Hi.
I’m beginner with Mikrotik and I need help with choosing components and some details.
But at first I must ask you if I need to pay some licences for RouterOS and if yes, it is single pay as most of software, or repeatedly?
What I need:
receive wifi signal from provider’s AP and broadcast wifi for home use at the same device
My plan:
buy PCI card with at least two miniPCI ports and buy two miniPCI Wifi cards
i would go with RouterBOARD (routerboard.com) that have RouterOS on it with appropriate license.
Benefits are - power usage, it will be a lot less than any PC you can assemble cheep. And it will last for many years. It is small form factor and it is silent.
Yes, but RouterBoard with other components will cost much more then one PCI card with wifi cards (what I seen) and for my needs it’s useless, I think. Furthermore I will need pc for downloading and FTP server, so I can merge both of devices into one.
Btw, what components I need for RouterBoard?
RouterBoard, some case for this and wifi cards? Will I need some memory(CF card)?
The new routerboards have an upgraded processor to handle more clients/traffic/packet processing etc. but the older boards can serve you with power to spare.
Consider a RB153 or a RB192 http://www.routerboard.com/clearance.php
They have some ethernet ports that you can bridge into a simple ‘hub’ if you choose for wired devices in the house/building like network printers, Xbox, etc, and you have the 2+ slots for the needed wireless.
You run the same RouterOS, and will handle your internet traffic with cpu to spare. Your task for it isn’t demanding.
I bought a RB433 because that was what was available from my closest distributer, that would work great too.
Be aware of antennas you’ll need to add to any wireless cards you buy.
You will need to buy a level 4 license for the PC to do wireless ($10 less than a clearance routerboard which contains the license already).
and the PC will ONLY be the router, it can’t do anything else besides basic FTP.
I’m sorry I’m ‘all over the place’ with my replies.
This model will not work for you (I bought one as well and can’t use it).
The mini pci-express is for cellular/mobile network cards only … unless that’s what you want.
I double-checked this myself; Atheros cards don’t get recognized in the PCI-express slot.
For any RB you need the:
RB itself
24v (a lesser could work but not power the cards very well) power supply and maybe the passive POE depending on where you place the RB.
maybe a case (or not)
Wifi cards.
2-4 antennas for those cards.
