I will show u guys some documentation of what im doing right now. I have some hotspot businness service area with my friend. Hopefully this blog can be usefull to u guys who have the same problem. :)
Mikrotik is a router / device that can do many thing. like forwarding packet, doing some qos (bandwidth limiting) to a certain service. So u can download while streaming / gaming. Doing some nat (network address translation) to forward packet / change source or destination ip.For example if you want to host a web server u just need to use the dst-nat to forward packet from your public ip to computer with private ip in your area. Or having some service like voip , irc , proxy, streaming server,etc. As for mikrotik, it also support authentication (radius server / user man) to provide hotspot area billing system as decribed later in my blog.
You can either buy a routerboard (hardware) that already have mikrotik installed on the device, or u can install the mikrotik OS to a personnal computer. If u choose to install the mikrotik to a pc be sure to read this link first : http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Supported_Hardware. And also if you choose to install the mikrotik to a pc u need a license to keep using mikrotik os. On routerboard you dont need to buy the license because its already built in.
The advantage of routerboard:
- built in license (no need to pay for the license anymore).
- voltage usage not too high (saving money for electricy).
- small size.
The disadvantage of routerboard:
- if u want to upgrade u must buy another hardware. (not like pc which u can buy part separately and upgrade it anytime).
Above is the example of Mikrotik Routerboard (RB751U-2Hnd)
you can see many different kind of routerboard version with different hardware at http://routerboard.com/
You can see the specification of mikrotik routerboard from its name.
RB751U-2Hnd means routerboard with
5 ethernet port
1 wireless
U usb port
A Advanced (license higher than 4 )
for my suggestion if u have 10 user u can use rb 750.
and if u have 10- 20 user u can use rb750g.
more than 20 user , use rb 1100ah / rb1000.
I already tested 3 place (about 40 user ) with rb450g as the core router resource always at 90 - 100%.
The advantage of pc based mikrotik:
- powerfull hardware. Can be upgraded anytime.
- can add as many lan card (but u must buy separately)
The disadvantage of pc based mikrotik:
- need to pay more for electricy.
- big size.
- need to buy license.
- need to buy lan card.
that's it. my simple introduction to a mikrotik router os. on the next session i will show u the basic configuration of mikrotik.
