Hi @anav:
I had a chuckle at both of these ideas. Thanks!
Why anyone would want to use pfsense instead of a hex unit which is a most amazing performer for its cost and size and winbox is about the best gui config I have ever used on any device…
I agree that MiktroTik produces incredible hardware.
Alas, that is not enough. For years they have gotten criticism about having a difficult and opaque user interface to manage their hardware. I was shocked when I installed 7.2 that the look and layout had not changed and improved. What seems to take seconds to figure out in DD-WRT or OpnSense I can not figure out in RouterOS to save my life (at least without resorting to extensive research and/or help requests).
I have a number of other reasons. In part:
- Winbox is Windows ONLY.
- While it apparently runs well on Wine, that is persona non-grata on my systems.
- Virtualbox has some limitations and complexities (see my comments just above re: Netinstall)
- Winbox is not open source.
We gladly pay for the hardware – so MikroTik, please open the software, it’s no cost on your devices anyway.
[ I recognize, of course, that RouterOS is in fact sold in some cases to people who wish to build their own routers. I am not knowledgeable about what percentage of MikroTik’s sales this represents, but I would be surprised if it approached even 5% of the value of MT hardware sales. ]
While I am not a developer myself, based on experience in many other similar endeavors I submit THIS (opening the source) would likely get the administration software onto Linux quickly and would likely improve the interface VERY quickly. MikroTik could still easily control the “official” version.
3. Webfig is not a “first class citizen” in managing MikroTik hardware. (at least it is never acknowledged as such whether in the forums or by MikroTik staff)
4. Other inexpensive hardware is (for all intents and purposes) just as power efficient, reliable and even quicker than, for example the hEX-S. I have OpnSense running on a couple J4125-based boxes in the lab and the power draw is negligible (as I recall, <2.75W). OpnSense responds instantly and is so well (intuitively) laid out, it practically guides you through setting things up. Within an hour I felt more comfortable than after two years of occasionally (and sometimes extensively) interacting with Webfig (or Winbox)
This is the reason I traded the hEX-S to a friend who has increasing knowledge of RouterOS. ( Alas, he is unavailable for about a week and that led me back here when I had trouble with the APs. )
5. OpnSense has inbuilt methods to register with various dynamic DNS providers. MikroTik has their own service which works well, but taken to the logical extreme, I don’t trust a hardware manufacturer to know my networking hardwares’ place on the open Internet. The underlying software is not open source (see above) – who is to say that they don’t have a back door in. Using a third party dynamic DNS service helps keep MikroTik at arms length.
A workaround is apparently possible ( reply taken from a post with which you helped me a year ago ) . . .
. . . but what a pain in the rear!
6. BTW – that VLAN project was abandoned because RouterOS was so *(&^@#$ opaque and I didn’t want to spend weeks asking for help here, which it (unfortunately) looked towards. I think I will have it up and running fairly quickly in OpnSense when I really get started. I reserve the right to be wrong! 