I've a bit of a dilemma. Not long ago I ditched my ageing Netgear router and moved to Unifi. I have the Dream Router (UDR) and two U6 Lite AP's. Coverage and WiFi speed has been great and I'm generally happy with the move.
I'm in the UK with Virgin Media and have been running with Virgin's Hub 3 in modem mode and a 550/30 package. After some unrelated issues last week, VM support contacted me and provided me with their latest offers which I'd be crazy to turn down (arranged to provide all new equipment with free installation, additional TV boxes, Sports and Movies added, doubled the speed to their highest [1100/50] while dropping the price substantially)
So my issue is the UDR. Maximum ISP speed is noted as 700Mbps and my package will give me up to 1100Mbps. Will the UDR work ok and just limit my speeds to that 700Mbps or is it going to cause other issues? The UDM Pro is nearly Ā£400....
I think you'll just never get the full speed. Looking at the Dream Router specs, the processor on it is half the cores and a bit slower than the one on the Dream Machine Pro, so it probably can't route more than the 700Mbps of traffic without melting. I have a DMP, so I've never been able to generate enough traffic to see what happens when you get near the routing limit.
It should not hurt anything, other than limiting the maximum throughput. Make sure you disable the Intrusion Protection and Packet Inspection features to see how much impact those optional services have on the throughput. If those features are important, and result in too much impact, then consider purchasing a UDM Pro or UDM SE. Hopefully, you can recoup some of the cost by selling the UDR.
Yeah I already have everything disabled on the UDR - only Network remains installed and I'm not using those other features (due to reading about their impact on the maximum speed)
The ISP supplied router (Virgin Media Hub 5) will be put in modem mode as the current Hub 3 is now. Historically my Virgin Media speeds have been faster than advertised. The new package is 'Volt Gig 1' and has advertised speeds of 1130 Mbps down (1145 max), 52 Mbps up. I guess even if I bought the UDM Pro I can't get that speed, as the RJ45 WAN port is 1 Gbps as opposed to the 2.5 Gbps port on the UDM-SE. The Hub 5 does have a 2.5Gbps port that can be used when in modem mode; However I'm struggling to justify the outlay on the Pro never mind the SE. I hate the idea that I'll not see the full benefit of the speed increase.
Unless you have multiple devices that you are maxing out download constantly (or a multi-person household all doing heavy downloads), you will probably never noticed the difference between 700Mbps and 1130Mbps. As I mentioned before, I had the 1000Mbps plan from Verizon FIOS here in the US, and even when I tried I could never get closer than about halfway (that's three computers doing huge downloads and watching Netflix on my AppleTV). I dropped to their 300Mbps connection and never noticed. But if you're saving money, the "lost" bandwidth isn't really a loss, is it?
I imagine your Unifi gear can graph your WAN utilization over the course of time. What speed do you actually need (based on your maximum speed that actually took place over the last month). I know in my home with streaming and gaming our maximum WAN utilization over the course of a month is around 65 Mbps. The only time it jumps momentarily higher is when downloading (not streaming) large files (ex. 4k movie). And even then I only see speeds around 500 Mbps. I would intentionally have to try to use more bandwidth than this, it would never happen in just normal usage.
Each to their own, and I imagine there are many users who need and regularly use internet speeds at or above 1 Gbps, but I also know there are many users who don't need these speeds but have them due to ISP high pressure sales. I live in Canada, and our ISP providers are notorious for selling people stuff they don't need. Case in point, my friend was having trouble getting reliable whole home wifi coverage from one ISP provided modem/router/wifi combo device. The ISP sold him on "range extender pucks" $5/month/puck plus an increase in the bandwidth to 750 Mbps. He still was not happy, so over a course of a weekend, we put his modem in bridge mode and installed 4 wifi access points (with a wired backhaul). We base it all on TP-Link Omada that is similar to Unifi. He is very happy with this system, his wifi coverage is stellar all through the house, and everyone is happy. Omada can graph the WAN utilization over time, and my friend was surprised to see that at no time over the course of a month did his home utilize an internet speed above 175 Mbps. (streaming, gaming, video conferencing, but no downloading).
I already think you did the smart thing by ditching the netgear router and going the Unifi route with two access points. This would provide a much more noticeable improvement to the internet in one's home, compared to and increase in ISP speed. just my 2 cents.
I do a fair amount of heavy downloading - 4K films and TV but admittedly that is intermittent heavy usage rather than constant so perhaps the main benefit of that speed increase is just the time taken to download a file. Currently a 4GB HD TV episode will only take a couple of minutes but an 80GB 4K Blu-ray remux not so quick. However I'm rarely sat waiting for something to download so that I can watch it.
Very true - I'll be gaining a few hundred meg anyway and the other additions that the ISP has bundled in are bonus enough, even if there were no speed increase.
Yes the higher speeds would only be utilised during periods of heavy downloading, but I tend to do that in the background and am rarely waiting for anything. Other than that it's just gaming and streaming and there's just my wife and I using it.
They do that here too. They'll load up the package and offer a great deal/reduced price for 12 or 18 months, then the price shoots up at the end of that term. Fortunately I'm a better haggler than they are and have been on introductory deals for about 8 years now!
Yes coverage has been great with the Unifi Access Points. I just need to add an external U6-Mesh for the garden (the coverage has been fine through solid brick walls but my large double glazed bi fold doors at the back of the house just seem to practically block the signal)
I think my best option rather than throw money at a Dream Machine would be to wait and see how it's working after the install this coming Thursday. Later I could still decide to get the Dream Machine SE. An alternative may be just to source another router that can handle the full speed, while retaining the Unifi AP's for wireless. Though I'd need to source either a cloud controller or re install the cloud controller software on my Pi (before I got the UDR I was using the Unifi APs with the Netgear router and cloud controller)
Thanks for everyones thoughts and input - it's much appreciated.
I wondered about that. The ISP's router however just has a standard RJ45 for its 2.5Gb port that would be used to connect to the UDM. Maybe a daft question but how would the two connect? Is there an SFP module that can interface with that (it's a long time since I've used SFPs and we were always using them with fibre networks that we were installing)
Instead of spending the extra $65 for an SFP to RJ45 module, Iād rather buy the UDM SE for an extra $100, which has the 2.5Gbps RJ45 WAN and PoE ports.
Currently I'm blundering through adding the Unifi Network to my Pi again. I can initially run with my UDR and see how that goes, switch over to the ISPs supplied router (wireless off using the Unifi APs after taking them off the UDR and re adopting them to the Pi hosted controller), or if both those options don't suit I can maybe get an alternative router or the UDM.
I'm someone who carefully considers everything, asks all the right questions, reads every product review before making an informed decision on how to proceed....I invariably still make a crap choice and have to start over
Had the service upgraded today and results with my UDR are not as expected....I did a few speed tests:
WiFi from MacBook using the Virgin Media WiFi (while still in router mode) - 950 down/92 up. I didn't bother with a wired test as it was close enough to the ISPs speed)
WiFi from MacBook using the Ubiquiti UDR (after switching Hub 5 to modem) - 400 down/90 up
Wired from MacBook via UDR - 250 down/104 up
Using the UDRs own Speedtest in the console - 697 down/103 up
So it seems that while the UDRs own Speedtest via the WAN port is just about spot on meeting its specified maximum speed (700), connections via the LAN ports on the router are being crippled. I cannot get a Speedtest to hit over 250 meg download through the LAN ports. Previously when my ISPs maximum speed was 550 meg, I saw all of that when testing. My ISPs speed has doubled but my effective speeds have halved!
I was doing the Speedtest through a network switch when I only got 250 meg download, so I've connected directly to a LAN Port on the UDR and now I cannot get more than 60 meg. I 've rebooted, swapped cables etc. I guess the UDR will have to go
Nothing wrong with the modem, or the switch, or the UDR, or the cables. I connected directly to the modem and was still only seeing 300 meg download. I thought I'd try my wife's laptop just to be sure, using the same cables, and speed test server. Hers was fine - 950 down from the modem, dropping to just over 700 (expected) once the UDR was connected. The culprit is....
