[Network|UniFi] Review “My dream system with Underwhelming Specs”

UPDATE 5/27/2020: Wi-Fi 6 Access Points are now officially confirmed to be on their way. So the limitation has been changed. Also, I’ve added long term stability as I have now used the system almost a full month.

You may not have heard of UniFi nor its manufacture brand Ubiquiti before. Even though I consider myself technophilic geek and past year or two mesh network has been of my interest, Ubiquiti nor UniFi’s name never stayed in my head. Most of major internet review site do not talk about UniFi. However, after living months with Orbi, Eero Pro, and Asus AiMesh, all rated highly by consumer tech sites, I have decided to give a try to UniFi network system. This was quite a decision for me as it had meant to completely going back from over $1000 invested WiFi 6 capable network setup with Asus AiMesh to last generation technology, WiFi 5. But I am so grateful I had given UniFi a try. This is the dream home network system I can get (for now) and recommend to all.

Background

If you have not heard the name UniFi before, that’s not because UniFi is small, niche market company. It’s because this is a brand geared toward enterprise rather than home use/consumer products. Ubiquity, the manufacture of UniFi, actually have consumer mesh product line, called AmpliFi.

They look beautiful. From pure performance perspective, which I researched online for its peak speed and range speed, AmpliFi HD does not appear to be the class leader.

For example, Tomsguide performed speed comparison amongst mesh capable WiFi routers. On their test, AmpliFi HD was the slowest router with Eero being the fastest and Orbi RBK 50 being the second at 5ft distance. Dong Knows, on the other hand, showed AmpliFi HD outperformed Eero and Orbi. As these tests can be variable and influenced by test conditions, it is hard to say who got this right. Regardless, it has never shown as the top performing router from the performance point of view on any of the review sites I see on Google search. Since I was focusing on the system that has been rated top 3 on several major sites, Ubiquiti’s name never stayed in my head. However, most site did not talk about Orbi’s instability nor AiMesh 2.4 GHz stability issues. These issues were real and only after I purchased those devices and started to google, I encountered on their official or other forums. Perhaps, testing condition/environment weren’t fitting my environment but I know I wasn’t only one.

When I arrived to Asus AiMesh system, I thought I finally got the best system on the market because on the specs. My family members weren’t on the same boat, mainly due to intermittent slow down and disconnects.

So I have started my forth round of hunting for potential another home network system. This time, I was mainly looking for more stable system. This is because after all, Eero Pro, the most stable system I owned, allowed me to forget about network for months. During this round of online research, I came across AmpliFi’s WiFi 6 system, AmpliFi Alien. This looked great with Cnet showing it has the best speed at both peak and range.

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AmpliFi Alien really got my attention as it seemed to have great reviews. Since I have never owned their product before, I didn’t have anything to say against. Fortunately or unfortunately, when I decided to order them, I discovered this item has been out of stock for awhile and impossible to get at retail price. There is scalper market on Ebay for this product. So as I continue to search about AmpliFi Alien, I ended up discovering Ubiquiti’s enterprise product line, UniFi. Though they currently only support WiFi 5 standard, they have strong followers.

So I’ve decided to give a try to UniFi system. Despite relatively underwhelming WiFi 6 test result, I still had a reservation for going back to older WiFi 5 technology. So my decision was to purchase UniFi’s high end access point model, HD rather than more popular nano-HD. I though this was giving the fairest chance to UniFi. If high end model underperforms my expectation, I can safely forget about the whole system.

After seeing how well UniFi HD access point performed, I’ve immediately decided to give a full chance to UniFi system. UniFi HD is just an access point, which means I still need to have a router unit. Fortunately, UniFi recently released simple consumer type router units, Dream Machine series.

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Dream Machine is a router with WiFi access point function. So it could have been a complete replacement of Asus Ax11000 router unit for my AiMesh network system. Then I need to add access point units as a Satellite or Mesh node to cover entire house.

However, I ended up choosing the higher end model, UniFi Dream Machine Pro (UDM Pro). UDM Pro lacks wireless access point function and its shape and size are not geared for classic home router use but rather it is for business or home where there is network utility rack. I have built the utility rack in my storage room several months ago when I got network attached storage (NAS). My plan was to eventually move cable modem and router entirely out from current location, which is in kitchen breakfast table corner rack. With this plan, since the new router will be hidden in the basement storage, utility rack, there was no point for me to have built in wireless access point. Also, I wanted have 10Gb connection for my NAS; therefore, UDM Pro was selected.

I believe for majority of home user Dream Machine is better choice. The primary reason is its form factor and it has built in wireless access point/router function. In fact, this may be the only unit you might need if area of coverage is not too large and home built are not anti-WiFi like our old house.

Without an exception, my previous network setup (Netgear Orbi, Eero Pro, and Asus AiMesh) all required more devices than each manufactures specification for adequate coverage. So I had my mind totally set for at least 3 total access points, possibly 4. But I wanted to see the performance (speed + coverage) difference between nanoHD and HD because nanoHD is almost half the price of HD with primary trade off being lack of an extra Ethernet port and faster 2.4 GHz band. So for the comparison, 1 nanoHD unit was ordered with a plan to order another HD or nanoHD based on the performance comparison result.

Home Setup

In the end, I got UniFi Dream Machine Pro (UDM Pro) for the router. One HD and one HD Nano of total 2 access points to cover 3800 sqft ranch style old home with walkout basement. These were placed as following.

Both access points were connected to UDM Pro via Cat 6 cable. As mentioned above, my original intent was to get at least 3 access points but it turned out 2 access points are working well without any performance issue.

*Because I was able to sell all my AiMesh system, cleaner setup in the kitchen where original router, modem, switch with multiple hubs were, along with my obsessive personality, I ended up ordering another Access point and POE switch.