MikroTik HAP ax3 - 1st impressions.

MyDogMuppet

MyDogMuppet

MyDogMuppet

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MikroTik HAP ax3

So, I bit the bullet.

I’ve used DDWRT for 5 plus years on a trusty Linksys ACS1900. It’s worked flawlessly. But its dual band and only God knows when Brainslayer will stick Wifi6 support into DDWRT.

So I thought of the heretical path of retreating to ASUStek and splashing out £300 on an AX5700 Broadcom chipset device running Merlin. (I loved Merlin before DDWRT).

But I saw the HAP ax3 at half the price of the ASUStek AX5700 equivalent and was seduced. 4x1.8ghz and 1GB ram. What’s not to like? I’ll blow the dust off my CCNA & CCDA texts and get stuck in.

Now, I have to say, I’ve transcribed every setting from DDWRT to RouterOS7.6 …painstakingly. I’ve watched ‘past their sell-by-date’ You Tube videos and read internet blogs till I’ve fallen asleep. I don’t VLAN, I don’t twiddle, I don’t BGP, OPSF, my MPLS days are way behind me, and NMAP is but a distant memory. If it isn’t bust I NEVER fix it. My network is as simple as it gets. The HAP ax3 is a work in configuration progress.

The RouterOS UI is not a source of joy. They need to work from a starting point, like DDWRT, that all users are dummies. Assume nothing.

If MikroTik are trying to bring new users on board, from consumer land, they’re going to have to try a lot harder.

When I see a MikroTik prosumer review by ‘Dong Knows’, SNB or similar I’ll know that RouterOS & Mikrotik have finally crossed the Rubicon.
 
Caged said:
I think probably you aren't the target audience, they're not really a company making products aimed at YouTube influencers
Click to expand...
I agree. You Tube the only repository of ' how to', no idea about Influencers. The wiki lacking in relevant detail. The only technical reference I can find published in 2016. Obsolete. If Mikrotik are happy where they are in the market and the UI then I'll return to Merlin.
 
Obsolete. RouterOS by Example, 2nd Edition. 2016.

The UK Seller confirms there's something wrong; my config looks spot on, they say.
There's a world of difference between a usable GUI and a crock.
Haven't looked at any smiley idiot faced videos yet but if you're volunteering send me the link.
 
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MyDogMuppet said:
MikroTik HAP ax3

So, I bit the bullet.

I’ve used DDWRT for 5 plus years on a trusty Linksys ACS1900. It’s worked flawlessly. But its dual band and only God knows when Brainslayer will stick Wifi6 support into DDWRT.

So I thought of the heretical path of retreating to ASUStek and splashing out £300 on an AX5700 Broadcom chipset device running Merlin. (I loved Merlin before DDWRT).

But I saw the HAP ax3 at half the price of the ASUStek AX5700 equivalent and was seduced. 4x1.8ghz and 1GB ram. What’s not to like? I’ll blow the dust off my CCNA & CCDA texts and get stuck in.

Now, I have to say, I’ve transcribed every setting from DDWRT to RouterOS7.6 …painstakingly. I’ve watched ‘past their sell-by-date’ You Tube videos and read internet blogs till I’ve fallen asleep. I don’t VLAN, I don’t twiddle, I don’t BGP, OPSF, my MPLS days are way behind me, and NMAP is but a distant memory. If it isn’t bust I NEVER fix it. My network is as simple as it gets. The HAP ax3 is a work in configuration progress.

The RouterOS UI is not a source of joy. They need to work from a starting point, like DDWRT, that all users are dummies. Assume nothing.

If MikroTik are trying to bring new users on board, from consumer land, they’re going to have to try a lot harder.

When I see a MikroTik prosumer review by ‘Dong Knows’, SNB or similar I’ll know that RouterOS & Mikrotik have finally crossed the Rubicon.
Click to expand...

Send it back and buy something else. MikroTik are not especially interested in ‘consumers’. The initial configuration screen is as friendly as they’re going to get. And they work as much as any ‘consumer’ is going to want straight out of the box. The Chateau and hAP ranges are designed to be sold to ISPs who will pre-configure them. For anyone else it can be a fairly painful experience.

And given that EVERY MikroTik post EVER warns potential users about the steep learning curve, surely you weren’t expecting anything else?

These are £300 routers for £150 and they require the user to adapt to “Latvian Logic”. Once you have your head around that then there is very little you can’t do in RouterOS. Have you considered a Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Router?
 
What confuses me about this thread is the OP is at great pains to point out that they are not doing anything ‘unusual’. So I’m unclear as to why the initial configuration page didn’t cover everything they wanted to do. Top right, select your use-case and enter your ISP login credentials. Top left, set up the WiFi SSIDs, channels and passwords. bottom right, VPN and upgrades.

I don’t see how anyone, in a ‘consumer‘ home could fail to get one of these up and running in a few minutes.

As for getting reviews in SNB or Dong Knows, they are not MikroTik’s core market. Look at ServeTheHome and it’s very clear that the real hard-core ‘prosumers’ love MikroTik.

And from the sounds of it (unless the OP is a spoofer) the OP has the knowledge to fully exploit the capabilities of RouterOS - they just need to open up to the wonders of Eastern European thought processes.
 
I'm Also new to Microtik, I have the AX2 which I like now I've got used to where all the tools are. For the price I think it's a fantastic bit of kit. Is it DD-WRT,OpenWRT Or Linux.... NO! Does the WiFi work well for me ? Yes It does, it matches what I had and then some. I'm still waiting for someone to show up and do some testing with a 1gig connection. And maybe some QOS testing etc. Did it work out of the box with a few clicks... yes.
 
@MyDogMuppet

MikroTik is fine if you apply the mindset of - do it yourself. You need to build everything, if you are comparing an ASUS with DDWRT, you are going from Simple mode to Advanced with the mindset that Advanced should just have the buttons.

RouterOS is incredibly versatile and I don't think there's much you can't do with it but you need to understand what you are doing.
"I know what I'm doing with a router" - as in can set an IP range and set up an SSID isn't enough.

You've probably seen a few of my vids in your research journey though so appreciate the views lol
 
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