Powerful protection for your network! // Unifi Express Review
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- In this video, we take a look at the Unifi Express, that combines a router, security gateway, and Wi-Fi access point all in one. As someone new to the UniFi system, I'll share my honest opinion and show you how easy it is to set up and manage. Plus, we'll dive into the security features and see how this little device can identify and block traffic.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:44 Hardware Specs
01:38 UniFi networking stack
02:34 Installing and Setup
03:46 Remote Administration
04:43 Basic Features
07:00 Wi-Fi Settings
08:30 Network Settings
11:20 VPN Settings
13:13 Security Settings
17:46 Final thoughts
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I previously used a custom pfSense firewall/router for my home network on custom built miniITX motherboard with Intel Quad-Core Celeron on-board CPU. But after years of working fine I got attracted to Ubiquiti for their Network Controller web interface, which is most polished and balanced in terms of options and how it looks and feels. Currently I have UDM-PRO for all my firewall/routing and after UDM-PRO there are two Ubiquiti U6 Pro's and USW-16 PoE switch. I must admit, after getting into Ubiquiti ecosystem, controlling network is a breeze. Also got my ISP to switch their modem into Bridge mode so that I actually initiate Internet connection fro my UDM-PRO. So far I can only say good stuff for Ubiquiti, hope it stays like that.
Super solid. I bought a unifi express to operate as an access point in my unifi ecosystem and it’s been awesome. Great video!
Awesome! Thank you!
It is not solid at all - slow, gets very hot. Very disappointed. Only thing I liked is software.
i love Unifi their equipment is awesome. I bought one of these as a travel router. Works perfectly with site magic to have a instant gateway back home. absolutely love it.
Oh I didnt even think about using as a travel router. I didnt like the fact thats its like a weaker version of the Beryl
Good to know!
But this only works with a LAN port you use as WAN?
I have a unifi network with a dream router, 10G unifi switch and 2 Access points for unifi mesh network ... I really recommend having all unifi network gear
Glad to see you getting into Unifi! If this had dual-WAN, I'd be real interested in getting one. I love my Ubiquiti access point, so this would be a great addition to my home network.
Then you are aware that there are dual wan options. These small and cheap devices are however made for standard households and a standard household certainly has no 2 wans.
I just set mine up. So happy to get rid of the ISP provided one. I gave my dad ownership to get the Magic SD Wan working between our networks.
Hey Christian I hope you are doing well! The last few videos have been amazing!
Thank you so much :)
I replaced my old USG3 with the UCG Ultra. Not the Express because I have too many Unifi devices. The Ultra has been great. The built-in Network app is much nicer than the the Docker container I used to run before. Migrating my config from the Docker container to the Ultra was easy. The small display is nice for quick troubleshooting. My WAN runs at 1Gbit symmetrically and it seems the device keeps up including IDS. I'm really happy with it.
Thanks for the video, very informative! I hope my Express arrives soon enough 🤤
Oh, nice! Tell me how you like it :)
Just installed mine! It is amazing, even discovered my old network gateway and range... Spooky. No problem connecting to Telekom fiber. BUT it only manages up to 4 other Unifi devices. So for example 2 switches, 2 APs. Buyer beware!
Yes, it's amazing! For a bigger network, you might want to upgrade, but because you can still use it as an AP makes it a perfect deal.
worked a bit with that before and was the best things since
Awesome!
Thanks for the detailed overview in your video. Do you know if the Unifi Express supports a proper firewall log that shows blocked traffic events? Does it also support DNS overwrites or setting custom DNS names?
Thanks for the detail on security and other details on the device. I just ordered one. I've been using 5 Airport Extremes in my house for years now, with no issues and rock-solid performance and connectivity, but limited functionality. Hoping to slowly move to the Unifi platform. I've read the UNIFI development team has some key players from the Apple Airport team amongst them, so it's a natural successor for Airport.
Glad I could help
You should absolutely replace those Airports with e.g. Unifi, as there have quite some WiFi innovation happened in the mean time. Wifi will be so much faster and have more capacity.
@@_TbT_Just got the device over the weekend. I’ll be replacing the airports as the wallet allows. They are definitely an upgrade.
Any dangers of using the Airports in the mean time? They have been really reliable, though I worry a bit about security. The first UniFi is my gateway, and the airports are just APs now.
@@jbrovage As some post in Apple forums writes "The most recent firmware update for the AirPort routers was in May 2019". Airports are quite EOL and have been for a long time. It is certainly more important to NOT have an EOL ROUTER, as that has direct contact to the "deadly" internet. APs are only locally reachable and therefore "safer". Still. New devices will make you way safer, they will also bring WPA3 and the will speed up things you won't believe it.
I would however NOT recommend getting several Inifi Expresses, but rather their dedicated access points. The U7 Pro would be the most modern AP they have right now, even with Wifi7 and the 6 Ghz band. You might not yet have clients for both, but you certainly will in the next years. And you will be using that thing for years.
You could set up the vpn client and use it as a travel router, I have the GL iNet that I use with the flip of a button to connect to my home wireguard server so that my traffic is secured in hotels and vacations, just an idea if you aren’t sure what you’re gonna use it for, cheers!
I just got mine.. I didn't read that it can only support 4 devices until it was too late... so it will make a nice AP in my house...
It would be nice having an affordable 2.5 Gb switch from Unifi to use in combination with this Unifi Express. From what I've seen in their website they are very expensive.
Hmm, yes, Switches is probably something I'm looking at next!
As this router does not have 2,5 Gbit on the lan side, a 2,5 Gbit switch wouldn’t make too much sense if only used for >1Gbit internet access.
@@_TbT_Why not? Lots of traffic is local, for example between a NAS and a PC. Not all traffic is internet-bound.
Welcome to the UniFi Family ;-) Great review... you must see the new VPN Accounts
Thank you! :D I'll try that out for sure!
@@christianlempa ;-) see the License-Free and Enterprise Options, in the Free now we can manage several accounts from anywhere ...great value to the MSSP! Best regrads :-D
The dashboard is cool
It absolutely is!
my home network is setup with Unifi. i love Unifi
This seems to be the best system out there for houses with no wired Ethernet.
Can I add additional Access points from unifi to this? If so how many maximum?
The 4 device limit was my bugbear so went for the ultra , try setting up DHCP mac address reservation I found how to do it by accident because it is not in the DHCP section.
I am new to Unifi networking and would like to know if I will be able at least analyze Wi-Fi traffic and see wireless devices info on the dashboard for example IP addresses etc. using Unifi Express as an access point only since I am already using Edge Router 4 as a gateway and it can not be replaced and I am using CK2 plus as Unifi controller.
Just ordered one of these last night! Your video has resolved my buyer’s remorse 😂
From where did you order?
Great! Hope you enjoy it :D
@@christianlempa loving it so far! I had my doubts with how many networks I have running, but it's handling everything better than my OPNSense Protectli Vault did
@@christianlempa update, I've got a rack with a UDM-SE and a USW-Pro-Max 24 now... the UX sucked me in.
Thank you for the video which is great for introduction. But I was expecting you to show at least a little bit the wifi speed on the speedtest and things like that let us know.
Wow..I'm very impressed with this device...my pfsense box doesn't have most of the features I see here... thankyou for the great video. 👍🏼
Thanks! Yeah it's pretty cool
Does it support Internet connection via WiFi as well, or only via the Ethernet - WAN port?
Love your videos! I'm interested because it seems to have a good wifi range but most importantly the flexibility to manage your network. I'm definitely a noob in networking. If I want to use all the security features so I need to use it as a gateway? If so, do I need to start my network over or can I "migrate" my existing one. I have a server that runs a few services (guided by you BTW) that use reverse proxy and I would hate to have to set up a new network and start over with my configurations.
Thanks! Yes, you have to use it as a gateway, you can put it between your current router and your local network if you want :)
What's the wallpaper you are using on your Mac? It looks real good
You mean the "cmatrix" command in the terminal? Or the Mr Robot Wallpaper? :)
Yes auto scale is a feature in all the Unifi network devices
Nice!
I've recently purchased a Unifi Express with the intention of dropping it into a family members IT setup. Interesting re the features, my understanding is that in order for content inspection you need one of the high model units. Myself I use Sophos XG / pfsense at home. UXG-Lite is tempting for a replacement to pfsense/Sophos XG - maybe... The UCG-Ultra could be a better route for a family member with an ultra AP. Lots of options. Unifi do though spread things across their product portfolio and if into tat that I wish they didn't get involved in. Focus on network and less re car charges or lift/door controls. I assume you still work for Sophos?
Yes I do, I'm interested to seeing how the XG performs in comparison to a UDM in terms of power consumption, that's what I'm currently interested in :D
Hello , how are you? Did you update the UniFi OS or the UniFi Network Application? There are some people complaining about slowness after this update. Mainly for Unifi Express. Did you experience this?
Hey Christian could you do a review of Securepoint UTM?
Hm, probably not, I'm already busy with Unifi :D
Hi Christian.
How do you find the limitation for the number of managed devices, is it a big problem? Could that be overcome using the controller in a container instead of the one in the express?
I'm currently using OPNSense running as a VM in a mini pc running proxmox, and some times it freezes and I have to go reset the pc, it some times seems a bit unstable. Would Express be a good alternative for a gateway?
I've bought the Gateway Ultra instead. Allows many more unifi devices and can do IDS up to the device's max speed of 1Gbps. And it's still cheap imho.
@@Yggdrasil42 thank you for the info. What did you chose for APs?
@@tmtb I already had a bunch. A mix of an old AC Pro and a few U6 Mesh. They work well.
what about the old but gold UDM ? A comparison could be interesting...
yeah well, it's my first unifi device so be patient with an old dude :D
Do you know if i can expand my wifi coverage with unify access points? Because on their website they are only showing configuration with multiple unify express in a mesh network and i really don't need that. I already have ethernet cable throughout my home, i want to have single router (express in this case), attached to PoE Switch and 2 more wifi access points, since my home has reinforced walls...
Yes, that is always possible with Unifi. However don’t get multiple Expresses, get only one and then unifi access points, like the 7 Pro. This will be a WAAAY better AP for quite the same price, as you don’t pay for the, then unused, router part in 2 of them.
You can also get PoE switches with Unifi, however pay attention to the different PoE power levels (PoE, PoE+, PoE++), otherwise the switches won‘t be able to power the APs.
You should also think about getting another Unifi router, if you want to ever have >4 Unifi devices in your network. The Express really is the Entry point, there are so much better Gateways out there.
I did my research and I'll go with the Dream Router. 5 unifi devices limitation is too hard for me to justify the express@@_TbT_
Does it have internet scheduling via groups? Like i block gaming consoles but allow the kids mobiles for longer on my ASUS modem
Would like to know this as well
Yes, you can apply these settings like devices, groups, schedule all per each rule. So you can create multiple rules for different groups of devices and schedules.
If Ubiquiti would make a version with more computational power, 4 x 2.5 Gb ethernet ports, no wifi built in and similar size (a bit bigger is ok but not big as a 19 inch rack mount) it would be great and perhaps many people would switch from custom hardware + pfsense to this product.
And not that shitty round trashcan (in terms of visuals) that they are marketing that fits in no wall...
@Paxtiny Exaclty, I mean similar shape as this product but of course a bit bigger to accommodate 4 LAN ports and better cooling for a more powerful CPU. If they would do that, I would switch immediately from pfsense to this.
What bandwidth are the RJ45 ports? are they 1 GbE or higher?
1Gbps
Thanks!@@SimoAtlas
I am confused... the wifi 6 band is greyed out. Is it not built in?
This is a 100€/$ AIO router and AP in a very small form factor. What do you expect? 6Ghz APs (only the AP part) are at least 1,5x more expensive than this.
It has a wifi 6 AP built in where did you see that?
OK found what you are talking about. Wifi 6 requires WPA3 to be enabled to work.
Just got an udm se
More unifi content please
Sorry Boss, my Ubiquity network blocks MS Teams at the weekend...
PPPoE is still widely used not only in DSL/xDSL connections... I have fiber connection (FTTH) with transparent ONT and on my router I'm also dialing PPPoE for accounting and assign static IP on provider side ;-)
FTTH still isn't a widely used thing in Germany :´( at least not where I'm living, so forgive me :D
Same here in The Netherlands. PPPoE tunnel to the provider with vlan 6 used for internet and vlan 4 used for IP TV.
On the USG3 I needed a config json to get that working. Thankfully on the new USG Ultra I got it working with built-in UI, except that I needed to install a IGMP proxy from Github to proxy IP TV traffic between internal and external vlans.
I've checked on their website and it is surprisingly cheap compared to their other products but I still plan on buying a dumb router for my homelab. Can't start off with something too easy.
Yep, the price is outstanding for what you get!
How about the WiFi speed?
No issues as far as I have tested, speed is great when you connect over 5GHz
Push Push Push!
But can it run Crysis
No, but Doom soon
lol :D
@@vincentvega3093 deffo
This has a lot of features but not as flexible as pfsense. There are more than enough features to cover what most people do though. I am a big fan of running the fw on its own separate device like this. Mine is running on a cheap fan-less mini-pc. Having the fw on its own has it so you don't take down the home internet when you are upgrading or messing around with your homelab. LOL had to send out a network outage message to my kids and wife every time.
we shouldn't compare pfsense with that device, better with the dream machine
One punch man you are from Germany? :O
can they block urls ?
No, you can block domains, but not URLs
is there a self hosted or homelab purchasable equipment to use as a proxy to block urs (mainly ads in applications like instagram and reddit ) !! @@christianlempa
I want the Dream Router, but its been sold out for months, and I don't want to pay scalpers an extra 100 dollars... :(
What a shame :/ I hope to get that also for testing
@@christianlempa An extremely good product for the MSRP, scalpers man, always have to ruin it for us.
I mean, the Unifi Express is an great device but Unifi is not really know for their security or firewall capabilities. Also the Unifi Express has gotten rid of the more L7 features (like IPS) that can be found in other Unifi gateways so you are basically down to L4 firewalling.
You need to look at the price and the target audience here. Sure, it doesn't have advanced IPS/IDS and I doubt that the rules and signatures are high-end. BUT, does the average home user care? Probably not.
It's like a mini router for $150. I'd say might as well get the TP-Link AX1800 router instead for $75 that has 5 gigabit ports instead of 1, and I believe since TP-Link's router is bigger, signal travels a greater distance.
Conflicting reports from people on Reddit who report it’s slow and the CPU is always maxed out slowing down traffic. Seems like a nice product but not sure what to make of the negative comments.
I wouldn't be too worried about it. It's a device for home usage, not enterprise. I've not had any issues when using it for regular home networks.
I use Unifi gear everywhere in my network. Except for the Firewall. I think their Firewall UI is just painful when compared to OPNsense. I also really doubt that their UDM Pro actually can handle 10 Gb/s
Am I the only one that thinks the industry is not going fast enough with the 2.5/5/10GB speed adoption? ISPs are easily providing speeds over 1/3/8Gbps those days, how 1Gbps router can still be relevant today?
In Europe multigig residential ISP offerings are still very rare.
I got this based on Tom Lawrence video - the traffic showed 118 MB of SSH traffic that apparently had been uploaded. Later it showed 80 MB only and nothing via tcpdump when I wanted to check what was going on. So yes looks nice and shiny, but not so reliable :-/
Oh no, they finally got to you as well.
:D
At this price for the device it is cheaper to buy Keenetic. You'll still have some left over for beer.
🤷
Nah, you should NOT need a Unifi account to do remote management, it should have it's own authentication and should not be linked to a corporate tracking system. Reeks of privacy violations. I am immediately concerned about hidden telemetry and other unwanted tracking.
You can VPN to it my guy lol you can also not use the gateway function, host your own Unifi console on Linux and have your own firewall.
not giving 2.5Gbps nowadays is a ... BS ;)
I doubt that is an issue. As this is supposed to be a gateway only (remember it does not route traffic between local devices since it only has 2x interfaces), your internet speed won't be faster anyway.
@@christianlempa how about I have a fast NAS or whatever in my LAN and I want to copy file between my macbook and that NAS - the wifi speed is 1 thing, the NIC in access point is another. I recently replaced my AP to netgear WAX220 that has 2.5Gbps NIC and the speed is simply 2 times bigger. What am I mixing here?
@@zyghom you would never connect the Unifi express to your nas directly, you would have a switch in between (which ideally should be 2.5), so it would only be a bottleneck when traffic is going in/outside the gateway
@@christianlempa wait, so this device you were showing today is NOT an AP? because if it IS AP, and my laptop is connected to it over fast WiFi 6 and then this AP goes over 1Gbps NIC to the 2.5Gbps switch then the bottleneck for me is the connection: switch - AP that is 1Gbps. Right?
@@zyghom as an AP yes that would be the limitation
1 gbe... thats like so yesterday.
why couldnt they offer 2.5 gbe?
They do, on their non entry-level devices.
Price and form factor obviously
Erster
Never uderstand why Unifi make interesting device and then totally fuck up because cant be powered by POE.... and its 2024
I would like to see a full brake down on what to get for home users. First floor second floor and third floor. What to do instead of buying 3 of these unit how to mix this in your home and what to get. Take into account for hard wire and have PoE installed. So income internet this unit. Hardwire to living room (poe) second floor etc etc. How to invest into this setup. Most content creators just test in 1 room and go howly mowly awesome, but no test to get this hook up into a real home setup. Just one room and go the speeds or awesome. That's just not realistic
c'mon! wifi6 with an uplink of just 1G... useless!!!
Once you say "Unifi App" for your phone ... I'm out. Apps are a privacy black box.
Yeah, well if you would have listened a few minutes more, I would have told you don't need it :D
@@christianlempa I heard that too.
Looking at your profile lol
It’s self-hosted bruh.
@@uria702 The app isn't. I get it, you can manage without the app. But most phone apps are privacy black holes.
1gb ports, pass
It is just a castrated udm-pro. Nothing new. try port forwarding. It is a piece off shit. Mikrotik is way better.
what's the problem about port forwarding? don't get it
Whats wromg with it?
Mikrotik is cheap fuc too, opnsense it is...
@@christianlempa It is just unintuitive. Even low cost routers have more intuitive inrerfaces. Just My opinion.
Nice ad , when you going to make some useful content again?