I currently run a full UniFi network and currently own and have tested every one of the devices in this article, including the UDM Pro Max, Cloud Gateway Fiber, Cloud Gateway Max, Dream Router 7, and UniFi Express 7. I even just got the UDM Beast in for testing/review, but most likely won’t add it to this list as it’s designed more for the SMB/Enterprise space. I also used pfSense on a Netgate 6100 for over three years, so I’m not coming at this from the perspective that UniFi is the only good firewall platform. It isn’t. pfSense and OPNsense are still better if you want maximum firewall custo
To keep it simple, port forwarding allows you to expose a service on your local network to external networks. A port forwarding rule creates a mapping from a device on your local network to the external world. This can be used for just about everything related to remote access. Generally, it’s best practice to access your local resources by using a VPN server like WireGuard, OpenVPN, L2TP, or even Teleport (a UniFi-specific service). This forces users to authenticate before access to the service is granted. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work (from a usage perspective), and there are times