Good deal on the Ubiquiti USG from Sydneytec eBay. It is supposed to work with Australian NBN FTTH according to some forum posts (links below). I have purchased one so will report back once I have tried for myself.
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2724069
https://community.ui.com/questions/UniFi-Security-Gateway-an…
Was out of stock this morning but it seems 10 more became available this afternoon….so I grabbed one
Definitely works with FTTP. I have one at home (as well as a UniFi switch and Access Point). Amazing gear for the price. Requires a little bit of know-how to get going properly though.
What makes it amazing gear and worth the multiple times high pricing than devices with the same specs and features from the big name brands?
Ubiquiti is hardly an unknown brand, it just more typically marketed at commercial rather then consumer.
In terms of specs/performance, any of the Unifi AP products would have significantly better wireless performance than consumer "big name brands".
Whether its the Unifi router, the switch or the APs, your paying more because Unifi is a bunch of separate products that do one thing great, rather then a single product that does lots of things just ok.
While Ubiquiti is great and I use their gear, I think many would argue that for a router you could be better looking elsewhere as this particular model is getting to be a bit old at this time and while it has some great features, there’s some you’ll likely want to leave off otherwise the performance will degrade. This model more than most of the Unifi line is probably due for a refresh. Unfortunately I’m not sure one is on the short term plan given they have in early release a device called the Dream Machine which is a USG, Switch, AP all in one. That device looks good but will no doubt come in at a much higher cost.
I’d suggest this model is worth it if you want a low cost entry and are super keen to be able to see all the metrics in the Unifi Controller. If you want something you can set and forget and won’t bother with looking at graphs, you can grab something else. The AP’s are still worth considering and don’t need this to support them.
Ubiquiti/Unifi is enterprise-grade gear at consumer-grade prices. The kind of configurability you have with them is what you'd expect from running your own custom Linux-based firewall and routing service. And the performance of their APs is incredible. A single AP-Lite covers my entire house, whereas my previous $400 ASUS "gaming router" barely covered half.
As robberbutton mentioned though, you definitely need some know-how to get it working at maximum capacity.
As trankillity said, it's enterprise-grade gear. You can't compare it to consumer grade Netgear-esq equipment - it's closer to a Cisco type product in terms of reliability, management and functionality.
I moved to UniFi gear after going through dozens of consumer grade all-in-one routers that were disappointing, no matter how much money I spent on them.
$150 for the router and $150 for an Access Point is only $300 in total.
High end all-in-one WiFi routers from the likes of NetGear and D-Link cost significantly MORE than $300 - the Ubiquiti gear is cheaper, not "multiple times higher pricing".
Nothing. There’s no actual traffic inspection or proxy rules to inspect for bad websites or AV scan downloads. Like all this “Security Gateway” does is port forwarding or allowing/denying ports, something the cheapest TP Link router can do. You are far better going with Sophos UTM or similar if want actual security.
Like the replies to your comment are mentioning the AP pricing. Yes the AP is a killer for the price. But this is just an overpriced router.
100% Wrong. The USG is capable of deep packet inspection, quality of service management, intrusion detection and prevention, VLAN routing, advanced firewall rules and grouping.
The only downside is that due to the processor, it can't do all of these at the same time. If you enable QoS/IDS/IPS, it will disable DPI system-wide. If you don't care about DPI however, it can handle QoS/IDS/IPS all at once.
Excellent, thanks for letting me know :)
Thanks, good to know.
Any info if it will work with FTTC and HFC?
From what I was reading you will need to put your ISP's modem in 'bridge' mode. Someone else might have more info.
What your ISP supplies for HFC isn't actually a modem, it's a router. The modem itself is the Arriss cable connection. The USG will plug straight into the Arriss no problems.
It's likely the same for FTTC, except you'll use the NBN phone-line modem to receive the signal.
I did this for my iiNet modem and it works great with the USG. Although I'm on iiNet VDSL2 not NBN.
Huy bud, I'm currently using one for my HFC connection and it works pretty much out of the box. Plugs straight into the NTU/NTD that is provided by NBN.co without any configuration on either end.
No issue on fttc
Works fine for FFTC, just plug USG straight into your NBN device. That's exactly how mine is.
I have working with hfc. Took a little playing and around tpg nbn hfc requires vlan 2 configured for wan connection
Can you implement nordvpn on it?
Yeah, but it's not exactly performance hardware and the setup (for NordVPN) is anything but trivial (you'll need to drop into a command line). Would not recommend for that purpose.
Setup to connect back to your network via VPN from a remote location is pretty easy though with basic technical knowledge / ability to follow instructions.
Warning - This this about to be obsolete.
New product has been launched to basically supersede this as its well out of date
Ubiquiti Dream Machine
Basically is the USG + Cloud Key + a Wireless AP all in one, Also the security functions won't throttle faster connections.
RRP US$299
This will still have its place, the UDM can't be adopted by an existing controller, and is enough more that this is going to be a cheaper solution for some.
Absolutely worth noting though that if you're on a 100MB+ connection and want to use IPS/IDS you're better off with better hardware.
Obsolete for those who would rather an "all in one" …..(which might be most people, but not all)
The USG has a very, very limited processor in it and can only handle speeds of up to 85mb/s when you enable Smart Queues/QoS and/or IPS/IDS. It also can't do any of those plus packet sniffing. The Dream Machine is significantly more powerful, supporting up to 1gbps burst with Smart Queues/QoS and IDS/IPS enabled.
Of course that means very little in the short term for Australia, but definitely something to consider.
Thanks for the heads up. Thankfully I haven't pulled the trigger on this…. would have regretted it if I did!
I would still much prefer a seperate solution - my USG (granted is the PRO-4 but still valid with this) sits in my rack - if it was an AP as well would be fairly useless!
beaten by all the other replies lol
Agreed, I want it to be seperate and housed in my rack. How common is a 100Mbps+ internet connection in Australia anyway?
Unifi Dream Machine Pro
Rack mount, 8 port switch & 10G SFP+ + 10G SFP+ & 1GBPS WAN, Unifi Protect, Controller and 5GBPS IPS US$399
I already have the Ubiquiti switch, WAP and Cloud Key so I don't need to replace all that again
But for someone purchasing all the gear new, that seems like a great unit
that is not bad - would be better if they had a 16 port option option for a 1RU solution for Smaller networks.
That's very odd. The UDM doesn't sound like a commercial device at all. Consumer yes, not commercial. The cloudkey is fine, but I personally prefer running UNMS/UCC in a VM - no hardware to break and never out of date. And putting an AP in your router? That's just no. Any business that's larger than a few people will prefer separate hardware. Your router needs a reboot, you lose your WLAN. AP gone bad? You lose your WAN. Tsk tsk…no no, no good.
The only nice upgrade is the faster IPS throughput…but for most people, either not using this is fine (in a home environment where you only have 1 or 2 ports forwarded, if any) or if you're in a larger business where you really need the full 100/40 (or higher non-NBN service) you can justify the $400 for the USG-Pro which will do ~250mbit with IPS.
Yeah, missing the WAN2 port makes it less of a prosumer device than the USG-PRO. But inline with the more consumer USG
The USG is a very commercial/SMB device. It's a more expensive, but well built, rock solid router without stuff that a business handles elsewhere (switch, ap, etc). A consumer having to add on another switch/AP isn't what they generally want. The USG is perfectly suited to the hobbyist techie too, of course.
@incipient: As a standalone device, it's not very useful for a hobbyist. Over an advanced home MiMo router. You'll still need a Layer 3 switch if you want to do vLANs
That device looks compelling, but $300USD could come in at $400-$500 and I wouldn’t bet against it being the high end of that range.
I’d like a Dream Machine without the AP, and hope they do eventually do that as a refresh for this device. I want my routers and the like in cabinets or racks so having the AP built in is a bit of a waste for me.
For those that will use it, the USG-PRO or the upcoming UDM-Pro will be better suited, and those that aren't sure of how they'll use this will miss some of the 'basic' features your current advanced router might have.
When are these due out in aus? I have a new build finishing end of next month.
Not sure if i should holdoff buying all of this new gear?
Note for a while, as it's still BETA. But you can try a freight forwarder to get it from the US.
Moving from a FTTP to a HFC home in a few months :(
Would this work on HFC and would performance be ok?
Currently have the Linksys WRT1200AC which has worked pretty well but only good for FTTP.
This is a firewall router, it is not a complete replacement for your wireless router
What @tripe675 said - but also "yes", in the sense of providing a router/firewall device. Mine plugs into the NBN HFC modem, and then Unifi Switches/APs from there.
This device is great for people with a 50Mbit connection. It allows you to enable all the features with no performance degradation. If you've got a 100Mbit connection I'd recommend the USG-Pro-4 (and some quiet fans because the the built in ones are whiney).
Do you know USG-Pro-4 throughput with DPI, QOS and IPS enabled?
I can find some benchmarks saying with DPI and IPS it can do around 450 Mbps up and 650 Mbps down. But that didn't mention QOS.
Has the performance been improved on the USG? I saw this comment where they said IPS was limiting them to about 140Mbps.
Current have an edgerouter x, can I justify the upgrade to the USG? would appreciate the extra gui stats in unifi..!
In the same boat and want to "complete the puzzle" so to speak.
One reason holding me back is the ER-X is faster than the USG and supports POE.
The advantage of the USG is, well, completes the pretty diagram :)
Anyone know if there are any G3 Micros from other sellers.
Can anyone comment on parental controls?
You would be better of getting circle by disney for that, this is really just a router, will have some basic web filtering like all other brands, but nothing to the point of the circle
Might be PiHole with appropriate lists.
Does is it going to be similar to Circle Disney ?
It's back in stock for anyone who missed out.
On an FTTP NBN connection do you need one of these or can you just slap a router directly into the NTD?
This is a router. You’d connect it straight into the NBN box for FTTP.
FTTN you’d need a modem in between.
So why this as opposed to an EdgeRouter X or similar?
Main reason IMHO is you have other products in the Unifi line and want to use the one interface to monitor and manage everything ,specifically via the Unifi Controller software suite. That'll give a nice wholistic and well integrated view of your network.
If that doesn't interest you then I'm not sure this models necessarily worth it over something cheaper, noting this models a bit old at this point.
FWIW I'm keen to get one of these for those pretty graphs etc, but right now I run a Unifi wireless access point with other routing hardware. It's not really problematic, I just need to use two interfaces to configure the entire network and some things such as assigning hostnames to devices that don't broadcast one I end up doing in both interfaces to ensure consistency.
"I have purchased one so will report back once I have tried for myself"
Hope it's quick. Postie code expires in 4 days AND stock is limited.