My review of Mikrotik Routerboard 2011

[rufee]

Hey guys, this is my first attempt in reviewing a product, so bear with me :)

Anyway the story:

I have been suffering from network issues for a long time now which were very annoying, that includes constant disconnects and other strange issues like not loading web pages, but all the other services are working fine. And since i am running a few servers restarting routers every 2 days was really driving my nerves.

The weirdest thing of all is that of all the 3 routers i had they all had the same issue even though the chips on the routers were different, the manufacturer was, the software was, even putting dd-wrt on them gave me the issue.

So i was done with ordinary consumer routers and started to look for something that would improve my experience.

Having worked with Mikrotik's routers in the last summer i though id give one of their units a go.

[h=1]RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN[/h]

For a 130$ price point i thought its a very good product for what it offers.

So the features:

• 600 Mhz Atheros CPU AR9344 (MIPS 74kc v4.12).
  
• 128 Mb of ram.
  
• 5 Gigabit ports + 5 10/100 ports, good if you have a mix of old devices that can't reach gigabit speeds.
  
• Supports power over ethernet (PoE) on one port .
  
• N wireless, but lets face it who doesn't these days :)
  

Full list here: http://routerboard.com/RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN

This model comes in many configurations including an SFP port for some models, a rack mount case, a completely base model with only ethernet ports.

But probably the most important thing that this router has against its competition is RouterOS.

Its a similar OS to pfsense where you can install it on an x86 machine and turn it in to a router, it also comes pre-installed on all routerboard products.

-Unboxing

I was really interested in trying one, hoping it would solve all my problems, so i ordered one from a local e-tailer.

And within a couple of days it was at my door.

It comes in a nice cardboard package about 30 centimeters in length.

In the box:

• The router it self.
  
• Power adapter, though it is wired inside so its not as easy to plug a new one in if this one dies (The rackmount option comes in with an integrated one).
  
• micro USB to normal USB adapter.
  

Thats it, no manual no cd's, no waste of paper. If you are buying one Mikrotik probably expects you know something about what you are buying.

The unit is all metal except for the red plastic front, but overall the router is sturdy and well built. What i didn't like about it that there is no option to wall mount out of the box, you have to get a separate wall mount kit for it which is an extra 15$ or so. But there are some holes and you could make your self a DIY wall mount with parts around your home if need be.

Another bad thing about it is the micro USB port, there is clearly enough space to build in a normal USB port or at least a mini USB. If you have some soldering experience you could solder a normal port if you want to.

As far as i know you can disassemble the unit.

Before i forget there is a Serial port on the back, you will need an RJ45 to DB9 adapter to use it.

-Power Up

Time came to power up the unit. I plugged the unit in and a bright blue LED started to shine, also the LCD showed the boot process.

Boot up takes around 30 seconds, maybe less i am going here from memory.

The touchscreen is of the resistive type with the film on top, but that should be expected giving the price of the unit.

You can view the status of all interfaces in bps/mbps and pps (packets per second) also the MAC addresses and other information.

There is also some simple configuration options, like disabling/enabling an interface and so on. Oh and if you are worried about someone messing with your router the touchscreen prompts for a PIN if you are trying to change any setting. The screen can be disabled through the routers configuration.

-RouterOS

And here is the most featured thing about all Mikrotik routers the RouterOS.

Initially this router is setup to have its SFP and Ethernet 1 as WAN ports and the rest are LAN, but the OS allows you to configure any interface as input and even have multiple inputs for load balance.

There are a few ways to manage the router:

1. The web interface called Webfig.
   
2. Through the serial port or SSH.
   
3. Through Winbox.
   

Probably the most easy to use of all 3 is Winbox. It can be downloaded from the Mikrotik website, it has the ability to discover all RouterOS devices on the network and connect to them via a MAC address so that you don't lose your connection if you change the IP of the device.

When i first logged on to the device i was stunned with all the menus and features it offers on such a small device.

The Winbox interface.

I consider myself knowing a thing or two about the whole router thing, but i was never prepared for what hit me.

So here is the warning if you don't know anything about networking this probably isn't the router for you.

When you are using a normal consumer router the configuration is straight forward and a lot of the configuration is done for you automatically. Here you have to do everything yourself, from configuring a DHCP server, setting up an IP pool, adding some NAT rules. Mikrotik has a good wiki with many graphical examples here: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:TOC

Setting it up takes quite a while if you have no prior experience, but once you get the hang of it its pretty straight forward and you will not go back to using consumer routers :D

Some of the features include: multiple DHCP servers, VLAN's, Hotspots, Port bonding (LACP) and many more things you have not heard of :) Multiple users are supported as well.

A feature i found useful was USB tethering, this router supports most 3G modems out there, i've tested it with a Huawei K3765 and it worked flawlessly.

Updating the device is super simple, you just download the firmware off the Mikrotik website, drag and drop the file into the Files menu in Winbox and restart the router.

The real advantage of using Winbox is that everything is done in real time, you do not need to restart the router to change any setting, as soon as you click apply its there.

Real time monitoring is also supported, you can monitor every interface independently, monitor connections etc...

Monitoring.

I have not tested the performance of the device much, all i can tell you it delivers a very snappy experience. Ive noticed an improvement in web page loading over the 10/100 routers i had before so the gigabit factor really comes into play here. Can't talk about wireless because i am not using it, what i can say its a bit harder to setup than ordinary routers, but again offers a load of additional features.

-Conclusion

Pros:

• Cheap, basic models start at 100$.
• Loads of features
  
• Sturdy design
  

Cons:

• Not easy to manage
• Not newbie friendly
  

All in all i think that for this kind of price this is a great choice for people who have some experience with networking and need the stability of higher end routers.

Personally i am very happy with this purchase in the 2 months ive been running this router not once did i need to restart it. Any questions or comments are greatly appreciated :)

[qwertywarrior]

for anyone that wants to buy something like this the RB951G has the same hardware but with 5 gigabit Ethernet ports and a cheaper price

i was going to buy this (correct me if im wrong) but im pretty sure using Qos like all BCM SOCs disables NAT acceleration which means wan to lan drops from ~260mbps to around 100 mbps which isnt that good because using torrent at around 30mbps runs the cpu at 100% on most routers without NAT acceleration

so i just bought a used WNR3500L v1 for 26 dollars and running Tomato Shibby

the soc is a bcm4716 which basically has the same performance as the AR9344

what are u using this router for ?

have you heard of Edge router Lite ? its famous for its price/performance check the review on Smallnetbuilder

[Broseephus]

Omg that face plate is horrendous.

Nice review. It supports MPLS?!?!?!!? wtf?

[qwertywarrior]

Omg that face plate is horrendous. Nice review. It supports MPLS?!?!?!!? wtf?

eah it does but the soc is weak for anything large scale

if some one wants to work with that it would be better to choose one of the PPC board (powerpc cpu) or one of those cloud routers they have with 32 or 64 cores

[Broseephus]

Yeah, my wtf was more of a "why the eff" than a "what the eff".

[rufee]

Yeah it supports MPLS.

This unit is for small to medium loads, im running ~10 machines that includes a few mobile devices and 2 servers, no big deal. Id say perfect for a home server/network implementation.

Id love to get my hands on one of those CCR's :D

And that Edge router is quite impressive, though im not sold on it.

[Broseephus]

Holy crap I just checked out their site. Those prices..... so low.....

They need to make switches too!

[qwertywarrior]

Holy crap I just checked out their site. Those prices..... so low..... They need to make switches too!

you have no idea how many people suggested that on their forum

yet they only makes small switches like the 260gs with 5 ports i think

[rufee]

From what i hear people aren't very happy with that switch, the switchOS to be exact.

[qwertywarrior]

From what i hear people aren't very happy with that switch' date=' the switchOS to be exact.[/quote']

It's been ages since 1.6 was released for Swos

i believe that mikrotik will start pursuing switches more seriously in the coming year

UPDATE :

CRS - Cloud Router Switch, RouterBoard 9xx series device with 24 switched Gigabit ports (switch chip), runs RouterOS (not SwitchOS), 1x SFP. Available in IN (desktop) and RM (Rackmount) models. Also a wireless model is available. Available May

[rufee]

Nice, found the thread if anyone is interested: http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=70761

This is really going to drive the prices down and finally an affordable 10 gig router :)

[qwertywarrior]

Nice' date=' found the thread if anyone is interested: [url=http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=70761]http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=70761[/url=http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=70761] This is really going to drive the prices down and finally an affordable 10 gig router :)

1 Gb x 24 ports

but i wonder if the SFP is limited to 1Gb like most switches or 10Gb

if its 10Gb it will cause influx in the switch market since most 10gb +24x1Gb ports cost +500 dollars

[Broseephus]

Nice' date=' found the thread if anyone is interested: [url=http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=70761]http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=70761[/url=http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=70761] This is really going to drive the prices down and finally an affordable 10 gig router :)

1 Gb x 24 ports

but i wonder if the SFP is limited to 1Gb like most switches or 10Gb

if its 10Gb it will cause influx in the switch market since most 10gb +24x1Gb ports cost +500 dollars

What do you mean by "influx"?

If you mean what I think you think it means I doubt it will have a major impact on the switch market. They have obviously been in the router game for a while with extremely competitively priced equipment yet they don't make a ripple in the market. Cisco/Juniper/Alcatel/Huwaie(however you spell it) still dominate.

That doesn't take anything away from MicroTik, I just don't think they're gonna be a major player just because they have a 10G switch that's way cheaper than other people. People like name brands and like things they are familiar with. This is especially true in the enterprise / core provider world.

[qwertywarrior]

o i forgot to show you this

www.mikrouter.com

[rufee]

Nice looking but overpriced, id build my own at that point.