Hi, i am a poor newbie (big user of Cisco), but many friends recommended me to microtik router, and i have seen lot of network operators deploying this soltuion (MTN for instance);

My question is simple, we are an ISP and we need to provide to a camp, Internet for 4500 users with offers like 512kbits to 1Mbits per user.
The network is ethernet wired , and there is no need of ppoe session(no dslam, no switrch etc).
I would like to go with a power router 2242 , this engine seems powerful and moreover compatible with billing solution (aradial).

Our provider will provide 600 Mbits of bandwith, and maybe more later if demand increase.

Can the "power router 2242" handle 4500 users, do traffic shaping for them (CIR and MIR defined also) ?
How much traffic and bandwith it can manage ?
The ISP link will be on a Cisco ASR1006, no bgp on the power router 2242 .

Thanks lot for your answers .

I have never used them before, but both RB1100s and RB1000s can do 400 users under 10% utilization for PCQ (per user CIR, no bursts). They are weaker hardware than a PowerRouter.

Save yourself a couple bucks and buy directly from the source. Portwell NAR-7090.

I haven't benchmarked the performance of these machines, but LinkTechs performed some raw throughput tests with bonded interfaces and was apparently able to achieve 5.9gbps. Who knows what the performance will be after you add your QoS rules. Maybe someone with more QoS experience could shed some light on that.

Save yourself a couple bucks and buy directly from the source. Portwell NAR-7090.

I haven't benchmarked the performance of these machines, but LinkTechs performed some raw throughput tests with bonded interfaces and was apparently able to achieve 5.9gbps. Who knows what the performance will be after you add your QoS rules. Maybe someone with more QoS experience could shed some light on that.

Have you tested those with RouterOS? I am just about to start looking for a platform that can do 15,000+ users in Hotspots.

Have you tested those with RouterOS? I am just about to start looking for a platform that can do 15,000+ users in Hotspots.

That's the exact same device as the PowerRouter 2200 series. Look at the pics.
http://mikrotikrouter.com/2200.asp

The PowerRouter 732 is nothing more than an Axiomtek NA-820.

I can say that blake don't work at the powerrouter company..

We currently have a PR732 continously routing 100mbit/s with simple queues and OSPF running 650 routes.

CPU is around %30

Well sincerely i do not know what to say ?
This is cool if the cpu is fine, but what about the forwading witch engine ? Is the power router able to handle 800 Mbps of global traffic and split for 4500 users in order to split them ? ALso thenetwork is wired so internet surfing will be heavy (u tube gameing voip etc) . Maybe we can buy two 2242 and make a load balancing config(so each one handle 2000 users) but well ?

4500 users kill powerrouter 2242. Save your money and buy one of HP or IBM servers with one or two Xeon 56xx
If you dont need 14 Gigabit ethernet - you better buy HP or IBM.
If you need pptp or ppoe autorization - you better buy 2 servers.
In my network 1500 users with firewall and queue eat 30-50% of Core i7 cpu with 400 Mbit internet traffic.

Guess I should chime in here.

-- The PowerRouter 2282 has been tested with 100 meg circuit and 15,000 PPPoE users..

-- The PowerRouter 732 is NOT a 820 ONLY, we have had a number of people call in with 820s that have crashed. Just cause it may boot up on a 820, does not mean it will RUN on a 820. The PowerRouter 732 has over 4+ years of product development, testing and production sales. It is more hardware than the 820, it is more settings specific configurations, bios settings, versions etc.

-- The 2242 can handle 4500 users, depending on what you are doing. User counts are not really a good number, however the example I will use is that we have customers running the PowerRouter 732 with 4 GigE internet connections averaging around 900 to 1.5 gig of traffic, full BGP tables with well over 8000 IPs behind it. So maybe your configuration on your hardware can't handle that, maybe you have IRQ issues and thats why it uses so much of your i7 CPU.

How about this, simply put, if you want to go cheap, buy a server, and stick software on it. It may work out great for you, if it does, awesome. However, if you want to unbox a product, plug it in, and configure it, just like you would with Cisco, Juniper, plus not have to worry about it if it dies 3 months from now, guess what, but something with the PROVEN track record.

OK in our case we have 600Mbits of trafic, then it seems that i will need 2 power 2242 and do load balancing.
Hope that 2 of them can make traffic shaping for 4500 users (add also dhcp and dns functionallity and authentification/redirection to billing system).
What about installing the license on IBM server, is that hard ? Or better buy something assebled like power 2242 or even 2282 (8 CPU) ?

A Power Router 732 can handle 600 Meg of traffic, it depends on what you are DOING with that, witch will make the difference!

DHCP, no prob, DNS, I would think a dedicated DNS server would be better than the simple caching system RouterOS has.
Hotspot can take up some CPU, but most people don't know how to optimize that so it don't.

As far as installing a license, thats simple, buy it and install.

ON the 2242 or 2282, we have stock on those units, so no waiting!

Thanks, in fact the DNS which will be used the one of the provider (so simple redirection). I think also that 2282 can, do traffic shapping for 4500 users, if not then wewill try to load balance with 2 2282 routers.
Anyway if some peolple have e^xpreirenced this type of config, any suggestions are welcome.

The PowerRouter 732 is NOT a 820 ONLY, we have had a number of people call in with 820s that have crashed. Just cause it may boot up on a 820, does not mean it will RUN on a 820. The PowerRouter 732 has over 4+ years of product development, testing and production sales. It is more hardware than the 820, it is more settings specific configurations, bios settings, versions etc.

So you develop custom silicon for the 820, and custom MikroTik kernel modules?

2 gmsmstr - i can give you access to this router and you see that CPU load. This server don't have IRQ issue and config issue.
I have more than 20 powerful router, from C2D cpu to Xeon 5504 (2 Xeon cpu on Supermicro Server) and i know what software future eat more hardware resources.
And believe me, 4500 users will kill powerrouter 2242 whith shaper and firewall setup. But in CPU usage on mikrotik you see 25-30% of load ))) and maybe on your powerrouter 732 with bgp an 8000 users you see 50% of cpu load ?? (because mikrotik still cant show full cpu load).

2 yoyoyoyoyo - if you buy 2 powerrouter 2242 and balance users on it - it may work, but i still suggest to buy two server with Xeon 56xx (one server for backup, or balance users on two servers ), and later you can upgrade server with second CPU.

I know you are saying you can guarantee it, but again, there is more factors than # of users. Again, we have a 2282 running 15,000 users! Why, cause of the rest of the rules etc that they put into it. So # of users is really not a good "benchmark".

yes, if on router will be only forwarding, without queue, firewall, bgp... i can say that powerrouter 2282 can manage 30000 users without problem. But with queue and firewall - its hard to belive that 2282 can manage 5000 users without problems.

And yes - # of users is not benchmark, but number of users + queue and firewall (for each user) and tariff speed (for each user) - is benchmark.

Sorry, i was not clear.
I have planned to get a 2282 for 4000 users,
only traffic speed, qos (MIR and CIR) but no FW (a checkpoint box will be installed). + DHCP of course, microtik will make redirection to billing system.

But i think with 2 2282 as load balancing it will be ok.
I mean i hope so.