We currently have a small RB951 with a captive portal which is working great. We have about 50 clients attached to just a 20Mbit internet connection.
We’d like to get to upgrade to something more powerful to get the following functionality:
bandwidth distribution
proxy/caching server
blocking functionality by site, ip, type and/or content (facebook, torrents, streaming, etc)
Bandwidth hogging client logging
No need for integrated wifi
More available physical ports would be nice but not 100% necessary
I understand that most options are avaiable in the base models, but we like to have some more cpu power. The new range of Routerboards looks promising, but I kind of lost sight because there’s loads of them.
The RB850Gx2 would be a nice upgrade with its dual core PPC CPU.
Personally I would wait for the RB3011. It will be more expensive than an RB850Gx2, but the ARM CPU is clocked at 1,4 GHz and should be noticeable faster than other MikroTik devices, even compared to the RB850Gx2.
Thanks for that, I’m definitely keeping that option open! I know how stupid this may sound, but visually the RB850Gx2 looks a bit dated. On top of that our budget is about 2-3 times higher. That being said, would you still choose the RB850Gx2 (or the RB3011 for that matter)?
Thanks for your advice! However the model you’re endorsing doesn’t seem to be available in our area (SE Asia).
Our budget is in the $300-500 range.
Our distributor has the following available all within our budget:
CRS-226-24G-2S+RM
CRS-212-1G-10S-1S+IN
CCR-1009-8G-1S
RB-1100AH-X2
RB-2011UiAS-RM
RB-2011UiAS-2HnD-IN
RB-2011UiAS-RM
What would you choose if price is not an issue? I’d rather spend all of the budget and have overkill rather then saving money.
Some extra questions:
I assume a CRS is not a valid option for our needs?
The RB-1100AH-X2 has been around for quite some time. We’ve considered it last time but went for the cheaper
RB951-2n instead. If I’m not mistaken the RB1100AHX2 was quite a high end machine at that time. Is it still the best option today considering the other available (newer) machines?
Our internet connection is currently being abused so I’d like to implement some serious proxy and firewalling. Are these things particularly heavy on the CPU?
I feel pretty secure in setting everything up. The only thing I want to avoid is to buy a wrong (as in: underpowered) model.
I would go for ccr. It’s more powerful and mikrotik started development of the Dude that should be running on tilera but not on other platforms. If you can afford ccr go for it.
@jarda - the only thing that keeps me of the CCR is the fact that the CRS226-24G-2S+IN offers more physical ports. I’m afraid however the CRS might not offer me the stuff I summed up in my original post (captive portal, firewall, bandwidth control etc).
I’ve been crawling the internet quite some time now to find an answer to this. I’m still left with the same question: is the CRS ‘just’ a smart switch or does it offer everything what my old RB951-2n offered, plus more speed and more ports (well minus the integrated radio of course). Loads of Youtube videos in Brazil, Russian and Thai. Googling for ‘CRS226-24G-2S+IN review’ doesn’t give anything usefull.
So what is a CRS? Is it a router? A switch? Both? Merely a switch with enhanced functionality or a router with an extra ‘bunch’ of switchable ports. If it would run SwOS it would be straight forward. But it runs RouterOS.
@ste - I was expecting that about the RB-1100AH-X2. After all it sure was the workhorse ~2 years ago. I’m just wondering because in Tech today’s mid-range is often faster than yesteryear’s top-model.
I do understand my concerns probably look rather stupid for somebody who understands Mikrotik’s line up. Big menus at a restaurant often confuse me also
CRS is more of a switch. Routing features are a bonus, for one or two ports. Using it purely for routing is not a good idea, the CPU is not powerfule enough for so many ports in routing mode.
We just use a single gateway to the modem. One hardly can call that routing.
We do however need all the rest, captive portal, radius, firewall, mangle, logging, etc. Basically everything to keep control on clients bandwidth without cloughing up the CPU. Also no VPN will be used.
All had been said, but personally speaking RB1100AHx2 will do you a lot of good
RB1100AHx2 is 1U rackmount Gigabit Ethernet router - with a dual core CPU, it can reach up to a million packets per second and supports hardware encryption!
It has thirteen individual gigabit Ethernet ports, two 5-port switch groups, and includes Ethernet bypass capability. 2GB of SODIMM RAM are included, there is one microSD card slot, a beeper and a serial port.
The RB1100AHx2 comes preinstalled in a 1U aluminium rackmount case, power supply and power plug, assembled and ready to deploy.
Having budget and wanting to spend it for overkill? It’s ccr. Wanting more ports and not so much power and sacrifice the future option to run dude? 1100ahx2. Forget the CRS.
