MikroTik is my first option
February 23, 2019
MikroTik is my first option
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with MikroTik Routers and Switches
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
Netgear is as inexpensive at MikroTik, but not reliable and not as performant.
Cisco products are expensive compared to MikroTik, but as reliable.