MikroTik RB951G-2HnD

Advantages: Workmanship, made in Latvia
Extensive customization, you can do anything
Very affordable price, twice as cheap as ASUS
The signal power is adjustable, but the maximum gives 1W (which is even too much)
The ability to use a 3G modem as a reserve

Disadvantages: I can’t even imagine what can be indicated in the flaws, I would like to write that it will be difficult for beginners, but no, there is a Quick Setup for them, which is not much different from the ASUS settings.

If we do not assume that there is no possibility to connect a remote external antenna in this model (for example, for a "dacha" network to the attic) - then there are simply no flaws.

Comment: The piece of iron has simply colossal settings, I once had an ASUS WL500 and I naively believed that it was a decent home router, then there were Linksys, and it was the same impression, but it turned out that all of these were toys, toys with a price that didn’t correspond to them functional.

Now if someone asks me what to take for the house - definitely Mikrotik.

Just give an example, I will describe in two words, one enthusiast at one provider forum published a script for a micro-camera that periodically visits the Roskomnadzor website, downloads a list of banned sites from it (which they publish to providers to block them), and then puts it to currently in the repository, after which the routing is configured in microtic, which for all sites that are on the list is made by a different route, through a proxy server or anonymizer. As a result, there are no bans for the router user, and there is no need to configure any proxies on the local machines!

What other router for such a price can do something like that?

On the router itself, you can raise the VPN server, make the necessary probes, configure several providers at least as a reserve, even for balancing, in general, the possibilities are practically unlimited. The router regularly supports seamless roaming. The transmitter power at maximum power is so strong that far on the street (about 500 meters) you can see a signal for 5 antennas, although such power is excessive, the phone or laptop can see the network, but this distance is simply not able to overcome due to their weak transmitters. And again, with such power to connect via wi-fi being next to the router will be problematic. Therefore, you can not think about the power of the router, believe it will cover a significant territory.

Advantages: Anything you want to work

Disadvantages: they are not

Comment: I set up right after the purchase: PPPoE for 3 minutes, after 7 minutes WiFi worked with guest access and a shaper on it, after 20 minutes iptv worked on any (!) Devices in my apartment. At the moment, the problem of dlna server (PlexMediaServer) broadcasting from PC to PS3 remains unresolved. I look at the films on Sonya, but these are already some Wishbacks and showdowns with multicast)
PS devices will only advise everyone of this brand.dinky, tplinki, zuheli and everything else for me is now a bucket of bolts

Advantages: - SMB level for the price of hamster routers. Is that the performance for this segment is too small, but in terms of functionality - a full SMB.
- stable work 24/7
- long-range WiFi
- flexibility of settings
- command line

Disadvantages: I would like two USB (3.0) ports, 5 GHz WiFi for the future and a webmord without minor bugs. But this is a niggle, especially since I don’t use gui right now.
I did not find serious bugs and flaws.

Comment: Very pleased with the comments of comrades who didn’t like the piece of iron just because they didn’t have enough skills to adjust. Here we must understand that the device has its own, I would say geek niche, and an ordinary user will hardly be able to master and adjust it. If there is no desire to learn, read manuals, and the words gateway, mask and command line cause fear - this piece of iron is not for you. Save your nerves and money.
For a seamless setup of knowledge at the CCNA level is more than enough, but you still need to read the manuals, because RouterOS - “this is not you”, but there is nothing difficult.

YOTA 4G LTE modem (Swift / WLTUBA-107) with DHCP, DNS, NAT picked up in an hour via webfig. Everything works like a clock already for 3 months in 24/7 mode. But it is more convenient to finish and set up via the command line, because there are certain flaws and misunderstandings in the webfig, for example, I have not found an analogue ip pool edit ...
The device is very flexible in setting - with the help of scripts and metarouter it is possible to solve almost any problems ... Another thing is that it is not always possible to launch such solutions into production, but for the house it is very much nothing. The router is able to realize the most sophisticated fantasies of network maniacs. :)
I recommend to buy.

Advantages: Squeezes out from the provider all that he can give from traffic. Internet reservations when using multiple communication channels. Network instability does not care for him, even though 110v network, bp provides excellent.
Via Web, the interface tuned to Rostelecom and Spark in 5 minutes, including the distribution of Wi-Fi. The power of Wi-Fi is amazing, in an apartment with capital brick walls the level is 90%, not lower. On the street, quietly sitting with a tablet for almost half a kilometer. IPTV Through Multicast gives a bang. Never hung up and did not require a reboot.

Disadvantages: There are no connectors for external antennas, so the whole microdistrict with an Internet would provide it. No more.

Comment: I am delighted with its performance and functionality. How a standard router is configured in 5 minutes. Nothing complicated there, but then you need to smoke thematic forums. The possibilities are endless.

Advantages: It feels like ALL
High power Wi-Fi transmitter
Stability

Disadvantages: It is very difficult for a person who has experience with networks at the level of installing ordinary routers using the Wizard or Quick Setup.
Someone will scare the English language interface and log journal

Comment: I bought a 4G Megaphone M150-1 modem. The old Zyxel Keenetic lived with him, but it was unstable, for 10 days he fought along with the support, changed it, reconfigured it - it did not help. I bought TP Link 3420. He tuned in immediately, but rebooted after running a test on Speedtest.net, the support did not help, although he responded quickly.

Tired, I went to the edge of the city, bought a microtic, put in a modem (before that I switched it to 4G Modem only) - he decided, registered the APN biline (modem was unlocked and Simka beeline) - he connected. And then the dancing began. I had a Linux network past as a student. But I could not configure the distribution of the Internet through a raised modem interface.

Googled, just in case, I changed it with the latest firmware. It turned out all simple. You need to enter the IP-Firewall-NAT settings and raise masquerading through the modem interface. EVERYTHING. It works stably, uptimes are large, the speed does not cut (TP Link was cut before hanging).

I configured NTP Client further so that the time was correct (yes, nothing is configured in this router by default), Watchdog Timer (pings the Google server 8.8.8.8 periodically and reloads the router if pings do not pass - you don’t have to go to reboot, if all the same will turn on), fine-tuned WiFi for my conditions, reduced the transmitter power from 1 watt to 0.1 (decibels from 27 to 17).

Very satisfied. I am sure that I will forget now about the configuration and instability of the 3G-4G router until the moment I want to cheat something new for my home network. Well, I still need to configure my backup biline modem ZTE MF823. Judging by the infe network everything is configured. By the way, should I connect two modems through a hub so that there are two channels - the main and the backup one? I am sure that Mikrotik will cope with this!

Advantages: The high power of the Wi-Fi signal, the processor can be overclocked to 750 MHz, 128MB of RAM and 128HDD, there is a METAROUTER on which you can raise the DD-WRT and inside its Asterisk and Print server. Huge functionality, high stability, POE support, full gigabit on the network (110 MBytes per download and download from 2008-2), via Wi-fi, the maximum speed that was obtained on a laptop 92 Mbit / s (total traffic for that moment for a jump of 198 Mbit / s). From Ineta over L2TP, 93 Mbit / s through torrent (provider BeelineCorbina), while the sites are not stupid. Wi-Fi covers a very large area, we had to reduce power so that the neighbors did not break the grid with a brutal. It is possible to connect the COM port, there is a platform for the LCD display connector, I suspect that it is possible to connect SD cards via gpio.

UPDATE after reconfiguring Wi-Fi speed increased to 200Mbits for downloading and 150 for downloading from a laptop. Glitches do not have dosichpor, I hope and will not

UPDATE2 raised PXE server with RDP client and several images (installation of WIN of different versions, LINUX, Acronis, Kaspersky LiveCD), everything plows without complaints. Several tunnels L2TP and IpSec, work without cliffs, connect instantly.

Disadvantages: Including delivery costs an average of 3000r to buyers, I got over 2600 and free delivery (with someone else's order). There are no leads for the antenna outside, there are only 2 pigtail connectors on the board and cutouts in the case under the sticker for installing external antennas. It's a shame that it does not support the 5GHz range and has only 2 antennas, but not 3. Note that the recording speed on USB drives is about 3 MBytes and it loads 100% percent, there is no need to put a torrent in this sense, as well as lifting FTP or SMB on it ( except for logs or small files).
UPDATE tried to connect external HDD and the speed via FTP and SMB increased to 8 MB (download at the same time 100%) already fully rolls for use in the form of a file dump for several people and PXE.

Comment: Long doubted to take for the biline, because of their dynamic load balancing on the DNS and the resulting writing of scripts and generos. As a result, everything was written fairly quickly and started up in an hour — it works without glitches and cliffs.

Advantages: 1) Mega-friendly winbox, divine CLI
2) Adequate wiki documentation
3) Small size, neutral design
4) Metarout. I tried for the test, it works.
5) Draws almost 100mbit / s through l2tp biline.
6) Ability to write scripts, respond to events, send email and sms (have not tried it yet)
7) Ability to use dhcp options
8) Price

Disadvantages: During the operation did not reveal.

Comment: It is impossible to write down the disadvantages at such a price, but I was surprised by the kit consisting of the power supply unit and the router itself.
Wonderful config from the box. wlan and ether2-master-local are stuffed into the bridge, which is quite logical, but the local address is nailed to wlan. For 20 minutes I wondered why my wired connection drops if I put out the wlan interface)))
Who this device does not fit:
1) Ordinary users, without wanting to understand. (Especially if the provider is beeline and others like him with russian l2tp (or as they call it there))
2) If you need strange functionality from the router (torrent, etc.)
3) Those who hope that the master will set it up for a small amount. Many outgoing masters master only with 10-20 models of soho routers ala dir-300, rt-n16, keenectik, etc.
Who is this device for?
1) Those who can read and understand what they read. The documentation is there, everything is written in it.
2) In a small office in which to buy a tsiska is impractical.
3) Those who lack the functionality of standard soho soap cases.
4) Those who need a router for failover connection through 2 or more providers.
5) For those who need exactly the router, and not the indecency that they sell at comparable prices.

Advantages: - fast processor
- a lot of all kinds of settings
- very attractive price
- constant firmware updates
- each network interface with its MAC address
- there is support, forum and wiki articles

Disadvantages: - the complexity of setting up for beginners who are moving from "home routers".

Comment: I have been using it for two years, I have already managed to change the 751 model to 951 and 2011. The latter cause delight, I wait for more network interfaces, and not as connected by a switch in the 2011 model.
several providers come home, there are servers (www, rdp, vpn, ftp) everything is great! configuration can be swapped between routers.

Criticism from Tsiskarey heard, but guys, what do you want from the router, which costs less than 4 thousand rubles? it suits my tasks perfectly. 3 providers holds. possible and more. but not yet needed :)

This equipment perfectly fills that niche when, after having had a lot of experience with DD-WRT, you want more, but at home. In small enterprises also take off when the budget is small. I advise those who are friends with networks this device!

Advantages: Very fast processor (also with overclocking capability) for a router with such a price.
Support for various network technologies, very powerful QoS.
Five fully independent gigabit ports, plus many VPN tunnels.
Design in the style of "anti-glamor brick."
The minimum setting (so that it “just works”) is easily done via Quick Set in the WEB interface. Everything you need is focused on one page, there is no equal to this router.
At home use (authorization by static IP) quietly passes through itself 97 Mbit / s of torrents with uTP with a processor load of 30 ... 35%, steadily holding VPNs and with a bunch of firewall rules (the old DIR-615 with DD-WRT had a maximum of 75-80 with a braking WEB interface and periodically falling off VPN tunnels).
If desired, you can raise a full-fledged hotspot with WEB-authentication, RADIUS, and others.

Disadvantages: From the fact that at one time really caused difficulties: OpenVPN support in current firmware versions is somewhat limited.
Quibbles: Unreliable power supply (easily changes to any trustworthy power supply with suitable connector, polarity and output voltage); only white color.

Comment: Still does not brew coffee and does not pump torrents. But these tasks, respectively, should be done by the coffee maker and the NAS, routers of this class are designed entirely for another.

Advantages: OS on the Linux kernel (this means that most of the things have long been debugged and they are not buggy without bugs)
The application of any rules and changes are carried out in real time (without rebooting)
The ability to create any network configuration (the ability to tag packages and create complete chaos)
CPU overclocking capability up to 750 MHz
The processor is enough for L2TP 100mbit / c (Beeline)
Superstability work
Good balancing for a set of WAN
Ultralow cost ~ 3000rub
Managing a router is possible through a special program (where a bunch of statistics is displayed, there are sniffers and scanners, it is possible to connect to the MAC address of the router)
Set it and forget it forever

Disadvantages: In the beginning there is a difficulty in configuring. You need a little understanding of network technologies (on the other hand, there are a lot of examples on the network).Simplifies the configuration - the application of the rules without rebooting the device and statistics, where you can immediately assess whether the package got there, whether the rule worked.

Comment: I am ecstatic, everything works perfectly and ultra stable. Took it to try because of the low price. I used to stand Draytek 2920 (for 12yr). I set it up for the day, something was constantly buggy and hung out during the setup process, and then it worked with periodic Internet hangs, there was not enough power for L2TP. Mikrotik set up 2 days, configuration: 2xWAN + balancing (L2TP and PPPoE), DualAccess for two providers, IPTV for a computer, WiFi. In the process of setting, nothing has ever crashed or hung. And then it works somehow perfectly. Periodically I go to the admin panel, hoping to see some errors in the log .. nothing. It's boring.