🛒
You may have noticed that I’m not a fan of using VPNs unnecessarily as a way to be “secure” or “private” online, even when you’re at home.
However, when used for its factual purposes, a VPN connection offers undeniable benefits. For example, when you’re traveling (such as during summer vacations), it can be instrumental in accessing services available only at home, or in ensuring that you’re shielded when getting online via random Wi-Fi networks on the road.
And that’s where “Teleport” comes into play. It’s a free VPN feature available to the owner of any UniFi router (console) from Ubiquiti. It’s similar, though much more advanced and better than Asus’s Instant Guard. At the very least, it’s not limited to mobile users.
So, if you’ve recently moved to the UniFi ecosystem, you’re in for a pleasant surprise! You can even share Teleport access with friends and family via simple invitations.
With that, let’s dig in!
Ubiquiti Teleport: Proprietary but super-easy to use
Teleport was first available with Ubiquiti’s AmpliFi product line, which was released almost a decade ago and initially supported only mobile devices. It was pretty clunky at first.
Tip
UniFi and AmpliFi are two networking product lines from Ubiquiti. They have entirely different architectures and initially serve two separate user demographics.
The UniFi family—represented by UniFi Cloud Gateways—was initially designed for business, professional, and enterprise users. Its comprehensive consoles or controllers act as the central host of various products, of which networking is only part of the picture.
On the other hand, the AmpliFi family, represented by the Wi-Fi 5 HD Wi-Fi system, first launched in August 2017, and then the Wi-Fi 6 Alien, is explicitly made for the home environment. These simple mesh-ready app-operated Wi-Fi routers are easy to use but have a limited feature set.
In 2019, the UniFi Dream Machine (UDM) was the first UniFi console that also functioned well as a home router, thanks to its user-friendly design and straightforward setup process. Following that, the UDR and subsequent compact UniFi consoles further bridged the gap, making UniFi hardware increasingly suitable for the home.
It appears that Ubiquiti will eventually phase out AmpliFi and focus on UniFi as its primary platform.
Over the years, the feature has undergone significant changes and is now integrated into the company’s Network application, which is a portion of the ecosystem that makes a UniFi console a “router”, starting with version 7.4.156. It’s worth noting that each UniFi router can simultaneously run multiple standard VPN protocols. Teleport is a separate and proprietary option in addition to them.
Generally, a UniFi router is referred to as a “console” or “Cloud Gateway” because it can generally run more than the Network application. For this post, we’ll refer to the hardware as either a “router” or a “console” interchangeably to mean the same thing.
Ubiquiti Teleport: You’re the owner of your VPN
There are a few key points to consider when hosting Teleport. The first is that this feature is part of the “added” benefits from Ubiquiti for those who are willing to tie their UniFi console to a vendor-connected account.
Ubiquiti and your privacy
Generally, Ubiquiti insists on a vendor-connected login account during the initial hardware setup process. However, that’s not a requirement, and logging in with a vendor translates to privacy risks.
UI account and UniFi gateways
Here’s the link to the US networking company’s privacy policy.
Online privacy and security are a matter of degree. Different companies handle their users’ data differently.
The second thing to note is that Uniquiti is not a VPN service provider.
When you use a VPN connection, the traffic travels between the VPN host (server) and your client. In the case of Teleport, the VPN traffic travels between your device and the UniFi console, which hosts the VPN server, rather than Ubiquiti.
As a result, two things keep in mind:
- Unlike when you use a third-party VPN service, you don’t need to worry about your information being scanned, collected, or monitored by Uniquiti when using Teleport. The UI account only enables Teleport as a zero-configuration VPN option.
- The performance of a Teleport VPN connection depends on the Internet speed (and quality) at the location of the UniFi console.
Steps to enable Teleport on a UniFi console
To make a UniFi router host a Teleport VPN, you must enable this feature. Here’s the step to do that:
- Log in to the console’s web interface
- Navigate to Settings (the cogwheel) -> VPN -> Teleport. At this point, if you haven’t tied your UniFi console with a UI account, you’ll be asked to do that first.
- Check the box to enable the feature and apply the changes. Teleport is now available to the owner and admin users of the UniFi console.
- Optional: Click on “Generate New Guest Invite” and copy the Invitation link, which is valid for 24 hours. You can email this link to your friend whom you want to share the VPN with. One invite per person.
And that’s it. Your UniFi console is now ready to host multiple VPN connections via Teleport. How many exactly?
How many VPN connections can Teleport handle simultaneously?
That depends mainly on the Internet connection at the console itself.
Generally, you need to allocate approximately 50 Mbps of upload speed for each connection. Therefore, if you have a Gigabit connection, you can mathematically host up to 20 VPN devices simultaneously. Keep in mind, though, that the console doesn’t host just VPN connections—you also need Internet for other devices within the local network.
That said, it’s generally safe to use a few devices simultaneously for a sub-Gigabit broadband connection, or perhaps a dozen for a Gigabit or faster connection. However, your Internet experience at your local network will suffer if you use too many VPN devices and a modest broadband plan.
With that, let’s proceed with using Teleport on the client.
Teleport on a client: It’s all about the WiFiman app
On a device, Teleport VPN is handled via the WiFiman application, which can do much more than just being a VPN client. For example, it’s a great app for checking Wi-Fi signal strength or testing the speed of a connection. In this post, however, we’ll only discuss WiFiman’s Teleport VPN function.
You don’t need a UI account to use WiFiman, even as a Teleport VPN client. However, an account can make things a bit more convenient.
With that, here are the steps to enable Teleport on a device:
- Download and install WiFiman on your device. For desktop, here’s the download page for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Android and iOS users can download the app from the platforms’ respective app stores. The app’s interface is consistent regardless of the platform you use.
- Run the app (and log in with your UI account if you have one), then pick the Teleport tab on the app’s interface. Now there are two scenarios:
- If you’re the owner or the administrator of the UniFi console that hosts the VPN, everything is ready the moment you log in with the UI account tied to the console.
- If not, enter the link of the Teleport Invitation Link mentioned above. This is the case whether you have logged in with a UI account or not.
- Proceed to turn on the VPN connection. After a few seconds, Teleport will be in effect. You can disconnect or turn it off at any time when the VPN connection is not needed.
And that’s it. Your device is now connected securely to the UniFi router. It’ll appear as though it was at the location of the host.
The takeaway
Teleport is an excellent way to have a secure VPN connection. It’s simple to use and work even when you don’t have a perfect Internet setup at home, such as when you have to deal with a double NAT.
That said, if you have a legitimate need for VPN while on the go, consider a UniFi console today. The list below will help you choose the one that best fits your needs.
Top 5 Best UniFi Gateways to Build an Advanced Network
 |  |  |  |  | |
| Name | Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway Fiber (UCG-Fiber)’s Rating | Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Max (UCG-Max)’s Rating | Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Router 7 (UDR7)’s Rating | Ubiquiti UniFi Express 7 (UX7)’s Rating | Ubiquiti UDM Pro Max’s Rating |
| Price | – | – | – | – | – |
| Rating | |||||
| Description | |||||
| Statistics | |||||
| Buy this product |
So a UI acct is mandatory to enable Teleport?
The scenario you give about the client device user being the console admin doesn’t make sense. How does Wifiman (not using a UI acct) know who you are and that you even have a console with Teleport enabled out there somewhere in the world?
Read the post, Justin.
I am worried about having to move from my Amplifi Teleport VPN to Ubiquity’s version as Amplifi goes away. Currently, Amplifi’s Teleport feature includes router-to-router VPN connectivity: any device that connects to the remote router can be Teleported to the router that’s back home. With the Ubiquity version, that appears not to be true (at least not yet). The Ubiquity version of Teleport seems limited to certain types of devices, and my Fire Stick doesn’t appear to be one of them. Can you confirm that this is a valid concern, Dong?
UniFi has site-to-site connection that’s much better than Teleport’s router-to-router, Eric. So your concern is right if you want to use Teleport with UniFi the same way you’ve been using it with AmpliFi, which is much less robust. The point is UiFi has everything AmpliFi has plus much more in terms of functionality, except the interface and your past experience. The two are different.
Hey Dong!
Thanks for all the articles lately on Ubiquiti hardware. We just moved into a new place and I find the system pretty compelling and affordable, especially compared to what others like Asus and Netgear are offering for the home market.
How does Teleport compare to options like NordVPN’s mesh? I’ve used it with varying degrees of success, but it largely relies on connecting directly to a client. So if I wanted to access my server, I’d have to have the NordVPN client running on it constantly. Would Teleport allow me to have access to the whole network without all the hassle?
Thanks!
That depends on what you mean by “whole network” and “hassle”, Tosan. However, with UniFi you manage your own VPN, Uniquiti is not a VPN provider.
I wonder if those of us who prefer not to sign up for a UI account could remotely connect to the gateway/console (eg: to view camera footage) via Teleport. Any thoughts, Dong?
Yes, I did it exactly for that. It makes life much easier. If you look into Ubiquiti, it’s not a big data company in terms of gathering and selling user data for profit. But it’s always your call.