Sat Nov 13, 2021 5:16 am
So, as a follow-up to this, I still can't figure out how to use this in bridge mode, but DMZ is ok when it works. Verizon seems to have many problems with DNS lookup, so do Cloudflare DNS and Google DNS. You will probably need to run a local caching DNS server from the root DNS servers on something else because everything randomly breaks when Mikrotik tries to use the provided or public DNS resolvers. Not Mikrotik's fault, but still unusable sometimes.
As to the M2100, this thing is so broken; it's basically not useable as anything but a WiFi 6 hotspot most of the time. It violates the USB standard on negotiating power requirements and experiences random brownouts and lockups with nothing showing up in their "logs". While the Mikrotik will "talk to it," it will never work correctly to power it. So far, I can't even get this to work long term, except with a ThunderBolt 3 port operating as USB C 3.1 10G with up to 15W of power that somehow isn't tracked or reported by the operating system. I'm currently waiting on a CoolGear Power Delivery Injector; it mangles the USB negotiation and upgrades the connection to USB 3.1 10G PD2 60W. Currently, it's the only product I can find that does this. And availability, much like every other tech item, is highly random.
Ultimately, I'm replacing this hotspot with a Quectel RM502Q-AE in USB3 mode, whenever I actually get one shipped (more severe product availability problems). The mounting case for it unsurprisingly needs a power injector to bump things from 4.5W to 9W. I'd love to use the RM510Q-GL instead, but that requires figuring out how to set up 39 GHz antenna modules that also seem to be a miracle to find a source for. 5G, in general, seems to be a technical mess for anything outside of using tether mode on an iPhone 13 or a later generation Android phone. Since this normally makes USA cell phone carriers pretty upset, normally, this isn't an option. On the software side, Mikrotik has pretty much gotten every detail completed for this in Router OS v7. However, I've read some of the initial card setup procedures can be a mess for something not officially supported. The AT command set for initial setup is available in the Quectel forums, but good luck getting anything official out of Quectel without a business relationship.
Ideally, we would be using MIMO in an 8x8 configuration at 39 GHz for something like this, and yes, that would be pushing over 5gbit of WAN network traffic. If Mikrotik wanted in on this market, they would have to modify their routers to offer at least PCIe3.0 1x (USB3 may not be able to handle these speeds as info on MBIW driver throughput speeds is pretty limited), 7W on the M.2 port 3.3V power spec (May have to be bumped to 9W), use a 3052 card mounting format, and leave room for a heatsink with a fan that needs to be placed on the WAN card. Since 39 GHz or 28 GHz antenna modules are about as rare as gold and very difficult to properly install, I wouldn't expect this to be a user-added addition. I'm also not sure how tolerant the MHF4 card antenna connectors are when handling mechanical vibration or shock when installing the router in something like a trailer or vehicle, let alone shipping it across the world.