One Mikrotik, many businesses?

RouterOS General
1

I have a client that is a small nonprofit in a suite of offices that are too large, so they’re adding other small non-profits instead of moving.

They’d all like to share a single Internet connection, but they’d all like to have their own segregated networks.

They’d also like to chip in and have a single large copier/fax/printer to share.

Any suggestions for setting up something like a RB2011 so port #1 is the incoming Internet connection, port #2 is devices like the copier that can be shared, and ports 3…8 are segregated and won’t talk to one another?

Also, I think they’d like separate wireless connections.

I know this is a tall order but I told them I’d ask here to see if it is possible without making things overly complex.

I guess there are only two possible other nonprofits at this time, so I don’t really need support for all eight ports. Just thinking down the road.

I’m thinking I’d have to “unbridge” the LAN ports, but I don’t know if that is an option on the RB2011. I think it is on the RB4011 and maybe that would make more sense anyhow.

Then I’d need to add separate DHCP servers for each port?

I’ve only ever bridged all the LAN ports, not clear on how things work when they’re unbridged.

2

Each would need their own IP address/subnet, IP pool, DHCP network & DHCP server, plus firewall rules to prevent them communicating with each other - by default the router routes traffic between all LAN networks.

Depending on the physical location of the router with respect to the offices, plus the need for additional wireless access point, and/or other switches to connect devices, it might be better to use VLANs rather than physical ports to segregate the traffic.

3

Okay thank you for the feedback, I’ll look into the VLAN alternative.