Dear friends,

This is the first time I'm sending the post on this forum, please forgive me in advance if I'm doing something wrong.

Long story short, I'm thinking to empower my home network with a Mikrotik router, after lots of research my list is limited to 3 routers:

• Hex S

• RB4011

• RB4011 + Wifi

• RB5009UG+S+IN ( I should wait till November at least)

My network information:
Internet: Fiber Optic Gigabit (1Gb Upload, 1Gb Download)
Current Routers and Setup: Two Asus AC86U meshed with Ethernet cable

Why I'm thinking to empower my network with Mikrotik?

• I always wanted to have a Mikrotik router, because I'm a geek.

• Although the AC86U is great both in coverage and performance I have less control over the router, for e.g I cannot create VLAN for my SSIDs and I don't trust any IoT device.

• The advanced firewall and advanced routing of Mikrotik just removed any other options like Ubiquiti.

What are my needs?
I'm going to create different firewall and routing rules for my network such as:

• All DNS requests should forward to PiHole

• For now Mac Address VLAN for all wireless connected devices: Basically four groups: Home Trusted Devices, Work Devices, IoT Devices, Non or Guest Devices

• Devices in Trusted Group can access IoT devices, but IoT devices can't (One Way) but they might be a small exclusion for e.g. Client x.x.x.x might be accessible by IoT devices on specific ports

• Note: In the future, I'm going to replace my Asus Routers with a Router that supports VLAN tagging on SSID and that's why I need Mac Address VLAN tagging

With all the rules above, I'd like to use my entire Internet speed on need, at the moment If I connect to my router ethernet next to me I can achieve above 920Mb download or upload. (of course, the network cap is 1Gb download+upload).

First thanks in advance for spending time to read my needs, based on those what do you suggest?

- Can Hex S cover my needs? Especially on performance and network throughput?
- RB4011 is another awesome RouterBoard but it's more expensive than Hex S, but in terms of 1Gb performance is it a better option?
- RB4011 have a Wifi variant? I heard some horror stories about Mikrotik Wifi, do you think I can rely on that? My Asus Router 2-3 meters away can give me 580Mb download and Upload. (Tested with Iperf3 and Speedtest.net) if the wifi is good I can get this one maybe and use its 2.4 bands for IoT devices with native VLAN tagging
- Or wait till November and buy almighty RB5009UG+S+IN

Please let me know your ideas and again thanks.

Get the RB4011 with WIFi, you can always keep the other WiFI routers and use them all. Or disable the built in WiFi later. The price difference is not huge, especially if you get a good discount somewhere. The RB4011 is a much nicer device in many aspects, plus has more ports than the hEX.

I Agree, the RB4011 ist a great "Prosumer" Router!
Look Online for B-Stock or Returns. It's a great way to save a lot of MONEY!


I personaly use a RB4011iGS+RM (RB4011 with no WIFI) with an Mikrotik Switch (CRS328-24P-4S+RM) via SFP+
The Router is used as for Routing multiple WAN (Gigabit) and LAN/VLAN,CAPsMan, Firewall, VPN-Server & Client, QoS

The Performance is simply awesome!
You will never want another Router =)

Get the RB4011 with WIFi, you can always keep the other WiFI routers and use them all. Or disable the built in WiFi later. The price difference is not huge, especially if you get a good discount somewhere. The RB4011 is a much nicer device in many aspects, plus has more ports than the hEX.

Thanks, the cheapest RB4011 Wifi I can find is 211 Euro which the normal one is 160 Euro. With 50 Euro difference and some extra money I can buy a VLAN support access point (Like Ubiquiti or TP-Link Omada)


I know this RB4011 is a beast, the only negative thing I heard about it is the switching isn't that great because it's using RTL8367 chip and hardware offloading for VLAN or routing goes to the CPU.

At the moment I don't have lots of wired devices, two access points, one pi-hole, one switch that connects tv, a setup box, and an Xbox to the internet, but eventually, I'll have at least three more wired connections for the home office.

Do you think that will be a bottleneck for me?

I Agree, the RB4011 ist a great "Prosumer" Router!
Look Online for B-Stock or Returns. It's a great way to save a lot of MONEY!


I personaly use a RB4011iGS+RM (RB4011 with no WIFI) with an Mikrotik Switch (CRS328-24P-4S+RM) via SFP+
The Router is used as for Routing multiple WAN (Gigabit) and LAN/VLAN,CAPsMan, Firewall, VPN-Server & Client, QoS

The Performance is simply awesome!
You will never want another Router =)

Thanks,
I tried but I couldn't find anything on discount, RB4011 is a beast. I think I'll get the 4011, I don't think Hex S has enough power to handle 1Gb on-demand with rules.

The HEXs is very powerfull
It has 2x 1Gbits Lanes between CPU and Ether-Ports
See Diagram -->> https://i.mt.lv/cdn/product_files/RB760 ... 180523.png

If you connect for exemple WAN on ether 1 and LAN on ether 2
You will get amazing performance.

But if you have a lot of VLAN-2-VLAN Communication , Firewall, or oder Services like VPN, Capsman , Queues
You Router will sooner or later be a bottleneck

HEX S is too slow for gigabit routing with firewall, especially full duplex and if you want to use IPv6.
RB4011 is fine for routing, but has very limited switch chips and some incompatibilities with its SFP+ port.
Mikrotik WiFi is fine as long as you are not looking for max throughput or advanced features (no mu-mimo without beta software, 802.11r/k/v is unsupported). If any of these is important to you, you should consider a different vendor for your APs.
RB5009 looks good on paper, but I'd expect the software to take 1-2 years until the worst bugs have been ironed out. If you decide to be an early adopter you will most likely end up in involuntary Betatesting.

Thanks. Really good points, especially for RB5009 and Wifi.

RB4011 is fine for routing, but has very limited switch chips and some incompatibilities with its SFP+ port.

Will this be a bottleneck for me?

• A Gigabit WAN port on eth0

• PiHole on eth1

• Two Access Points on ethernet

• An unmanaged Switch connect to ethernet for TV, SetupBox, and Xbox

• In the future might, 3 laptops also connect to the ethernet directly. (they are wifi now)

Basically, almost 8 ports will be in use": It's just a home network, and none of those devices are spending lots of bandwidth on daily use. On-demand like downloading something big we might use the all bandwidth available.

What's your final suggestion? RB4011iGS+RM?

What's your final suggestion? RB4011iGS+RM?

Mu suggestion is that you get the RB5009 ... without ONE Shadow of Doubt.
If you live in Europe the following vendor claims they will have 60 units of this model
https://www.eurodk.com/en/products/mikr ... 009ug-s-in
EXPECTED 60 PCS ~ 27.08.2021
EXPECTED 40 PCS ~ 05.11.2021

What's your final suggestion? RB4011iGS+RM?

Mu suggestion is that you get the RB5009 ... without ONE Shadow of Doubt.
If you live in Europe the following vendor claims they will have 60 units of this model
https://www.eurodk.com/en/products/mikr ... 009ug-s-in
EXPECTED 60 PCS ~ 27.08.2021
EXPECTED 40 PCS ~ 05.11.2021

Yeah, I'm in Europe. I can pre-order it then!

I think the only problem with RB5009UG+S+IN is that it only works with Router OS 7 which is still in beta

I think the only problem with RB5009UG+S+IN is that it only works with Router OS 7 which is still in beta

Much like the CCR2004-16G-2S+ and the Chateau LTE12 the RB5009UG+S+IN will have a dedicated stable version of 7 running exclusive on it and based on your stated requirements I for 1 do not believe you will have any issues.

Thanks for posting this since I'm in the same boat. I'm planning to upgrade my home router as well. Performance/bandwidth is less of an issue for me and I just want to VLAN and Firewall my internal network between:

1) Internal home users
2) Internal user wifi
3) Surveillance Cameras
4) Guest/IoT Wifi
5) Backup devices/NAS
6) Maybe TVs

I was leaning towards the RB5009UG+S+IN myself and sorta assume as buggy as ROS7 could be, I'm not doing anything special so assume the basics will work out of the box initially. I'm in the USA though so not sure when they will be in stock. I'm seeing some dealers post November currently.

I might just pre-order and wait since I'm pretty sure I'll go with the Mikrotik solution at this point (considered Ubiquiti, pfSense, Sophos as well).

Don't want to hijack your thread, but open to suggestions for my use case if anyone doesn't mind sharing.

Good luck with whatever you decide on!

I think the only problem with RB5009UG+S+IN is that it only works with Router OS 7 which is still in beta

Much like the CCR2004-16G-2S+ and the Chateau LTE12 the RB5009UG+S+IN will have a dedicated stable version of 7 running exclusive on it and based on your stated requirements I for 1 do not believe you will have any issues.

Didn't know what. I guess considering the price RB5009UG+S+IN is way better than RB4410!

RB5009UG lacks PoE out.
If you're going to connect a cap, it will need it's own power source (or injector).

I'm currently running a 4011 and I'm happy with it, but also already tempted to get the RB5009UG.

The 4011 with wifi is currently the only mikrotik device with more than 2 chains on the 5GHz Band
So if you wanna go beyond AC1200, this (or a different brand) is your only choice. (unless you manage to get the older version of the wAP ac with less compute power than the current one, but with 3 chains).

Don't get deluded by the audience devices btw. While the secondary 5GHz, which has more than 2 chains, can be configured to work as normal wifi instead of backhaul, it's very frequency limited and you won't be able to use all channels.

So under the bottom line:
If you want fast wifi from Mikrotik as well, you go for the 4011 with WiFi.
If you are okay with lower wifi speed or go for a different brand anyways, check out the RB5009UG.

Cheers

If I were in your situation I'd go for a RB5009UG and enterprise grade 4X4 WiFi 6 access points from another vendor.

The switch on the RB5009UG is wired to a 10GB/s CPU port (shared with SFP) vs the 2.5GB/s CPU port on the RB4011 (SFP has a dedicated 10GB/s port).

This means that even if you're maxing out your 1gbps connection on UL/DL (2gbps aggregated throughput) you still have lots of available bandwidth to forward LAN-LAN traffic at gigabit speeds.

Also having a 64 bits Cortex A72 processor is very nice.

What's your final suggestion? RB4011iGS+RM?

Mu suggestion is that you get the RB5009 ... without ONE Shadow of Doubt.
If you live in Europe the following vendor claims they will have 60 units of this model
https://www.eurodk.com/en/products/mikr ... 009ug-s-in
EXPECTED 60 PCS ~ 27.08.2021
EXPECTED 40 PCS ~ 05.11.2021

Thanks to you I pre-ordered and it was in stock ( still is, I think 21 left). Hopefully, I'll have it soon.

Thanks for posting this since I'm in the same boat. I'm planning to upgrade my home router as well. Performance/bandwidth is less of an issue for me and I just want to VLAN and Firewall my internal network between:

1) Internal home users
2) Internal user wifi
3) Surveillance Cameras
4) Guest/IoT Wifi
5) Backup devices/NAS
6) Maybe TVs

I was leaning towards the RB5009UG+S+IN myself and sorta assume as buggy as ROS7 could be, I'm not doing anything special so assume the basics will work out of the box initially. I'm in the USA though so not sure when they will be in stock. I'm seeing some dealers post November currently.

I might just pre-order and wait since I'm pretty sure I'll go with the Mikrotik solution at this point (considered Ubiquiti, pfSense, Sophos as well).

Don't want to hijack your thread, but open to suggestions for my use case if anyone doesn't mind sharing.

Good luck with whatever you decide on!

I always envy people who live in the USA, because almost everything first releases there! Better Amazon, Lower prices compare to what we have in Europe. They will have it soon, don't worry. I pre-ordered one I'll write my experience here, of course, I'm a rookie and don't have lots of experience (zero) but let's the journy begins.

That was my concern, I pre-ordered RB5009 and I'll have it soon. I asked the same question about if it's buggy or something and that's what Offical Microtik answer on Twitter:

RB5009 uses a custom-built RouterOS 7.0.5. version, you're not buying a beta product, don't worry
This is not the same as the beta version on the website, since we are using a device-specific stable firmware that goes through a full testing cycle.

And beside RoS7 is coming, I think they just released the RC1 so don't worry

If I were in your situation I'd go for a RB5009UG and enterprise grade 4X4 WiFi 6 access points from another vendor.

The switch on the RB5009UG is wired to a 10GB/s CPU port (shared with SFP) vs the 2.5GB/s CPU port on the RB4011 (SFP has a dedicated 10GB/s port).

This means that even if you're maxing out your 1gbps connection on UL/DL (2gbps aggregated throughput) you still have lots of available bandwidth to forward LAN-LAN traffic at gigabit speeds.

Also having a 64 bits Cortex A72 processor is very nice.

Thanks, What do you suggest for the AP from another vendor? Like TPLink Omada or from Ubiquity?