I am thinking of buying a RB751G-2HnD (or similar) to use for the following:

At my home, I have a 100Mb/10Mb fibre Internet connection. It's usually great. And sometimes it sucks (technical failures in the infrastructure outside the house).
I have wireless access to a fallback connection (Wi-Fi, not 3G).

I want to set up the RB751G-2HnD (or some similar device) to:
* offer a guest Wi-Fi network, either using built-in wireless networking, or plugging a normal Wi-Fi access point on one Ethernet port of the RB
* offer a primary Wi-Fi network, either using built-in wireless networking, or plugging a(nother) normal Wi-Fi access point on another Ethernet port of the RB
* offer a primary wired network, through another of the Ethernet ports of the RB
* perform failover routing, primary route through my own Internet connection (Ethernet attached), falling back (over Wi-Fi) to my alternate connection.
* isolate and de-prioritise traffic on the guest Wi-Fi network, so that my own traffic always has higher priority, and so that guests are completely isolated from the rest of the (wired and wireless) networks
* do some traffic shaping (even within my own primary wired and Wi-Fi network traffic)

I'm sure that RouterOS can do the prioritisation and isolation and traffic shaping.

What I don't know is,
* How many different Wi-Fi networks can the RB751G-2HnD (or similar) offer at one time using its built-in wireless networking? (Ideally, it would offer two wireless LANs - one guest and another production, PLUS a Wi-Fi client for the fallback Wi-Fi connection to the Internet)
* Can one of the wireless networks of the RB751G-2HnD be in *client* mode at all, to provide the fallback default route through my alternate Internet connection, or must I do (something, what?) else?
* Does the USB port on the RB751G-2HnD (or similar) support plugging in USB Wi-Fi adapters (e.g. I happen to have a D-Link DWA-123 here)? (What can be plugged into the USB port?)
* Is the CPU and memory of this model sufficient to handle a saturated 100Mb/10Mb connection while doing all of the routing, Wi-Fi, isolation/ firewall, etc described here? Or do I need a bigger RB product?

Thanks!
-Jay

Deleted because not related.

A wireless interface can only be an AP or client. So you can't have one interface acting as both but if you used a 493G you could put multiple interfaces on the board. You can also setup virtual APs for your different networks without having to attach multiple APs.

Hello libove,

and this should all running smooth and liquid with a cool throughput on a device
that is sold as a wireless access point and 100 MBit/s FTTH Internet on top? :shock:

Hi Dobby,
I don't understand. Are you saying that I am expecting too much from the RB751 series?

Thanks,

A wireless interface can only be an AP or client. So you can't have one interface acting as both but if you used a 493G you could put multiple interfaces on the board. You can also setup virtual APs for your different networks without having to attach multiple APs.

Hi cbrown,
Thanks for the clarification. I can deal with the (one - there is just one, then, right?) wireless interface on the RB751 being just a client for the alternate upstream Internet connection, and using one or two other (simple) Wi-Fi access points for the production and guest networks (and then separate and prioritise using RouterOS).

Or, does the RB751 series support plugging in a USB Wi-Fi interface like my D-Link DWA-123 (how do I know which ones would work?) which I could use as the uplink to the alternate Internet connection, and then create two virtual APs on the one built-in wireless interface on the RB751 as my production and guest wireless networks?

Thanks!

No usb wireless modules do not work well. Honestly if you are wanting to do QoS on a 100mb link the 751G is not going to be enough. I would recommend a 1200 or 1100AH. You could also use a RB800 with multiple wireless cards.

No usb wireless modules do not work well. Honestly if you are wanting to do QoS on a 100mb link the 751G is not going to be enough. I would recommend a 1200 or 1100AH. You could also use a RB800 with multiple wireless cards.

Thanks very much. Okay, back to the drawing board a bit...