Hi Guys

i am not too sure where to put this topic so please forgive me if i have put it in the wrong forum section

i have a Routerboard 1200, RB2011UAS-2HnD-IN and a RB2011iLS-IN. i would like to know what the user amount limit is on each routerboard as in how many users can each unit handle at any given time.

I'll give a scenario if it will help explain my query:

RB2011UAS has ether1 set as the internet link. ether 2 - 10 is setup up with dhcp server pushing ip addresses to each port as in dhcp1 links to ether2, dhcp 2 links to ether 3 and so on. when i have 144 users connected to the 2011 my internet connection (fibre) starts lagging heavily and i have to disconnect the 2011 in order to get the line stable again. which routerboard out of the 3 i have is better suited to handle a high user load? im looking at roughly a user load of anywhere from 20 users up top 600 connectedf at any given time.

which routerboard out of the 3 i have is better suited to handle a high user load?

The RB1200

im looking at roughly a user load of anywhere from 20 users up top 600 connectedf at any given time.

What's the internet bandwidth? Are you running queues?

I would invest straight on a RB1100AHx2 or a CCR.

Hi Pukkita

What's the internet bandwidth?

Fibre line is a 100MB.

Are you running queues?

as for queues.... you got me on that one as i am still teaching myself on mikrotik routers. i honestly have no clue as to queues or where i would begin to look at queues or how to configure them

Are you using hotspot? Or plain DHCP?

using plain dhcp. ideally i want to get all ether ports working off one dhcp but until i can determine what the user connection limit is i cannot go ahead with the rest of my plan. i would like to have one point for all connections than the 3 points i have

To have all your users working from 1 dhcp server you need either to:

1. Set IP address on etherX, create dhcp server on etherX and connect cable from etherX to switch and all connect all your users to that switch.

or if you don't have/need/want switch

2. Create bridge, in Bridge>Ports add all ether ports where your users will be connected (for example ether2, ether3, ether4, etherX...)
Add IP address on bridge you just created and create DHCP server on that same bridge.


Also, to avoid single user taking all your bandwidth and causing problems for other users you should implement Queues. Queues is Mikrotik facility that limits bandwidth per user (to be precise per IP address), it can also be configured to limit bandwidth per number of other criterias (such as port, type of traffic...), but it takes some understanding to configure it properly.
If you want your users to equally share available bandwidth look into https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Q ... Q_Examples but there are many other ways to limit users bandwidth, but until you decide what exactly you want to accomplish it's difficult to give any advice.

locodog already said how would that be accomplished.

I stand by my advise, RB1200 will be probably the best performing board of the three.

Let's look at it's block diagram:
If you were to use just the RB1200 without an additional switch, most optimized setup will:

- Create a switch group on ether1-5, (make ether2-5 slaves of ether1) connecting any devices that need to intercommunicate amongst theirselves on them.

- Use any of ether6-8 (direct dedicated CPU lane) for Fiber.

- Use any of ether6-10 for sectors or other devices who shouldn't communicate between them.

Hi Pukkita/Locodog

thanks for the advice and help

@locodog, my plan at this point is to pull away from using 3 mikrotik routers and drop to 1 mikrotik router. i have 6 TPlink EAP units i want to control from my second pc with the EAP controller for better management instead of walking to each unit to do changes. i only took over from the guy that was at the client about mid march and i have managed to get the whole system to a point where it is alot more stable than the daily latency issues i was having. i had to reconfigure the RB2011 from scratch in order to get to the point i am at today. the RB1200 is a unit i can configure if needs be but it runs a radio link from it as a backup connection. the fibre i have isnt connected directly to the RB1200 which is what i would like to do but i have 2 networks to work with where i am and the fibre has vlan tagging on it and i am still trying to figure out how to set the RB1200 for those vlan tags.

@Pukkita, your block diagram is great and helps me understand the setup, and apologies for not having said this, ether 2 and ether 4 on the RB 1200 are damaged so are unusable. with your diagram and suggested setup could i say ether 6-9 be used for connecting any devices that need to intercommunicate amongst theirselves and use ether 1,3,5 for the fibre link with the valns?

ether 2 and ether 4 on the RB 1200 are damaged so are unusable. with your diagram and suggested setup could i say ether 6-9 be used for connecting any devices that need to intercommunicate amongst theirselves and use ether 1,3,5 for the fibre link with the valns?

No, 1,3,5 are still the best ports for devices intercommunicating. If you need more ports, you can either connect an external switch (or external RB switch group) to 1, 3 or 5 (creating a switch port with 1,3,5).

i had to reconfigure the RB2011 from scratch in order to get to the point i am at today. the RB1200 is a unit i can configure if needs be but it runs a radio link from it as a backup connection.

You can reconfigure RB2011 to run that backup link (if it cannot be kept on the RB1200), and use the suitable switch group (gigabit or 100BT) to link to RB1200 switch group.

the fibre i have isnt connected directly to the RB1200 which is what i would like to do but i have 2 networks to work with where i am and the fibre has vlan tagging on it and i am still trying to figure out how to set the RB1200 for those vlan tags.

Just add vlans interfaces with proper ID on the ether (ether6-8 best) where fiber uplink comes.

Tip: you can swap configs from RB2011 and RB1200, start by exporting the config of each:
Drag and drop the .rsc files to your desktop.

Then by using a text editor (Notepad++ on windows or Sublime Text on mac have ROS syntax highlighters) you can adjust ports so that neither 2 or 4 are used on the RB1200.

To Migrate one of the RBs, reset it to no defaults, connect to it via mac-winbox, then copy & paste the .rsc file on a New Terminal.

Hi Guys

Sorry for replying so late. i got my hands on an RB3011 which is working very well. thanks for all the help.