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The router is one of the most basic tools for establishing network communication. Recently, Mikrotik routers have been well-received and popular, making us pay more attention to this brand. In this article, in addition to introducing the types of Mikrotik, we are trying to provide you with additional helpful information about them. So read the article carefully until the end.

What is Mikrotik?

Mikrotik is the name of a router brand founded by two American MIT students in 1995. Of course, older people may remember this brand with the Mikrotik operating system! Yes, one of the products of this company in Latvia, Eastern Europe, is Mikrotik operating system.

It is interesting to know that this operating system, while announcing the standards related to wireless technology, included special features for this innovation. Mikrotik’s speed in adapting to the technology trend is why its customers are super companies such as NASA, HP, Motorola, etc.

But well, the topic of our discussion is Mikrotik routers and networking tools. To define this series of Mikrotik tools more clearly, it can be said that it is a French wrench and a professional tool for network control and management. Using its user interface, you can easily design a complete and functional network quickly.

Competing with Cisco is the goal of producing all kinds of Mikrotik!

Cisco’s famous IOS operating system can be installed on computers and has unique features such as routing, firewall, VPN, monitoring, QOS, Hotspot, Load Balancing, and other useful services.

Perhaps Cisco can be considered one of Mikrotik’s most important competitors. Cisco’s famous IOS operating system, which is easily installed on PCs and supports unique network features (such as VPN, firewalls, routing, etc.), made Mikrotik consider joining Cisco.

The question was, how? And the answer was to cut costs. Mikrotik gradually found its place by providing the same services but at a lower cost.

Of course, competing with a similar company was not and is not this company’s only goal. If you look at all kinds of Mikrotik products, you will notice that this company has taken important steps in service innovation and improving its products in the market.
Look at the services and products to learn more about Mikrotik!

Mikrotik serves its customers in the following three sectors

• hardware
• software
• educational

Today, this article emphasizes Mikrotik’s hardware category, routers. But a brief look at other products is also worth it.

Familiarity with the hardware products of the Mikrotik company

In 2002, the Mikrotik company concluded that perhaps not all types of hardware, especially personal computers (PCs), can be fully trusted! Therefore, he decided to produce his hardware.

Now you may ask why Mikrotik did not trust personal computers.

Personal computers are very diverse.

They are not designed for network use.

I can’t use the mainframe on the network.

Router Board was the name of a product that brought special benefits in addition to solving the problem of unreliability.

These Mikrotik hardware devices were usually a (but smaller) version of a personal computer designed for networking. With years of activity, Mikrotik has developed its operating system, and this has caused differentiation in the company’s products.

Finally, all these issues came together, so worldwide companies that provide extensive internet services use all kinds of Mikrotik products instead of Cisco products. This means the realization of the main goal of the Mikrotik company

1. Ethernet routers (Router)

Routers are among the smartest and most complex network devices. They can be found in different types and sizes in the market. Therefore, they can make decisions, plan, install software or operating systems, and detect the shortest paths in the network, and for this reason, they are more expensive. If you are interested in getting more information in this field, the network security training course can probably be useful and practical for you.

Although routers’ expense compared to switches and hubs is one disadvantage, speeding up networks and lowering network delay are among their advantages, which is a good reason for their popularity. Therefore, a router is a device that connects local networks; routing between networks is one of its tasks.

Introduction of several Mikrotik routers:

• HEX Lite model router
• Router model RB750P-PBr2
• Router model CCR1016-12S-1S+
• Router model RB2011iLS-IN

2. Network switches

Devices are connected in a local area network (LAN) using a device called a switch. This device transfers data to the destination in an orderly and packaged form. With this connection, computers in the network can communicate and exchange data.

However, switches do not only connect computers; they can also connect any device that supports network protocols, which is one of the most attractive uses of a switch.

Introducing some switches from Mikrotik:

• Switch model CRS212-1G-10S-1S+IN
• Switch model B260GS
• Switch model CRS125-24G-1S-2HnD-IN
• Switch model CRS226-24G-2S+IN

3. Wireless radios, wireless systems, or antennas

Wireless radios provide the internet or send and receive data and information by radio waves. These tools have internal or external antennas with different powers according to their use. Participating in extracurricular training courses can be an ideal choice if you want to learn more in this field.

Advantages and capabilities of using wireless radio:

• High speed of data transfer
• Good quality of this hardware
• Easy and simple installation and configuration
• Affordable and at a reasonable price
• WEP, WAP, and AES encryption systems
• Wireless Data Transmission System (WDS)
• Different network frequency selection (DFS)
• The possibility of virtualizing network access points
• It has exclusive Nstreme, NV2 protocols

Introducing some examples of Mikrotik wireless radios:

• Radio model SXT 5
• Radio model NetMetal 5
• Radio model QRT 5 ac
• Radio model DynaDish 5

4. Router boards

Routers are named according to their category. Router boards are the main tool for establishing network connections, and if you want to implement personalized settings on the router yourself;

• 3 DIGIT
• 4 DIGIT
• Naming
• Cloud Core Router

5. Home and office access points

Access point (or Wireless Access Point), which means access point in Farsi, is the name of one of the types of equipment used in wireless networks.

These devices are also called APs or WAPs for short. The function of WAPs in wireless networks is the same as that of a switch in cable networks. This means that they allow several computer systems to be connected through wireless networks.

6. Interfaces and network accessories

The interface is another Mikrotik product used to increase the PCI or PCIe port on Mikrotik routers. These products have optical fiber, various PCI converters, and wireless cards.
Tips for naming types of microtia

Choosing a name for Mikrotik routers is based on specific rules that the company is well-versed in. Still, you and I, as customers of these products, must have correct information about the naming so that we can choose the right product. On the other hand, the type of pins, naming codes, etc., can provide useful information such as product capabilities and features, which is a very important point in buying Mikrotik products.

So let’s see what the abbreviations on Mikrotik types mean:

U: Devices that come with a USB port.
L: Devices whose power has been reduced.
G: The devices have a gigabit network interface.
A: Devices with upgraded RAM.
H: Devices whose processing power has been upgraded.
P: Devices with Power over Ethernet (POE) capability.
i: Devices that only support POE on one of the ports.
S: devices that allow the user to install the SFP module.
S+: Devices that allow the user to install SFP+.

Mikrotik software

The popular RouterOS software is one of Mikrotik’s most important software products. This software is an operating system for Mikrotik Routerboard hardware. Installing and configuring the Mikrotik operating system (RouterOS) on personal computers (PC) lets you use features such as a firewall, bandwidth management system, wireless access points, and VPN servers.

The RouterOS operating system can be installed on all 32-bit operating systems and more, and it can also be accessed through tools such as Telnet, FTP, or SSH. This software has many capabilities, but to add functional capabilities to this operating system, you must first obtain its license.

What is a license?

The license refers to licenses that are defined based on the routers’ hardware features and that can support multiple clients.

However, sometimes obtaining a license may not be a cost-effective choice. Mikrotik eliminates this problem by giving you a license (between levels three and six) whenever you buy a device from this company.

Each Mikrotik license gives users access to complete network management. Finally, the highest license level is license type 6, which allows unlimited users to manage all features.

Router OS operating system (RouterOS)

As we said at the beginning of the article, the Mikrotik brand intended to compete with the Cisco brand and its popular operating system, IOS. For this reason, it produced its operating system. This system can be installed on all kinds of computers. To better understand this issue, it is better to get acquainted with network user management. Among the successes of this operating system (Router OS) is its stability and integrity in providing service in all kinds of networks, making it popular.

Among other things that make this software superior to its competitors is that, with the help of Windows WinBox or QuickSet software, you can configure your routers with a few clicks. These programs have made it very simple and fast to set up routers with their graphical user interface.

Training under the Mikrotik company

Mikrotik serves its audience and customers by setting up and establishing various educational centers around the world. RouterOS software is one of the things that Mikrotik uses for training. In addition, Mikrotic courses are held in theoretical and practical form, and in the end, Mikrotic provides documents or certificates to the participants of the courses.

However, as much as the title suggests, it’s not bad to be relatively familiar with Mikrotik’s courses.

Mikrotik courses:

To learn how to work with the Mikrotik operating system, you can explore the educational topics provided by this company in seven diverse groups and three levels:

• MTCNA or MikroTik Certified Network Associate course
• MTCRE or MikroTik Certified Routing Engineer course
• MTCWE or MikroTik Certified Wireless Engineer course
• MTCTCE or MikroTik Certified Traffic Control Engineer course
• MTCUME or MikroTik Certified User Management Engineer course
• MTCINE or MikroTik Certified Inter-networking Engineer course
• MTCIPv6E or MikroTik Certified IPv6 Engineer course

And each of the documents is divided into one of the following levels:

• Basic Level
• MTCN
• Engineer Level 1
• MTCRE
• MTC
• MTCTCE
• Engineer Level 2
• MTCUME
• MTCINE
• MTCIPv6E

In what cases can Mikrotik be used?

At this stage, when you have gained a relatively good familiarity with the types of Mikrotik, if you have been asked in which cases you can get help from Mikrotik tools (of course, if you are working in the network field, you probably already know what Mikrotik is used for?), take a look at the list below. . Perhaps the next time you need to do one of the following tasks in your network infrastructure, you can easily solve your problem with just one tool from Mikrotik.

• Routing
• firewall
• Wireless
• Proxy Server
• user management
• Quality of Service
• load balancing
• Support for IP version 6 (IPv6 support)
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP Server)
• Network Address Translation (NAT)
• virtual private network (VPN)
• Connection hosting (PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, OpenVPN, ISDN)

Although network tools are much wider than these words and cannot be collected in just one article, we tried to collect the most key information you need to know about Mikrotik.

What is your experience with Mikrotik products? Have you ever used any Mikrotik? Please share your views and valuable experiences with us.