Does anyone have any advise regarding using a Mikrotik instead of an Allot Net Enforcer ?

Best regards.

As a ping-pong ball?
Sure, don't smack it as hard as you normally would.

As a toaster?
Don't use whole-grain bread, we've discovered issues with it.

As a coffee maker?
None, it just works!

As a packet shaper;
Put your money in researching and testing your hardware.
Don't be cheap, RealTek's and 3Com's will give you grief.
What could make a server run perfectly can sometimes be negative for a router.
Intel is usually good but they are no gods.
Test your versions thoroughly.
Queueing interface in routeros is pretty cool though.

Hi,

Nice answer, I just add my experiences: Allot is shaper and should be used only as a shaper, it's not router and it's not firewall (although it could be used such a way).

If you want analyze packets on 7th network layer and prioritize them, then allot is on place. If you want to create templates for shaping users, if you want to use really rich choice of pre-defined ports of games, p2p networks, voip, bussines aplications, use allot. If you could pay it. It's very expensive, but inside is "only" linux, nothing more.

The only difference is in enterprise networks, where the the operators need to filter gigabits flows, there is no place for x86 architecture. There is place for allot.

D.