Best wireless router for office setup?

ongarite

Looking to get a reliable wireless router that can handle around 20 simultaneous wireless connections without any hiccups for an office environment.

Must also have QOS so data traffic can be prioritised over other traffic. The router will be used in a setup with heavy data upload at certain times of the day.

Any suggestions welcome..

PogMoThoin

You may need more than one if it's a big area. Check out the Mikrotik RB751, see this thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056805249

They have a newer one just out, not sure if they are available yet tho
http://routerboard.com/RB951G-2HnD

vigos

PogMoThoin, you must have shares in this company!

Was on the lookout for a new router myself and was going to go the openwrt/dd-wrt route but saw your recommendations on here for the mikrotik.

Anyway its looks the part alright and have ordered one of the new ones the http://routerboard.com/RB951G-2HnD .

whowantstwoknow

If I'm reading this right the Mikrotik RB751 (or its upgraded version) would do the sort of stuff I alluded to in my thread

Its for a home LAN, so is there any need for the newer model? I assume it can function as a AP as I dont really need the router function.

vigos, any pointer to where you purchased the unit?

Thanks
W.

PogMoThoin

Yes, that would suit your needs perfectly, you'd need to stop it routing though and disable DHCP. You can get them on Ebay

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/MIKROTIK-Routerboard-RB951G-2HnD-WIRELESS-5xPORT-GIGABIT-ROUTER-RB-951G-2HnD-/170976792941?pt=COMP_EN_Routers&hash=item27cf02d16d#ht_4307wt_1037

vigos

I ordered it from the eBay seller mentioned above, only ordered yesterday and its already been shipped so all bodes well

Ctrl Alt Del

Hi,

I could be wrong but 1000mW is way above the EU regulations !??

Please correct me if i'm wrong !

PogMoThoin

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

Hi,

I could be wrong but 1000mW is way above the EU regulations !??

Please correct me if i'm wrong !

It's CE certified

whowantstwoknow

Hi Pog,

Got the unit last nite. Jesus there's more settings on this yoke than lights on an xmas tree!!! :-)

Didnt get it working but heres what I did:

1) Added it to the network. The HTPC is connected via the units LAN connection
2) Logged in via browser.
3) Switched it from router to bridge mode. The unit receives its ip address from the original router running DHCP (via the WLAN connection)
4) Gave it the same ssid & pwd as old unit. Set the admin pwd

The wifi devices seem to connect, but dont have any internet access. This is backed up by the HTPC, it has no internet access either. Is the above correct? Is the option "use ACL" the feature which provides the MAC filtering?

Thanks
W.

PogMoThoin

whowantstwoknow wrote: »

Hi Pog,

Got the unit last nite. Jesus there's more settings on this yoke than lights on an xmas tree!!! :-)

Didnt get it working but heres what I did:

1) Added it to the network. The HTPC is connected via the units LAN connection
2) Logged in via browser.
3) Switched it from router to bridge mode. The unit receives its ip address from the original router running DHCP (via the WLAN connection)
4) Gave it the same ssid & pwd as old unit. Set the admin pwd

The wifi devices seem to connect, but dont have any internet access. This is backed up by the HTPC, it has no internet access either. Is the above correct? Is the option "use ACL" the feature which provides the MAC filtering?

Thanks
W.

My understanding is that you were connecting to the original router by cat5 cable, is this right?

If so, use any port, 2-5 to connect it to the original, not port 1 which could still be set as Wan and trying to route. You need to disable the DHCP server so the original router handles all DHCP (and routing to the internet).

I'm not sure what setting it to AP disables or whether it stops it trying to route. To make it a full AP with 5 port switch you will need to stop it routing, to do this disable Nat by disabling the masquerade rule in ip-->firewall-->Nat (may already be disabled) and you need to assign the interface to the switch in interfaces by setting ether1-gateway to have a master port of ether2-master-local (may already be done).

You're biting off more than you can chew with ACL's, move along, nothing to see here yet

whowantstwoknow

PogMoThoin wrote: »

My understanding is that you were connecting to the original router by cat5 cable, is this right?

If so, use any port, 2-5 to connect it to the original, not port 1 which could still be set as Wan and trying to route. You need to disable the DHCP server so the original router handles all DHCP (and routing to the internet).

I'm not sure what setting it to AP disables or whether it stops it trying to route. To make it a full AP with 5 port switch you will need to stop it routing, to do this disable Nat by disabling the masquerade rule in ip-->firewall-->Nat (may already be disabled) and you need to assign the interface to the switch in interfaces by setting ether1-gateway to have a master port of ether2-master-local (may already be done).

You're biting off more than you can chew with ACL's, move along, nothing to see here yet

Hi,

Thanks for that. I ended up resetting the configuration and starting over again. I dont know if by switching to bridge mode does the things above, but that NAT stuff was disabled and the interfaces seem to suggest the above (but what do I know!!).

FYI: I have my router connected on port1 (WLAN) and it seems to be working fine.

PS: How does the PoE work? At the moment I have it up and running with the mains adapter...

Thanks
W.

PogMoThoin

whowantstwoknow wrote: »

PS: How does the PoE work? At the moment I have it up and running with the mains adapter...

That's fine, Power over Ethernet is an alternative to using the power supply, some switches can do PoE.

FSL

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

Hi,

I could be wrong but 1000mW is way above the EU regulations !??

Please correct me if i'm wrong !

You are not wrong.

Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) in the EU is limited to 20 dBm (100 mW).

The reason for limiting the power in the unlicensed spectrum is to enable wireless devices to work in a relatively small area without interfering with adjacent areas.

If I lived in a high density residential area and my wireless connection was being drowned out by a 1000mW router I'd be onto Comreg like a shot.

PogMoThoin

FSL wrote: »

If I lived in a high density residential area and my wireless connection was being drowned out by a 1000mW router I'd be onto Comreg like a shot.

Good luck with that. Comreg are only interested in collecting money and then clapping themselves on the back

vigos

The 1000mW can be reduced if necessary they seem to describe it on the forum haven't tried it yet myself

http://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=59608

Hoping to get mine setup over the weekend, hopefuly won't take too long!

whowantstwoknow

Hi all (/Pog)

Dont know if you can help, but my unit has started to play up. Devices cant connect wirelessly, though on my smart phone the wifi analysier shows a signal. The phone says is authenticating or obtaining an ip address. When I try to connect to the browser admin interface I cant. I'm left with rebooting the device. I've upgrade the firmware but no luck...

Thanks
W.

PogMoThoin

whowantstwoknow wrote: »

Hi all (/Pog)

Dont know if you can help, but my unit has started to play up. Devices cant connect wirelessly, though on my smart phone the wifi analysier shows a signal. The phone says is authenticating or obtaining an ip address. When I try to connect to the browser admin interface I cant. I'm left with rebooting the device. I've upgrade the firmware but no luck...

Thanks
W.

Might be best to do a full factory reset and start again. Be sure take a backup when you have it all setup and running right again

Have you tried the new release candidate software releases (v6.0rc11 )? I'm getting much better wireless performance from them

whowantstwoknow

Havent upgraded to v6.0rc11 yet,

but I'm looking to promote the RB951G-2HnD as my main router. See here for the background of the change.

As you can see I havent got much of a response!!!. To date I've played about with the configuration (from a factory reset) and have set these tasks:

1) Provides typical security for the home network (I think!!)
4) Create port forwarding rules (excluding to broadcast addresses)


as for these:

2) Allows the TA612V to function as VoIP/ATA with QoS - I thought it might be wise to move this device to a DMZ. I've followed the wiki examples and given the device a static IP address behind the DMZ interface, but I cant seem to connect to the device's admin page. Again setup firewall filters as per number examples I've seen...

3) Enable UPnP on the RB951G (used by the WHS setup) - Again, followed the wiki examples, but when I use the WHS 2011 remote access configuration wizard it keeps saying your router isnt UPnP enabled. Though it worked on the old TA612V router.


Appreciate any helpful advise...

W.

smee again

There's a huge amount of info in the other thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056718566

For your ATA router, DMZ wouldn't be the best way to go about it. You shouldn't need to do anything it should work fine on DHCP, mine does. Add a rule for remote management of the device. For this example we'll use 192.168.88.99 for the ATA router. Lets say the management port is 8080 (make it that if it's not).

/ip firewall nat
add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat comment="Ata router mgmt" dst-port=8080 protocol=tcp to-addresses=192.168.88.99 to-ports=8080

You may need to enable the SIP service-port, it's a helper for NAT of SIP connections /ip firewall service-port
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:IP/Services#Service_Ports

To enable UPnP you set it to the bridge, then it will be applied to both wlan and ether2-local-master as they are assigned to this bridge (and thereby ether3-5 as they are slave to the master port).

/ip upnp
set allow-disable-external-interface=no enabled=yes show-dummy-rule=no
/ip upnp interfaces
add interface=bridge-local type=internal
add interface=ether1-gateway type=external