Network Optimizer: UniFi network optimization tool

Understanding Network Optimizer for UniFi

Network Optimizer is a self-hosted C# application that connects to your UniFi controller and layers monitoring, Wi-Fi optimization, and security auditing on top of it. It polls SNMP, the UniFi API, and attached hardware like cable modems and Starlink dishes, storing history in InfluxDB so you see trends, not just a snapshot. It ships as a Docker container or a Windows installer.

Comprehensive Network Monitoring and Optimization

• ✓Wi-Fi Optimizer & Signal Map — twelve analysis tabs covering site health scoring, roaming, band steering, and airtime fairness, plus a Channel Recommendation engine that models AP interference from live RF scans and picks the lowest-interference channel per AP.
• ✓Security Auditing — runs 83 checks across five categories (firewall, VLAN, DNS, port, UPnP) and scores your network 0-100, catching things like firewall rules that shadow each other or DNS bypass routes UniFi doesn't flag.
• ✓ISP Health — grades your Access Layer, ISP network, and Transit hops in equal thirds over a trailing 48-hour window, with thresholds tuned to your access technology (DOCSIS, GPON, XGS-PON, Starlink, and more).
• ✓Access Network Monitoring — polls cable modems, fiber ONTs, and cellular modems directly for signal-level stats (SNR, FEC errors, RSRP/RSRQ) instead of making you log into each device's admin page.
• ✓Threat Intelligence — parses your UniFi gateway's IPS events for attack sequences and cross-references port forwards against exposure, with CrowdSec CTI adding reputation scoring and MITRE ATT&CK tags.
• ✓WAN Steering — routes by source, destination, port, or protocol across multiple WANs, something UniFi's own Policy-Based Routes can't do since they only match destination IP or domain.
• ✓Alerts & Scheduling — scheduled speed tests and security audits with configurable severity thresholds, delivered to email, Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or a generic webhook.

Practical Applications and Scenarios

• •Homelabbers who've set up VLANs and firewall rules but have no way to confirm they're actually working can run the 83-check audit and get a 0-100 score with specific fixes.
• •MSPs or anyone with a handful of remote sites can onboard each one through the on-site agent's outbound HTTPS tunnel, so nothing needs a port-forward or a public IP behind CGNAT.
• •Anyone chasing bufferbloat on a UniFi gateway can let ISP Health flag loaded-latency problems and get pointed at Smart Queues or Adaptive SQM instead of guessing at SQM settings.
• •Starlink users can watch the dish's own obstruction sky map and packet loss instead of relying on WAN-level numbers that don't explain why performance dips.
• •Households arguing with their ISP about a bad connection can pull the ISP Health breakdown — Access Layer vs. ISP network vs. Transit — to show exactly where the problem sits.

Setting Up Network Optimizer

The README points readers to a Quick Start section for Linux/Docker and a separate Deployment Guide at docker/DEPLOYMENT.md, plus a Windows MSI installer that can optionally turn on the bundled Traefik reverse proxy during setup. The exact Docker Compose commands aren't in what we pulled from the repo, so treat the step-by-step install as not clearly documented here — check the linked Deployment Guide and Quick Start section directly before you start.

Comparing with Other Network Tools

Common Questions About Network Optimizer

The problem it solves

UniFi's controller lets you build VLANs, write firewall rules, and point clients at your own DNS, but it never checks its own work. It won't tell you if a firewall rule you added last year quietly cancels out the one before it, whether your IoT VLAN is actually isolated, or whether a device is bypassing your DNS settings and phoning home directly. Network Optimizer exists to answer exactly those questions by reading your UniFi configuration and grading what it finds instead of just displaying it back to you.

Who should try it — and who should skip

Try Network Optimizer if you already run a UniFi controller, at home or in a small business, and want a security score plus Wi-Fi channel recommendations without hand-auditing firewall rules yourself, or if you're managing more than one UniFi site and want them in one dashboard through the on-site agent. Skip it if you don't have UniFi hardware at all — most of the value sits on top of a UniFi controller — or if you specifically want a fully managed, hosted product right now, since that tier is still listed as coming soon rather than shipping.

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