Is a Mikrotik (dedicated) router for me?

RouterOS General
1

Hi. Networking and Mikrotik noob here.

A couple of people discouraged me to get a Mikrotik router because according to them I need to be “really computer network literate”.

If Mikrotik indeed is not for me, I would just get the typical consumer WiFi router, or the “easier” router-only TP-Link ER605 or TL-R605. I wanted to know the consensus here before I do just that.

I’m looking for a budget router at around USD 60. Available here in our country are MikroTik hEX, hEX S, hEX Gr3, and hAP ac2.

Basically I just want to have a stable internet connection and setup, something I could hopefully set and forget and wouldn’t have to fiddle with all the time.

From watching Youtube tutorials, I feel like I can manage to make it start working. I’m just not sure about troubleshooting. Is the learning curve still too steep for this?

I am on Linux Mint and although I can follow instructions and do a bit of CLI, I prefer GUI and clicking stuff :slight_smile: I would install Wine and Winbox for this.

I also need a router that’s impossible to brick due to my lack of skills. We get occasional unannounced power outages and I need it to not brick when that happens while, say, it’s in the process of updating its firmware.

The router will be directly connected to our ISP’s unreplaceable ONU, Huawei EchoLife EG8145V5. I will not set the ONU to bridge mode because, from asking around, it is not stable at the moment, and I’m not really up for troubleshooting and maintaining that. The ISP would do bridge mode-ing with higher plans only (not ours). I’m aware of the double nat issue but don’t know how it would affect us.

Our setup would be: Huawei ONU router <2 Cat6 ethernet cables> 2 APs

(We already have a TP-Link AP and will get another one.)

Internet is fiber 60 Mbps both down and up. (We may upgrade in the future if needed, which is 100 “up to 200” Mbps). 7-10 gadgets (all wireless) across 4-5 adults and 2 kids. Use cases are online classes (Zoom), YouTube, light games, video-calls, torrenting, and occasional movie streaming. We do not mind not having WiFi 6 yet.

Our house has 2 levels at 10m x 10m = 100 square meters (or 1,075 square feet) at each level. All floors and walls are concrete.

Many thanks in advance.

Edited: 60 Mbps (upgraded today, from 45 Mbps)

2

People saying that Mikrotik requires some networking and computer literacy are right. Even though there are a few default profiles available (for “dummies”), any further configuration changes require some knowledge and learning curve is very steep on Mikrotik. Bricking devices is standard learning step (so is unbricking them) :wink:

After one overcomes the initial steep part, using Mikrotik RouterOS becomes pure poetry.

3

I will not set the ONU to bridge mode

If the ISP modem isn’t in bridge mode, then you don’t need a router at all; you’ve already got one.

In that situation, you can set the MT box up as a smart switch behind the Internet router, which means it’s shielded from the Big Bad Internet like your other computers. That gives you enough runway to become competent with RouterOS so that by the time you do dare to put the modem into bridge mode, you have a chance of doing so in a way that you don’t hose yourself.

Even if you never take that step, there’s plenty you can do with a RouterOS box without making it into an Internet gateway router:

  1. VPN gateway
  2. Intelligent DHCP/DNS/NTP server
  3. LAN multicast router
  4. VLANs

etc. etc.

4

hapac2 is your best buy among those listed.
I have next to zero networking training, no IT related jobs, and I have managed to keep at it and quite enjoy it.
If you give up easily, a quitter personality, well, mT is not for you.
Otherwise as was pointed out you can start using your hapac2 as a simple basic AP/Switch to start and then move over to full router mode as you learn.
Let us know what you decide.

5

We are a team of people who not sleep but help other’s, give us your answers.

6

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it.


And there goes the decision :smiley:


Yes. However, part of my ambition is to take off as much load the ONU is taking as possible, that’s why I want the second router to be the router. Learned that ISP-provided stuff are generally not-good at performance. This is actually our second ONU because the first one started to reboot on its own.


At this point in my life, I’m afraid I’m a quitter at networking and routers :slight_smile: I have to move on with other stuff for now. This is not the end, though. We will meet again, Mikrotik.

Actually I feel like I can eventually manage this, timing’s just not right.

What we need is a reliable “second router” setup (anything not ISP-provided) and ASAP, but I was also trying to push the limits given my lack of knowledge on this :slight_smile: Before posting here I tried to study networking and CLI and those stuff revolving around it… and for now the best way to go about it (to me) is: get a mikrotik as a playground first before installing it as the main thing. Which means we should have an at least reliable setup already up and running, which we don’t.


Really comforting to know. However, I’m now accepting the fact that home networking isn’t really for people like me, unless I focus on it for like three months or so.

For example, I would go to Linux Mint forums and confidently decide I could make it my daily driver. At least I would not take the whole network down in case I screwed up. I don’t get that vibe here, and that’s on me and not on Mikrotik of course, just means I need to learn some more stuff at a pace I’m comfortable with.

Thanks so much again for the replies. Dipping my toe into this now anyway so it’s likely that I’ll be back in the future :smiley:

7

Understood, and no slight was intended, just wanted to ensure expectations were realistic. Good decision, as one does need to have some dedicated time…

8

OP
Do yourself a favour and sort out your network on pen and paper first and read up on how to use those settings in RouterOS.
Do not use the function called “Quick set”, you can set those parameters rather easily in the Winbox (or Webfig) interface, but you need to read a bit about how first.

You seem to be prepared to go through the initial Mikrotik Router experience, as I did a few months back. As mentioned above, there are a lot of people roaming these forums and willing to help out but I must admit I still have unanswered questions, but those are a tiny way past the initial setup.

9

If you just need a basic setup, it’s not that difficult. And quickset works fine.