Powerful protection for your network! // Unifi Express Review

Рет қаралды 46,299

Күн бұрын

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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Пікірлер: 160

@MarioCRO 6 ай бұрын

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.

@henrysowell 6 ай бұрын

Super solid. I bought a unifi express to operate as an access point in my unifi ecosystem and it’s been awesome. Great video!

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Awesome! Thank you!

@donatasm1300 2 ай бұрын

It is not solid at all - slow, gets very hot. Very disappointed. Only thing I liked is software.

@DudeItsDallyBoy 6 ай бұрын

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.

@BruceKraftJr 6 ай бұрын

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

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Good to know!

@nixxblikka 6 ай бұрын

But this only works with a LAN port you use as WAN?

@lifeasben643 5 ай бұрын

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.

@_TbT_ 5 ай бұрын

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.

@valleyboy3613 6 ай бұрын

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

@Paxtiny 6 ай бұрын

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!

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

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.

@googletjanster2917 6 ай бұрын

Thanks for the video, very informative! I hope my Express arrives soon enough 🤤

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Oh, nice! Tell me how you like it :)

@Kevin-oj2uo 6 ай бұрын

Hey Christian I hope you are doing well! The last few videos have been amazing!

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Thank you so much :)

@Yggdrasil42 4 ай бұрын

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.

@marcusm5127 6 ай бұрын

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.

@jacquesb5248 6 ай бұрын

worked a bit with that before and was the best things since

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Awesome!

@jayferret007 26 күн бұрын

my home network is setup with Unifi. i love Unifi

@JoaoPacheco 6 ай бұрын

Welcome to the UniFi Family ;-) Great review... you must see the new VPN Accounts

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Thank you! :D I'll try that out for sure!

@JoaoPacheco 6 ай бұрын

@@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

@kent_calvin 6 ай бұрын

The dashboard is cool

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

It absolutely is!

@Weirlive 6 ай бұрын

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...

@sloraris 6 ай бұрын

Just ordered one of these last night! Your video has resolved my buyer’s remorse 😂

@c-LAW 6 ай бұрын

From where did you order?

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Great! Hope you enjoy it :D

@sloraris 6 ай бұрын

@@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

@sloraris 16 күн бұрын

@@christianlempa update, I've got a rack with a UDM-SE and a USW-Pro-Max 24 now... the UX sucked me in.

@uria702 6 ай бұрын

This seems to be the best system out there for houses with no wired Ethernet.

@_FillFeile_ 6 ай бұрын

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?

@JamesMorgan08 6 ай бұрын

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!

@AnFv86 6 ай бұрын

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.

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Hmm, yes, Switches is probably something I'm looking at next!

@_TbT_ 5 ай бұрын

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.

@Yggdrasil42 4 ай бұрын

@@_TbT_Why not? Lots of traffic is local, for example between a NAS and a PC. Not all traffic is internet-bound.

@qcnsllcqcnsupport7616 6 ай бұрын

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. 👍🏼

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Thanks! Yeah it's pretty cool

@jbrovage 5 ай бұрын

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.

@christianlempa 5 ай бұрын

Glad I could help

@_TbT_ 5 ай бұрын

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.

@jbrovage 5 ай бұрын

@@_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.

@_TbT_ 5 ай бұрын

@@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.

@msdevel 6 ай бұрын

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.

@EduardoRodriguez-fu4ry 6 ай бұрын

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.

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

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 :)

@DanZimmerli 6 ай бұрын

Yes auto scale is a feature in all the Unifi network devices

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Nice!

@Ipaddoodler 6 ай бұрын

What's the wallpaper you are using on your Mac? It looks real good

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

You mean the "cmatrix" command in the terminal? Or the Mr Robot Wallpaper? :)

@peteradshead2383 4 ай бұрын

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.

@user-vh3vt9mn4i 5 ай бұрын

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.

@misckicirina 6 ай бұрын

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.

@Paxtiny 6 ай бұрын

And not that shitty round trashcan (in terms of visuals) that they are marketing that fits in no wall...

@misckicirina 6 ай бұрын

@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.

@Maxiwoof 6 ай бұрын

Just got an udm se More unifi content please

@robholmes9202 5 ай бұрын

Can I add additional Access points from unifi to this? If so how many maximum?

@galatei11 4 ай бұрын

Does it support Internet connection via WiFi as well, or only via the Ethernet - WAN port?

@herbst1398 6 ай бұрын

Push Push Push!

@anthonyvollmer3104 6 ай бұрын

Hey Christian could you do a review of Securepoint UTM?

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Hm, probably not, I'm already busy with Unifi :D

@mikescott4008 4 ай бұрын

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?

@christianlempa 4 ай бұрын

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

@jakubstajner5155 6 ай бұрын

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 ;-)

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

FTTH still isn't a widely used thing in Germany :´( at least not where I'm living, so forgive me :D

@Yggdrasil42 4 ай бұрын

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.

@fernandolcoto 8 күн бұрын

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?

@waveformer2592 6 ай бұрын

what about the old but gold UDM ? A comparison could be interesting...

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

yeah well, it's my first unifi device so be patient with an old dude :D

@maximeaube1619 6 ай бұрын

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.

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Yep, the price is outstanding for what you get!

@lawlessyt5680 Күн бұрын

Does it have captive portal?

@tmakademia3526 Ай бұрын

One punch man you are from Germany? :O

@tmtb 6 ай бұрын

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?

@Yggdrasil42 4 ай бұрын

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.

@tmtb 4 ай бұрын

@@Yggdrasil42 thank you for the info. What did you chose for APs?

@Yggdrasil42 4 ай бұрын

@@tmtb I already had a bunch. A mix of an old AC Pro and a few U6 Mesh. They work well.

@jakosss 6 ай бұрын

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...

@_TbT_ 5 ай бұрын

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.

@jakosss 5 ай бұрын

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_

@BrianD-pf4px 5 ай бұрын

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.

@christianlempa 5 ай бұрын

we shouldn't compare pfsense with that device, better with the dream machine

@JasonC5542 6 ай бұрын

Does it have internet scheduling via groups? Like i block gaming consoles but allow the kids mobiles for longer on my ASUS modem

@JohnVold 6 ай бұрын

Would like to know this as well

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

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.

@V3ptur 6 ай бұрын

What bandwidth are the RJ45 ports? are they 1 GbE or higher?

@SimoAtlas 6 ай бұрын

1Gbps

@V3ptur 6 ай бұрын

Thanks!@@SimoAtlas

@luckyday_5510 6 ай бұрын

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.

@declanmcardle 4 ай бұрын

Sorry Boss, my Ubiquity network blocks MS Teams at the weekend...

@Voiceguitar 5 ай бұрын

I am confused... the wifi 6 band is greyed out. Is it not built in?

@_TbT_ 5 ай бұрын

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.

@tollav 4 ай бұрын

It has a wifi 6 AP built in where did you see that?

@tollav 4 ай бұрын

OK found what you are talking about. Wifi 6 requires WPA3 to be enabled to work.

@perfectgyroscope 6 ай бұрын

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.

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

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.

@legendaryz_ch 6 ай бұрын

But can it run Crysis

@vincentvega3093 6 ай бұрын

No, but Doom soon

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

lol :D

@legendaryz_ch 6 ай бұрын

@@vincentvega3093 deffo

@kmschwem 2 ай бұрын

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.

@christianlempa 2 ай бұрын

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.

@argomedoreds 6 ай бұрын

How about the WiFi speed?

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

No issues as far as I have tested, speed is great when you connect over 5GHz

@kodemasterx 6 ай бұрын

I want the Dream Router, but its been sold out for months, and I don't want to pay scalpers an extra 100 dollars... :(

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

What a shame :/ I hope to get that also for testing

@kodemasterx 6 ай бұрын

@@christianlempa An extremely good product for the MSRP, scalpers man, always have to ruin it for us.

@Sama_09 6 ай бұрын

can they block urls ?

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

No, you can block domains, but not URLs

@Sama_09 6 ай бұрын

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

@TheJoBlackos 6 ай бұрын

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?

@OneTrueKing23 4 ай бұрын

In Europe multigig residential ISP offerings are still very rare.

@Gilgwathir 6 ай бұрын

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

@nixxblikka 6 ай бұрын

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 :-/

@marcosscriven 6 ай бұрын

Oh no, they finally got to you as well.

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

@KOTZLOVRED 6 ай бұрын

At this price for the device it is cheaper to buy Keenetic. You'll still have some left over for beer.

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

🤷

@nothingtoseehere5760 4 ай бұрын

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.

@insainwhiteboy1 3 ай бұрын

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.

@MrBokkyboy 5 ай бұрын

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

@zyghom 6 ай бұрын

not giving 2.5Gbps nowadays is a ... BS ;)

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

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.

@zyghom 6 ай бұрын

@@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?

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

@@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

@zyghom 6 ай бұрын

@@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?

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

@@zyghom as an AP yes that would be the limitation

@zerion777 6 ай бұрын

Erster

@Czekr 5 ай бұрын

Never uderstand why Unifi make interesting device and then totally fuck up because cant be powered by POE.... and its 2024

@ErikS- 4 ай бұрын

1 gbe... thats like so yesterday. why couldnt they offer 2.5 gbe?

@crocodile2000 4 ай бұрын

They do, on their non entry-level devices.

@OlRubberNuts 4 ай бұрын

Price and form factor obviously

@aniellosgambato 4 ай бұрын

c'mon! wifi6 with an uplink of just 1G... useless!!!

@TheBeardedLibertarian 6 ай бұрын

1gb ports, pass

@c-LAW 6 ай бұрын

Once you say "Unifi App" for your phone ... I'm out. Apps are a privacy black box.

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

Yeah, well if you would have listened a few minutes more, I would have told you don't need it :D

@c-LAW 6 ай бұрын

@@christianlempa I heard that too.

@TexasStormChaser 6 ай бұрын

Looking at your profile lol

@uria702 6 ай бұрын

It’s self-hosted bruh.

@c-LAW 6 ай бұрын

@@uria702 The app isn't. I get it, you can manage without the app. But most phone apps are privacy black holes.

@toddselby443 6 ай бұрын

Nice ad , when you going to make some useful content again?

@dorofteiionutz3952 6 ай бұрын

It is just a castrated udm-pro. Nothing new. try port forwarding. It is a piece off shit. Mikrotik is way better.

@christianlempa 6 ай бұрын

what's the problem about port forwarding? don't get it

@chrismallia29 6 ай бұрын

Whats wromg with it?

@legendaryz_ch 6 ай бұрын

Mikrotik is cheap fuc too, opnsense it is...

@dorofteiionutz3952 6 ай бұрын

@@christianlempa It is just unintuitive. Even low cost routers have more intuitive inrerfaces. Just My opinion.