I'm new to using Mikrotiks for wireless. Was wondering which is better. 3 radio cards on 1 433AH board, or 1 radio card per 411A board? Or maybe a different board? I suppose there are pros and cons to each. More boxes, more POE, etc. Just wondering what peoples experience was with putting up 3 sectors on one location.

Tom

It's how you look at it...

The 433AH is powerfull and you can build it all in one box.

411A will as you say give you more PoE's cable's and so, but if a board breaks you still have 2 thats running...

No question in my mind; I would put 3 radio cards on 1 433AH board.

Particularly if all 3 were to have the same ESSID.... Think about ARP tables for a moment

I can not think of one advantage to having 3 boards, unless the 3 sector antennas where some distance apart, like on different portions of a building roof top.

If I have 3 different AP's setup as routers, then each sector would have it's own arp table. I'm not seeing your point of an advantage of putting all 3 arp tables on one router.

I'm not sure about having the same ESSID's. Haven't really thought that one through. Hasn't been an issue on most of what I have done up to now. I have done very little 802.11 PTMP. Suggestions?

Tom

I would go for one 433...Reasons: Cost, Easy Management. If you have the funds buy another 433 and keep it configured as spare.

3 routerboards in 3 outdoor boxes. The RB411a or RB411ah with radio card of your choice fits easily in the Pac Wireless DCE-H-7x6x2 box. And it is much better for reliability to have three routerboards instead of one.

I might consider one routerboard with three cards in one box but only if it was at ground level with large coax runs up the tower to the antennas.

Tom (9 years as a WISP)

I have considered this also Tom. I have some locations that I would have easy access to the box, but others would be up a tower. If a routerboard went bad, I would rather it only take down one sector, especially if it required a climb to get at it.

I wasn't aware of the 411AH model. That might be a better choice than the 411A if I can get them.

Tom