Mikrotik RouterBOARD RB/2011UiAS-2HnD-IN

zoey · May 10, 2014

Amazon Link: Clicky

Baltic Networks (where I bought mine from) Clicky

Cost: $105-$120USD

Please note: I am aware my date is off. It's a bug with my ESXi server (probably due to Cool 'N Quiet on my CPU. Need to fix it ASAP, it's getting worse)

I'll preface this by saying while I'm extremely good with computers, networking is something new to me. I had a Linksys running DDWRT for a while before the ROM failed and I was left with no admin panel (yay for 404 errors).

I was recommended this router by several people I know because of all the options and my smarts with computers. However I will state this right now THIS IS NOT A CONSUMER FRIENDLY ROUTER. It's made for WISPs (Wireless Internet Service Providers), not for someone who can barely turn a PC on. The are no paper instructions included, and the instruction manual on the software is nothing but a wiki (which part of is not updated.) It also HEAVILY relies on the use of a CLI.

Sorry for potato pics. Dunno what's up with my MotoX, it usually takes much better pictures

The device:

The bottom (flash drive is covering MAC address and serial)

Back (The ethernet port is so the router can be powered by PoE)

the goodies inside (yep I opened it, I was curious)

Important features

The Control panel will let you change every option under the sun (you can change rx and tx speeds if your roommate didn't pay their share of the internet bill (which I've done on a regular basis. She loves it when I set her speed to 56k)
Touchscreen, however it's not sensitive, and the default config for it (for aligning the touch points) is so off it's impossible to enter the pin to reboot the router
SFP Port for fibre, and Mikrotik trancivers are cheap-ish ($70 for a matched pair)
Five gigabit (one is used for WAN however) and five "Fast" (10/100) ports.
Supports USB via a USB-OTG cable. I CAN NOT figure out what this is for other than storage of support files. The wiki is incredibly vague on this: (RB2011 series have micro USB port which operates in host mode when USB device is attached through USB OTG cable. Some vendor cables require forced host mode to recognize connected device.) Is all it says. It requires an EXT3 formatted drive, and supports any size? USB disk (It uses my 64GB USB key just fine)
is a PoE injector (up to the voltage supplied by the plug - up to 27V I believe) and can also be powered via PoE from another device.
can be mounted in a rack if you so choose

Router Config app(s)

There are three options for administering the router. There's Winbox (a windows app), Webfig (a mirror copy of Winbox except on the web) and the CLI (either Telnet/SSH or though the terminal in Winbox or Webfig). SSH is disabled by default, and as far as I can tell requires you to upload a public key before it'll enable. There are options galore here. I have a feeling there's an option to turn the router into a plane somewhere in here.

This is what Winbox looks like.( I'm currently very well aware of the date problem, something's causing a problem on my ESXi box that causes the dates to wildly change every half hour. I'm assuming Cool N' Quiet as I never had problem when I had ESXi installed on my intel PC. The things I do for 8 cores)

As I said, this router isn't user friendly. I'd probably still not have a working router if it wasn't for three of my friends (basically the people that told me to buy this thing in the first place) constantly helping me. The router is supposed to automatically get online when you first plug it in, Mine didn't and the quick start on the wiki didn't get me online either. You must have patience, and the ability to read the wiki/ and feel comfortable in a CLI to really get things figured out. I've barely touched all the features of this router. I'm slowly learning how to use RADIUS to tie it into my Active Directory server as a "learning experience" (Why do I do these things to myself). If you read the wiki / google it, you can pretty much figure everything out eventually. /r/mikrotik is helpful as well usually.

Here's what my little network setup looks like currently:

So Yeah. I give this router a 7.5/10. It probably wasn't the best match for me, however it's extremely powerful with only a few flaws. And you can't beat the performance and features for the price!

Pros

Has an insane number of features and you can edit anything to your hearts desire.
Supports hotspots out of the box (haven't played with this.... yet)
Radius / user manager to control logins without having to give out your WPA key
Frequent updates (had two updates since I got it in February)
The included key is good for two FULL upgrades (my key is good for 6.1 all the way up to 8.1 without needing to purchase a new one)
Runs cool without a fan, and isn't too glaringly bright in the dark (Except SFP. Holy balls that'll blind you)

Cons

Only has five gigabit ports, and one is used off the bat for WAN. This won't be a problem for most people, but my ESXi server uses three of the four, heaven forbid I get another server and need more
Not user friendly in the least (took over a month to finally figure out port forwarding for example)
My unit has a short somewhere in it, if I move it the device turns off.
The "support file" is encrypted and requires an account on the Mikrotik website to view it.
touchscreen is pretty useless out of the box
DHCP is random as hell in assigning addresses (all static IP's except .69 were originally assigned by DHCP):

TheSLSAMG · May 10, 2014

Nice review. Seems to be more of an enterprise device though.

zoey · May 10, 2014

Nice review. Seems to be more of an enterprise device though.

Oh, it totally is, no doubt about it.

kaplis6 · May 12, 2014

You have to be skilled and experienced in order to configure Mikrotik routers fast. But when you do configure it, it becomes one of the best performing devices you will ever use.

Did you researched anything before purchasing the router?