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I really like Mikrotik hardware (https://mikrotik.com/products https://mikrotik.com/products) for home routers and wireless access points. Their products are n

I really like Mikrotik hardware (https://mikrotik.com/products https://mikrotik.com/products) for home routers and wireless access points. Their products are not very expensive, the hardware is great, and the OS is highly configurable.

zxcmx 9y ago
pcengines APU2 is also a pretty sweet platform: https://www.pcengines.ch/apu2.htm https://www.pcengines.ch/apu2.htm Also for homelabbers the https://www.supermicro.com/products/system/Mini-ITX/SYS-E300-8D.cfm https://www.supermicro.com/products/system/Mini-ITX/SYS-E300... is like the "ultra-NUC", really small but 2x10 gbe NICS built in, plus IPMI.
- illamint 9y ago
  How loud is that little Supermicro, though?
  - zxcmx 9y ago
    Yeah definitely noisier. https://tinkertry.com/supermicro-superserver-sys-e200-8d-and-sys-e300-are-here https://tinkertry.com/supermicro-superserver-sys-e200-8d-and... shows about 60db(!) with fans at full blast during spinup but 42db or so when dialled down. So not too bad. The difference with IPMI tho is you can safely put them in the attic or wherever.
- ThrowawayR2 9y ago
  The Xeon D's are nice (8 physical / 16 logical cores for less than 45W for the D-1541) but I wouldn't recommend buying Supermicro's pre-assembled machines for home lab use; they are noisy. It would be better to buy their bare motherboards instead (e.g. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV-8C-TLN4F.cfm http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV...) and self-install it into a low-noise mini-ITX case instead.
tarellel 9y ago
I setup a couple of Mikrotik routers at my work and it's done wonders. The CCR (Cloud-Core Routers) are absolutely amazing, but probably overkill for most home users. But considering when I first started at my job the network was an absolute nightmare. Because they were using a NetGear Nighthawk AC1900 (N7000), for around 70-80 users at any given time across 3 separate buildings. Considering every desk has 2 or 3 connected devices (Computer, VoIP phone, and some people also have laptops as well, plus everyone wants to connect their cellphones to the wifi). Now they treat me like a god dam wizard in disguise. They went from massive internet congestion, slow speeds, and phone calls always dropping (VoIP), to smooth sailing. The previous IT guy still works there, but he's more of a media guy. Now, for the most part I do general IT support and a ton of web development for company, without a ton of oversight.
- amiga-workbench 9y ago
  I did the same when I joined my last job. They were running everything off two BT business hubs. I've put both of them into a brain-dead modem mode, with one as a failover WAN, bought a Mikrotik RB2011UIAS-RM (which has been wonderful, 100% uptime), replaced the 10/100 switches with gigabit equipment and installed a set of four Ubiquiti WiFi access points around the building. We've got a nice guest wireless network for our clients with token based auth and a really reliable and consistent office network. I recently bought a Mikrotik HAPlite for home which has also been great, I can VPN in and check my security cams without any horrifying cloud service getting a livestream of my home.
mbesto 9y ago
How is Mikrotik's software? I find UBNT's to be excellent for someone who doesn't want to do everything via CLI.
- isostatic 9y ago
  Some things are better via the gui (web or a windows exe that's wineable), but I prefer ssh access. I like the fact everything is included, ospf, bgp, pim, mpls/vpls, you name it it's there (aside from decent user management). I used to run bgp at home but moved to ospf recently
  - cdancette 9y ago
    Yeah it's pretty impressive to have all of those protocols included in such "low cost" routers (less than a hundred dollars). Why do you need bgp/ospf for your home network? Are you just experimenting? I used to manage the network of my school campus, we connected about 1000 persons, and ospf was working great! We didn't use mikrotik though, we used extremenetworks routers
    - isostatic 9y ago
      Multiple subnets to keep the wireless domain, wired domain, protected domains and dmz apart. I used to run the backbone over wireless when I rented (couldn't run cat5 through the walls), so didn't vlan everything back to a single router. OSPF makes it far easier to manage those, but I did used to run BGP as it made more sense to me when I learned about routing protocols and was more forgiving of wireless issues (which could have been me using the wrong OSPF mode to be honest) In addition to the normal fixed infrastructure, I have a cluster of 5 cheap mikrotiks that I use for a little experimentation with things like failover time, but that's mainly for work purposes.
      - colanderman 9y ago
        Mikrotik does in fact support VLAN bridging over WiFi (only between Mikrotik devices), unless you're running in CAPsMAN mode. When I switched to CAPsMAN, I ended up using VPLS for my wireless backbone, thus giving me proper layer 2 isolation, without fragmentation (MPLS not being limited by the L3 MTU).

zxcmx 9y ago

pcengines APU2 is also a pretty sweet platform: https://www.pcengines.ch/apu2.htm https://www.pcengines.ch/apu2.htm Also for homelabbers the https://www.supermicro.com/products/system/Mini-ITX/SYS-E300-8D.cfm https://www.supermicro.com/products/system/Mini-ITX/SYS-E300... is like the "ultra-NUC", really small but 2x10 gbe NICS built in, plus IPMI.

illamint 9y ago
How loud is that little Supermicro, though?
- zxcmx 9y ago
  Yeah definitely noisier. https://tinkertry.com/supermicro-superserver-sys-e200-8d-and-sys-e300-are-here https://tinkertry.com/supermicro-superserver-sys-e200-8d-and... shows about 60db(!) with fans at full blast during spinup but 42db or so when dialled down. So not too bad. The difference with IPMI tho is you can safely put them in the attic or wherever.
ThrowawayR2 9y ago
The Xeon D's are nice (8 physical / 16 logical cores for less than 45W for the D-1541) but I wouldn't recommend buying Supermicro's pre-assembled machines for home lab use; they are noisy. It would be better to buy their bare motherboards instead (e.g. http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV-8C-TLN4F.cfm http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/D/X10SDV...) and self-install it into a low-noise mini-ITX case instead.

tarellel 9y ago

I setup a couple of Mikrotik routers at my work and it's done wonders. The CCR (Cloud-Core Routers) are absolutely amazing, but probably overkill for most home users. But considering when I first started at my job the network was an absolute nightmare. Because they were using a NetGear Nighthawk AC1900 (N7000), for around 70-80 users at any given time across 3 separate buildings. Considering every desk has 2 or 3 connected devices (Computer, VoIP phone, and some people also have laptops as well, plus everyone wants to connect their cellphones to the wifi). Now they treat me like a god dam wizard in disguise. They went from massive internet congestion, slow speeds, and phone calls always dropping (VoIP), to smooth sailing. The previous IT guy still works there, but he's more of a media guy. Now, for the most part I do general IT support and a ton of web development for company, without a ton of oversight.

amiga-workbench 9y ago
I did the same when I joined my last job. They were running everything off two BT business hubs. I've put both of them into a brain-dead modem mode, with one as a failover WAN, bought a Mikrotik RB2011UIAS-RM (which has been wonderful, 100% uptime), replaced the 10/100 switches with gigabit equipment and installed a set of four Ubiquiti WiFi access points around the building. We've got a nice guest wireless network for our clients with token based auth and a really reliable and consistent office network. I recently bought a Mikrotik HAPlite for home which has also been great, I can VPN in and check my security cams without any horrifying cloud service getting a livestream of my home.

mbesto 9y ago

How is Mikrotik's software? I find UBNT's to be excellent for someone who doesn't want to do everything via CLI.

isostatic 9y ago
Some things are better via the gui (web or a windows exe that's wineable), but I prefer ssh access. I like the fact everything is included, ospf, bgp, pim, mpls/vpls, you name it it's there (aside from decent user management). I used to run bgp at home but moved to ospf recently
- cdancette 9y ago
  Yeah it's pretty impressive to have all of those protocols included in such "low cost" routers (less than a hundred dollars). Why do you need bgp/ospf for your home network? Are you just experimenting? I used to manage the network of my school campus, we connected about 1000 persons, and ospf was working great! We didn't use mikrotik though, we used extremenetworks routers
  - isostatic 9y ago
    Multiple subnets to keep the wireless domain, wired domain, protected domains and dmz apart. I used to run the backbone over wireless when I rented (couldn't run cat5 through the walls), so didn't vlan everything back to a single router. OSPF makes it far easier to manage those, but I did used to run BGP as it made more sense to me when I learned about routing protocols and was more forgiving of wireless issues (which could have been me using the wrong OSPF mode to be honest) In addition to the normal fixed infrastructure, I have a cluster of 5 cheap mikrotiks that I use for a little experimentation with things like failover time, but that's mainly for work purposes.
    - colanderman 9y ago
      Mikrotik does in fact support VLAN bridging over WiFi (only between Mikrotik devices), unless you're running in CAPsMAN mode. When I switched to CAPsMAN, I ended up using VPLS for my wireless backbone, thus giving me proper layer 2 isolation, without fragmentation (MPLS not being limited by the L3 MTU).