With the arrival - finally - of fiber internet in my city, I want to upgrade my current network. I was wondering if you guys could provide me with some advice on what I should buy and/or my setup more generally. I hope my post is complete enough for this purpose.
Technical background
I am relatively beginner but I really enjoy both the stability of and tinkering with Mikrotik.
Network setup
Please find included a diagram with my current setup (on the left) and my planned setup (on the right). My main question is what Mikrotik product I should consider as a wireless access point, and as secondary question whether this setup makes sense or could still be more efficient.
Goals
My goals with this upgrade would be:
To do away with the ISP router
Better wireless connectivity than I have currently/more futureproof (although it’s honestly already very good)
hEX S is not a very powerful router. It can probably route up to around 400Mbps (give or take, depends on complexity of routing and firewall rules) and quite some less if wireless interfaces are utilized.
depending on type of fiber you might not be able to connect ISP fibre / SFP directly to hEX S. Mikrotik has notoriously poor support for various GPON modules (read: it’s almost a miracle if it works without lots of tinkering), so you may be better off using ISP’s ONT to actually terminate fiber if that ONT can be configured in bridge mode.
Thanks a lot for your advice. It is not clear whether the ISP modem can do bridge mode but I hope to find out soon. The current one can’t and I had to resort to just turning off as many features as I could plus DMZ…
So, in the scenario that I do use the ISP fiber modem, I should probably get a more powerful (Mikrotik) access point? Do you have any advice as to hardware (ax2 versus ax3) in this respect?
Both AX2 and AX3 should be able to handle that traffic.
Ideally a non-wifi device as router, then separate APs just for Wifi (and minor switching/vlan stuff, if you’re into it)
But you don’t have to, it can be combined.
I have at home RB5009 as router, AX2 downstairs and AX3 in home office.
Product code RB962UiGS-5HacT2HnT
Architecture MIPSBE
CPU QCA9558
CPU core count 1
CPU nominal frequency 720 MHz
Switch chip model QCA8337
The hAP AC is slower than the hEX S.
You haven’t said what the budget is, or how fast the fiber connection will be, or how much the monthly price of fiber is. (If you are paying $100/month for 1GB fiber, it doesn’t make sense to use a single core 720MHz router. You would be better off getting something more expensive that you won’t need to replace and will be more satisfied with. Cry once or cry every time you need more performance and can’t even get what you are provisioned for. hAP AC2 minimum. RB5009 should give you more breathing room, but has no wifi built in. If you are going to pull cable, consider pulling fiber at the same time (in addition to copper). it won’t take much extra work to put in both at the same time. Also, what needs wifi on the first floor?
