Been looking at a future purchase of a Mikrotik RouterBoard RB3011 for home. Lucky for me I noticed someone selling one of these units 2nd hand and thus was able to purchase a year old model at a reduced price compared to the new retail price.
More information here on this router.
Been a little busy the past week, but did notice Mikrotik RouterOS 6.41 released on 22nd Dec 2017.
It has some significant changes that I wanted to highlight from the changelog and quickly show the changes in the winbox interface.
!) bridge – implemented software based vlan-aware bridges;
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Interface/Bridge#Bridge_VLAN_Filtering!) switch – “master-port” conversion into a bridge with hardware offload “hw” option;
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Switch_Chip_Features#Bridge_Hardware_Offloading!) detnet – implemented “/interface detect-internet” feature;
https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Detect_internet
The switch changes is the one that got my interest, as this is the one that I have known and used since I first started to use Mikrotik hardware. So now I have to get my head around the fact it has changed.
You can see from the images above that Master Port is no longer used and/or available under your interfaces to group interfaces together as switched ports. This is now done differently.
Upgraded one of my routers and I think I understand how this change impacts future configurations and setup process.
It’s taken me a few weeks, but I finally have our Spa connected to our wireless network.
Unfortunately I worked out very early on that the wireless module in our Spa couldn’t see the main house wireless. So the plan was to install an external wireless access point. That task was completed some weeks back using a Mikrotik wAP.
Today I finally used the SVLink iOS application to configure things (as the Android version sucks). It’s now connected to our wireless network. This means I can now control all the Spa functions for the application on our phones. So you can increase the Spa temperature before getting home and it will be ready to use at that perfect temperature.
Screen capture below from the iOS application.
Australian residents can purchase Mikrotik hardware from my favourite supplier in Geelong – Duxtel. Highly recommend them.
Today the installation of the Mikrotik wAP (Model: RBwAP2nD) was completed.
As per pictures, the unit was installed externally. In my case I installed it outside under my alfresco area. It’s about 4m away from my Spa, which is the device that I need to see the wireless network.
Available for purchase in Australia from Duxtel. (Product Link)
The Mikrotik wAP (Model: RBwAP2nD) I purchased arrived today.
This unit was purchased so I could mount an external 2.4Ghz wireless access point so my Spa wireless module can access it to see internet.
Available for purchase in Australia from Duxtel. (Product Link)
As you will have seen in one of my previous posts (here), I have a Mikrotik RB450G which I purchased and have been playing around with.
I must say I am a complete convert, I really love the hardware. The amount of things it can do and how configurable it is really makes it a great bit of hardware.
It brings back the memories of when I would run a old PC as a linux router/internet gateway when I could run mrtg on it and constantly have a record of link utilisation etc. This is done on the Mikrotik too, and I love it.
I just purchased a TP-Link TD8817 in the last few days, to have this permanently hooked up to the Mikrotik RB450G and will run my ADSL via bridged modem. Mikrotik is handling everything. When I move and eventually get an FTTH service, I will just need to reconfigure the Mikrotik accordingly.
I still have lots to understand about RouterOS, but so far its working very nicely and doing everything I need of it.
My plan is to play around with queues and what not further, so I can put the kids devices into a group that gets a percentage of bandwidth available, however for now I am marking packets and assigning them priorities to keep the link quick for stuff that needs it. Like web browsing and email.