Item: MikroTik Routers and Switches
Rating: 10
Author: Adrian Takacs

Overall Satisfaction with MikroTik Routers and Switches

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a Managed Service Provider, Mikrotik is our first choice when we need to build a new network, upgrade existing networks, or replace faulty routers and switches. Since using Mikrotik, we have not had any downtime across our infrastructure and we have been very happy with the capabilities of the routers and switches. It allows us to monitor the bandwidth on any ports and implement traffic shaping.

Pros and Cons

Pros

When you are creating a firewall filter rule on a router, the amount of options you have is incredible. For example, most other firewalls or routers will not give you the option to select a connection state, a packet size, specify the packet content etc.
You can use the routers in transparent mode, when your router is placed in front of a customer firewall or customer router, allowing only the allocated public IP address to communicate with the Internet and allowing you to allocate a certain bandwidth or speed.
The lowest end model routers have the same operating system, features as the more expensive ones making simple for us to test configuration on cheap equipment before commit to buy the more expensive one. The licensing model is very simple as well and easy to understand.
The cheapest routers also come with one SFP port, which is great as it is allowing us to connect fiber straight into it. No extra PoE injectors and converter are needed, reducing the number of points of failure.

Cons

Some of the wiki articles have not been updated or are not accurate enough. We spent a couple of days trying to find an example of implementing a mobile IPSec client solution. But once this has been implemented, it has been solid (always worked). A bigger community would help, and I am finding it hard to find the time to contribute to these articles.

Return on Investment

We have managed to implement our own network infrastructure to service a small business center at a very low price, and our investment has been returned in less than 6 months.

Alternatives Considered

Sophos SG Firewall Appliances, NetGear ProSafe Managed Switches, Cisco ASA and Cisco Ethernet Switches

I am managing lots of different networks for our customers, and the Sophos firewall has been causing me a lot of frustration lately. For every feature, there is another license you need to buy. Not as reliable as the MikroTik routers, too many updates or just service stops.
Netgear is as inexpensive at MikroTik, but not reliable and not as performant.
Cisco products are expensive compared to MikroTik, but as reliable.

Other Software Used

Solarwinds Take Control (formerly SolarWinds MSP Anywhere), NAKIVO Backup & Replication

Likelihood to Recommend

MikroTik routers are well suited for any size customers that require a router which is inexpensive and provides all the features their network administrators need to secure and monitor their network.
I have not found a model that comes with an ADSL model, and I would not consider them for such network connections.
The MikroTik switches' advantage over all competitors is that they are inexpensive with lots of SFP ports, making them ideal for a server room and connecting your storage. Layer 3 is capable as a standard.

Comments

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MikroTik is my first option