I’ve started the process of building myself a big router using a PIV with 512MB RAM and 2 x RB-18
I plan on using a level 4 licence on the unit.
The router will have 6x R52H and 6x XR-5
3 of the R52H will be used with 90degree sectoral for 2.4GHz coverage
3 of the R52H will be used with 90degree sectoral for 5GHz coverage
1 XR-5 to our one data centre
1 XR-5 to our other data centre
4 XR-5 to other high sites
Needless to say, this is costing quite a bit of money and is going to be an important part of our company’s business.
I’m already getting daily backups and daily voltage reports via email from my high sites that run on 433AH’s or 600’s. So that side of things I should be able to easily configure on the new machine.
The things I need help with are:
GPS
SMS
Temperature
Booting the unit
Web proxy
GPS - which USB el cheapo GPS can I buy that I can plug into a USB port to get accurate time for the unit? I’m thinking of running the NTP server and using that time for my servers and other routerboards.
SMS - I started a thread on this a while ago. From that we learned that RB’s don’t work with Wavecom GSM modems. I then built a router using a PIII board and tried to use Wavecom GSM modem with that. I tried all the possible settings and failed. There’s something in the timing that the MikroTik developers need to look at.
So now the question is, can I take a Nokia GSM PCMCIA card like this one http://europe.nokia.com/A4143544, use an PCI to PCMCIA card and use that to send SMS messages? I want to set up some scripts so that I can get SMS messages if there are problems.
Temperature - I see that if you run RouterOs on Intel (like I did with my Test PIII) there are other variables available under /system health. Are these variables available on all “computer” boards, or are some boards better supported than others? Getting back to the previous paragraph. I’d like to be able to send myself an SMS if the aircon where to pack up.
Booting - Do I use a USB stick or a CF card with an IDE adapter? What are the pros and cons of each?
Lastly, web cache - I have an RB433AH at each location where our wireless network connects to the outside world. These boards are running transparent web proxy and have Transcend 4GB Micro SD cards. I’d like to get disc caching going on the new unit. What’s the best way to do this? Add more RAM and cache to that? Add another CF card and cache to that? Add a hard drive and cache to that? I have an Adaptec Ultra wide SCSI host adapter with 3 x 18GB 10K rpm Seagate drives sitting in a cupboard. Can I use them?
The site may be high up, but there’s decent power and I’ve put aside a 1.8KVA UPS to protect this unit.