RouterOS – first look

I just mentioned the Linux based RouterOS software that functions as a router.

I decided to port my current Fortigate configuration over to a RouterBoard RB751G-2HnD and give it some work.

Using the web gui was most of the time pretty staight forward. Some issues came apparent as the web gui did not work well with many of my interfaces that I added – like VLAN and wireless (SSID) interfaces.

I also find RouterOS somewhat hard and difficult to configure. Most because of a hard learning curve combinded with not to good documentation. If you have worked with Linux IPTables before some of these issues are known to you. Forwarding policies are kept apart from NAT rules, something no modern firewall do today. And unlike most firewalls on the marked, there is no implict deny rule at the end - you have to add one your self.

DHCP configuration also was hard. I have to configure it on tree places; first I need to define a pool of IP addresses, then I had to configure DHCP on a interface. And then somewhere else configure DHCP options like netmask, gateway and DNS.

THe IP address configuration is also kept on several places, and you have to know where to set it depening on if you use DHCP or a statically assigned address on the Interface.

The integrated switch is also model dependant and you need to know what kind of hardware you have to configure the switch correctly. Concept like bridges, switches and interfaces are somewhat vague and you need to know when to use them.

The CLI is very good to work with - and when you first learn how to use it – and logically built.

WinBox is a Windows application that allows you to configure the router. It works much like the web GUI but let you have several windows open at the same time.

All in all: a lovable product.

Technorati Tags: MikroTik,RouterOS

Testing network performance with BitTorrent

Have you ever needed to test performance on a network, either at home or at a customers site? Often you’ll end up by either downloading a big file or by going to sites like Speedtest.net to measure performance.

But this is not a good test as you only get to test a single stream of data in either way.

I often choose to use a BitTorrent client on one or more clients as it often gives me more load on the firewall and on the network than a single stream download or upload. Also change the default settings to the BitTorrent client use more connections for each torrent to give more load on the network.

If you make sure that you configure the firewall to allow inbound connections to the BitTorrent client and grab some good fresh torrents from sites like the Fedora project or from SuSE you’ll end up with lots of traffic in no time.

Kerio Workspace - Sharepoint replacement

For some time Microsofts Sharepoint has been the only usable web collaboration platform. But recently I came across a Kerio Workplace, a web collaboration software that is lightweight and usable. And with a fast search.

I have used the beta for some time now and tried out the features that are included. Make no mistake, there are not many features. But those that are present works well. The most annoying thing yet is that they do not support localized date and time.

Workspace is built in the same way as Sharepoint. A workspace (a site in Sharepoint) is the basic unit you can add security around. Inside a workspace you can add several pages or even new workspaces. You can customize a page to some extent. Change some layout options and add elements to the page. Elements are:

• File repository


• YouTube image


• Calendar


• Tasks


• Text


• Image

Within these limitations Workspace works well as a collaboration tool. Users can receive email notifications on changes and can see all changes / comments when logging on. Most items can be commented on, making it easy to collaborate.

Workspace is still not a mature product yet as it misses some management features like quotas, disk space management and life cycle management of data. But I think they're on their way and soon will have a good, solid platform.