Well this is a first reactions post to the my new Unifi Security Gateway I got. From what I read it sounded like it would be hard to setup. It really was not that hard. I plugged it in between my home network and the Modem, from what I read it is setup on the 192.168.1.0/24 network. While all my computers are on the 192.168.42.0/24 network it would not be reachable on my home network, but what I did on my main Linux laptop I issued the command “ifconfig eth0:0 192.168.1.10” this created a virtual network device and placed it on the 192.168.1.0/24 network (for the LAN side). From there I was able to gain access to the Gateway, and set things up, how I wanted it. Put it on the 192.168.42.0/24 network. Turn off the DHCP server on it. Then I setup my Verizon Modem back to the old (default) 192.168.1.0/24 network. Went into the Security gateway and set it WAN to 192.168.1.2 with the WAN gateway to 192.168.1.1 (the Verizon Modem) Everything then just worked, then I installed the Unified Software control software on a Rasberry Pi, then went to the Pi’s address on port 8443, Adapted it and it then preventioned it. After that I was able to setup all the other things I wanted. On the Verizon Modem I forward the SSH port and the OpenVPN port to the Security Gateway, then on the Security Gateway port forwarded that on to the correct computers. Then using my T-Mobile Hotspot, I connected one of my computers to that (so I was on an outside network) and tested to see if I could SSH in and also use the OpenVPN to get in, both worked the way I expected it.
Yes this is more work then most people would do, and most people would just accept the default settings of a consumer router, well they would not get one, as they probably would use the all in one solution their ISP gives them, but for me the one Verizon provided was not going to be enough for me. Yes in the past I made it work, but when they changed out the modem on me, it was a pain to set things back up to how I wanted them to be. This way (as I said before) my home network is now 100% decoupled from the modem that the ISP provides, and I can swap out the modem very easily.
I will probably report back later on the device. But I also like that it will keep statistics of traffic on the network something the Verizon modem never did for me, I would like to know how much traffic I really use a month on average.
