Mikrotik routers have long remained devices for professionals, but as the functionality of RouterOS grew, the web configurator also developed, becoming more user-friendly.

In Ukraine and Russia, among advanced users, Mikrotik became known thanks to its line of RB750 and RB951 routers. Against the backdrop of foreign currency fluctuations (in Russia the rate increased by 2 times, in Ukraine by 3 times), Mikrotik routers have further strengthened their position in the market of inexpensive devices, both for home and small (medium) offices.

For 700 UAH. in Ukraine you can now buy an entry-level router, the average router will cost 1200-1500 UAH, not to mention top-end solutions, the price of which exceeds several thousand hryvnia.

For 1500 UAH. Now you can buy the RB-951 Ui-2HnD (although before the crisis its price tag was 700 UAH), which can give odds to any Asus/D-Link/TP-Link/Linksys/Zyxel/Netgear/Tenda/Netis router, etc. .d. in this price range.

However, not every user can and is ready to pay that amount for a home SOHO router (Small Office, Home Office). And here Mikrotik has something to offer!

The new name is purely a marketing ploy to attract the average home user, because the purchase price for the new product starts at $21.95 (about 550 UAH at the current exchange rate). Of course, they won’t sell it to you for that price; at retail you should expect a new product from 700 UAH. and higher.

It would seem, what can you expect from a device for $22? After all, for that kind of money you can only buy... TL-WR741ND, Asus RT-N12, TL-WR841ND, Keenetic Start or TL-WR743 ND - and that’s all. You can't buy anything else for this money, from the popular products sold.

At the moment, pre-order is being carried out and it is very difficult to get hAP lite at retail for a reasonable price. We managed to receive one copy for review and testing, for which we express our deep gratitude to the VS KOM company.

Mikrotik hAP lite delivery kit

Delivery is carried out in standard Mikrotik packaging - a box made of thick brownish cardboard, without advertising, without color pictures. All that is on the box is the manufacturer’s logo and name, the name of the line, a sticker with the model name (MAC addresses, serial number).

Also printed on the back of the box is a short Quick Setup (Quick Guide) consisting of 4 steps:

• connect the Internet to port 1;
• connect the PC to port 2-5 (misspelled! we only have 4 ports);
• On your PC, set to receive settings automatically;
• enjoy using.

The box itself is small in size - 185 x 120 x 55 mm. For comparison, the box from RB951Ui-2 hnD has dimensions of 195 x 140 x 55 mm.

Inside the box is the router itself, a power supply and a leaflet with brief information about the device, its characteristics and how to access the web configurator.

There are no patch cords, bolts for fastening, advertising materials, software disks, manuals - there is none of this, as in other Mikrotik products. In principle, this is for the better; most users do not need this, with the possible exception of a patch cord. But the price tag on such packaging and configuration is significantly reduced.

In the end, you are buying a router, not waste paper for it. You can easily find everything you need on the Internet.

What can Mikrotik hAP lite offer us?

NOTE! We apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to take photos in greenhouse studio conditions. If you have an “extra” Softbox (Lightbox) with the “correct” lighting, we will not refuse such a gift!

In short, at first glance the hAP lite is a simplified RB951-2n - and this is not entirely true.

The device body continues the traditions of the RB951 / RB750. If we compare the dimensions with the RB951 Ui-2HnD, the hAP lite is simply 5 cm shorter (9 cm versus 14 for the older model), otherwise the width and height are identical (115 x 30 mm).

The device is very compact, smaller in size than competing home routers.

The front panel contains all communication ports, indicators, power socket and reset button. There is nothing on the other panels of the device. With the exception of the right panel - it has a plug for USB, which is not here (but more on that later).

Regarding the RESET jumper, there are 4 possible use cases:

• press for up to 2 sec. activates WDS;
• press 5 sec. (before flickering starts) – reset to factory settings;
• press 10 sec. – transfer to CAPs;
• press 15 sec. (the indicators will go out) – installation of RouterOS via Netinstall. For example, in case of incorrect installation, reinstallation, configuration, or when the administrator password is lost.

The bottom panel contains a sticker with the model name, MAC addresses, and serial number. The legs are elastic and anti-slip.

In addition to the ventilation holes, there are also 2 cross-shaped holes on the back cover for wall mounting. This solution allows you to hang the device vertically in 4 variations, while most competitors, at best, provide L-shaped holes, which offer only 2 variations.

It's time to see the insides of hAP lite

The heart of the device is a powerful QCA9531 processor (Small MIPS, Taiwanese) with an operating frequency of 650 MHz. RAM capacity – 32 MB DDR400 (SAMSUNG K4H561638N-LCCC chip).

To store software and settings, a Winbond 25Q128 FVSG chip (128 Mbit SPI FLASH, 8-SOIC, 104 MHz) with a capacity of 16 MB is used.

As you can see from the photo, the board is miniature in size, there are no electrolytic capacitors at all (hello competitors!), and the processor itself, with a frequency of 650 MHz, does not even have a heatsink - it simply does not need one.

There is nothing on the back side of the board, although the remaining flux after soldering could be washed off. However, it’s not critical; Keenetic Lite has a similar situation. Fortunately, the flux is acid-free and non-conductive, so this is more of an aesthetic remark.

The device is equipped with only 4 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet Auto-MDI/X ports: one WAN port and 3 LAN ports. The ports are of high quality, with a metal shield, so it is possible to use shielded twisted pair (STP - Shielded twisted pair).

Power is connected via a microUSB socket from a 5V power supply. You can use the charger from any new mobile phone as a power source for this router if something happens to the original power supply.

The radio module is built into the QCA9531-BL3A and naturally does not support 5 GHz, it operates only at a frequency of 2.4 GHz according to the 802.11 b/g/n standard, the transmitter power is 158 mW (22 dBm). MIMO 2x2 is implemented, so the device uses 2 antennas, both internal PIF at 1.5 dBi. At the output of the radio module, for each channel, there is protection against static electricity (ESD) up to 10 kV.

Unfortunately, MMCX UFLs are not soldered on the board, so you can immediately forget about the RP-SMA pigtail and external antenna. The first versions had a service connector, presumably Hirose MS-156, for which there is an MS-156C-LP-068 pigtail (by the way, the latter has a mean time between failures of only 30 physical connections and disconnections). In retail deliveries, as in our copy, this connector is no longer soldered.

Soldering will also have to be abandoned due to the very small size of the tracks, except at a soldering station under a magnifying glass, which, of course, will lead to loss of warranty.

Channel speed (theoretical physical limit) over Wi-Fi is up to 300 Mbit/s - the real speed will be about 110 Mbit/s.

The power of the transmitter should not be intimidating, it is enough even for a 3-4 room apartment or a small office, the main thing is less concrete and load-bearing walls :)

The indicators are a standard set: one LED for each port, 1 LED displays power (PWR), 1 custom LED indicator (“ACT”) displays WiFi activity.

Overall - not bad. And what do you think controls this hardware? RouterOS with Level 4 license!

What does it mean? This means that inside we have a complete stuffing of VLAN, NAT, DNS, DHCP, Port Forwarding, PPP client/server, UPnP, WebProxy, SNMP, FTP, MESH, BGP, MPLS, intelligent shaper, traffic prioritization (advanced custom QoS) and much more! There is support for CAPsMAN.

However, Small MIPS imposes limitations. RouterOS for hAP lite is still a somewhat stripped-down version.

At the same time, as before, you can reassign any port - do you want 2 WAN? Or 3 at once? RouterOS will fulfill your every whim!

How else does hAP lite differ from its older brothers?

Have you noticed how the power is supplied? A powerful power supply cannot be connected to such a connector. But he doesn’t need it, because the router does not have a PoE function - our baby’s power consumption is only 3 W. For example, the older brother RB951Ui-2HnD can not only receive power via PoE, but also supply it to another device via the 5th port.

There are significantly fewer ports, and without gigabit support.

Unfortunately, the router does not support USB. On the case itself, of course, there is a plug for USB, but it is only for those cases if in the future you buy another RouterBOARD board and insert it into the case from hAP lite. Based on the name “hAP lite”, it is possible that more advanced versions “hAP Pro”, “hAP Plus” or “hAP Turbo” with USB, Gigabit, PoE, 5 GHz, etc. will appear.

Mikrotik has always been distinguished by its universal cases. Even the RB951 Ui-2hnD has plugs for RP SMA, but external antennas cannot be screwed there without “surgical” intervention.

So...what am I talking about? For 22 USD you get many times more than any other router in this price category will give you - the rest doesn’t matter. If you are looking for shortcomings, there are none, and if you find them, there is always a more advanced model range for you at a higher price.

Before you start testing

By default, the device address is 192.168.88.1, login is admin, password is empty. Nothing new for those who have dealt with Mikrotik before.

On the box itself the manufacturer warns us about this. That before using the device, it is worth updating its RouterOS to the latest version. Let's do so!

Since our copy came with RouterOS 6.25 out of the box, we will update it to 6.27 (the latest at the time of publication of the review).

In connection with all of the above, I still recommend choosing the “WISP AP” mode. However, in this case, the UPnP option, which is responsible for automatically configuring ports (for example, for a torrent client), will disappear from the QuickSet settings. To activate it, go to “IP – UPnP” and activate the “Enabled” option. In the “Interfaces” submenu, set “bridge-local” as “internal”, and “ether1-gateway” (or pope/pptp-out1, if you have Internet via VPN) as “external”.

What is in RouterOS on Mikrotik hAP lite?

This question interests many. In this regard, below is a list of sections and subsections of the WebFig v6.27 menu.

• Quick Set
• CAPsMAN
• Wireless
• Interfaces (support for VRRP, Bridge, EoIP, IP Tunnel, VLAN, Bonding, Mesh, VPLS, Traffic Eng Interface, Virtual Ethernet, GRE Tunnel, PPTP Server/Client, PPPoE Server/Client, L2TP Server/Client, OVPN Server/Client, SSPT Server/Client, VirtualAP, WDS, Nstreme Dual)
• Bridge
• Switch
• IP (ARP, Accounting, Addresses, Cloud, DHCP Client, DHCP Relay, DHCP Server, DNS, Firewall, Hotspot, IPsec, Neighbors, Packing, Pool, Routes, SNMP, Services, Settings, Socks, TFTP, Traffic Flow, UPnP, Web Proxy)
• Routing (BFD, BGP, Filters, MME, OSPF, Prefix Lists, RIP)
• System (Auto Upgrade, Certificates, Clock, Console, Drivers, Health, History, Identity, LEDs, License, Logging, Packages, Password, Ports, Reboot, Reset Configuration, Resources, Routerboard, SNTP Client, Scheduler, Scripts, Shutdown, Special Login, Users, Watchdog)
• Queues
• Files
• Radius
• Tools (BTest Server, Bandwidth Test, Email, Flood Ping, Graphing, IP Scan, MAC Server, Netwatch, Packet Sniffer, Ping, Ping Speed, Profile, SMS, Telnet, Torch, Traceroute, Traffic Generator, Traffic Monitor)
• New Terminal

Testing hAP lite

Since the router is positioned as a home router, we will test it “at home”.

The first WAN port is connected to one of the RB951Ui-2 HnD ports, which distributes the Internet. The devices have been configured to avoid IP conflicts. A PC and 2 more clients with low load were connected to the remaining free ports of hAP lite, including the RIPE Atlas v3 probe (/167-zond-ripe-atlas-v3.html).

The provider's tariff plan is 80 Mbit/sec, direct connection.

What should I load the router with? Of course, simultaneously torrents + online video + online music. More details about everything. The YouTube client is running on the smartphone, and a FullHD video is open. There are 4 downloads running on the PC, and there are additionally 2 active tabs in the browser - the first with online music, the second with YouTube videos in 4K format.

Why is this necessary? For many home routers, with such a load, online video and audio will slow down due to the torrent client. A typical situation: you download a torrent, and your brother or sister’s online video starts to slow down.

Mikrotik hAP lite coped with this test perfectly: on a PC, video and audio from VK worked without any problems, while video was played on the smartphone via Wi-Fi (up to 5 Mbit/sec). All remaining available speed was given to the torrent client. The total speed was limited to the Internet provider's tariff plan - 80 Mbit/sec. At the same time, the router processed an average of 12,500 packets per second.

A little later, we closed the video on the smartphone, and the video on the PC continued to play. The speed in the torrent client reached 9.5 MB/sec and... hit the disk subsystem (disk cache overload).

At this moment, on the WAN port, Mikrotik showed a speed of 91.2 Mbit/s for receiving and 3.9 Mbit/s for sending, for a total of over 13,800 packets/sec. Of course, it was possible to disable online video on a PC, then the number of packets would exceed 15 thousand/sec., however, even without this it is clear that hAP lite will cope with such a flow.

In general, I would like to note the good performance of QoS out of the box, for home use by several devices; traffic prioritization is very important. And not every “home” router will cope with this task well. If you want to customize prioritization for yourself, the manuals will help you, hAP ​​lite can do it!

Alternatively, check out the shaper testing from

Today I will present you with a short review of the router that I have been waiting for a long time (it was announced back in 2015) and finally got around to it. In short, I can say that for most users its rich capabilities will be unnecessary, but for those who want flexible home network settings there are practically no alternatives (for comparative money). If you are interested, welcome to cat.

To begin with, I will outline the background of the purchase, what prompted me to take Mikrotik

For a long time, my home router was the time-tested old Asus RT-16N. Overall, a very good router that fully satisfied my home Internet needs, plus provided fairly good Wi-Fi coverage. Firmware from Oleg was installed on it, and then from his followers, which significantly improved its performance and added a number of additional functions to the router. In general, for (approximately) 5 years, this long-liver provided my needs completely. However, relatively recently, due to work needs, I needed to raise the VLAN on the WAN port to provide access to the work network from home and to the home network from work. And here certain difficulties arose: Oleg’s firmware in the webmord does not provide such an opportunity, and after digging through ssh I was also unable to do this. After reading the forums and asking around, the great Google quickly came to the only solution for the RT-16N: install the OpenWRT firmware, which I successfully did. I managed to set up all the settings without any problems and everything worked, but two VERY unpleasant problems quickly emerged. The Asus company does not provide enthusiasts with access to control their hardware (which is understandable in principle) and therefore all alternative firmware use either the basic system kernel from Asus with minor functional changes (DD-WRT, firmware from Oleg, etc.), or they write that something of their own, (OpenWrt), but due to the lack of documentation and manufacturer support, they implement their commands in a non-optimal way. In my case this resulted in:

1. Big dances with a tambourine around WiFi since for a long time he agreed to rise only in the bg range at a speed of 54 M/bit and N did not start with any effort.
2. Much sadder: with a network load on the jump at a tariff of 100 megabits, the router hit a maximum ceiling of 55-60 megabits with a processor load of 100%.

If you managed to more or less cope with the first problem by talking on the forums of VRT specialists and downloading third-party “drivers” for Wi-Fi and seemingly reviving the N band (although it works strangely: when you reboot the router, it takes off your breeches and you have to raise Wi-Fi manually + it’s gone ability to create access lists by MAC addresses). but in general, Wi-Fi is more or less moving.

There was no way to cope with the second problem, although multiple firewall rules were reduced to the required minimum, but it did not help: the download speed from the Internet did not rise above 60 (the speed inside the home network did not drop, but this is understandable - there is essentially no load there everything goes directly).

In general, taking into account all of the above, I gradually began to come to the conclusion that it was time to change the router, but after studying the market I realized that not everything is so simple. I wanted modern hardware that would be relevant for +N years, provide good Internet speed in the future, even more than 100 M/bit (such tariffs have already begun to appear, which means that in 2-3 years it will be commonplace with an affordable price), and of course I wanted a dual-band router with support for WiFi networks in the future.
It was useful to choose and realized that the choice with such requests is small. Stock firmware of common brands does not provide the flexible settings that I need (in most, even expensive routers, everything is limited to Vlan settings for IPTv multicast, which I don’t really need. This means I’ll have to sew again and again (possibly) have dances with a tambourine in the future. I wanted to take TpLink Archer 7, but I read in time that the AC mode is not yet available on OpenVrt, and whether it will be available in the future - I don’t know.
In general, I wanted something that would allow me to get everything I need using basic firmware and without hemorrhoids. And then I came across a mention on the Internet about the imminent (yup, imminent:) release of the subject. I got acquainted with the characteristics and realized - this is the router of my dreams. It can do everything you need from its RouterOS, in terms of settings it will satisfy any network management needs and in terms of hardware it is very promising (I hope its capabilities will be enough for me in the coming years).

Let's take a closer look at the capabilities of this miracle box:

As you can see, the hardware is very decent, and will cover all the requests of most users. You can take a look at the guts of the router (to be honest, I didn’t disassemble my router, photos were found on the Internet)

In the figure: numbers 1,2 indicate built-in 2.4 GHz antennas, numbers 3, 4 indicate 5 GHz antennas. Underneath the epoxy are the UFL connectors to which antennas 5 and 6 (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) are connected.

Router block diagram:

CAPsMAN - Another opportunity from Mikrotik for country houses/offices

Starting with version 6.11, RouterOS introduced the CAPsMAN functionality - the ability to centrally manage access nodes.

That is, instead of configuring each such node separately, it is enough to configure one controller and then connect managed nodes to it. It is in this way, and not with the use of WiFi repeaters, which only repeat a signal already received with errors and increased latency over a wider coverage area, that you can quickly and easily organize a seamless single network capable of covering almost any object in size.

It is clear that the quality of such coverage will directly depend on the hardware capabilities of the central controller. When using three or four MikroTik hAP ac, for example, it will not be difficult to create a network that does not require re-login throughout the entire volume of a three-story country house (with a basement, attic and outbuildings) or an entire vast floor of a business center.

At the same time, thanks to the ability to receive and distribute supply voltage further down the chain via the Ethernet line (Poe In/PoE Out), such devices will allow you to do without redundant wires and additional load on electrical outlets.

To reliably cover extended (one, two or three dimensions) objects with a WiFi network, two alternative methods are used:

1. You can install in the center of such an object a really powerful universal router with several external antennas, with the ability to simultaneously create two or more non-overlapping communication channels in the 5 GHz range - and hope that this monster will confidently “finish off” all the way to the border of the calculated area " And if not, then try to increase its power with additional antennas, but simply increasing the number of antennas will not lead to an increase in total power: the developer can either make individual antennas more powerful, or increase their number, but not both. Accordingly, you can install a WiFi repeater at a great distance, but such a solution is fraught with inevitable deterioration in the quality of communication.

2. Another approach, Mikrotik with RouterOS - CAPsMAN, is directly opposite to the first. It provides for the organization of a two-level network consisting of one control router and several managed access nodes. Each of these devices will be cheaper than a monstrous, super-powerful Internet center. Their combination of reasonably distributed efforts will lead to the fact that over the entire covered length, or over the entire area, or throughout the entire volume, the WiFi signal level will remain approximately the same, and the switching of mobile devices moving between access nodes will occur seamlessly and imperceptibly. for the user and for applications.

The range of applicability of hAP ac is further expanded by the presence of an SFP port for installing a fiber optic communication module. Using an optical data delivery line to each access node allows you to expand the WiFi coverage area of ​​a single network configuration almost indefinitely, as long as the central router has enough computing resources to process all requests in a timely manner.

Well, now briefly about my own impressions:
This little box fully met my expectations, the speed is strictly according to the tariff, nothing is cut or lost. When I tested the 5 GHz network, the Wi-Fi speed within the network exceeded 100 megabits (115-120). Unfortunately, I don’t have a single speaker device at hand, so I’ll have to wait for the future to look into my home :) However, there is no urgent need for speakers right now - anyway, (my) Internet tariffs will not support it, so this technology is for the future .
As for the settings, you can really break your head by studying the tabs :) The tool is really flexible and allows any network perversions.

For example, this is how you can configure a guest grid:

And this is how you can deploy HotSpot:

I decided not to drag it here as a spoiler, after all, it doesn’t make sense to drag half the Internet here, sometimes links are enough. I am sure that if someone is interested, they will find any additional information.

Mikrotik has created a very interesting home router. The company has made a worldwide name for itself in network solutions for corporate needs, and now, apparently, its time has come to develop the home segment of the market, I am sure that they have prospects in this direction. In general, I am personally absolutely satisfied, the new router has started working on my home network, I hope it will serve me no less than the Asus. I’ll take my leave for this, if you have any questions, write.

Down there in the comments they rightly pointed out to me about the lack of photos of the purchase and suspected me of being an advertising agent :) Fair point. I didn’t take any photos of the parcel or unpacking, but I didn’t want a working device, since I didn’t have time to lay out the wires nicely - they stick out in different directions. The router was received just yesterday.

However, I understand that it looks like an order, so here are the photos of the purchase, don’t look at the wires - I’ll think about how to carefully wire everything up.

Well, in a couple of days I cleaned up a little and combed the wires:

Every day I find something interesting and NEEDED in the router settings... In general, now I’m delving into the manuals - I really don’t regret the purchase for a second. Good luck friends!

I'm planning to buy +83 Add to favorites I liked the review +36 +87

From time to time we tell you about different routers. As a rule, these are TP-LINK or ASUS devices - market leaders. But with enviable regularity, people glorifying MikroTik appear in the comments. At the same time, they are praised for a reason, but for their functionality and stability. Today, using the MikroTik hAP lite (RB941-2nD-TC) as an example, we will try to check whether this is actually true.

Equipment

MikroTik hAP lite is one of the most affordable routers from the manufacturer. It comes in a very simple box made from recycled, unpainted cardboard. It contains a schematic representation of the device, as well as basic information on the initial setup (IP address of the router, “admin” login, URL of instructions for updating the firmware).

Inside there is the router itself, a power supply and a miniature brochure.

Design

RB941-2nD-TC looks very simple and cute in its own way. The body is made of glossy plastic, it consists of only two parts, white and blue, and is very light, you might even think that you were holding the frame itself without the “filling.”

As part of the manufacturer’s line, this is a design with refinements, the device is also intended for home use, although compared to all mass-produced routers, I would like to call hAP lite a “box”.

The manufacturer has provided only vertical installation, this is clearly hinted at by the shape of the case. There are large ventilation holes on the front and bottom sides.

All elements and connectors are located at the rear. These are four network ports with activity indicators, two status diodes, one multifunction key (used for WPS connection, resetting settings, switching to proprietary CAP mode, and also for restoring firmware over the network), as well as a microUSB port. The latter is used not for connecting drives or printers, but for power supply.

The box contains a 5V and 0.7 A power supply, which means that the RB941-2nD-TC can operate from almost any source - from charging your smartphone, PC or power bank. This versatility can be useful, for example, in the event of a power outage - if the provider’s equipment has UPSs, then the router will be able to operate for several hours from a small power bank (stated energy consumption level of up to 3 W) and during this time you will have Internet access.

Software, functionality

The router is built on a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9533 processor operating at a frequency of 650 MHz. The amount of RAM is 32 MB, permanent memory is 16 MB. All network ports are 100 megabit.

Two antennas with a gain of 1.5 dBi are hidden inside the case; they provide connection speeds of up to 300 Mbit/s according to the 802.11 b/g/n standard. Transmitter power - up to 158 mW (22 dBm).

The router runs Router OS with a Level 4 license - this feature rather affects the corporate functions of the device, which are of little interest to the home user. To configure the router, you can use the WebFig web interface, the Winbox utility, console and remote access. Let's consider (superficially) the first option.

The usual “admin panel” is available at 192.168.88.1. At first glance, the interface is similar to that offered by devices from conventionally competing brands - on the left is a list of items, on the right are parameters. The interface is only available in English.

For initial setup, you need to use the first Quick Set tab. It allows you to select the type of connection to the provider, the operating mode of the device, and carry out basic Wi-Fi setup (set a password and network name, select a frequency and country). There is also a simple map of the network of wireless clients.

All other points are intended for fine and thoughtful configuration of the router. I note that if you can figure out the “admin panel” of some TP-LINK or ASUS on the basis of general knowledge, names of specific items, and so on, then such a “number” will not work here. There is no way for the average user to configure guest Wi-Fi networks or parental controls in WebFig, although similar and much broader functionality is present. To figure out what's what, it's worth looking intoofficial documentation or use one ofstep by step instructions .

Despite the complexity of the configuration, the system allows you to do a lot of interesting things, for example, set up a simultaneous connection to two providers, limit the access speed for clients connected to a specific network port, the router can operate in bridge or repeater mode, VPN connections are supported, and much, much more. other. The only thing is that you will need fundamental knowledge of how networks work and an understanding of the logic for setting up the necessary functions.

Testing and Operation

Since the router only has 100 Mbps network ports, I used my home Internet connection at 100 Mbps to test the functionality. Both with a cable connection and via Wi-Fi, the access speed corresponded to the declared one.

Over the course of several days of use, I had no complaints about the stability of the router; it normally “holds” the home load when, for example, you download torrents on one computer, watch online Full HD videos on another, and at the same time surf on your smartphone. Despite the built-in antennas, the router can create normal coverage in a one- or small two-room apartment. I liked the quick response to changing settings, the built-in firmware update functions without the need to separately select a firmware file, and the ability to overclock the processor.

The manufacturer himself provides more detailed results of the router’s speed characteristics:

Site evaluation

Pros: Simple design, incredible functionality (if you're into it), power via microUSB, price

Cons: Difficulty setting up for ordinary users

Conclusion: MikroTik hAP lite RB941-2nD-TC is an excellent router that you should give to your girlfriend - if you reinstall Windows once a month, then you can administer it with MikroTik almost every day. Speaking seriously, from the point of view of hardware, hAP ​​lite is similar to other routers for 600 hryvnia, but the main thing here is the software, which will allow you to customize it as finely as even flagship consumer routers do not allow. This device is for those who not only understand how each byte of information “flows”, but also wants to have complete control over them. If you (suddenly) like to spend a long time figuring out how something works, and then enjoy and be proud of the work done - hAP lite is also suitable, because it is an excellent construction toy (or tool) for inquisitive minds and crazy hands, as well as those who want become a system administrator. Well, if you are a simple user for whom the router is a utilitarian box that distributes the Internet and requires a reboot once a month, it is better to continue rebooting your existing router.

In March 2018, a new product from MikroTik finally went on sale - hAP AC2 (vendor encoding RBD52G-5HacD2HnD-TC. Fans have been waiting for this device for a long time, they discussed the expected performance characteristics on the forums for a long time and in advance. For the low price of the SOHO segment, the most anticipated were implemented in it:

• two radio modules 2.4GHz and 5GHz range
• five gigabit ethernet ports
• hardware accelerated AES-128,256 encryption
• quad-core CPU ARMv7 with a frequency of 716MHz

Just yesterday, a device from the first batch brought to Russia fell into my hands
(special thanks to the guys from WiFiMag for their efficiency). At home, my full testing capabilities are a little limited, so I conducted a “quick test on my knee” using the limited available home hardware. Therefore, the review does not include:

• IPSec performance test at full load
• full load 5GHZ WiFi test
• much more

Outside

So, the device has been received. Let's start with unpacking. We immediately note the slightly updated design of the box. Hm. Is the pattern a tribute to marketers?

Let's open it. Yeah! Now this is more interesting. New version of the case made of “soft” plastic. In addition to the power supply, the kit includes a stand, installation instructions and even screws for mounting on the wall.

The new housing is universal and can be mounted in both vertical and horizontal positions. In the “bottom” end and in one of the sides there are slots for a transparent leg-stand. The stand itself has holes for mounting it on the wall with screws.

Inside

The device is built on a new IPQ-4018 chip with four cores and a clock frequency of 716MHz.
Block Diagram of the device:

It makes no sense to retell the remaining details; they are listed on the manufacturer’s page.

At the request of readers, I add about “offal”. Carefully open the case and see the board


Large radiator. The guys didn't skimp on cooling. I hope this really saves you from overheating.

I had to immediately update the device to RouterOS 6.41.2 (stable) in order to continue the planned testing.

Now let's look at the properties. What does hAP AC2 tell us about itself?

It can be seen that the device has quite enough RAM, even more than indicated on the MikroTik block diagram (“did they slip me more valuable fur?”). But the manufacturer has again limited the data storage capacity. Shameful 16MB. Well, never mind, this is a router, not a network storage device. I haven’t checked whether dude-server, the package for arm of which is available, will work under such conditions. A small margin for overclocking the CPU is also visible.

The device is not locked to Russia, like other MikroTik devices supplied to the market since 2018, so there is no need to carry out the NetInstall procedure. The full list of countries and superchannel mode are available without this.

Due to the lack of a normal high-speed IPSec traffic source, the IPSec/L2TP express method was used. An l2tp server with IPSec support was installed on the router, the laptop acted as a client. In this configuration it is impossible to achieve maximum performance in IPSec, but it still gives some idea of ​​​​it.

It's strange that one core was loaded almost to its maximum. I got the impression that it's all about ppp/l2tp. If it were “pure” IPSec, performance would certainly be higher.
In general, banwidth-test running on a computer works quite strangely and does not want to show full performance. Later I ran tests between two MikroTik devices - the results are different. I admit that the problem may be in the computer.

So, a “direct” throughput test between hAP AC2 and 3011 without IPSec showed some asymmetry between received and transmitted traffic. At the same time, both routers had a reserve of CPU resources.

I didn’t find a decent pair for hAP AC2 to test performance in the 5GHz range. hAP ac lite was extracted from the bins, which has only one stream in the 5GHz range and a weak CPU.

However, the channel speed reached 390Mbps for reception and 263Mbps for transmission.

Conducting full testing at 2.4GHz turned out to be quite difficult due to the high noise level of the airwaves. Purely subjectively, it seemed that at 2.4 GHz the new device works more stable than the 951 series. But without a load it’s hard to say yet.

Now about what is NOT in hAP AC2.

Compared to the popular 951 series, there is no beeper. It will no longer be possible to play the “imperial march” on it. It also reboots silently.

Not available in hAP AC2 and METAROUTER. It's a bit of a pity. Asterisk installed inside the metarouter helped out several times.

Routing and NAT

Naturally, I became interested in the device’s performance when it performed sourec-nat address translation and without it.
At home, we were able to test the connection only on gigabit links. For testing, a structure was assembled from a router and two Samsung laptops with gigabit ethernet interfaces. The nat rule was not modified - the more resource-intensive “masquerade” action from the default config was left by default.
Results:
When using fasttrack, the throughput was limited by the physical limit of the gigabit interface. The CPU load fluctuated from 3 to 13%.
Without using fasttrack, throughput decreased by about 2%, and CPU utilization increased to 26-32%.

HAP AC2 calmly NATs gigabit without config optimization! Great result!

Results

In my opinion, MikroTik made a good device. Equipped enough to conquer the market. Most likely, it will eventually supplant the 951 and desktop 2011 series, having a number of undoubted advantages over them. The device covers most of the needs of both a home user and the needs that arise when connecting a small office/branch.

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The device that we will talk about in our short note is not entirely ordinary. At a cost of about $20, it demonstrates performance that far exceeds the capabilities of equipment of this class. If we compare it with anything, it can only be with equipment manufactured by Cisco or Juniper.

On the other hand, the external interface of the router is extremely minimalist: there are only four ports on the back wall, including WAN for connecting the provider's fiber optic cable. The radio signal generation module is also not very powerful.

In any case, it is not enough to support the most modern reception and transmission standards like 802.11 AC, which made it possible to simultaneously view highly saturated multimedia content on several subscriber devices at once.

Nevertheless, Mikrotik hap lite should be classified as an advanced router that meets the requirements of most modern users of wireless WiFi networks.

The physical connection between the router and the computer is carried out as usual:

• Insert the provider cord removed from the PC network card into the WAN port on the rear wall.
• We connect the network adapter connector and any free LAN router with the patch cord from the box.
• We connect the power supply to the finger connection located right there, and plug its plug into a household outlet. This is enough for the lights on the lid of the device to blink, which is a signal that we have done everything correctly.

All that remains is to configure your Internet connection and WiFi network. On Mikrotik hap lite, all this is done in the web interface. So, let's start configuring our equipment.

Without this necessary procedure, connecting other subscribers to the router's wireless network: laptops, tablets, smartphones or any other gadgets - simply will not work. Please be patient and follow our instructions carefully.

Practice configuring Mikrotik

As we have already said, all setup is done through the web interface, which is easy to access. To do this, you need to switch to the computer to which the router is connected and launch a browser on it.

In the address bar, enter the numbers of the device’s local IP address: 192.168.88.1. It must be said that this is not an ordinary address for a router. Typically the values ​​used are 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. But nothing can be done, “each Abram has his own program.” Then everything happens like this:

Complete installation of all Mikrotik hap lite formats looks really difficult. Details and details of this process can be found on the Internet, for example, here.