Mikrotik routerboards

[UtwigMU]

Currently I'm playing with two Mikrotik Routerboards and they are awesome.

http://routerboard.com/RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN

For example the RB2011 costs 120 EUR with VAT and you get 5 Gb ports, 5 100Mb ports and Atheros AR93000 wireless, 600MHz MIPS CPU, 128MB of memory and 128MB flash. This is slightly above price of good home router but you get enterprise class features and unlimited config possibilities.

The routeros is based on Linux and you can either configure it through terminal or through Windows program called winbox. The beauty of it is that you can configure it anyway you want, you can make bridges, routes, firewall rules, DHCP server, DHCP client, PPPOE client, PPPOE server, SSTP client, L2TP client, you can put anything on any port. The 6.0 RC11 even has CA so you can create self signed certs for OpenVPN. Pretty much what you can do in Linux, you can do on this thing.

Downside is that Winbox sometimes creates buggy configs so you have to do lots of things in terminal but it's awesome otherwise.

I'm setting one up with OpenVPN + standard SOHO setup and another will have dual PPPOe clients for redundancy from dual ISPs.

I have been configuring another older model at some site and while WRT54GL got only 20-30Mbps download the Mikrotik pulled 100Mbps through torrent on 100Mb fiber line.


The plus side is that I've learned much more about networking while configuring them.

[VJ]

I think they are the ones running Vyatta. I played with it a while in a virtual machine and the Vyatta is not bad. I did not expect the routerboxes to be that competitive with regular routers though... interesting! Is there no web interface for configuring?

[UtwigMU]

I think they are the ones running Vyatta. I played with it a while in a virtual machine and the Vyatta is not bad. I did not expect the routerboxes to be that competitive with regular routers though... interesting! Is there no web interface for configuring?

There is, I can show you one. The problem is if you use wizard to create soho setup it creates another bridge, DHCP server and adds new routes. You need to purge them a bit manually or in config.

You can use terminal in winbox and then see results instantly in menus - say add port forwarding rule, it will instantly appear in table IP Firewall NAT.


They are competitive because for 100 Euros you get features which you would pay an order of magnitude more with professional router.

[VJ]

I notice they have renamed their OS: RouterOS, SWOS, ... Does it mean they moved away from Vyatta?

[UtwigMU]

I notice they have renamed their OS: RouterOS, SWOS, ... Does it mean they moved away from Vyatta?

RouterOS is Mikrotik OS, they have their own releases and debugs, etc... The differences are what is in and what is thrown out. Generally it supports everything hardware would and router comes with it's own OS which is supported for that model. You can also download it standalone and put it on x86 box. If you like I can sometime set you a VPN and put mikrotik router on internal lan to play with for a day or so. You manage it with Winbox which is single executable you download and run.

The thing is you can separately buy case + PSU, motherboard with CPU and LAN ports, separate wireless adapter and separate OS or you can buy one of bundles. Presnetly RB 2011 is best value as half a year ago or so a popular bundle with less ports would cost like 200-300 EUR.


While we're at it, friend is looking for a customer to have Polish IP address - would you know something about it.

[VJ]

But in general, the fact that they use more of a custom OS (that runs on x86 platform), does it offer much more functionality than other routers?

While we're at it, friend is looking for a customer to have Polish IP address - would you know something about it.

Not sure I understand your question...

[UtwigMU]

But in general, the fact that they use more of a custom OS (that runs on x86 platform), does it offer much more functionality than other routers?


Not sure I understand your question...

Functionality is great: for wireless you have like 50 configurable option. You can have CA, OpenVPN, PPTP VPN, VLANs, multiple virtual Access points, you can bridge any port you can have multiple PPPOe clients, DHCP clients and servers...

The learning curve is a bit steep though if you're not familiar with Linux routing

If you want to test it you can also download router OS and install it on some box. Or get a demo unit from distributor.


Question was: Do you know a person or IT company in Poland which would provide VPN so that if you're online in Slovenia you look like you're physically in Poland to Polish web sites (Polish external IP).

[UtwigMU]

Here is a screenshot of Winbox (windows software for managing Mikrotik. You have a terminal there and you can also use SSH.

[VJ]

Question was: Do you know a person or IT company in Poland which would provide VPN so that if you're online in Slovenia you look like you're physically in Poland to Polish web sites (Polish external IP).

I have no idea about this. A quick google on "Poland VPN" lists a number of companies that offer such services, but I have no idea if they are good or not.

Here is a screenshot of Winbox (windows software for managing Mikrotik. You have a terminal there and you can also use SSH.

Looks impressive!
(mask out your mac addresses or remove the image!)

[VJ]

I looked a bit more into the Mikrotik things. They can also act as VPN server, yes?

It looks like an interesting candidate for a router for me, although I don't need that many ports (I have a gigabit switch). But still looking at this offer and their other offerings.

[UtwigMU]

I looked a bit more into the Mikrotik things. They can also act as VPN server, yes?

It looks like an interesting candidate for a router for me, although I don't need that many ports (I have a gigabit switch). But still looking at this offer and their other offerings.

I set up PPTP VPN on that one, OpenVPN gave me a bit of problems with certificate chain but connection worked.

[VJ]

I'm more and more looking at the same model (looking at RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN or RB751G-2HnD).
Near my desk I have 4 UTP connections, and 2 more on the other side of the room.

My initial idea was to put the router close to the modem and the switch, not to have it take up space somewhere else (location in a cabinet in the corridor, in which case I would not need many ports on the router). Benefit is that it is more central in the apartment (good for the wifi).
Alternatively, I could put it near my desk: modem in the corridor, use one cable for uplink to router, use a second one for link to switch in the corridor, and I would have 2 available ports + all the ones on the router available near my desk. Benefit is possibly more ports near my desk (but not sure I would need them), downside is that the wifi would be not central in the apartment (for sure I would not have reception everywhere), and that I have to find a space for the router.

So more leaning towards the RB751G-2HnD, and putting it in the cabinet with near the modem. If I would not have the switch, I would for sure go for the other one: so many ports on a router is perfect, but now I have almost as many ports on the switch as I have connections at home...

One question though: which is the WAN port? Because all ports are labelled equally...

edit: actually, the RB951-2n or the RB751U-2HnD would be sufficient: I have no real need for gigabit ports if it just connects to the modem and the switch (internet connection is 6 Mbit), switch is gigabit. I think it might be a while before that one will be over 100 Mbit, but somehow it is more futureproof to have gigabit links... On the other hand, the RB951-2n states a maximum power consumption of 3W... that is ridiculously low... and interesting for an alltime-on device, and it is dead cheap.

[UtwigMU]

downside is that the wifi would be not central in the apartment (for sure I would not have reception everywhere), and that I have to find a space for the router.

Unless your flat is like 7 rooms you should have signal everywhere. Certainly no problem for about 15m through walls

One question though: which is the WAN port? Because all ports are labelled equally...

You can make any port whatever you like. By default LAN1 gigabit port is WAN but since the location had ADSL, I put PPPOE client on LAN10 (100Mb) and bridged all other LAN ports and WiFi.

On the other location I plan to have dual WAN from two providers.

Check pricing as some thingies with 3 ports cost like 300 EUR and the RB2011 costs like 120 EUR.

[VJ]

Unless your flat is like 7 rooms you should have signal everywhere. Certainly no problem for about 15m through walls

Well... it is an old communist building, with 30 cm thick walls, concrete mixed with granite (called in polish żelbet, reinforced concrete) with multiple steel nets inside. 2 walls are enough to kill my wifi signal. The outer wall is even worse, so in the point the furthest of exterior walls, I even lose mobile phone signal. This is also why I had it fully wired, so wifi access is less important and only used for mobile devices. The one that needs most bandwidth would then be Skype on iPad.

edit: I have a lanport more central in the apartment, so I would not worry too much about wifi for the router; a cheap router + wifi access point combo might be better than an expensive router (from a positioning point of view).

You can make any port whatever you like. By default LAN1 gigabit port is WAN but since the location had ADSL, I put PPPOE client on LAN10 (100Mb) and bridged all other LAN ports and WiFi.

Interesting! It might be a bit of a challenge to configure, but the demo on their website is nice to browse in the interface.

Check pricing as some thingies with 3 ports cost like 300 EUR and the RB2011 costs like 120 EUR.

Yes. Their 5 port models are really cheap also, about 1/3 of the RB2011.
If I would go for the RB2011, I would install it where the computer is (more ports could be useful there), with another model I would install it hidden where the modem is. So not fully decided yet...