In the end, I saw average speeds of 228Mbps throughout the place, which is better than Nest Wifi, Eero and most of the other Wi-Fi 5 routers I've tested, mesh or otherwise. I run a live video stream during these tests to simulate typical usage - remember, the idea here isn't to see how fast these routers can possibly go, but rather, how well they perform in a realistic usage scenario. So, I lugged the Alien home with me for a weekend and ran an abundance of speed tests at various distances throughout my smallish, 1,300-square-foot house in Louisville, Kentucky, where I have an incoming fiber internet connection of 300Mbps. Lab-based top-speed tests are all well and good, but we make sure to take a good look at how these things perform in a typical home environment, too. The Alien wasn't as fast or as impressive as the Netgear Orbi 6 when I tested it in my home, where speeds are capped at 300Mbps. AmpliFi says that it doesn't collect the content of any communications sent via Teleport, which offers me some reassurance, but I agree with Rae that other dedicated VPNs like Nord and Express that don't collect usage data at all are probably the better choice for anyone who plans to make regular use of the feature. She didn't like the idea of connecting via your Facebook or Google account given that Teleport tracks certain bits of usage data, which is a fair point of consideration. I ran that pitch by Rae Hodge, an authority on VPNs here at CNET. Enter the code, and AmpliFi will use Wireguard to encrypt that device's traffic and route it through the cloud back home to your Alien. You'll request a five-digit code and specify how long you want access to your home network, then you'll open the separate Teleport app on the iOS, Android, or Android TV device that you re trying to connect. To use it, you'll need to log into the AmpliFi app with an Ubiquiti account, or with your Facebook or Google account. The other feature of note is the aforementioned AmpliFi Teleport VPN service. The fine print on AmpliFi's Teleport VPN makes it clear that some usage data is collected. The rub is that you won't have access to Wi-Fi 6 on the 5GHz band. If you give that band its own unique SSID, then connect your network devices to the SSID encompassing the other two bands, you'll have a dedicated Wi-Fi 6 backhaul that keeps the system's relay transmissions separate from your normal network traffic. That gives you some nice control over how you use the Alien in your home, but the lack of two distinct Wi-Fi 6 bands means that your options all come with compromises.įor instance, the system is designed to send its backhaul transmissions between the router and satellite on the faster, Wi-Fi 6 5GHz band. By default, the AmpliFi Alien combines its three bands - a 2.4 and 5GHz band that each support Wi-Fi 6, and a second 5GHz band that supports Wi-Fi 5 - into a single network, but you can split any of those bands off as a separate network with its own SSID as you so choose. Screenshots by Ry Crist/CNET Flexible connectionsīefore I get to the speed test data, a few words about Ubiquiti's approach here. You'll find plenty of control over how your network operates in the AmpliFi app, as well as the option of generating a code that lets you route your web traffic back to your home network whenever you're traveling.

Ubiquiti mesh router