I upgraded from a USG and Cloudkey (Gen 1) to the UDM Pro...setup couldn't have been simpler. I backed up my network configuration file from the cloudkey, before plugging in the UDM Pro, and followed the instructions on its little display. By the time I had walked back to my PC, the Ubiquity extension I had previously installed in Chrome had already detected the new piece of hardware and was in the process of setting it up. I entered my internet login information, and downloaded the available updates. With my internet access restored, I uploaded the previously backed up config file from the old cloudkey to the UDM. The system rebooted and upon doing so all of my network equipment was recognised and accessible from is sleck interface. My only grumble is that with the ... MoreI upgraded from a USG and Cloudkey (Gen 1) to the UDM Pro...setup couldn't have been simpler. I backed up my network configuration file from the cloudkey, before plugging in the UDM Pro, and followed the instructions on its little display. By the time I had walked back to my PC, the Ubiquity extension I had previously installed in Chrome had already detected the new piece of hardware and was in the process of setting it up. I entered my internet login information, and downloaded the available updates. With my internet access restored, I uploaded the previously backed up config file from the old cloudkey to the UDM. The system rebooted and upon doing so all of my network equipment was recognised and accessible from is sleck interface. My only grumble is that with the supplied power cable sticks out a good 2 inches from the rear of the unit, and as a result I am unable to fit it into the wall mounted rack that I have...Though this problem is easily solved by using a 90 degree 3 pin plug which I have had to buy seperately. The main reason that I chose to upgrade is that with a gigabit fibre connection I was unable to take full advantage of ubiquity's advanced security features found in their gateway devices, without sacrificing most of my internet speed doing so. With the UDM I am able to have the threat detection features enabled while enjoying the 900+Mbps that my fibre connection affords me.

Amazing!

When i tell this thing is amazing, it is amazing. I love the design and overall look of these second gen machines. All the settings and functionality is near perfect. My only complaint was when i first put the dream machine for some reason i was getting the half the speed which was very strange but a quick hard reset and everything looked good. I experienced this again by adding a 24 pro peo switch and aslo when i added my AP. VERY STRANGE. Im giving it a 4 out of 5. While its not perfect but it is amazing. It has its flaws that could be fixed by the development team.

An Excellent Product, But QC Can Be An Issue

Setup was easy and migrating from a standalone controller was a seamless experience. My Dream Machine Pro has been up and running for a month now without any major issues. I did experience a QC issue though: the latch that holds the door of the HDD bay door closed was non-functional on arrival, causing the door of the drive bay to hang open. I didn't bother with an RMA due to needing this running ASAP, and it doesn't affect the usability of the product, but it was still annoying and could've been easily caught in QC. Aside from that, I'm very happy with the Dream Machine Pro. It's a major improvment up from the USG it replaced in every way, and so far has been very reliable.

Decent Product

I ran the USG Pro for a couple of years and decided to upgrade to the UDM Pro. Set up was pretty easy. Its disappointing that an internet connection is required to set up but I created a local account and use that to manage the device. The interface has been revamped and while you can still access the old style interface the new one is pretty darn good looking. I admit it, I like having everything under a single pane of glass. All of the features that I've used are readily accessible and everything has worked well under both the old and new interface. I like having protect included in the unit itself and, as I'm sure others have pointed out, there seems to be plenty of room to support another hard drive if one needs it. That may come at the cost of thermal ... MoreI ran the USG Pro for a couple of years and decided to upgrade to the UDM Pro. Set up was pretty easy. Its disappointing that an internet connection is required to set up but I created a local account and use that to manage the device. The interface has been revamped and while you can still access the old style interface the new one is pretty darn good looking. I admit it, I like having everything under a single pane of glass. All of the features that I've used are readily accessible and everything has worked well under both the old and new interface. I like having protect included in the unit itself and, as I'm sure others have pointed out, there seems to be plenty of room to support another hard drive if one needs it. That may come at the cost of thermal management and make the unit much louder. Right now I can't hear it at all but adding a second hard drive will generate additional heat necessitating the use of a bigger or faster fan. I don't use the ports on the front so I don't know if they can be reconfigured but I do use the SFP+ port as the downlink to the rest of my network and it connected at 10Gb without a hitch. I also have not tried the DPI feature but I do use the internet threat management. It is pretty with many colorful entries but I'm not sure of its ultimate utility. I'm running double NAT'd behind a pfsense firewall running PFBlockerNG so I may be filtering a lot of the stuff the UDM Pro might catch. I'll have to experiment and see what happens if I connect it directly to my modem. The device seems to have power to spare. I've been able to configure multiple networks and the unit is pretty snappy, no lag or hang ups that I've experienced. I think if someone is looking for a unified management system for their network, this fits the bill. Unlike pfsense, I pretty much set this thing up and didn't pay attention to it again. The unifi segment of network has not had any crashes or other difficulties. Like previous unifi gear though, patience is a must as it seems a lot of time is spent waiting for the router and any associated switches to provision. Overall, I like the UDM Pro and do not regret making this purchase. There is rumor of a two HDD bay model coming out but like any other tech, if you need it, just get it and don't wait to see what the next great tech leap forward will be, You'll be waiting forever.

Good Speed, made for dummies only

if you don't know much about routers, this is a great product. If you are looking for an advanced router, this is not for you. the web interface is great, if you have ubiquity equipment, but is not so good if you use other equipment (access points, cameras, etc). I have used many routers from cisco, HP and netgear. Those routers are harder to use for a beginner, but provide functionality you cant get with this router, and you will be frustrated with the simplistic interface. There is very little diagnostics (almost none) and no documentation, however the web is mostly self explanatory. Pros: I am impressed with the speed of the routing IP region blocking (you have to go to the old interface, difficult to find) statistics on the main page camera recording (not found ... Moreif you don't know much about routers, this is a great product. If you are looking for an advanced router, this is not for you. the web interface is great, if you have ubiquity equipment, but is not so good if you use other equipment (access points, cameras, etc). I have used many routers from cisco, HP and netgear. Those routers are harder to use for a beginner, but provide functionality you cant get with this router, and you will be frustrated with the simplistic interface. There is very little diagnostics (almost none) and no documentation, however the web is mostly self explanatory. Pros: I am impressed with the speed of the routing IP region blocking (you have to go to the old interface, difficult to find) statistics on the main page camera recording (not found on any other routers I have used, but requires ubiquiti equipment that is unavailable) Cons: you can't find the products you need. Cameras have been on backordered for over a year. basic capabilities for advanced users are non-existent or so hard to use they are worthless. call home - just bad... I blocked access from/to ui.com to kill it. Although cloud access sounds good, it is just low hanging fruit for hackers. Overall it is just OK. It appears that it has an SSH command line, but I generally don't use that type of interface. I would give it more stars if they provided a more advanced interface that actually works and remove the call home stuff. I could not even create a dual homed network without assigning a vlan, but I don't want that.

Karl's review of Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro

Pros: It looks nice and it's basic specs look decent. Good connectivity options. Cons: The firmware is terribly buggy. The controller software is awful, requiring users to switch between old and new interface constantly because some functions are only available in one of them. It's very fragile, so really easy to "brick" it, requiring a factory reset. It's missing a whole lot of basic functionality that you can get from a £60 consumer router. For a router of this class, only to offer failover on the two WAN ports instead of also a load-balancing option is shameful. OK in the first weeks, but we're years in and many versions of the firmware. The log and analytic data isn't good enough, so it's hard to get anything meaningful. IDS and IPS is in place, but it's weak. ... MorePros: It looks nice and it's basic specs look decent. Good connectivity options. Cons: The firmware is terribly buggy. The controller software is awful, requiring users to switch between old and new interface constantly because some functions are only available in one of them. It's very fragile, so really easy to "brick" it, requiring a factory reset. It's missing a whole lot of basic functionality that you can get from a £60 consumer router. For a router of this class, only to offer failover on the two WAN ports instead of also a load-balancing option is shameful. OK in the first weeks, but we're years in and many versions of the firmware. The log and analytic data isn't good enough, so it's hard to get anything meaningful. IDS and IPS is in place, but it's weak. In fact, it doesn't even PREVENT in the IPS mode, but just tells users. So - a rogue device is identified, but kills the network.I really want to like this device, but it needs a whole lot of ground-up re-thinking about its firmware and feature sets. The support is just awful too, which doesn't help.

Really nice on the surface, some issues

This is a super nice piece of hardware with equally elegant software management. I have 1.5Gbps internet speeds and wanted this for the 10gSFP+ ports. 1) You're not likely to get >1Gbps speeds from traffic through this router as it doesn't seem to be able to handle those internally, even though the ports would support it. 2) I'm running into some really strange issues with SSL connections on my network with this in place. Working through them with support, but support is incredibly slow and I'm watching the clock so my 30 day return window doesn't expire. They don't seem to be able to help, and it takes 48 hours for each 'conversation turnaround' like - try THIS... (try it within an hour, reply with results)... wait two days... try THIS... It's a really nice unit ... MoreThis is a super nice piece of hardware with equally elegant software management. I have 1.5Gbps internet speeds and wanted this for the 10gSFP+ ports. 1) You're not likely to get >1Gbps speeds from traffic through this router as it doesn't seem to be able to handle those internally, even though the ports would support it. 2) I'm running into some really strange issues with SSL connections on my network with this in place. Working through them with support, but support is incredibly slow and I'm watching the clock so my 30 day return window doesn't expire. They don't seem to be able to help, and it takes 48 hours for each 'conversation turnaround' like - try THIS... (try it within an hour, reply with results)... wait two days... try THIS... It's a really nice unit with a great price and complements all of your other unify / ubiquiti gear. But if I can't get some of the underlying issues resolved, I will probably return the unit. At first, for an exchange in case my issue is a hardware problem, but my gut tells me it's a flaw in the underlying OS or hardware design. For now I've removed SFP connections from the equation just as I'm troubleshooting with support but I have low confidence that I'll see a resolution before my return window closes. If you don't run into issues, you'll be super happy with this unit. If you do... hopefully they're simple and the community can help you resolve them.

UDM Pro paired with DS720+

Having been on Home Fiber for over a year and noticeable differences in download speeds between PCs with the same setup, I decided it was time to upgrade my home network. I had been using a Nighthawk X4S, but it could not keep up with a family of 6 (with 4 teenage boys who game all the time). In January I started my transition to a new home network setup. I went with Ubiquiti line of products for networking/security and Synology for my NAS. My home already had CAT5e running to the majority of rooms, but I took this time to run some more lines to hard wire as many devices as possible. Below is my current setup. It may be overkill, but I am consistently getting over 900Mbps on all wired PCs (which never occurred), gaming devices are downloading faster than before, and ... MoreHaving been on Home Fiber for over a year and noticeable differences in download speeds between PCs with the same setup, I decided it was time to upgrade my home network. I had been using a Nighthawk X4S, but it could not keep up with a family of 6 (with 4 teenage boys who game all the time). In January I started my transition to a new home network setup. I went with Ubiquiti line of products for networking/security and Synology for my NAS. My home already had CAT5e running to the majority of rooms, but I took this time to run some more lines to hard wire as many devices as possible. Below is my current setup. It may be overkill, but I am consistently getting over 900Mbps on all wired PCs (which never occurred), gaming devices are downloading faster than before, and WIFI signal across my house and outdoors (1.5 acre lot), is better than it is has ever been. For the first time, I feel like I am getting the full benefit of Home Fiber. My Synology NAS is attached by to my UniFi Switch via Link Aggregation. Setup was easy and it has been performing flawlessly. I am using it to backup 7 PCs, Photos, Home Videos, Movies, Music. B&H shipped everything out quickly and I received everything in a timely manner allowing me to stay on track with my project. It took my 2 weeks to convert everything from start to finish. UniFi Dream Machine Pro (UDM-Pro) with 8TB HD UniFi Switch 24 PoE (USW-24-POE) 2 UniFi Pro APs (UAP-AC-PRO-US) 1 UniFi Mesh PRO AP (UAP-AC-M-PRO-US) UniFi Protect G4 Doorbell (UVC-G4-Doorbell-US) 2 UniFi Protect G4-Bullet Camera (UVC-G4-BULLET) 2 IR Range Extenders for G4 (UVC-G4-IRExtender) UniFi Protect G3 FLEX Camera (UVC-G3-FLEX) Ceiling Mount for G3 FLEX (UVC-G3-F-C) DAC Cable, SFP+ (UC-DAC-SFP+) 2 Ethernet Surge Protector (ETH-SP-G2) Synology DiskStation DS720 2-Bay NAS 2 Seagate 6TB IronWolf 5400RPM SATA III HDs Synology 4GB DDR4 RAM (SYD4SO26664G)

Whether it's great depends on what you used before

The Unify Dream Machine Pro (UDMPro) is a great router with an intriguing user interface. Coming from a network where everything was managed by a Netgear Orbi router, this certainly was a step up. (Note: The Orbi still is used to provide WiFi signal, as the UDMPro does not provide WiFi.) Let's be clear: I am a networking "noob" with lots of enthusiam for networking and little detailed understanding of it. :-) Having the UDMPro manage my network allowed me to crack down harder on attacks on my home NAS and helped me identify configuration issues in my home network. The interface, while intriguing, takes a lot of getting used to - and doesn't offer as much insigth as it could. For one, Unifi still is working on the interface software, making it seem a bit unstable at ... MoreThe Unify Dream Machine Pro (UDMPro) is a great router with an intriguing user interface. Coming from a network where everything was managed by a Netgear Orbi router, this certainly was a step up. (Note: The Orbi still is used to provide WiFi signal, as the UDMPro does not provide WiFi.) Let's be clear: I am a networking "noob" with lots of enthusiam for networking and little detailed understanding of it. :-) Having the UDMPro manage my network allowed me to crack down harder on attacks on my home NAS and helped me identify configuration issues in my home network. The interface, while intriguing, takes a lot of getting used to - and doesn't offer as much insigth as it could. For one, Unifi still is working on the interface software, making it seem a bit unstable at time. (They even have a message in their interface telling you to switch to the earlier version, if you cannot find some features. And indeed, I find myself switching back and forth between the interface versions (which is possible in the Settings menu)). Additionally, the UDMPro becomes really powerful, when you dig deeper into the data it collects. That sadly is only really possible through a third party tool. I used "UniFi-Poller" and the "UniFi-Poller" Grafana Dashboards. Setting these up takes some technical expertise, but once you do, you have huge range of additional data insights that may help you assess the health of your network. I have used this and successfully troubleshooted issues I had with TPG. Before using the UDMPro, I have been in touch with TPG's support multiple times to find out why my internet dropped out frequently. Over a year, we couldn't identify the root cause of this. A week after I had the UDMPro set up with the Grafana dashboards, I was able to pin-point IP address conflicts that I hadn't been aware of and that had been affecting the whole network. I haven't used the security camera/"unifi protect" features. I only use it as a router. Depending on the settings you use, the device can be quite noisy. I have the threat management set to "balanced", which allows me to keep this device in a dining room without it creating any noticable noise. If you have it do more (e.g. I had the threat management set to "Maximum Protection" at first), you do notice quite a lot of noise coming from the fans. It's a great device for a great price - though I sometimes wonder if looking into pfSense or the like for routing and protection would have been a better alternative.

Works as intended

I purchased this to upgrade my USG3. I have other sites in the controller and migrated my equipment to the built in controller here. So far it works as the stand alone controller did, with on caveat, you can't have multiple sites with the built in controller. So the other sites I have are still on the other controller. Not a deal breaker. Also, the 8 port switch has a shared 1gb backplane. That is 1GB throughput shard between all 8 ports. So if port 1 is downloading a huge file, and port 2 decides to do the same, that 1GB throughput will slow down port 1, so port 2 can also download. So best to use a separate switch for switching or only connect 10/100 devices to the built in switch. I'd like to test the fiber WAN hand off, but I do not have fiber internet yet. The ... MoreI purchased this to upgrade my USG3. I have other sites in the controller and migrated my equipment to the built in controller here. So far it works as the stand alone controller did, with on caveat, you can't have multiple sites with the built in controller. So the other sites I have are still on the other controller. Not a deal breaker. Also, the 8 port switch has a shared 1gb backplane. That is 1GB throughput shard between all 8 ports. So if port 1 is downloading a huge file, and port 2 decides to do the same, that 1GB throughput will slow down port 1, so port 2 can also download. So best to use a separate switch for switching or only connect 10/100 devices to the built in switch. I'd like to test the fiber WAN hand off, but I do not have fiber internet yet. The integration with ui.com is a nice feature, being able to login to the device from anywhere using your ui.com account. The mobile app is decent, the newer interface is very intuitive. Rack mountable is a must and this one is and it's not too deep for a shallow rack such as I have. All in all, I'm happy with the purchase, other than the 1GB backplane on the built in switch, but not a deal breaker by any means. I would recommend to anyone looking to upgrade. I will be using the protect portion as well as I have camera's on the way. So far, my experience with protect is through a 3rd party and it works as it needs to. I like having remote access to the NVR, and not needing to pay for cloud services. I would like some sort of backup to the recordings offsite, but that may come at a later date. I also have not tested out the access control features, and likely won't, same with the talk controller, however, I may try it just to try it. I don't need on prem phones.