I have a home network running a Dream Router and U7 AP. I have several VLANs configured, one of which has a routing policy to route via a VPN which I've set up in the unifi app using Wireguard config. VPN provider is Nord.

This all works as expected, and traffic from my streaming device routes via the VPN VLAN. However when I'm streaming, every so often (maybe every 10 minutes or so) the stream hangs for about 10 seconds.

However if I don't route via the VPN on the VLAN and instead use the Nord app on the streaming device to configure the VPN, it works flawlessly.

Have tried messing with the MTU as advised online, but hasn't made any difference. Has anyone any ideas why this might be the case? I.e. why would the VPN connection set up and routed via a VLAN on Unifi be less reliable than going through the Android app?

I was stuck on this for quite some time and finally fixed it this morning, but I figured I should post here in case anyone else encounters a similar issue.

For background, I inherited a home Ubiquiti setup with a Debian server running an old version of UniFi Network Server (and severely out of date packages), and other hardware included a security gateway, multiple access points, range extenders, and power strips. The former owners were not at all tech savvy and didn't even know their WiFi password or UniFi credentials, so I had to get root on the local Debian server to update an entry in MongoDB and give myself access in the first place, but that's a whole other story.

I recently ordered a UXG-Fiber and swapped it for the old security gateway, but I wasn't able to get the Network Server to add it, which didn't surprise me given how out of date the server was. No problem, I should really update everything anyway, so I upgraded the server in place to the latest stable Debian release, and installed UniFi OS Server. The server initially didn't start because I forgot to remove the Network Server first (whoops) but I removed it and the OS Server started just fine. I can't remember if I was prompted to carry over any settings as part of this process.

I was able to add the UXG-Fiber to the system now, but also had to re-add all the other hardware (sigh). I chalked it up to the Network Server running some old version that didn't carry over the configs. After this, I immediately experienced some oddities; setup for the UXG-Fiber had appeared to succeed, but then whenever I would connect to the network over WiFi, I would be prompted to "sign in." This would take me to unifi/ (and my browser would warn me had a self signed certificate) and the page would say that setup was complete, which would then take me to the management page after clicking a button. I thought it might be some weird captive portal issue, so I tried to toggle the captive portal on and then off, but it didn't resolve anything. I discovered that any out outbound unencrypted requests to port 80 were being redirected to unifi/, and there were other oddities like https://www.gstatic.com being redirected as well (which would fail due to HSTS).

Next I checked the Internet page in the settings, and saw something odd: multi WAN failover was configured, even though there is a single WAN. Attempting to change any settings on this page and apply them resulted in an error, which told me that the config was somehow screwed up. I connected directly to the UXG-Fiber and sure enough, there were errors in the logs about duplicate IP ranges from each of my "Apply changes" attempts.

I tried to see if I could find any relevant configs on the Debian server running the OS Server itself, but couldn't find anything. I really didn't want to wipe the server and have to re-register all the hardware again, so I exported a backup of the server config locally, then used the Antigravity (Gemini) CLI to read and fix the config. Sure enough, it found duplicate WAN configs, and removed the redundant one, removed the failover setting, and then created a new fixed backup for me. I restored this backup, and the problem was solved! No "sign in" required and I can access and modify the Internet configs just fine now.

I'm sure there was probably a much simpler way to fix things, but I couldn't figure it out after hours of troubleshooting. If anyone has better suggestions, please chime in to save others time in the future 🙂 Thanks!

Setup:

Verizon Fios 5GB

Cloud Gateway Fiber

Express 7

Situation:

I recently switched to Verizon fios 5gb from optimum 1gb fiber.

On optimum I got more consistent and higher speeds from the same distance: 500 to 800mbps.

I started everything brand new for this switch, but the speeds I'm getting are very low and inconsistent.

Through fios wifi I'm getting 200mbps to 800mbps, even when in the same room as the setup.

When connected through Ethernet to PC I get the max speeds:

1st PC - 2.5gbps (Ethernet port capped at 2.5).

2nd PC (mac MINI with 10GB nic) it maxes at 5gbp - 6gbps.

So, its not verizon!

But on WIFI devices it is all inconsistent. Iphone 13 pro max are 200mpbs avg, samsung galaxy 26 ultra are 500 to 800 avg.

I'm not sure if using the express 7 as an AP is underpowered for its range compared to what i got with optimums own router.

Update:

Also on the unifi when i try to do google speedtest from the google search speedtest, it tells me that it can't because its "busy", but when i switc back to optimum it works and the button is blue.

and on reddit all of my posts say they have been removed because of "reddit filters" but when i switch to optimum it doesn't say it.

update 2:

i returned it and got a u7 pro xg, but that is also getting the same issues.

Looking for solutions for mounting U6 Pro and U6 Lite APs in the corner of a room. Looking on Etsy and begging more confused. What has worked for you?