RB1100's

In case you think it is too good to be true...

lol...

RouterBoard 1100's Are Back

After one heck of a long dry spell, we have a shipment of MikroTik RouterBoard 1100's ready to ship. These boards were out of production due to a shortage of chips but are now hitting our shelves and leaving as fast as they came in. Order yours today!

Router-On-A-Stick - 802.1Q Trunking With MikroTik

Router-On-A-Stick is a phrase referring to the connection of a 802.1Q capable switch to a single router interface. By trunking across the Ethernet interface and assigning separate Vlans to each of the switch's ports or groups of ports, it is possible to create a configuration that simulates a router with many separate physical Ethernet interfaces. Consider the following example:

In this example, a router with a single Ethernet interface is trunked to a MikroTik switch. In practice, this same configuration can be used between two switches or two routers. The purpose of this article is to show the steps required to setup the MikroTik RB250GS switch as a trunked switch in the router-on-a-stick configuration.

To log into the RB250GS switch, simply web browse to 192.168.88.1 from a computer on the same phyical network segment with an IP on the same subnet, 192.168.88.0/24. The default user name is admin with no password.

All settings may be left at the defaults with the exception of a few.

In this example we are using Vlan Id's 1, 200, 300 and 400. Note that the switch will respond to http requests to its IP address on all ports. This behavior is a bit different than Cisco IOS that responds to untagged traffic via an IP bound to Vlan 1. The way the OS is built, there is no need for a default gateway or a subnet mask.

Selection of the Vlan ID and the assignment to the ports is your choice, decide what Vlan ID's you will use and where you will assign them.

In this example we need two ports for devices on Vlan 300 on Ports 3 & 5 and one port for device on Vlan 400 on Port 4 and one port for a device on Vlan 200 on port 2.

1. Begin by clicking on the VLAN tab and make the following changes, assuming the trunk port will be Port1 (the port that is connected to the router).

2. The VLAN page determines how the switch strips the Vlan tags with specific Vlan ID's from the packets as they exit these ports. Setting Port 1 to Vlan Mode "enabled" and VLAN Header to "add if missing" makes Port 1 a trunk port.

3. When done, your VLAN page should look similar to this:

4. Next, click on the VLANs tab. This is where you create the Vlan Id's to be used on the switch and on which ports these tags will be applied. So, for example, in this scenario, if I create a Vlan interface on the router with a Vlan ID of 200, that traffic will appear on the switch on ports 3 & 5.

5. Here is the example:

6. The last step is to change the IP address, system identity and the password on the System tab and configure the router.

The router configuration is a standard one for Vlans, create Vlan interfaces attached to the Ethernet interface that is connected to the switch (in this example Ether1) and match the Vlan ID numbers you assigned to the switch. Then bind your IP addresses to the Vlan interfaces and you will be set.

ISP Supplies sells the RB250GS, and it is a great bargain for the price point.

New Shipment of Arc Wireless Has Arrived

As a long time user of Arc Wireless antenna products, I was excited that were able to become a distributor for this great product. I have personally found them to exhibit great performance for any customer CPE installation. I have also used these antennas for point to point links up to 20 miles and found the quality to be excellent.

MikroTik RB1100 Alternative

With the success of the RouterBoard 1100 (1U rack mounted) router, supplies in the distribution channel have dwindled. In addition, RB1000's are no longer being produced so VAR's and integrators are scrambling to find a solution for installations requiring rack mounted routing gear. ISP Supplies now has available rack mounted 493AH's in a convenient 1U case. Although not as powerful as it's RB1100 cousin or nearly as well stocked with ports, the 493AH 1 U provides an alternative for applications requiring immediate availability.

Ubiquity NanoBridges Rock!

Wow, that's my best description for this great new product. The Ubiquiti NanoBridge-5G22 is the coolest, feature rish, high performance product I have seen at this price point in quite some time. Need 100 megs on a 5 mile hop? Got a slim budget? If either or both of these is true this is your product. With a total price of $160 for both ends of the hop, this guy is awesome! Try one today, we have these and other Ubiquiti in stock at ISP Supplies.

We also stock MikroTik, Comet and RedLine to name a few.