I am brand new to RouterOS and Mikrotik in general. I live in a remote area with limited internet. I am fortunate and have a Bonded T1 (3Mbps) and a DSL line (business account, no resale clause in TOS). In an effort to compensate myself for the cost of this connection I would like to share this connection with neighbors in my community.
I live at the TOP of a very large mountain and have line of sight to several houses up to 2 miles away… I would like to setup an antenna to broadcast my internet using Mikrotik…
What do I need?
Is mikrotik a good solution for what I want to accomplish?
Hi There,
Yes, Mikrotik is indeed a good solution to what you want to do.
I would reccomend as a starting set up for the AP at your house:
1x RB433UAH
1x R5H
1x 5Ghz wideband 90degree Sector Antenna (e.g. PacWireless)
As well as an enclosure, pigtail, POE injector and a shortish LMR600 cable (1.5metres or so) from the pigtail to the antenna
If the clients are more than 90 degrees apart from each other, add another 90degree sector, R5H, pigtail and LMR600 cable to cover them.
For the CPE’s you can use Ubiquiti Nanostations if you are on the cheap, or if you want something a lot more flexible go for the RB411 (no need for A on CPE) with R52 in a 5Ghz enclosure antenna (e.g. RooTenna, ARC Wireless)
I would definitely recommend the RB411’s if your budget can stretch for them, they have a lot more functionality with Mikrotik AP’s than a Ubiquiti
You cannot go too wrong with the above gear, the RB433UAH has 3 usable radio slots, 3 10/100 ethernet interfaces, plenty of CPU power as well as a Micro-SD slot for proxy data and USB ports that can be used for a variety of useful purposes.
I hope this helps,
Andrew
Thanks for the suggestions…
ANTENNAS:
My clients are in fact more than 90* apart from each other so for the antenna I have purchased a Sector Array… It consists of 3 x 120* Sector antennas that covers 360*. Each individual Sector can be tilted up/down 20*… This array comes in a configuration where each Sector Antenna has its own antenna N-connector so I can hook up 3 APs to it — This requires me to build 3 APs (1 each to feed each antenna) ?
ACCESS POINTs:
For the AP — Can I use 1 x 433Ah using 3 mini-pci radio cards (1 for each sector antenna)? OR Would I be better off to use 3 x 411AH routerboards (1 AP for each Antenna?)
ALSO — Should I go with the R52 mini-pci card from Mikrotik OR am I better off with the Ubiquiti X2 (more powerful?)?
Client CPE:
I am planning to use the Ubiquiti NanoStations as they are cost effective…
NETWORK PLANNING???
So either way, if I go with the single 433 AP w/ 3 radios, or the three 411 APs – the AP (or APs) will be fed by my vlan capable switch which will be mounted in the basement… What should I use for the backend of my system for routing and QoS? Right now I have my T1 and DSL connection running in a “load balance” configuration using a FreeBSD router/firewall that I built…
DO I NEED TO BUILD A MIKROTIK ROUTER FOR USE ON THE BACK END??? OR am I okay to just control QoS etc… On the AP itself???
My goal is to be able to easily provision new customer. I will have a few extra CPE and would like to do MAC address filtering to allow/disallow users on my WiFi network. FURTHERMORE, I would also like to be able to throttle their bandwidth depending on how much $$$ they pay each month… i.e. a user that pays $20/mo gets the minimum 768k down/ 256k up plan – where a user that pays $45/mo would get 1.5mbit down, 768k up.
So i guess I am wondering if I am going to be able to control all of this from the AP — or do I need to build a router to place BEHIND the switch to control all of this???
THANKS FOR THE HELP GUYS!