I’m planning to send my old Cisco 2960c to personal “EOL”-list and I’m looking for a replacement for a gigabit switch / router.
The setup is a quite simple “home/prosumer” setup: 19"Rack, 4 VLANs, ADSL-Connection (12 mbit/s), approx. 20 Clients, while 10 in WiFi, powered by a HAP AC as AP and a Sophos appliance as firewall and a NUC-Linux-Server for backups.
Traffic is usually low, but backups take a long time due to the Fast-Ethernet ports of my ancient Cisco-Switch.
Looking at the latest MikroTik portfolio, RB5009UG+S+IN seems to be the successor of RB4011, but to admit, I am missing the LCD-Screen. As RB3011 is the only device left with such a screen in a reasonable price range for my needs, I just want to make sure that it’s the best deal for me. I’ve already searched the forums for the durability of RB3011 and only found a thread about problems with the POE-output of this device.
My questions:
1.) Are there any plans of MikroTik to develop a 3011-successor with LCD-screen?
2.) Are there any “common issues” with RB3011 that I am unaware of except for the POE-out-Port?
3.) Is RB3011 still a reasonable choice for a basic gigabit-switch with the future option to use it as a router for a 100 mbit/s internet connection?
4.) As the thread about the POE-problem is quite old (http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/rb3011-no-more-poe-on-port-eth10/109028/1); are there any common issues with POE reported with the latest hardware revision? I’d like to power my HAP AC with passive POE using the RB3011.
5.) Did I miss a newer MikroTik device with a LCD-screen that would fit my needs?
LCD works just fine on my RB3011 on 7.11
But it is a gimmick for sure. Sometimes handy to see if some interface does traffic or so but in the end still a gimmick
I have the RB3011 on a ± 100Mbps xDSL and it handles it without any issue. Have some IPSEC-tunnel running to a RB5009.
I have purchased it in 2016 and never let me down.
But the RB5009 would be more the way to go I guess.
I sometimes miss the screen as well. It would be nice when there was an optional screen (a little bigger too, say 2"-3" ) that is connected using USB.
But then, USB is now also no longer available on most new models. But the RB5009 is a rare exception.
Thank you for your anwser. As mentioned above, some basic prosumer setup. a few WiFi Clients connected via HAP lite to a Cisco 2960C fast ethernet switch (and a NAS and a few other clients connected via fast ethernet / gigabit ethernet). At the moment, the Cisco is a bottleneck as far as transfering backup files with rsync / veeam to my gigabit-NAS because I don’t have enough gigabit ports for wired clients.
I also took a look at https://mikrotik.com/product/crs112_8p_4s_in CRS112 due to the POE-features but the CPU-power is not enough for me if my configuration changes and i get a 100 mbit/s internet connection. As far as the specs and features concerned, I would buy a CCR1009-7G-1C-1S+PC, but it seems to be discontinued.
But even in a longer usage scenario I don’t see any benefits from buying a RB-5009 just because it’s faster (if you take a look at my setup, I am running mainly at fast ethernet speed) while missing the LCD-screen.
That’s why I am asking for impressions of users who are (still) running a RB3011 to find out if it still does the job well without nasty glitches / defects in long-term usage.
I still remember an internet speed of 9600 baud somewhere mid 90’s…
2 years ago I had 80-something Mbps incoming from ISP here at home. Now it is 300Mbps, however everything wired internal runs at Gb-speed.
Copy some heavy backups from your PC to NAS using Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet. You’ll notice the difference.
Well, my personal opinion is that there are a lot of “old” routerboards and devices can be useful these days.
I have some towers with 3011, 190 users, 300Mbit simmetric fiber uplink, queues for some users, fasttrack for other ip in NAT, no-track for ip with public IPs… and the 3011 is working great with cpu during peak hours of 40/50% (both cpu). I have about 5 firewall raw filter in each direction (using jump).
It depends on how it is configured! If you have to buy it, buy a newer RB, maybe 4011 or 5009, but if you have already at home, it can be of use!!!
Be sure to put the latest v6 ROS since the is the route-cache. The missing route cache in v7 have a big performance hit on 3011.
It is not a matter of bad choice. I think we should use v7 whenever possibile to have new features, newer kernel etc.
In the case of the 3011, the performance hit is noticeable.
I keep v6 on my 3011, with the 3011 I have higher cpu load and also in nat-fasttrack I am not able to to more than 300Mbps with v7, because of the missing route cache. The router is more secure but slower. With v6 I can reach 900mbit
It affects other devices as well. We were running a CCR1009 with v6 at work, bought a CCR2004 with v7 both to have a spare for that important router but also to test v7 with easy rollback (plug the old one back in), but now the CPU load is noticably higher (1.5-2x or so) even while that new router is advertised as much more powerful. It still is below 10% so I do not worry, but it is not what one hope would happen…
It’s a myth and misconception. The current V7 kernel utilizes a more modern network stack that has the cache divided into distinct layers, achieving greater efficiency where it’s best needed.