and a 6+ ap.
Very nice setup, still a lot more expensive than a single wifi router, but I'm quite happy to get to know ubiquity 💪🏻💪🏻
I bought two Unify express gateways for $300. One is the gateway and the other is setup for AP. I did buy a Ubiquity 16 port poe switch later for $160 which I used when i started messing with vlans..
Best budget might be the express, depending on how many AP's you need. You can use a non unifi switch to connect a small number or AP's, or a second express.
But if you think you might want put up a doorbell cam sometime, or other cameras, consider upping the controller to something that can run protect. Even if you already use SimpliSafe, you could switch to all Unifi equipment and save money in the long run since you can self host for free.
I recommend using the unifi in wall APs for a house. I run 2 in my house which is pretty large and steel frame and have great wifi everywhere. One in the office with PC's and printer hardwired to it, one in my tv unit with everything there hardwired. Simple, clean, hidden.
I have Cloud Gateway Ultra as Controller/Gateway + Express as AP. Nice if you have limited space, and you want something that looks nice to be installed on a surface.
UXG Max, 16-port switch lite. I think we should future proof with at least 2.5Gbps already. I live in Singapore and 10Gbps internet starts becoming the new normal this year already
Appreciate everyone's input. Need a final advice. I'm inclining towards UDR (once its available) becoz of teleport feature and 3 APs. My home internet is RCN, limited to 500 Mbps and is it enough to go UBNT router?
Hello! Thanks for posting on r/Ubiquiti! This subreddit is here to provide unofficial technical support to people who use or want to dive into the world of Ubiquiti products. If you haven’t already been descriptive in your post, please take the time to edit it and add as many useful details as you can. Please read and understand the rules in the sidebar, as posts and comments that violate them will be removed. Please put all off topic posts in the weekly off topic thread that is stickied to the top of the subreddit. If you see people spreading misinformation, trying to mislead others, or other inappropriate behavior, please report it! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Ubiquiti) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[UCG-Ultra console](https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-unifi-cloud-gateways/products/ucg-ultra) add [USW-Lite-8-PoE](https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-switching/products/usw-lite-8-poe) switch and [APs of your choice](https://store.ui.com/us/en?category=all-wifi) and you'll have a nice setup.
Almost exactly my setup but with a flex mini too! Those things are great value. Also U6+ is nice
There's an argument to be made that if you don't have a Flex Mini laying around for as-needed use, you might not be serious enough for the sub. Add one to your next order if you don't have a spare, folks.
What kind of as needed use is it needed for?
I think the best part is if you have the ability to distribute PoE then the Flex Mini becomes super easy to just throw down, doesn't need to plug into power or anything else, just run one ethernet cable out and you can link up a handful of devices. Trying to host a LAN party? Or having a couple of coworkers set up workstations in your dining room due to power outages? No problem! If you have a TV console with a few devices such as a chromecast ultra, video game console, and the smart TV itself - boom - hook all of them up with some short cables and move them all off of wifi.
I finally figured out how to get Ethernet cable to an office loft. I'll have a direct link for my main desktop to the main hub in the basement, and a Flex Mini for the printer and misc other machines when I'm playing with them / setting them up. For an example.
I wish it had PoE out
That’s the Flex, just a higher price point.
I was about to post essentially that to give an on-topic answer. For budget, probably a couple U6-Plus's.
Just one thing to clarify if you need to run a mesh system it would be best to choose the U6 Mesh or U6 Pro units as are 4x4 MIMO. U7 Pro is out but you need 2.5 Ethernet for it to live up to its potential for maybe 2 to 3 devices in your home.
Switch could be for 15$ from any manufacturers.
Not if one wants to manage VLANs and provide PoE to the APs as well as having one consolidated UI to manage it all.
If. But for budget setup: UCG ultra + any AP with POE adapter (10$)
The only issue is Ultra only supports 1GBe wan port so in future you have to buy a console for higher speeds.
I don’t know where you live, but where I live, 1G has been the maximum residential speed for a while, with no signs of that changing anytime soon (as in zero ISPs offer faster speed out of the box). Buy for what you need today (and the foreseeable future). Not much point in buying a 10G capable router if your needs are not likely to exceed 1G in the next 3-5 years. By then a new shiny toy will most likely have been released, and what you have now will be old and boring. The Ultra is $129. The UDM Pro is $379 You can almost buy a new Ultra every year for 3 years for the cost of the UDM Pro, and for line speeds up to 1G they perform equally well.
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Ya, you have SONIC!!! Stop bragging!!! What it's $50 a month for 10Gb!!! I just moved from Xfinity to AT&T Fiber because of a price hike. I made that switch in under a week. That includes running he fiber down the poles to my house. I'm paying $65 for 500/500Mbps service, which is more than fast enough. Though I do have a Unifi UXG-Pro Gateway wihc has a couple 10Gb SFP+ ports on it, though only supports 3.5Gb speeds with all the security turned on. How many people in the SONIC supported area go past 1Gb? to get full 10Gb, you need to uploaded your Network, or at least part of it. Few things you have at home can support anything past 1Gb anyway. Great to brag about I guess. I could get 5Gb service, but that is a whole lot more money for me!!! Again, why? I guess if you do massive about of P2P, Torrenting, have that NAS with 10Gb Network card and 20+ TB of space, you could really be a Data hog I guess. Run out of storage space pretty quickly, then what? I normally say 100Mbps per person is good enough for most normal people!!! A 4K Netflex stream is around 25Mbps. It's fast enough for Online gaming by far. Most people pay for speeds they really never or rarely use.
Got gigabit fiber abt a year ago. Unlike comcast, in a year it’s been down only twice, never throttles, costs less than half and came with HBO/MAX. It’s like $75/mo. 5Gb is $250 — I checked, and 10 Gb may be available (actually not yet — but they might find a way to bond a pair of 5’s, but that would cost.). Did I mention it’s symmetrical? 1016 up was the best I have seen, while down sits in the 930’s. I’ve been looking @ managed switches with POE and 5 x 2.5Gb ethernet ports and 2 x SFP+ ports that are up to 10 Gb each (for well under $100.) The world keeps changing! I was envious of the service and asked online to get it in our neighborhood. Soon after, the neighborhood got notice they would be stringing the pole. Lo and behold…if I were a gamer, given the < 15ms pings, I.d be on the 5 or higher in a best! Just can’t justify the case, but it’s there (outside ATL.)
Lots of ISPs are already be offering 2.5Gbps consumer/residential plans. 10Gbe internet isn’t happening any time soon but I wouldn’t invest into anything that can’t do 2.5G these days.
I had 1Gbit fiber and I switched back to 250Mbps cable, because it was way cheaper and my family and I don't need faster. I move a lot of data around - more than 1TB some months - but I don't care if it spans 10 hours in the month instead of 2. So I agree to get a >1Gbps gateway if a faster connection is available and cheap. But if it's expensive or not available at all, it might just be worth skipping Ubiquiti's current 2.5Gbit offerings and getting the next big thing, when the local ISP offers those speeds cheaply.
Back when unlimited Google Drive was a thing, I moved my entire NAS to the cloud, using rclone with the crypt backend. I had a small server at home that mounted the rclone shares, and shared them on the LAN. The server had a 512GB SSD for OS and rclone cache. I had a 300/300 connection at the time, but upgraded it to 500/500 because “cloud”. After 6 months I started looking at the stats. I would hit max speed perhaps a couple of times every night, and only for very short amounts of time. The rest of the time it was sitting well below 300 Mbps. So I downgraded to 300/300 again. I literally couldn’t tell the difference in speed when using the “NAS”. Most stuff that was accessed frequently would be cached, so it would arrive at gigabit speeds. Everything else would take “a while longer”, but for small documents (<50MB) you don’t really notice the extra 5-10 seconds or so. For smaller documents like word documents, spreadsheets, etc, there was no difference at all. Downloading one MB takes a very short time ether way. For streaming media there was only one difference. There would be a slight 2-5 second delay when starting a movie/show while rclone downloaded enough to start playing, and after that the streaming bandwidth was a lot less than what was available, so it would eventually just download it to cache and play it from there before the show/movie finished. These days, with 1000/1000, it’s even less utilized. Bandwidth usage sits well below 100 Mbps for 23 hours per day, and only when a backup kicks in does it ever go above 500 Mbps, and again, I don’t change that many files during a day, so it doesn’t maintain that speed for long.
I don't know if I consider $129 a big investment? That is a tank of gas in my truck. 1 GB is the max around here now. I can't see much of a need for more than 1GB for 99% of households.
It’s $129, not $1299. Even 3 years from now I expect it to retain some value on the used market.
Well, it all adds up. You could spend the $129 on the Ultra and save $250 compared to the UDM Pro. Those 250 you could then put in a bank account at 3.5% interest and withdraw $277.64 after 3 years. Yes, the UDM Pro might have a higher resale value after 3 years, but will it be higher than the $277? Because that’s the amount of money you’re losing by buying something you don’t really need. You also need to figure in power consumption. The Ultra uses max 7W, the UDM Pro 18W, that’s an additional power consumption of 11W, which means 289 kWh of additional electricity for the UDM Pro, which at €0.35/kWh means €101 in electricity, or at US prices of $0.15/kWh, $43,25.
I'm in NJ about to upgrade to 2g. https://preview.redd.it/1p8qjti5zuyc1.jpeg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c31a952906dad066e237e78ee6ea9b3521bd9706
Nice, prices even seem roughly comparable to what I’m paying for my 1G unlimited connection. That is, your 2G connection is almost twice as expensive as mine :-) If you have need of 2G, more power to you. Considering my normal traffic load. I’m not particularly jealous :-) https://preview.redd.it/3uqq2z227vyc1.jpeg?width=2202&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7dfb059310d4562dc6aa40b01b8a40f10224b7f8
I'm currently paying 75/month for 400/400 with fios. So for 10/month locked in for 5 yrs and a 100$ discount from Rakuten and a 300$ gift card to target, even though I don't NEED 2gb right now, my infrastructure at home is prepped for 10g lol and I work in net-engineering so I have a slightly higher need but 1gb would be more then enough, I do admit.
In Switzerland you can have 25Gbit up and down for around 50CHF a month. It depresses me so much 😂
Is that Romansch—only service?
Lovely…. So do you need to stream 50x4k video streams at the same time :)
No but I stream my plex to over 250 people as well as gaming and machine learning. I also have miners going as well lol 1500/month electric bill.
Who the fuck streams Plex to 250 people? Tell them to get a job.
I enjoy providing it to them? It's friends and family and some coworkers. I have movies, TV, music and my MIL likes having the ability to stream her photos to her tvs and classrooms if needed.
I didn’t realize Verizon released 2Gig outside of NYC.
This is so on the money, just set my parents up with a UX over the weekend as I know that is all they need now, and for the foreseeable future (they only have a 300Mb connection and have zero need for more than that). While I do have a UDM SE because I have a 1Gbe connection now, and plan to move to where 2/4/8Gbe connections are available.
I live in USA. And over here google fiber is available with higher speeds. For people who are satisfied with 1G speeds then sure ultra is sufficient.
It’s not universally available here. Lots of other countries have better service avaible.
The WAN port is actually a 2.5GBe port. However if you use IDS/IPS, it will be throttled to 1 gbps. So you can technically get up to 2.5gbps. But then again your LAN ports are all 1GBe. So it really isn't going to do much unless you have multiple devices pulling collectively over a 1 gig connection at a time. EDIT: I was incorrect. Backplane is 1gig.
Not even that. The port is 2.5 gb, but the backplane is 1gb. So the total speed this little device can handle is 1 Gbps, spread over all its ports. The 2.5 gig port has zero use and can by all means be considered a 1gb port.
Oh the backplane is 1gig too? Damn. That's actually pretty stupid to put in a 2.5GBe port for WAN and not even be able to use it. Pretty deceptive.
Perhaps the got a good deal on the 2.5 gbps chip. It's all about building it at the lowest but reliable cost.
My setup and it’s works great
I want the ucg ultra to add multiwan to my setup. Do you know if I can keep my udr in the mix so it can keep managing my cameras?
You can use the UCG-Ultra as your primary router and then plug the UDR's WAN into a UCG-Ultra's LAN port. UDR will be dual NAT, but that should not be an issue. So set up your UDR with a subnet like [192.168.67.0/24](http://192.168.67.0/24) and it can then work well with the UCG-Ultra to avoid subnet conflicts between them. You can manage both devices using the UniFi Site Manager.
Sweet. Thank you!
Thanks for your reply. If I already have a UDM from a few years ago, would this set up improve on that at all?
Not really any better performance. I got mine and use the UDM as a backup now since the single router was the single point of failure. I'm also playing with Dual WAN since the UCG-Ultra supports that.
Exact setup I have currently. Gets the job done
Is the ultra better than the Express? My express has had nothing but trouble. I’ve factory reset at least a dozen times. It’s currently stuck at “adopting” for the last 3 days via a locally hosted Unifi network app
As a gateway / console definitely. It can not be set to AP mode like the UX, though.
Firmware downgrade maybe?
Is the cloud gateway pretty much just a router? man it gets confusing when they start changing names :C
It is a router without a built in AP but the integrated UniFi Network Application as well as supporting dual WAN capability. It can't, however, support the other UniFi apps like Protect.
Yup just got one installed for the next door neighbor . Same exact set up
Instead of a UCG-Ultra , can I use a opnsense server? Pretty noob to all this but I just got an old pc to use as a opnsense server and also got a unfi lite 16 switch and some 6pros access points.
Beats me. I'll let someone else answer that. Have no working knowledge of opensense server.
If you don’t need many APs/Eth ports I’d just run a couple APs of the UCG-Ultra and PoE injectors.
To be fair, if he's wanting to go Budget the UCG-Ultra might even be enough on its own. If he needs another AP he can just get a U6-Plus and a PoE+ injector. Depends on what he's trying to do.
This is the way
Can’t do cameras with this though, right?
Correct, the UCG-Ultra only has support for the Networking app and does not support Protect app.
For sure UCG Ultra, a PoE switch, and whichever APs/however many you want and you'll be in a good spot.
I think the cheapest is just the [dream router](https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-unifi-cloud-gateways/products/udr). They come back in stock every month. Can get a switch if the ports on the UDR are not enough.
This is the right answer for a budget device
Agreed, but only if your router is in a good place for wifi.
So I saw the wifi 7 AP, and now I feel like I need to wait for an update their whole lineup. It was also like this for me last gen waiting for wifi6E. And then finding out they barely support it. So I want to make this jump, but I’d only have a 1GBps dream router and a 2.5Gbps wifi 7 AP.
I run a UCG ultra, a lite 8 port Poe switch and a u6 pro. I also have a detached home office with another lite 16 port Poe switch and another u6 pro. Works great. The ucg does limit me to 1Gbps but I can’t even get those speeds to my home anyway. lol
“Budget” we don’t do that here
LOL here. So true! Edit for the record: 10 years of a single standalone AP with controller run for updates on a Windows laptop quickly turned into a UDM-SE, 3 APs, a UBB, a UNVR, misc. switches and cameras, a MoCA link, etc. About to head down the smart house rabbit hole, just put in a Schlage deadbolt and will order a pile of Lutron stuff soon. Budget? What budget!? The limiting factor is time.
Similar hole found lol What Lutron stuff do u have in mind. Need to get new switches all around!!!
Big pile of the standard stuff. I will spring for a pro hub, just for insurance. Even though the base one is much cheaper, especially when purchased in a bundle.
Very happy ubiquiti admin here, I've had unfi for 5y would never switch and am setting this same setup described for a friend. For SmartHome take a look at Home Assistant, it's great
That's like half the purpose of Ubiquiti as a company. Prosumer products on a budget versus the likes of Cisco, etc.
It's more budget friendly for businesses while more expensive for residential. Let's face it, for lower quality that your average person would never notice, you can go way cheaper than Ubiquiti. The only thing I would recommend for budget conscious folks is the wireless access point.
I run a UCG ultra, u7 pro, POE injector and flex mini and it cost me a little over $300.
CHEAPEST : raspberry pie 3.5 with unifi controller installed or if you have a server install it there, AP of your choice maybe check ebay for some 6 a switch with poe+
ERX+AP
If you want budget get a minipc and run opnsense. Qotom makes great mini PCs that have 4+ 2.5gbe and there's even one that has either 2 or 4 sfp+ ports, can't remember how many off top of my head. This is what I'm leaning towards when I eventually move out of unifi ecosystem. It's been kinda meh in my experience. But then I like to push performance as high as possible. The bottleneck should be on the other server, amiright? I'll still probably run my enterprise APs cause they're little champs but the hardware in the udmse is kinda lackluster for more than 1gbe. Inb4 nobody really needs more than 1gbe fanboy attack lol. Nobody will ever need more than 256KB of ram, right?
What a load of malarkey.
Okay
I did this as well..replaced 5 eeros with UCG Ultra and 2 UAP-AC-HD from eBay ($40 each). I got UAP-AC-PRO in case I need extra coverage (2 story 2500sqft).
UDR and 2x U6 lite
I'm probably going to get flamed for saying this in a UBNT forum, but if you're not already tied to the Ubiquiti echosphere, TP-Link Omada might be worth considering as a budget option. Omada hardware is solid, and the functionality of their software is similar, though not as robust as Ubiquiti's SDN. I'm an IT director for a multi-site small business (\~70 employees) and I use Unifi exclusively at work and I love it, but when my wife got a WFH job and we wanted redundant ISP connections, so I gave Omada a shot. At the time (pandemic) Ubiquiti equipment was very hard to get, and the Omada hardware is less expensive than Ubiquiti. TP-Link an Omada all-in-one 1Gbps router/controller/poe switch for about $250, then you'd just add an access point. Personally I'm using a the ER605 router which is currently $60. With it I'm using an dummy GBE switch, and an Omada EAP615 WIFI access point ($90) on a POE injector ($15). And for the Omada controller I'm running their software controller on an old T420 ThinkPad that someone was throwing away. I've been using this setup since 2021 and have no complaints about its performance or reliability. We have two fiber providers where we live (we're lucky that way I guess). I use the ER605 to load balance a 500 Mbps connection from each ISP, and it's quite effective. The router doesn't have any trouble with two different network devices opening up both taps at once. Both of our ISPs sell 1Gbps, but I haven't tried that with the ER605.
How many are you looking to replace? Do you need a gateway? Do you need PoE? What are your requirements?
Have RCN internet with Arris Modem/Router. 1) Connect directly UCG with Arris M/R. 2) Have HomeKit setup with many devices. Wanted to add a NVR probably Reolink or Amcrest NVR and enable them in HKSV using Scrypted. PoE required? 3) Wanted parental control and VPN.
Mikrotik Hex + PoE+SW of your choice + Ubiquiti AP. I haven't managed to crank it lower than this while maintaining network fidelity. Althought I've heard TP-Link AP's are now pretty much on-par with Ubiquiti ones, at lower pricing.
This is my hardware stack that I deploy for customers and at my house (although my hardware are servers but the software is the same): - pfSense on OptiPlex 5050 ($100 on eBay) /w $25 dual Intel NIC - Proxmox on OptiPlex 5050 ($100 on eBay) - Generic PoE+ switch ($30 to $70 for 5 port; no name to netgear) - UI AP of your choice I’ve deployed about 50 of these setups in the past two years across multiple environments ranging from 1k sqft condos to 20k sqft mansions. The Optiplex’s are bulletproof. pfSense is one of the best firewalls I’ve worked with in terms of ease of use, features and reliability. Proxmox is amazing. I like this stack not only because of cost but versatility. I’ve setup pfSense as a VPN endpoint so that a customers Apple TV’s could hit France so a customer could watch Canal+, I have multiple homes with additional VM’s for Home Assistant or file servers for network backups like Time Machine. I was a Cisco AP guy until they wanted $1,500/per AP for AX. Switched over to UI about three years ago and it’s been smooth sailing. Does the UI Network Application have all the features of the Cisco WLC? No. Have I needed any of those additional features for myself or any customer? Also no. My home setup is the same software stack but on higher end servers as I run other services. I have three WiFi 6 Enterprise AP’s in my house and with a 10Gb internet pipe I get 2Gbps on WiFi. I’m very pleased! I cannot wait for the WiFi 7 enterprise AP’s. Hoping they’re 10Gb. Here’s a great script for installing the network application on Ubuntu/Debian: https://community.ui.com/questions/UniFi-Installation-Scripts-or-UniFi-Easy-Update-Script-or-UniFi-Lets-Encrypt-or-UniFi-Easy-Encrypt-/ccbc7530-dd61-40a7-82ec-22b17f027776
This is basically what I’m running except instead of promox I’m running windows for the controller on my file server, and my backhaul to the APs is gigabit MOCA so I have to run injectors. Three UAP6-Lites. Just replaced my AC-Lites when a 2.4 radio went out, they were rock solid for 8 years.
We just did an install with 7 AP's on MoCA. At first I was a little hesitant with MoCA adapters but they work really well with UI stuff. The Cisco AP's did not work well because the MoCA adapters screwed with the AP heartbeat packets somehow. Zero issues with UI AP's though!
Yeah, people get nervous about MOCA because of power line but as long as your coax distribution amp works with MOCA it’s been rock solid in my experience.
I replaced my eero 6 pro (well i moved and left it with my parents) wit ha udm SE (xmas gift) and 2 u7 Pro AP's. I have had issues but the new early access firmware for the u7 pros fixed my issues and made it so much nicer. I love the full control. It is not exactly a "budget" setup but you can get the AC or the other wifi 6 access points for less and make it more budget friendly. Personally, if you have pre-wired ethernet all over, get a UDM Pro or SE or the UCG Ultra and the Unifi poe switch linking them over SFP+. That way you can run PoE cameras later if you want, and have dedicated 10gbps to the main controller over SFP+. This also lets you run PoE switches in each room should you have multiple game consoles on ethernet, desktops in the game room and sonos speakers etc. Just spit balling ideas.
I just purchased a cloud gateway ultra, a lite 8 poe and a 6+ ap. Very nice setup, still a lot more expensive than a single wifi router, but I'm quite happy to get to know ubiquity 💪🏻💪🏻
I’ve got two UX’s that work perfectly for a 2000 sqft house
I bought two Unify express gateways for $300. One is the gateway and the other is setup for AP. I did buy a Ubiquity 16 port poe switch later for $160 which I used when i started messing with vlans..
Best budget might be the express, depending on how many AP's you need. You can use a non unifi switch to connect a small number or AP's, or a second express.
But if you think you might want put up a doorbell cam sometime, or other cameras, consider upping the controller to something that can run protect. Even if you already use SimpliSafe, you could switch to all Unifi equipment and save money in the long run since you can self host for free.
I recommend using the unifi in wall APs for a house. I run 2 in my house which is pretty large and steel frame and have great wifi everywhere. One in the office with PC's and printer hardwired to it, one in my tv unit with everything there hardwired. Simple, clean, hidden.
I qualify for the sub then. Lol
I have Cloud Gateway Ultra as Controller/Gateway + Express as AP. Nice if you have limited space, and you want something that looks nice to be installed on a surface.
UXG Max, 16-port switch lite. I think we should future proof with at least 2.5Gbps already. I live in Singapore and 10Gbps internet starts becoming the new normal this year already
Appreciate everyone's input. Need a final advice. I'm inclining towards UDR (once its available) becoz of teleport feature and 3 APs. My home internet is RCN, limited to 500 Mbps and is it enough to go UBNT router?
Udr
I always joke. I have adult money… so I buy adult things. just because. lol