UniFi Network at Home

In this post I'd like to share how to make a reliable and granular internet setup at home using Ubiquity network equipment. For my home setup I have bought the following devices:

• UniFi Gateway
• UniFi Lite 8 PoE Switch
• UniFi Flex Mini Switch
• a couple of UniFi U6 Plus Access Points
• a couple of UniFi Patch Cables(ethernet)

Here is the sketch of how the setup looks like once completed:

Gateway

A UniFi Gateway(together with a UniFi Controller) serves as an entry point in the setup. It routes the traffic from the ISP to the home network: devices, switches, access points etc.

UniFi Gateway operates at the Network Layer(Layer 3) of the OSI(Open Systems Interconnection) model or the Internet Layer of the TCP/IP model

Some of the features of the Gateway include:

• Routing: They handle the routing of data packets between different networks, such as your local network and the internet.
• Firewall: UniFi Gateway includes firewall capabilities to enhance network security by controlling incoming and outgoing traffic.
• VPN Support: UniFi Gateway offers Virtual Private Network support for secure remote access to your network.
• Quality of Service(QoS): Features to prioritize and manage network traffic for different applications and devices.
• Centralized Management: UniFi devices can be managed through the UniFi controller software, providing a single interface for configuring and monitoring the network.

Essentially UniFi Gateway is a router with advanced security features and without Wifi.

There are 4 ports on the Gateway:

• CONSOLE - for the management
• WAN - input for the ISP cable
• LAN - output to the local network
• VOIP

Ports on UniFi devices have LEDs that depending on the color mean:

• Orange - operating at 100 Mb/s
• Green - operating at 1 Gb/s
• CONSOLE LED is the power indicator, it gets green when the power is on

The "U" logo in front of the Gateway(and on other UniFi devices) has multiple LED colors as well:

• Flashing white means it's booting up
• Solid white means it's booted but not adopted
• Solid blue - normal operation, adopted to a Controller

Setting up the Gateway

1. Power the device(CONSOLE port becomes green) and wait until the "U" logo is solid white.
2. Connect the ISP cable to the WAN port
3. Connect the computer used for the setup to the LAN port directly or through the switch
4. Ensure both ports operate at the desired speed(green is for 1 Gb/s)

Go to the computer console and type ifconfig on Linux or ipconfig on Windows. The computer should have got the IP address assigned, in my case I got 192.168.1.9 and you should see 192.168.1.1 as the Gateway IP.

Open 192.168.1.1 in the browser to get into the Gateway UI. Navigate to "Configuration" and set up your Connection Type according to the ISP instrucitons - for example a PPPoE with username/password, VLAN ID etc. The internet should be working now. If the Gateway reports internet connection, but the computer can't reach sites check if the Gateway IP is set correctly, if not - try to reboot or change it to 192.168.1.1 manually.

UniFi Controller

Next install the Controller via https://www.ui.com/download/releases/network-server. This software is required for managing and configuring all UniFi devices in the network. It provides a single interface for monitoring, provisioning, and troubleshooting these network devices.

• Adopt all devices
• Update firmware
• Setup Wifi main/guest networks(and assign Access Points)

NOTE: After adopting the Gateway it's username and password are getting set and can be found under Settings → System → Advanced → Device Authentication

Guest WiFi

• Set up a new Virtual Network for the same Gateway, with a different VLAN: I got VLAN 2 under 192.168.2.0/24 Subnet
• Set Isolation: Network(this will prevent accessing the Gateway located on 192.168.1.0/24 Subnet)
• Set up a new Wifi using this new Virtual Network

UniFi Switch

To supply all rooms at home with the internet I use the UniFi Lite 8 PoE Switch, which is a Layer 2 network device.

UniFi Switch operates at the Data Link Layer(Layer 2) of the OSI(Open Systems Interconnection) model or the Link Layer of the TCP/IP model

Simply connect the configured Gateway to the Switch and all ports will be supplied with the internet. Lite 8 PoE has 4 normal ports and 4 Power over Ethernet ports. All devices that aren't connected to the power direcly, like Access Points, need to be connected through PoE ports.

Final Setup