Routerboard alternatives?

TheRift

TheRift

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I was looking at this little machine:

http://routerboard.com/index.php?showProduct=52

Routerboard RB450G. I like this thing because...

- gigabit ports
- good RAM amount
- ridiculously fast CPU for what it is intended to do, but I like over-spec'd gadgets :D

Any alternatives to this out there that have the following extras?

- mini-PCI slots
- wireless module
- maybe a USB port

There are other routerboards that have mini-PCI, wireless and/or USB, but then they come with just 1 ethernet port, or just 10/100MBit ports.

I just want a new toy to replace my Linksys WRT54GL and the D-Link wireless AP (the Linksys wireless didn't work so well with the laptop here). Looking for something like this to handle firewalling and perhaps proxy as well and that isn't the size of or as power hungry as a PC.

I have seen embedded PC boards (PC/104 variety), but really not interested in having a graphic card on my router. :D
 
What about a RB433UAH
http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=49_34&products_id=842

The universal wireless access point - The RB433UAH features two USB 2.0 ports which allow you to connect external storage devices, 3G modems and more.

The microSD card slot can be used for storing web proxy cache, log files, user manager and dude databases.

The 680MHz Atheros MIPs 24K CPU with a 64KB/32KB instruction/data cache is probably one of the fastest CPU used in low cost wireless access points. The three Ethernet ports and three miniPCI slots give you ample data interfaces to put the big CPU power to work.

- Specifications -
- CPU: Atheros AR7161 680MHz network processor
- Memory: 128MB DDR SDRAM onboard memory
- Ethernet: Three 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet ports with Auto-MDI/X
- MiniPCI: Three MiniPCI Type IIIA/IIIB slots
- Serial port: One DB9 RS232C asynchronous serial port
- Power consumption: 3W without extension cards, up to 10W when using USB. Maximum – 32W, 16W output to cards
- Power over Ethernet: 10..28V DC (except power over data lines)
- Power jack: 10..28V DC. Voltage monitor
- Dimensions: 10.5 cm x 15 cm, 137 grams
- Operating System: MikroTik RouterOS v3, Level5 license
 
Ah soz, i missed the part about the gigabit ethernet port. Otherwise this baby will do it for you
 
Thanks for checking on that. It seems like they'd have the complete product if they had the RB450G with 2x mini-PCI slots. Could then run a wifi adapter and a storage adapter as well. You could have it as a AP, gigabit switch and broadband router with NAS, firewall and proxy. The 9-port item is just about there, but missing gigabit and maybe the faster processor.
 
I picked up a Routerboard RB450G this afternoon.
The idea is to replace my Linksys WRT54GL and get some small Routerboard wifi goodie to spice things up. :)
Currently have a WRT54GL connected to ADSL using a Netgear DG834G in bridge mode acting as a modem. Wifi disabled on the WRT54GL since the time my wife complained about signal and a hooked up the D-Link DWL-2100AP.
Been playing with the routerboard all evening. I have PPPoE dialing up and authenticating fine, but some funny nonsense going on in the routing so no internet traffic on the LAN yet.

This routerboard is a complex little toy. :)

Anyway, I digress. Does anyone maybe know what happened to ZyXel? I see they have a small USB DSL modem that has an ethernet port which would an ideal candidate for replacing the DG834G (it can become a real router again) and it wouldn't consume too much space.
 
Grasmuis said:
You need to add a rule on your firewall

/ip firewall nat add action=masquerade chain=srcnat
Click to expand...

Hmmm... that apparently also gets done through the config app. Went IP > Firewall > NAT then selected srcnat, output was my pppoe connection, and action was masquerade. So that command above does masquerading on srcnat irrespective of out interface? Or am I looking at alot more reading to be done here? :D
 
TheRift said:
Hmmm... that apparently also gets done through the config app. Went IP > Firewall > NAT then selected srcnat, output was my pppoe connection, and action was masquerade. So that command above does masquerading on srcnat irrespective of out interface? Or am I looking at alot more reading to be done here? :D
Click to expand...

With that rule, yes, but your can also specify an interface to NAT. I have mine setup that i NAT's traffic comming from one port, but no others.

I also have multiple outgoing pppoe connections and policy route ( using address lists ) the various connections...
 
Cool. I used the management tool and set srcnat with action masquerade and output interface as the pppoe one. I'll add that rule in and see how it goes. Then I can begin some reading. Too many features on this little machine. :) And it's fast. :D
 
The Rift: Why do you need gigabit ethernet? The RB will only route X bits per second, and this falls WAY short of gigabit, and depending on configuration, it sometimes can't route even 100 Mbps. Also, 100 Mbps moves a lot of data very quickly (45 GB/hour) why would you need more? Just wondering.

Obelix: Could you give more detail on how you do your routing. Are your address lists stored in a separate file? do you dump the file to the RB or do you copy and paste the routes. I think I need to update my local routes regularly, but it's time consuming with copy and paste. If the routes were in a file it would be easier.
 
Drunkard #1 said:
Obelix: Could you give more detail on how you do your routing. Are your address lists stored in a separate file? do you dump the file to the RB or do you copy and paste the routes. I think I need to update my local routes regularly, but it's time consuming with copy and paste. If the routes were in a file it would be easier.
Click to expand...

From the menu ip->firewall->addresslist
put in a list name and an ip or ip range like 192.168.1.0/24 - that will create your list(s)

then you create a mangle rule that adds a routing mark to each packet where the source is the routing list name.

then under ip -> routes -> rules create a lookup rule for your routing mark.

then under ip -> routes add a default route ( 0.0.0.0 ) to your destination ( one of your pppoe interfaces ) and add the routing mark to it.

I'll copy out my relevant config tonight when i get home and paste it here.

PS - one of my fellow wuggers did the same thing for splitting local and international. He first tried adding the routes, but the rb got very tired after a few 50 or so routes. He then used an address list and routed based on that and its working fine.
 
Drunkard #1 said:
The Rift: Why do you need gigabit ethernet?
Click to expand...

The 450G has a high powered cpu for exactly that purpose. If youre using it as a switch like i think the op is doing, then i'd want it as fast as possible. On mine i have a NAS box on the other end of one of the ports. You try hashing 3TB of movies on 100MB link and see how long it takes. So, YES i need my 1GBE link
 
Drunkard #1 said:
I think I need to update my local routes regularly, but it's time consuming with copy and paste. If the routes were in a file it would be easier.
Click to expand...

I suppose if i was lazy enough i could write a script ( ROS has its own built-in scripting language ) that will read a file from the ftp server and add it to the address list.

PS ROS v4 is rumoured to have LUA as its scripting engine......
 
Thanks guys. The info helped. That NAT on srcnat did it. I'm not entirely sure, but I also recreated the pppoe on the interfaces section and not the PPP section and removed the "Add default route", but I think they show up on both places.

I found some spare time at the office today ... so I did some office work and for the rest of the day I was checking out the microtik wiki. :D

Found this:

http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Routi...aped_traffic_through_3_separate_adsl_accounts

Moving on to the openvpn config now. Due to the limitations on my linksys WRT54GL I had to use wget to fetch the certs. There's plenty space on this thing to put that stuff now.

Currently only using one ADSL account, but might opt for international/local split later on. On the linksys the local site range list is downloaded and from there the routes are created (using Gatecrasher's script). Would such a thing be possible on the RB once the pppoe is connected?

Going to check out and test the firewalling and get incoming SSH to work as I want it so I can do my tunneling through squid from the office.

Also, the guys at the office are eyeing this thing out to replace the pfsense firewall boxes. Quite impressed.
 
rellik said:
Ah soz, i missed the part about the gigabit ethernet port. Otherwise this baby will do it for you
Click to expand...

Dang... on hindsight I think I should've gone with the RB433UAH. :) But I've used the gigabit ports a ton this weekend transferring between the old machine and the new one, and I have to say they really do come in handy.

But that USB and 3x mini-pci would've been perfect for a backup drive, proxy server and integrated AP 'cos right now I'm looking for the wireless part of my network and could've put it all into one. Going to try and get a small linksys AP at some point.

My wish from mikrotik: RB450G with USB and mini-PCI, or RB433UAH with 5-10 gigabit ports. :) Or the RB493AH, but with 256MB RAM, USB and gigabit ports.

Wonder why they don't just make one fully kitted one considering they can do each feature already on other boards.

Just a question about the RB450G... mine says level 4 license, but all details indicate it should be level 5? Do they fix this free of cost or what?
 
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