Dear Folks at Mikrotik and Gregsowell.com
I just wanted to give thanks for a great product and to greg for a good set of tutorials that helped me put together a solution for my client.
Here is the story.
My client (a Bank) has 9 Sites nationwide they were all using Cisco 2800 Series routers to interconnect them.
Due to WAN provider problems they added a second provider.
Problem 1: Cisco 2800 only has two ethernet interfaces (i need 3 now), so a WIC-4ESW would be needed on each router to provide enough interfaces. In Kenya this HWIC costs more than an RB450G.
Also the IOS image did not support some of the features we would need in the future.
Solution: Install an RB1000 at the HQ as core router, and place an RB450G at each of the remote sites. Result is a completely new set of routing equipment for less than the cost buying HWICs for the cisco routers.
Now every single router port in the company is now a gigabit interface.....
Problem 2: Integrating the sites and providing automatic failover and network security.
Solution: Using the tutorial at Gregsowell.com make the Routerboards use IPIP Tunnels and then IPSEC to encrypt the WAN links, and then run OSPF in the IPIP Tunnels to give link failover. (and all the other benefits of OSPF)
All this has been fast to deploy, each new site takes 1.5 Hours to install configure and test, and most importantly the CPU load that was choking the Cisco 2801 and 2811 routers doesnt even touch the RB equipment (about 8% load).
Once again thank you, and does anybody want to buy a ton of redundant used Cisco Gear?
P.S. I should also thank the folks in this forum who have helped me over the years.
P.P.S. and along the way I was able to make some money and have a happy customer....
Alex