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> Their firmware strategy seems to be going for implementing every feature under the sun, so I'd be a bit concerned about the robustness of some of the edge cas

by ilyt 3y ago

> Their firmware strategy seems to be going for implementing every feature under the sun, so I'd be a bit concerned about the robustness of some of the edge cases, but no problems yet. in what way ? If it is just "let's expose every feature of linux kernel underneath and add some" I wouldn't be worried. I think (not sure) RouterOS reimplemented a lot of networking for whatever reason instead of just using Linux facilities, and that bug would suggest that, as otherwise it would also show up in vanilla linux (I guess it could be in userspace tool not in kernel?) > On a tangentially related note I recently found another manufacturer that is very similar to MikroTik: Teltonika. How's CLI? The one thing that makes me steer away from Mikrotik is its CLI. It is different enough from anything else networking and different from linux commands that I have zero intuition for it. So I just use plain linux My go-to was PCEngines APU2 but AMD no longer supports/produces CPU it uses so it is near-discontinued

bastard_op 3y ago
I just recently migrated myself personally from Fortigate to Opnsense, where I did look a bit into Mikrotik as #network irc folk tend to love it. Mikrotik to me seemed just odd as well (particularly emphasis to use a thick client app), and I've installed and run almost every (other) major vendor out there. In the end I opted not to use yet another completely foreign dialect router/firewall, at least opnsense is freebsd, which I can work with ie close enough to linux and entirely accessible. Vendor rep is important. I really don't trust Fortinet much anymore in moving off them, when they have security problems, they're usually pretty bad/catastrophic, and you NEVER want to NOT have updates on their kit if facing the internet (which mine was eos). Cisco isn't much better. I don't see Mikrotik in the news very often, which I'd take as a win at least and have compelling enough hardware/pricing I'd see this is a relatively small thing soon patched.
- stephen_g 3y ago
  I've also been using Opnsense in some networks recently, I like it so far. Some of the networks I work with have some older Mikrotik gear (which the Opnsense appliances are going to replace), I've just never really quite liked it - it has every feature under the sun but the interface always just seemed a bit janky to me. I might be judging a book by its cover but the software has just never felt solid...
mastax 3y ago
> in what way ? For example, this router has a GPS antenna. https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/RUTX11_GPS https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/RUTX11_GPS Which of course means it can forward the NMEA data to a TCP server, and also cache it, and also log it to a file, and you can configure this all per-sentence type, and you can enable an HTTPS server to provide it, and it supports multiple AVL protocols for vehicle location tracking, and it has a rules engine, and a geofencing system, and it can trigger GPIO pin signals. I'm pretty sure it has an RTCM client as well but I can't find it mentioned on the wiki right now. All of which is awesome if you want to use it as an integration point within a larger system, like I want to, assuming that those features actually work. I do not know either way. These routers tend to be implemented with A proprietary GUI and a few proprietary daemons on top of OpenWRT and a bunch of bundled open source daemons. The Teltonica appears to be the same. This can work well but it gives me the heebie jeebies. > How's CLI? It's an OpenWRT shell, basically. Presumably they have commands to interact with whatever configuration system the GUI is using but I haven't checked.
- somat 3y ago
  You missed the main reason to have gps on your router. you can have a stratum 1 time source.
- ilyt 3y ago
  Huh, they really went all the way with it. Pretty neat. Really looking like one point shop for everything trucker/trucker company might want.
kortilla 3y ago
> If it is just "let's expose every feature of linux kernel underneath and add some" I wouldn't be worried. This is a bad mental model to use for Linux. The level of maturity generally has a direct relationship to the size of the user base. Stuff like MPLS support and tons of VRFs is not nearly as polished as something like basic routing+nat. This extends beyond reliability to things like tooling for debugging. Some of the kernel networking features are nearly impossible to debug when they break without going into the kernel code and reading the source.

by ilyt 3y ago

bastard_op 3y ago

I just recently migrated myself personally from Fortigate to Opnsense, where I did look a bit into Mikrotik as #network irc folk tend to love it. Mikrotik to me seemed just odd as well (particularly emphasis to use a thick client app), and I've installed and run almost every (other) major vendor out there. In the end I opted not to use yet another completely foreign dialect router/firewall, at least opnsense is freebsd, which I can work with ie close enough to linux and entirely accessible. Vendor rep is important. I really don't trust Fortinet much anymore in moving off them, when they have security problems, they're usually pretty bad/catastrophic, and you NEVER want to NOT have updates on their kit if facing the internet (which mine was eos). Cisco isn't much better. I don't see Mikrotik in the news very often, which I'd take as a win at least and have compelling enough hardware/pricing I'd see this is a relatively small thing soon patched.

stephen_g 3y ago
I've also been using Opnsense in some networks recently, I like it so far. Some of the networks I work with have some older Mikrotik gear (which the Opnsense appliances are going to replace), I've just never really quite liked it - it has every feature under the sun but the interface always just seemed a bit janky to me. I might be judging a book by its cover but the software has just never felt solid...

mastax 3y ago

> in what way ? For example, this router has a GPS antenna. https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/RUTX11_GPS https://wiki.teltonika-networks.com/view/RUTX11_GPS Which of course means it can forward the NMEA data to a TCP server, and also cache it, and also log it to a file, and you can configure this all per-sentence type, and you can enable an HTTPS server to provide it, and it supports multiple AVL protocols for vehicle location tracking, and it has a rules engine, and a geofencing system, and it can trigger GPIO pin signals. I'm pretty sure it has an RTCM client as well but I can't find it mentioned on the wiki right now. All of which is awesome if you want to use it as an integration point within a larger system, like I want to, assuming that those features actually work. I do not know either way. These routers tend to be implemented with A proprietary GUI and a few proprietary daemons on top of OpenWRT and a bunch of bundled open source daemons. The Teltonica appears to be the same. This can work well but it gives me the heebie jeebies. > How's CLI? It's an OpenWRT shell, basically. Presumably they have commands to interact with whatever configuration system the GUI is using but I haven't checked.

somat 3y ago
You missed the main reason to have gps on your router. you can have a stratum 1 time source.
ilyt 3y ago
Huh, they really went all the way with it. Pretty neat. Really looking like one point shop for everything trucker/trucker company might want.

kortilla 3y ago

> If it is just "let's expose every feature of linux kernel underneath and add some" I wouldn't be worried. This is a bad mental model to use for Linux. The level of maturity generally has a direct relationship to the size of the user base. Stuff like MPLS support and tons of VRFs is not nearly as polished as something like basic routing+nat. This extends beyond reliability to things like tooling for debugging. Some of the kernel networking features are nearly impossible to debug when they break without going into the kernel code and reading the source.