advice on new setup please!

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

I am completely new to this product, but not to networking. I would like some advice on setting up the following system - whether it is possible with RouterOS and what hardware people would recommend

We currently have a public hotspot wifi network and a private office network (wired and wireless).

We have a router box which acts as a hotspot manager, internet gateway for the two networks and load balancer for two ethernet ADSL modems. this machine is nearer the end of it’s life and i am looking at replacement options

I would like (i think!) to have 1 box with 3 (or 4 ethernet ports):

PORT 1 - controls public hotspot. I don’t anticipate needing a wireless ap on the box itself, but the hotspot needs to manage connections from ap’s distrituted around the building and connected to this box via a wired switch. It will need to provide all hotspot functionality as well as dhcp and dns for the public network

PORT 2 - acts a internet gateway from private office network. All network functions (dhcp, dns etc) done on other machines inside network

PORT 3 - internet gateway balancing traffic between two ADSL modems

DIAGRAM:

Public wifi ----- PORT 1 ----- ROUTEROS ---- PORT3 ----- 2x ADSL modems ----- INTERNET
Private ----- PORT 2 -----

Obviously I want no traffic passing between the public and private networks.

Any advice on setting this up would be great, including what board to buy.

Thanks in advance

2

I think you will need two ports for the ADSL modems. How us would you connect both at the same time?

In terms of restricting traffic, you would simply add a NAT masquerade rule against the two public interfaces to protect the internal network and public hotspot.

Then on each internal interface, say hot1 and lan1, you would add a default route to the public ports (say wan1 and wan2). The two internal LANs would not be able to see each other unless you wanted them to.

You would be able to configure a DHCP server for each local network.

In terms of hardware, I think you would need to look at either the 532 (64Mb) or the new 333 with version 3. The 532 doesn’t have 4 ports so you would need to add a daughter board to make up the additional ports.

Does this help?

3

Yep, will work good even with just a 532. Depending on the speed and number of rules you wnt to put in you may need something with more power, a x86 solution. There are a number out there, PCs, etc, powerouter 732 is another option. That gets more expensive, but is more of a business/enterprise solution.

But you could wait for the 600 or 1000s too.