Hello guys,

I just bought for testing purposes a 450G - For the moment I only created VLANs and trying to use MetaRouter to run OpenWRT (OpenVPN).
It runs well!

Later, while making a few searches about Mikrotik on Google, I fell on routerboard.com page describing 2011UiAS-IN/RM.
I checked the differences between 450G and 2011UiAS and what came out is that 2011UiAS has:

• better performance (see products performance test results between them)
• second 10/100 switch
• RJ45 serial port (instead of the regular serial one)
• micro-USB port
• SFP port
• touchscreen LCD
• more "features" like fast path (http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Fast_Path).

Moreover, the 2011UiAS is cheaper than RB450G bought with its case and power supply!

I am now clearly wondering if I made the wrong choice with 450G.
What is it that I have on the 450G that 2011UiAS doesn't have (except more RAM which doesn't look like it's giving better throughput) ?
Any reason to buy a 450G over a 2011UiAS ?

Thank you

It's smaller. That's all I can think of.

You mentioned you were running MetaRouter guests on it...and not just RouterOS guests, but OpenWRT guests. If this is really important to you, then clearly the 450G is the better choice, hands-down:

- It has twice the RAM (256MiB) of the 2011UiAS (128MiB)...MetaRouter can be RAM-hungry, depending on the application, and the more of them you run, the more RAM you need
- It has four times the NAND flash storage (512MiB) of the 2011UiAS (128MiB, depending on specific board)...more storage == more MetaRouters, and more possibilities

-- Nathan

Hello, and thank you for your answer.

I am using MetaRouter to fill the gaps regarding OpenVPN. So I will only run a single guest for VPN purposes.
So I'd guess it won't require much RAM / disk space but rather CPU power and according to: http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=74145

AR9344 is newer generation. It looks like it has lower clock speed, but the CPU is actually faster.

Also regarding MetaRouter I read on Mikrotik's wiki:

Random freezing

Only listed routers are affected by this issue: RB450G, RB750G, RB435G, RB493G
Certain RouterBOARD products tend to become unresponsive for some amount of time, after a while becoming available on the network.
[..]
As alternatives listed boards can be used instead: RB2011, RB433AH or any other from these series

So it might even be a better idea to run MetaRouter on the RB2011!

Too bad

If I switch for the RB2011, can I:

• use it as gateway, and use ether1 or spf for WAN like I do with RB450G ?
• Use USB port to connect a UPS ?

Thanks

dynek,

You have some catching up to do. There are many of us here, including myself, who have been around the block and back on the MetaROUTER issues. The information on the wiki is old and needs to be updated. Virtually all stability problems with MetaROUTER were fixed on the 450G as of RouterOS 6. Also, the 2011 series was not immune to the issue, and had other issues of its own...I tested it on a 2011L myself. You should read this thread if you are interested (beware: it's long): http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=60746

I use 450Gs in MetaROUTER deployments for customers where the 450G is doing the routing, NATting, firewalling, VPN concentrator, queueing/QoS, AND acting as their phone PBX and voicemail server (Asterisk + web GUI config + phone boot server + phone firmware files + voicemail recordings in a MetaROUTER VM). All in one USD$99 device (plus casing and power supply). I can do this because of plenty of RAM, plenty of flash, and a CPU that meets most small office needs for all of the above. I cannot get this combination anywhere else for that price. And as of RouterOS 6, it is plenty stable.

If I switch for the RB2011, can I:

• use it as gateway, and use ether1 or spf for WAN like I do with RB450G ?

Yes of course...why couldn't you? It's running RouterOS, so do whatever you want with whatever interfaces it has. We aren't talking about a consumer-grade "router" here.

• Use USB port to connect a UPS ?

Yes, not a problem. The UPS package supports UPS monitoring via USB for UPSes that support it. You can also use the RS-232 serial port on the 450G for UPS monitoring as well.

-- Nathan

@NathanA
Which ROS version are you using with MetaRouter?

@NathanA
Which ROS version are you using with MetaRouter?

5.26 in some installations and 6.9 in others. I am hoping to move to 6.11 once it is released for unrelated reasons.

-- Nathan

Thank you again for your answer.

As I just need one MetaRouter instance, I think I'm going to try to sell the 450G and the the 2011UiAS.
If I don't succeed I'll keep the 450G.

Thanks again!

If price and performance are your main considerations, and RAM and storage not as much, then you might also think about going with RB951Ui-2HnD. It is half the cost of the RB2011UiAS, but has the exact same CPU, RAM, and flash as the 2011, so performance for your MetaROUTER will be exactly the same for half the price. If you need gigabit, then the RB951G-2HnD is just a little more, and still cheaper than the 2011. Both have wireless, which I'm not sure you need, but you can leave the wireless off.

I am assuming that since you initially bought the 450G and you were happy with it, 5 ports is good enough for you and you don't need SFP. The only thing they don't have that you might think important is a serial port. But you can hook up a USB-to-Serial adapter to the USB port if that's important to you...RouterOS has drivers for a few popular USB-RS232 chips. (If you need to hook up more than one USB device, you can also plug a USB hub into it.)

-- Nathan

Or get the new 850Gx2

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Or get the new 850Gx2

Uhm, no. dynek specifically mentioned MetaROUTER. You can't (yet) run MetaROUTER on an RB850Gx2. Besides, 850Gx2 would be more expensive than either the 450G + case and power supply or the 2011UiAS-IN, and he brought up price in his original post.

-- Nathan

Sorry for ressurecting this, but i'm in the same position. Stock-clocked, the 2011 is faster than the 450g / 493g, but, as it will be a year till we see the rb850gx2 in the market arround here, i wonder if rb450g/493g wouldn`t yield slightly better routing perormance @800mhz?

Plus more memory and ram?

I believe that routung between POE port and Switch ports in 450g could be faster than between 10/100 and GiG ports in rb2011

The 850gx2 will be, no doubt about it, faster than a 450G (think about it like a 1100AHx2 slightly slower with only 5 ports and a smaller footprint).
The issue is that if you need metarouter, that is not possible on 850gx2, because metarouter is not supported on dual core devices.