With so many different gateways, switches, and access points available, it can be confusing to figure out where to get started with UniFi. So in this video, we're gonna talk about the absolute basics when it comes to UniFi network equipment and how UniFi beginners can get started with the right equipment so that you don't break the bank. All right, let's get to it. Network design is one of the many ways that Rogue Support can help ensure you get the most bang for your networking buck. Our friendly technicians are experts in all levels of networking and can work with you to figure out the best equipment for your home or business network. So if you're watching this video, hoping to figure out where to get started with UniFi, but really you'd rather just have an expert listen to what you want and then tell you what you need, open up a ticket with Rogue Support and get started today. It's quick, it's easy, and you don't pay until your ticket has been resolved. Give it a shot, you won't be disappointed. To understand the basics of building a UniFi network, you have to first understand the four different components that make up the foundation of UniFi. These components are your gateway, which may also be called a router or firewall, wireless access points, network switches, and the UniFi network controller. Any full UniFi network is gonna have all four of these components, and what confuses a lot of people is that many of these devices combine some of these components into a single device. For example, you've got the Dream Machine Pro, which is a gateway, a network switch, and a UniFi network controller, but it doesn't have a wireless access point. UniFi Express, on the other hand, is a gateway, an access point, and a UniFi network controller, but it doesn't have a network switch. It only comes with a single local area network port. So, how do we make sense of all this? Well, let's start at the core. The core of any UniFi network is the gateway and the UniFi network controller. The gateway is your router or firewall. It has your connection out to the internet on one side, also known as the WAN, or the wide area network, and on the other side is your internal network, or local area network, also known as LAN. The UniFi network controller is the software configuration interface for your entire UniFi network. There are a number of places that this software can live. You can host it yourself in the cloud, you can use Ubiquiti's official cloud hosting service, or even a third-party hosting service like Hostify. You can install it locally on Windows, Mac, or Linux, or you can purchase a UniFi gateway that already has the UniFi network controller built in. No matter how you choose to run your UniFi network controller, you can always access it by browsing to unifi.ui.com on the internet. Making configuration changes to your network from anywhere in the world is one of the main benefits of the UniFi ecosystem. A gateway device with UniFi network built in is typically what I would recommend, especially for beginners. It's gonna be always on since it lives on your gateway, and this makes it incredibly easy for new UniFi equipment to figure out where to go when you add devices to the network. A while back, I created the UI product selector. This website allows you to search through Ubiquiti's catalog of network equipment and then filter down to just the devices you need. You can even build out a whole network and save it for future reference, or you can share it with friends, family, and coworkers who may need help figuring out what to buy. You can find the UI product selector at uiproductselector.com. In the UI product selector, click on get started, and then click on UniFi OS consoles and gateways. Here we can drop down the UniFi app filters and select UniFi network. This is gonna filter down the list of gateways to only the gateways that have UniFi network integrated. Notice the other app filters in the list as well. All of these different UniFi apps control various aspects of the UniFi ecosystem. Protect is for video surveillance, access is for door access control, and talk is their voice over IP system. If you wanna use any of these other apps now or in the future, you can also check those boxes and the list will further filter down to only devices capable of also having those installed under the bigger umbrella of UniFi OS. For now though, we're just gonna stick with UniFi network. My recommended gateway for beginners looking for a basic UniFi network is either the Cloud Gateway Ultra or UniFi Express. The Cloud Gateway Ultra is 129 bucks and it has UniFi OS with UniFi network included. It also has a small four port network switch for wired devices. In other words, it has three of the four main components of a UniFi network. It's only missing the wireless access point. UniFi Express on the other hand is 149 bucks. It has UniFi OS with UniFi network included and it also has a Wi-Fi six access point on board. But it also only has three of the four components of a UniFi network given that it only has a single wired network port for your local area network, which is typically used to then connect out to a separate network switch. So that being said, if you don't have any wired devices in your network and everything's 100% wireless, then UniFi Express is a one and done solution. The downside to UniFi Express is that it's really not all that powerful. It's limited in that it supports fewer UniFi and client devices than the other models and the wireless access point antenna is pretty small. I mean, realistically, it would only cover an apartment or a small home, but really not much more than that before you'd have to start expanding your network with additional access points. Now, if I were choosing between UniFi Express and the Cloud Gateway Ultra, I would recommend the Cloud Gateway Ultra. Think about it, right? Given that most of our devices these days are wirelessly connected to the network, the Cloud Gateway Ultra gives you a more powerful core network and then allows you to choose separate, more powerful wireless access points that can be installed in ideal locations to provide better coverage than what you get if you're just using the UniFi Express Gateway. Finally, before we move on from gateways, there is one more important thing to consider and that is the speed of your internet connection. Most of these gateways are gonna have no problem with internet speeds up to one gigabit per second. However, if you're lucky enough to have faster internet than that, you're gonna need to start looking at some of the more powerful gateways. What you need to do is just look at each device's product page to see the maximum throughput. It'll usually indicate a speed in gigabits with IDS IPS enabled. IDS IPS stands for intrusion detection, intrusion prevention and that's a security feature that helps protect your network from bad guys. The core of your network is always gonna consist of one gateway device and one UniFi network controller with some exceptions. I mean, some of these larger gateway devices allow for multi-device redundancy but that is a more advanced topic, typically reserved for larger businesses. While you're only gonna have a single gateway and a single instance of UniFi network, the number of wireless access points and network switches you have is gonna be scalable based on your actual needs. So if you have a really big home, for example, you may need two or three wireless access points to provide coverage everywhere. Or you may want an outdoor access point to cover the backyard. I mean, that's the coolest thing about the UniFi ecosystem. Rather than being locked into a single device that you bought at your local big box store, you can fully customize your deployment and even add to it over time as your needs change. Same goes with network switches, right? The type and quantity of network switches that you have in your network is customizable based on your needs. How many wired devices do you have? Where are they located? Are they all in one place where you can use one big network switch or are they spread out where you're gonna need multiple smaller network switches? Do you need PoE or power over ethernet to power up wireless access points or surveillance cameras? So these are all questions that you should be asking when you're figuring out what type of network switches you need for your deployment. In general though, I do have some recommendations for a standard home network environment. One of my favorite new switches is the ultra switch which comes in three flavors. You can get it PoE powered, 60 watt AC powered or 210 watt AC powered. For a home network, I would recommend the 60 watt AC powered ultra switch. For 159 bucks, it's gonna give you eight ports for wired connectivity plus power over ethernet for providing power to wireless access points or surveillance cameras. Keep in mind though that with the 60 watt version, you're limited in the number of devices you can power up but two or three devices should be no problem. A step up from there would be something like the $199 light 16 PoE switch which gives you 16 ports of wired connectivity of which eight of those ports have PoE, they can supply power to devices. Now I use one of these in my garage where it powers up two wireless access points, a point to point wireless bridge and a surveillance camera. With the UI product selector, you can filter your network switches down to how many ports you need at which port speeds and then even choose how many PoE ports you want. So if I had six wired devices and two of them needed PoE but I really wanted to keep everything under 200 bucks or so you can quickly figure out which switches are gonna work for you. One more honorable mention in the switch department is the $29 flex mini. This tiny network switch can be powered by either USB-C or power up for ethernet and it works perfectly for providing wired connectivity behind entertainment centers. You can run one PoE cable over behind your TV to power up this switch and then you can hardwire your TV, your streaming box, your gaming consoles, whatever you need. I absolutely love these things. Finally, let's move on to wireless access points. For home use or for someone who's just getting started with UniFi, I would probably avoid the newest generation Wi-Fi 7 access points. They're more expensive and very few of us have a ton of Wi-Fi 7 devices that'll actually be able to take advantage of that latest wireless technology. So in my opinion, Wi-Fi 6 is still plenty good for home users and small business deployments. Now that may be different four or five years from now but today Wi-Fi 6 is considered standard. Filtering the UI product selector down to Wi-Fi 6 devices only, we have a ton to choose from. So let's also keep the price under 150 bucks which narrows things down quite a bit. The U6 extender is a mesh device that you can plug into a remote area and wirelessly extend your network which you know, it's a nice device. I have one running here in my own home but let's filter it out even more by choosing devices powered by PoE or PoE Plus and that leaves us with the U6 Lite and the U6 Plus. In my opinion, the $129 U6 Plus is gonna be the best option here. So yeah, it's $30 more expensive than the U6 Lite but it also has a much better antenna which gets you about double the throughput. That means your devices aren't gonna be competing for wireless airtime. It's absolutely worth the extra 30 bucks. When it's in stock that is. If it's out of stock, the U6 Lite is still gonna be perfectly fine or you could spend a bit more to bump up to the U6 Pro at 159 bucks. All of those are gonna be totally fine for home use. Now my general rule of thumb when it comes to access points is that less is more. Get only the access points that you think are gonna cover your home or business which is usually one or two for most normal size homes that are made with wood framing and drywall. I mean, if you live in a brick or concrete home, good luck to you. Once you've got your one or two access points essentially installed around your home, live with those for a little while and make sure that you've got the coverage everywhere you need it. If you find that you're lacking coverage somewhere like out in your garage or in a back bedroom or something, you can always add more access points down the line. I mean, even the UniFi Express Gateway is capable of handling up to 30 UniFi devices so there's gonna be no issue expanding your network in the future. Now one honorable mention when it comes to access points is the U6 Mesh which is an outdoor access point. If you have one or two access points in your home but find that you don't get a great signal out in your backyard, I would add a U6 Mesh. I mean, it's got a really nice unobtrusive form factor and it provides excellent coverage for your wide open spaces. So in summary, here is my recommended basic UniFi setup for beginners and I'll have a link to this in the UI product selector down in the comments below. I would encourage everyone to go play with the UI product selector and even share your own builds publicly so that others can see the networks that you come up with. Starting with the Gateway, I would go with the Cloud Gateway Ultra. It's got UniFi OS with UniFi network on board, it has a small network switch for wired devices and it also allows you to customize the wireless access points that you install since you don't always want your access points to be located right where the Gateway is located. Now for switches, I would recommend the Ultra 60-watt 8-port switch or if you need more ports, bump up to the Lite 16 PoE. An honorable mention is going to be this Flex Mini that I use for wiring up all of the components behind my TV. Finally, less is more with access points. A standard size home is gonna do great with one or two of the U6 Plus model. If you need coverage outside, go for the U6 Mesh. And remember, if you don't have PoE switches, you're gonna need a PoE injector to power these up. So there's my recommendations, but what are your recommendations? I'd love to hear about it down in the comments below. Or better yet, share your builds with the UI product selector for the world to see. It's like PC part picker for UniFi network gear. And remember, if you want expert help in designing your network, picking out equipment, or configuring everything, the friendly technicians at Rogue Support are just a ticket away. That's gonna do it for this video, but if you'd like to keep this party going, I have hand selected two videos on the right here for you to watch next. The top video is my recent overview of the entire Ultra lineup of UniFi devices, including the Cloud Gateway Ultra and the Switch Ultra. And the bottom video is my complete review of UniFi Express.
