New Utility for managing Mikrotik-based systems

RouterOS General
1

Hi all,

Would like some feedback from other Mikrotik users.
We’ve developed some radio products as a Mikrotik OEM and everybody so far is very pleased with the performance and result.

One thing that came up, is that allowing end-users access to Winbox allows rather too many settings that can be changed, leaving a link or network “broken”. This applies to users (end user, IT manager, or field tech) who needs to access the parameters but is not fully trained on MT.
So what we’ve come up with is a Windows GUI that provides monitoring of a radio link, displaying key parameters with a summary page and tabs for detailed stats. If an “engineer/admin” password is put in, some of them can be changed (e.g. radio frequency) - but restricted to the parameters that are displayed, not all of Mikrotik. Here’s a screen shot from the 1st iteration:
http://www.cablefreesolutions.com/radio/RadioManager.jpg
This application accesses the Router either using Telnet or console on RS232, so would go through any firewall etc that enables telnet- or from a laptop using a serial port. So you still get the GUI even on RS232, and run over dial-up e.g. GSM connections too. The application stays running even if the connection is lost, and will re-acquire when it is able to.
There are user-programmable alarms which will display if various parameters are beyond user/preset thresholds.
There is a “certificate” feature which captures all the values at time of installation/service and puts them into a easy-to-read RTF file which helps subsequent fault-finding - e.g. sent to a tech support centre for quick diagnosis.
Now obviously all of this readout/config can be done from command-line or winbox, but what we’re trying to do is hide the complexity and make systems “break proof” in the hands of a non-expert user or installer.

Questions:

  • Does that sound interesting to anyone?
  • Any features missing, or wrong approaches?

Also this application can be tailored just to display performance of any Mikrotik router, not just for wireless.

Regards

Stephen

2

Yes, such a tool would be very usefull, but without a better look I can’t tell you what is missing.

We build these things in the office then send them out with radio techs to install them, they need the ability to perform alignments and the likes but often try to “tweak” the setup and usualy end up breaking something when they do.

3

Hey thanks for the reply -

Would you be interested in a beta trial ?
Sounds like you have just the type of user environment we anticipate having to support - field techs who want simple tools for alignment and configuration without the risk of breaking things.
The software will run on any recent Windows 98/2k/XP and either desktop or laptop. The spec is quite “fluid” right now so there’s a chance to request features or have things built-to-suit.

Best regards

Stephen

4

I want to be beta testing. I want to try it.
Maxi

5

Great thanks people!
Can everyone who wants to be on a beta programme please e-mail me:
stephen.patrick@cablefree.co.uk
telling us who you are and what you do (service provider, installer, etc)
Membership of the beta programme will be completely free, and participants will be encouraged to suggest features and changes to make the product really useful.
In return we will want bug reports also.
My colleagues estimate we could have a “first issue usable beta” out in a week or so - turning the current “proof of concept” into one you can usefully test is still a short piece of work.

Regards

Stephen