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MikroTik

Mak

Pro Member
In general is the kit any good? I know its fairly cheap and the OS can be difficult for newbies but wondering what you have used and your review on it?
 
You'll get mixed reviews, as with anything else, but generally Mikrotik is a solid brand with many fans, including on this forum.

You get proper hardware with proper software, no shenanigans, no arbitrary limitations or dumbed down UIs.
 
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That’s a beast of a unit, wouldn’t fit nicely behind my TV :)
 
Ultimately I guess it depends what you’re after and how willing you are to deal with less user friendly configuration. But once you get your head around it, you’ll do just fine (I quite like it).

Never heard of negatives regarding the hardware.

What’s on the radar?
 
I'm a fan - the performance for the price is very strong.

The smaller cheap boxes are great for learning/testing/solving problems, they have fundamentally the same features as the more expensive routers just with less power.

Professionally I've deployed the 1100AHx4, CCR1009, CCR2004 etc. and all have been reliable, uptime is typically limited only by your update schedule. I held off moving to v7 until earlier this year but apart from a few config quirks that don't translate well from v6 have had no issues there either.
 
The thing is I don’t need new kit, I am just wanting new things to play with and have looked at TPLink Omada stuff and then that led onto MikroTik, liking the look at the smaller routers Hex they do and the new Hex AX Wi-Fi unit… never used one and fairly comfortable with Cisco catalyst, Nexus and ASAs so shouldn’t be to much of a challenge for me to pick it up…

The Draytek router I have is solid but does some things I don’t like.

- Firewall is utter balls and crap to configure.
- For 900Mb I need to turn on hardware acceleration, this bypasses some features and to me makes me feel like the kit just isn’t ready for those speeds as it’s not full featured.
- Vlan setup with a Draytek switch was just complex to actually get working with tagged ports, it should be simple but I got disconnected from either switch or router for the first hour when configuring.


I would like a better firewall for sure, something that just works upto 1Gb without needing a thing turned on that adds limitations….
 
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I can't vouch for any of their WiFi products, but I have a strong feeling it won't live up to Omada or Unifi for the management. Do you value that? Maybe getting separate devices would be a better call in that scenario (though at $139 it's hard to argue).

The router itself looks neat though.
shouldn’t be to much of a challenge for me to pick it up
Na it'll be fine, a period to get your head around how things are laid out and you'll be alright. Given the background, I think you'll probably prefer it to the Draytek (though who knows 😄).
 
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Yeah I am a sucker for SDN pretty GUIs. But only thing stopping me go Omada is IPv6 issues with ER605.

Unifi I had access points which were good but wanted a gateway but don’t like either Dream Machines on offer and don’t understand the gateway edge router in terms of is it new or old and does it work with UniFi portal…

Which brings me back to MikroTik and getting a router, maybe just the wired Hex S? Might get two TPLink Access Points and the 8 Port PoE switch….

Wanting 1Gb throughput, good DHCP server that’s configurable, Firewall and VPN
 
Unifi I had access points which were good but wanted a gateway but don’t like either Dream Machines on offer and don’t understand the gateway edge router in terms of is it new or old and does it work with UniFi portal…
I actively avoid the UDMs but I can see the appeal. You definitely don't need a gateway to manage your APs though.
The EdgeRouter is not a Unifi product (ie, not compatible with Unifi controller) and is quite a lot more customisable than the Unifi gateways.

Which brings me back to MikroTik and getting a router, maybe just the wired Hex S? Might get two TPLink Access Points and the 8 Port PoE switch….
Some of the routers have PoE out too (the PoE RB5009 is a great device, but probably pushing the budget?)

Wanting 1Gb throughput, good DHCP server that’s configurable, Firewall and VPN
Fairly simple requirements, RouterOS will certainly present the configuration that you want. The only possible caveat is that to my knowledge, there's no DPI firewall like the Unifi products have.
 
I actively avoid the UDMs but I can see the appeal. You definitely don't need a gateway to manage your APs though.
The EdgeRouter is not a Unifi product (ie, not compatible with Unifi controller) and is quite a lot more customisable than the Unifi gateways.
Gotcha
Some of the routers have PoE out too (the PoE RB5009 is a great device, but probably pushing the budget?)
Luckily for me budget isn't an issue, just constraint on space behind the TV and wall mounting...
 
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@Mak I cannot recommend the hEX over a hAP ac2.
Leave wireless disabled, the ac2 will run rings around the hEX.

Of course if you want anything else, rb3011 or something, I may have a few Tik devices going free.
 
This looks future proof with 1G, 2.5Gb and 10Gb SFP... but cant seem to find a seller in the UK for the PoE out version, can see the none PoE one...
 
Getic have been quite reliable for me, I think that's where people generally buy from
 
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Thanks both, never heard of them so two recommendations is good! Do you know if it can mount onto the wall?
 
Thanks both, never heard of them so two recommendations is good! Do you know if it can mount onto the wall?
Hmmm good question, I would assume so... There are screws in the base for the rackmount kit which you could use.

There are also a couple of cut-out things which could be used (probably?)
 
Yeah just seen picture top down and bottom end of the unit from top down has holes, could put little plastic rings on it before screwing into the wall to keep it off the wall for ventilation. Will have a good read on this and YT the RouterOS to see what its like, but the PoE one would be great and would replace my switch and Router. Thumbs up so far
 
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