UniFi Network 11: Wi-Fi WAN and self-updating rules

What Ubiquiti released

Ubiquiti released UniFi Network 11 on October 12, 2026. It changes how a UniFi network keeps its firewall rules current, how quickly we can see its traffic, and how it explains the threats it catches. We’ll roll it out to our clients as a software update over the coming weeks.

Firewall rules that stay up to date

Firewall rules, routing and VPN access in UniFi are built on network lists, the sets of addresses each rule applies to. Until now those lists were kept by hand, so a rule could fall out of date the day a cloud service changed its addresses. In Network 11, a list can follow an address list the service publishes online, and it updates itself.

It’s one of the changes we’re most excited about, because it’s one less thing to check on every client’s network, and one less thing that can break.

Traffic data that keeps up with larger networks

UniFi already showed the traffic for each device and how the network looked at an earlier point. Network 11 rebuilds the engine behind those views, and Ubiquiti says it scales more than 30% better, so live traffic and history stay quick on a larger network.

Those views are the first thing we open when a client calls about a slow connection, and our larger sites are where we expect to notice the difference.

Wi-Fi as an internet connection

On the Dream Router 7, Dream Router 5G Max, UniFi Express 7 and Cloud Gateway Industrial, WiFi WAN lets the network use a nearby Wi-Fi network, even a phone’s hotspot, as its main or backup internet connection.

We hope Ubiquiti finds a way to bring it to gateways without Wi-Fi, like the Pro Max we install in most offices. Every office would then have a backup connection in its pocket.

Security alerts that explain themselves

CyberSecure Enhanced now gets daily threat signature updates from Proofpoint, and each threat it detects comes with an AI-assisted explanation of its scope, risk and impact, along with a recommendation for what to do about it.

We think this adds real value. A security alert is only useful if someone can tell quickly whether it matters, and an explanation in plain words gets there faster. We haven’t seen it on a client’s network yet, and we look forward to seeing how it performs in the wild.

Icons that match the device

UniFi shows each device on the network with an icon, and it doesn’t always guess right. Network 11 lets us choose our own, from a photo taken in the UniFi app or an uploaded image. We’re glad to finally fix the devices that show the wrong icon, so a client’s network map shows what’s really there.

Matter and Thread devices

Network 11 brings Matter devices into UniFi with their pairing code, alongside any Matter controller already in place, and shows each one’s battery, firmware and signal. Thread devices now appear in the network map beside everything else, with alerts for the critical ones. That will make troubleshooting a home network much easier.

We suspect it’s an early step toward smart devices in UniFi, or toward door locks that work directly from the platform. We’ll write more when Ubiquiti says more.

Also in this release

Network 11 also adds room for more VLANs, and failover and application routing policies that apply across several sites. Few of our clients will need them, but we’re glad to see them added.