Hi David.
You’ve asked quite a few questions in one place which is pretty hectic to try and answer. In truth it actually would be pretty near impossible for one person to answer them all in one go!!!
- To test your internet speed you need to know a couple of real quick things . . . I’m assuming you know your internet speed and if that’s a guaranteed connection speed. Read up on contention ratios if your at all unsure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contention_ratio.
You then need to set up a simple queue grabbing all the traffic and set a limit on the traffic WAY in excess of what is currently going through. This should give you the speed on the internet, if you’ve set up the queues correctly.
This will tell you what your able to pull and push ‘to the internet’ . . .
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How do you identify ‘slow’ points in your network? Well this is hard to answer because it could be the actual hardware (are you running 10GB/s through a 100mb/s switch?!) or it could be poor network layout. They way I personally test and I’m not a trained expert is to move through the network one piece at a time, find out what EXACTLY each piece is doing and question if it’s doing EXACTLY what is should EXACTLY as it should. If it’s not then I take it out.
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How do you manage users? How many users doing what? Are you running a 500 terminal render farm for 1000 users doing video editing wired and wireless across a 200km field, do you have 10 computer users (wired only) who are browsing the web for facebook and email only?!
3.b. Would WPA2 work? Well it could but if you have 200AP’s over 200km of buildings and you have to enter each password in manually then that’s not going to work, if you have one AP then that could work. However most people like to centralise their workload and run user management on a single solution. WPA won’t work for wired connection authentication, but you haven’t said if this is important.
I set up my mikrotik RB’s using command line and I keep a command line copyable text file so if I need to reformat and reinstall the board I just copy from the text file. There is no backup / restore function as seen on many consumer products but mikrotik assume their professional products are being set up by professionals who should be able to either script their setup (or file it like mine) and set any AP up in a matter of minutes that way. In addition I’ve had AP’s up and running for several years without needed the backup and restore function and the only reason I needed to log into them was add / remove functions.
It sounds like your learning the same way I did and that is the hard way. You can get your organisation to send you on Mikrotik courses which would really help, additionally there is a mikrotik book on sale http://www.routerosbook.com/.
The best thing to do in my mind is simplify your network completely by asking yourself a number of questions, which can direct you further.
What EXACTLY is “it” you are trying to do?
How EXACTLY do you see “it” working?
What EXACTLY do I need to do EXACTLY “it”?
Obviously this may give you more questions, but will direct you more specifically.
I.e. “I need to manage 250 users from a central location, limiting internet access to specific users, specific times and specific sites / ports, using ONLY 35 wifi AP’s across 5000sq meters of office space. I will use DHCP server and Garden wall. I will need an RB600 for user manager and internet sharing, 35 RB411 with R52h cards and 2 24port 100Mb/s switches.”