MikroTik

Long Term Evolution (LTE), also known as 4G, is a technology designed to deliver data over the radio wave spectrum typically between 700MHz-2600MHz. With the demand for bandwidth increasing, technology providers like MikroTik have adapted their product line to include several high-performance LTE devices. Choosing MikroTik over conventional entry-level LTE products has many advantages. It is packed with functionality and is available in different form factors with high-gain MIMO antennas to cater for long-distance applications. All models include PoE which allows users to make the most of their signal without introducing long antenna cables with associated loss.

One of the biggest challenges with indoor wireless installations is ensuring you have sufficient coverage - meaning no dead zones and good quality connections in all the necessary areas. While indoor wireless connections offer simple installation and very few cables, they are unpredictable and easily affected by numerous external factors such as walls (obstructions) and interference from other wireless devices. Thankfully, there are a few products available to users to easily extend existing coverage when it does not live up to your expectations.

For anyone installing or managing a MikroTik router or system, knowing how to perform a Netinstall on the device is a valuable bit of knowledge to have, as it allows you to recover the unit should it crash or start failing in some way. When experiencing an issue with a MikroTik router, it is typically due to corruption of its software or failure of the software to perform a certain process. Performing a Netinstall on the affected router will format and re-install the RouterOS onto that device and should fix the issue at hand.

MikroTik's LtAP is a great solution for vehicle connectivity over LTE and offers dual SIM capabilities for network redundancy. It has an integrated 2.4Ghz 802.11n radio perfect for a small mobile hotspot as well as GPS for vehicle tracking. We have always loved the idea of being able to provide basic internet services to our own company vehicles as well as being able to track them with one device and this is how we did it.

Before setting up, mounting or configuring any wireless links, there are a few questions that you need to ask yourself before going ahead with the installation. Am I doing a PTP (point to point) or PTMP (Point to multi-point) link? Do I have clear line of sight to the other end/s? What equipment do I need to use? Answering these questions will help you plan your links to get the most out of your deployments. PTP or PTMP? This may seem like a trivial question but it is quite important. Depending on your answer to this question, all of the other questions will follow suit and be adapted to work for the answer. Must I cover a large number of connections coming back to a single point, or will there be individual links consisting of just two devices per link? PTMP topologies will generally achieve less bandwidth due to shared access to the wireless network.

The annual European Mikrotik User Meeting (MUM) was held in Vienna, Austria on 7-8 March. This conference on MikroTik RouterOS software and RouterBOARD hardware is a great opportunity to meet the MikroTik team, distributors, certified trainers and consultants. The best part was, however, the opportunity to interact with all kinds of like-minded users from all over the globe involved with using Mikrotik products. Though there are a number of MUM's happening throughout the year and around the world, the European MUM is considered the main event due to the fact that Mikrotik announces their product plans for the upcoming year.

Kids are no strangers to the internet, and interest is growing to find ways of protecting them from some of the content out there. Luckily there are some basic configurations which you can use on Mikrotik to assist you. Though this is not a full-proof way of content blocking, it is quick and easy and will certainly improve the level of control you have over the type of content that can be accessed via your home router.

Mikrotik's LHG60 has come to meet the demand for affordable, high-capacity links for distances up to 1.5km.

With the 5.8Ghz spectrum being so congested, 60GHz provides some much-needed relief for short distances PTP or PTMP links.

The LHG60 kit comes in a pair that is already pre-configured for easy deployment.

A way of brute force attack based on WPA2 standard using PMKID has come to light.

Controller Access Point system Manager is a powerful central management feature which allows you to control/manage Mikrotik wireless devices from a single location without any additional software or additional licensing costs.