Rack-mountable Router

[Dautin]

Hello,

 

I'm searching for a rack mountable router that is fairly cheap, under $200.

It doesn't have to be gigabit, just at the very least 100mb.

 

Any Suggestions?   

 

Thanks in advanced.

[dom1310df]

Hello,

 

I'm searching for a rack mountable router that is fairly cheap, under $200.

It doesn't have to be gigabit, just at the very least 100mb.

 

Any Suggestions?   

 

Thanks in advanced.

May I ask why? Would a normal router on a rackmount shelf be sufficient?

[MariusJS]

Wait, what? lol

 

 

Anyways: http://routerboard.com/RB2011UiAS-RM

[Dautin]

Wait, what? lol

 

 

Anyways: http://routerboard.com/RB2011UiAS-RM

 

I'm going to assume you can install Pfsense on this?

[dzonidev]

I'm going to assume you can install Pfsense on this?

 

Wrong assumption, it comes pre-installed and licensed with RouterOS. Considering this you might want to read up on Mikrotik's documentation before you buy. These devices are great for home and small business use. They are a little slow with VPNs and PBR but nothing tragic.

 

This switch is an all in one: http://routerboard.com/CRS125-24G-1S-RM

 

It can do everything a router can, but it has 24 ports.

[Dautin]

Wrong assumption, it comes pre-installed and licensed with RouterOS. Considering this you might want to read up on Mikrotik's documentation before you buy. These devices are great for home and small business use. They are a little slow with VPNs and PBR but nothing tragic.

 

This switch is an all in one: http://routerboard.com/CRS125-24G-1S-RM

 

It can do everything a router can, but it has 24 ports.

 

Already have a switch, but thanks.

[MariusJS]

Already have a switch, but thanks.

What he meant by what he said is that it is basically a router...

[Dautin]

What he meant by what he said is that it is basically a router...

 

I know, but if I already have a switch it's not worth buying a router like that for 80 bucks more if I don't need the ports.

[MariusJS]

I know, but if I already have a switch it's not worth buying a router like that for 80 bucks more if I don't need the ports.

True

[tt2468]

Mikrotik I would say has some problems. I use the ubiquity edgerouter series as my main router for home, and my datacenter rack. The edgerouter lite is a 99 dollar metal router with 512 mb ram and a dual core CPU. Much better than mikrotik can offer. It has nearly seamless firmware.(you will have to update it when you get the router at first.) It isn't rack-mountable, but people make cheap brackets for it. It is also gigabit with hardware packet routing

[Dautin]

Mikrotik I would say has some problems. I use the ubiquity edgerouter series as my main router for home, and my datacenter rack. The edgerouter lite is a 99 dollar metal router with 512 mb ram and a dual core CPU. Much better than mikrotik can offer. It has nearly seamless firmware.(you will have to update it when you get the router at first.) It isn't rack-mountable, but people make cheap brackets for it. It is also gigabit with hardware packet routing

 

Is that device able to load-balance?  How is the web interface and how well does it integrate with Ubiquity APs?

 

Thanks

[brwainer]

Mikrotik I would say has some problems. I use the ubiquity edgerouter series as my main router for home, and my datacenter rack. The edgerouter lite is a 99 dollar metal router with 512 mb ram and a dual core CPU. Much better than mikrotik can offer. It has nearly seamless firmware.(you will have to update it when you get the router at first.) It isn't rack-mountable, but people make cheap brackets for it. It is also gigabit with hardware packet routing

 

Since we've apparently gone away from being rackmountable, what about the Ubiquiti ER-X at $49?

 

And by the way, I will concede that the EdgeRouter Lite has better hardware than Mikrotik's competing product at the $99 level, the RB2011iL-RM, but for a WAN connection (even on a gigabit plan) the RB2011iL-RM would suffice for speed. And although I have not checked feature for feature, from what I've seen Mikrotik routers are much more capable on the software side - you can make any Mikrotik device with RouterOS do almost anything.

 

And OP - hte RB2011iL-RM is rackmountable. It's the cheapest good rackmountable router you will find. (I am not saying that Ubiquiti routers aren't good... but they don't come ready for a rack out of the box).

[brwainer]

I'm going to assume you can install Pfsense on this?

No, you can't install pfsense onto Mikrotik routers. But RouterOS can match every feature of pfsense and is designed specifically for Mikrotik hardware (it's also available for use on x86 devices, but that's where pfsense is a better option).

[MariusJS]

Afaik the Edgerouters can't do load balancing either, the Mikrotik boxes can do that

[Dautin]

Since we've apparently gone away from being rackmountable, what about the Ubiquiti ER-X at $49?

 

And by the way, I will concede that the EdgeRouter Lite has better hardware than Mikrotik's competing product at the $99 level, the RB2011iL-RM, but for a WAN connection (even on a gigabit plan) the RB2011iL-RM would suffice for speed. And although I have not checked feature for feature, from what I've seen Mikrotik routers are much more capable on the software side - you can make any Mikrotik device with RouterOS do almost anything.

 

And OP - hte RB2011iL-RM is rackmountable. It's the cheapest good rackmountable router you will find. (I am not saying that Ubiquiti routers aren't good... but they don't come ready for a rack out of the box).

 

 

No, you can't install pfsense onto Mikrotik routers. But RouterOS can match every feature of pfsense and is designed specifically for Mikrotik hardware (it's also available for use on x86 devices, but that's where pfsense is a better option).

 

 

Afaik the Edgerouters can't do load balancing either, the Mikrotik boxes can do that

 

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I will be purchasing two Ubiquity AC Pro Access Points in the future.  

 

I think I'm going to go with the Mikrotik Router because it sounds more future proof and has a lot of the features that I'm looking for and it comes at a great price.

 

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.  

[tt2468]

Afaik the Edgerouters can't do load balancing either, the Mikrotik boxes can do that

The edgerouter can do load balancing just fine. Have you ever actually tried it?

[MariusJS]

The edgerouter can do load balancing just fine. Have you ever actually tried it?

Welp, sry (could have googled that)

 

I've tried the edgerouter, but I have never had the need for double WAN lines, so I have never had the need for load balancing...

 

Anyways he did want a rack mountable one, so ghettorigging some rackmounts doesn't rly seem like what he wants

[Dautin]

Wlp, sry (could have googled that)

 

I've tried the edgerouter, but I have never had the need for double WAN lines, so I have never had the need for load balancing...

 

Anyways he did want a rack mountable one, so ghettorigging some rackmounts doesn't rly seem like what he wants

 

 

The edgerouter can do load balancing just fine. Have you ever actually tried it?

 

If I end up getting the Edgerouter, I'll mount it to the wall so it's more organized.  I'll probably end up going with the Mikrotik one, though.  I also like that it has a fail over USB port.

[brwainer]

Fail over USB port? I've never heard of that being called failover. It's present for attaching a USB LTE modem if desired, or a hard drive to act as a NAS or to enable caching of internet data. I think you can also connect your computer to that port to get a console connection, but don't quote me on that.

Edit: It occurred to me just now that you probably mean that you can add an LTE modem to the USB port and then you have an internet failover - yes this works but you do have to check the wiki on good LTE modems to use as they have to be linux compatible.

[MariusJS]

Fail over USB port? I've never heard of that being called failover. It's present for attaching a USB LTE modem if desired, or a hard drive to act as a NAS or to enable caching of internet data. I think you can also connect your computer to that port to get a console connection, but don't quote me on that.

That is what he means...

 

If his internet goes down he can use the usb port as a failover with 3G/4G

[brwainer]

That is what he means...

If his internet goes down he can use the usb port as a failover with 3G/4G

Yep I realized that while you were typing your response (or at least before I read your response)

[Dautin]

Yep I realized that while you were typing your response (or at least before I read your response)

 

 

That is what he means...

 

If his internet goes down he can use the usb port as a failover with 3G/4G

 

 

Fail over USB port? I've never heard of that being called failover. It's present for attaching a USB LTE modem if desired, or a hard drive to act as a NAS or to enable caching of internet data. I think you can also connect your computer to that port to get a console connection, but don't quote me on that.

Edit: It occurred to me just now that you probably mean that you can add an LTE modem to the USB port and then you have an internet failover - yes this works but you do have to check the wiki on good LTE modems to use as they have to be linux compatible.

 

Yep, that's what I meant. 

 

Also you can really hook up an external drive to cache websites?

[brwainer]

I know you can proxy cache, I believe but am not 100% sure you can do it with an external drive.

Edit: I found verification that any Routerboard with a USB port will allow the proxy cache to exist on an external drive - but you have to configure it to do so as it defaults to the internal flash memory and/or RAM (which are both tiny)

[Dautin]

I know you can proxy cache, I believe but am not 100% sure you can do it with an external drive.

Edit: I found verification that any Routerboard with a USB port will allow the proxy cache to exist on an external drive - but you have to configure it to do so as it defaults to the internal flash memory and/or RAM (which are both tiny)

 

Ok, thanks man.

[MariusJS]

Yup, it works, u  can even do both just throw on a powered usb hub