Questions on Routers

Switches
23
  1. Yes. 4-8 ports would be great, with 1 or 2 SFP+
  2. 2.5 Gbe WAN/LAN would allow this to be on par with future needs
  3. Wall mount and having it prepared for an optional rack mount set of brackets
  4. Would depend on the cooling design. Metal always “feels” like a more quality product
  5. Having the option is always good, PoE+. Is there any reason to not include it these days? All ports and 130w. Then you should support a line of poe power switches, like another vendor.
  6. Would depend on the cost difference. Are we saving $10, $50, $100 not having it? Also would depend on the overall capable throughput of the switch. If it can’t support.
  7. Would appreciate having some VPN/Firewall capabilities and a processor that can support the overhead to achieve good throughput.
24

Alternatively, a great option for me would be to have a simple, 2 or 3 port router that could be powered with PoE. As I already have the 8-port PoE+ switch, having a simple router w/ 2.5 GbE WAN and LAN port that could be powered off the PoE+ switch would be clean and simple.

25

8 Lan Ports + 1 WAN port total
Wan port - 2.5Gb
At least one 10Gb Lan port and the rest 2.5Gb.
PoE+ on 4 Ports to power 4 AP6-Pro’s

Ability to optionally use one of the LAN ports as a WAN backup/fallback

26
  1. 4-8 ports
  2. 2.5G in at least one of the ports.
  3. Poe+ 4 ports 60 watts.
  4. Metal case with optional rackmount
  5. One sfp+
  6. All ports can be WAN or LAN
27
    • at least 3 (for double wan option)
    • 2.5Gb will be nice, but 1Gb are ok too (maybe have 2 models, base with 1Gb and Pro with 2.5Gb)
    • maintain small form, with accessory for mounting
    • maybe metal and use it as heat-sink
    • on router, no
    • no preference (maybe a pro model with sfp or sfp+)
    • design wise not really, but feature wise, i would love:
  • wireguard
  • ability to configure all or selective traffic to be sent via VPN tunnels (dynamically or statically, maybe tags for filtering )
  • dual WAN (balancer or failover)
  • configuration backup/restore
1 Like
28

Does SFP cost more to implement? what if all the ports were SFP and we had the option to spec the ports to whatever we wanted them to be?

29

This month my fiber connection from KPN (ISP in the Netherlands) will be installed and I would like to would like to use the upcoming Alta Labs router

From the official KPN documentation I get the following important points for internet:

  • PPPoE through VLAN6
  • MTU size of 1500 bytes (rfc4638)
  • IPv4 address and DNS through PPPoE

From the official KPN documentation I get the following important points for IPTV:

  • Routed mode, no bridge mode
  • Ethernet VLAN4
  • DHCP option 60 with value IPTV_RG
  • Specific route information (Option 55 which includes 1, 3, 28 and 121)
  • IGMP-proxy with fast-leave (IGMPv2)
  • Priority for IPTV traffic with value 5 (802.1p)

It would be a perfectfor Dutch end users when Internet, IPTV and telephony work in with Alta Labs’ new router.

30

I agree with the last poster. Any chance there will be an update in the timeline for the router and the wifi7 ap?

31

@hjzwiers Router should be out by the middle of this year! WiFi7 AP, we are working on it. :sunglasses:

3 Likes
32

If you have any idea of the specifications of the router it would be great if you could share, the wifi7 is clear.

33

I would really like to see SD-WAN support. Something akin to how Fortinet does it would be nice, multiple WAN. I really am not a fan of 2.5gb interfaces, as they are mostly expensive and under perform, not to mention issues with Linux driver support. A nice SFP (SFP+ would be cool, but 10gb internet is a pipe dream). Currently I have 200+ of a couple different brands deployed. It would be nice to have a generic SD-WAN setup that didn’t require the use of a service provider like VMware or Palo Alto to get the functionality. Fortinet does it nice, but it is pretty cost prohibitive for smaller franchises who have to foot the bill for the hardware and the service provider currently. More interfaces (the 4-8 is a good sounding spot) helps when you need a more firm separation of networks in situations like a network segment that is in scope for PCI.

That’s my 2 cents.

2 Likes
34

Hi all,
New guy here quite interested on your products since a local controller is ongoing.

I am planning to upgrade my home equipment (mixture of brands) and quite interested on your brand and specially in you upcoming routers :slight_smile:

My suggestion:

  1. Yes, at least 3. Ideally standard (Mikrotik HeX S, Ubiquiti UCG-Ultra) 5 + 1 SFP+
  2. 1xWAN + 1xWAN/LAN + rest LAN. WAN, WAN/LAN + at least 1 additional LAN supporting 2,5GBps will be great
  3. Small factor with optional rack mount
  4. Metal enclosure to keep it fanless
  5. I would really appreaciate PoE(+) in and PoE+ out in one port at least (like the Mikrotik RB4011 but not passive)
  6. Yes 1 SFP+ will be enough. Specially if no 2,5GBps LAN ports were added
  7. Please, please, please: support multi-VLAN at WAN port. Where I live there are operators providing internet in one VLAN, voip in another VLAN and IPTV in a third one (triple play).
    And, as said above, please keep it fanless.

Thanks!

2 Likes
35

My take on this :slight_smile:

  1. Naah, 4-8 ports are fine (PoE not needed), otherwise you should use a switch.
  2. WAN up to 2.5Gpbs woks. (PPPoE support)
  3. Option to rack mount is welcomed but not necessary
  4. Plastic works (keeping cost lower)
  5. Do not need PoE on router at all (get a switch or injector)
  6. SPF/SPF+ maybe on a higher end model?
  7. VPN support (at least 50 connections, WireGuard, L2TP, IPSEC, OpenVPN,…),
    Some basic firewall features, as there are dedicated FWs for enterprise users we understand this comes at a greater cost that not all users are willing to pay for, but some basic filters and protection is always welcomed, VLAN capabilities, LAN-LAN capabilities, At least 2 WAN options (primary and one for back-up, an LTE backup add-on would be nice), maybe Wi-Fi built? (or at least a model with Wi-Fi).
1 Like
36

We’ve been putting these in on various sites: MikroTik Routers and Wireless - Products: L009UiGS-RM . These are pretty great routers - they have almost everything I want. Just would like two 10G sfps.

Our local fiber hut provides 10g via SFP+ to homes, and so 10G routers are becoming more important. Secondly, there are getting to be more and more 10G switches, and we’ve received a pile of requests for 10G networking in people’s homes.

I love the snappiness of the Mikrotik, but i’m basically the only one who can administer these in my company. The Alta gear is a LOT easier to work with for our techs, and there’s no need for the controller on site, so that’s pretty nice really.

So, my take on your questions:

Do you find having a handful of switch ports available to you a benefit? If so, how many?

Yes, 6 is the most I’ve used for separated networks, but vlans are important too.

Would you like to see the WAN, LAN or WAN/LAN ports on the router 2.5Gbps? Or higher?

So, yes, we are looking for faster connectivity. 2.5g for both SFP and wired would be a minimum for us. 1,2,5,5,10G are standardized on SFP+

Is the ability to rack or wall mount the router a must? Or would you rather it maintain a small form factor with an optional accessory for a rack mount?

Maintain small with ability to put on ears for racking…

Any preference on a metal or plastic enclosure for your routers?

fanless heat dissipation is easier with metals like aluminum. RFI interference is better with ferrous metals… but this is of low concern overall.

How vital are PoE ports on a router? If they are vital, is PoE+ sufficient, and what should the total available PoE budget be?

They aren’t important for me, but are convenient. you have switches that do the job well, I’d prefer to see you have 10G over POE.

Should SFP or SFP+ be a standard on all routers? Or is that something we should leave off?

my vote is SFP+, one for WAN, one for LAN, have the ability to arbitrarily assign which ports are WAN, LAN1, LAN2, LAN3 or WAN1, WAN2, LAN1, LAN2, etc. having a mix of 10G SFP+ and copper ethernet would be a dream I know! but one can ask.

Is there anything else we should consider as we finalize the design of our routers that you would like to share?

Make sure it has the ability to provide a DNS cache. Having a simple virtualization ability so we could run a cache like PiHole would be enough though. A good DNS cache for local use makes SO much difference in the ‘feel’ of a network, I can’t stress it enough.
Also, presumably you’ll handle DNS no matter what, so having the ability to hand out addresses like DHCP and have those DHCP assigned addresses get dynamically into the DNS server would be handy as well. That kind of stuff really makes the network feel good.

Final thoughts, I like to set my routers as wireguard clients to a know IP address so I don’t need to have a static at every location, but this is mostly because it’s how I administer them - will you have a webgui administration sytem for these as well?

For routers, i MUCH prefer high frequency over high core count, and can you make sure to use good quality ram and replaceable nvme/pcie drives? i’m thinking for down the road repair of a dead drive…

1 Like
37

Ports are good addition for a small standalone deployment, production or small scale testing, or flexibility / redundancy in a larger deployment.
Feature parity with the UDM-Pro/SE would definitely make it more interesting. 8 ports, mix of 1Gbps 2.5Gbps Poe and Poe ++

At least one port as a WAN/LAN for flexibility.

With 10Gbps FTTH some places costing little more that 1Gb connections(with my ISP it’s exactly the same price each month) , capping WAN at 2.5Gbps is a bit of a dead end - 2 SFP+ ports as a baseline, 4 would really differentiate from prosumer competition, especially if the routing can keep up (2 of them as SFP28 would stand out).

Rackmount / Wallmount are nice to have - doesn’t need to be out of the box, but as long as the option is there with add ons.

Metal and passively cooled / used as part of a heatsink would be ideal - both for a more premium look and feel but also quieter operation.

POE+ should be sufficient the small scale deployment or test set-up to demo functionality, enough to run at least 2 APs, 4 for feature parity with the UDM-SE, 8 would be overkill for me but might help differentiate.

Omittimg SFP+ would be a mistake - with enterprise hardware selling second hand dirt cheap, 10Gbps NICs can be slotted into a desktop pretty cheaply for a PFsense box. It also means FTTH users might be forced to keep their ISP modem / 3rd party transceiver in front without somewhere to connect it natively. Limiting it to 2.5Gbps Ethernet would make it irrelevant for me.

Anything else?
As a new player you need to come out swinging. Differentiate the product, or you’re conveying just on price / performance. A killer firewall / router without bloat like video recording, priced competitively or positioned above the incumbents at a relatively comparable price would definitely stand out.
True 10Gbps throughput with IDS/IPS?
Next gen firewall features? Consumer friendly additions like local DNS for adblocking?
Repairability / upgrade-ability? Modular expansion (one thing where Sophos shines?

There’s plenty of ways to stand out.

1 Like
38

  1. I believe having 4 Copper ports and 4 10G SFP+ ports would be sufficient.

  2. For the router, I would prefer 2 WAN ports with a combination of SFP and Copper, both capable of 10 Gbps.

  3. It essential for the router to be both rack-mountable and wall-mountable, providing flexibility in installation options.

  4. I prefer routers with a metal enclosure for durability and robustness.

  5. In terms of PoE ports, I believe they are vital. PoE+ with a total available PoE budget of 60W would meet my requirements.

  6. I would like to see SFP+ as a standard feature on all routers.

  7. It is important to have at least one PoE port among the WAN ports, as this would facilitate connectivity for devices such as a secondary WAN router like the Meraki MG-52, which operates using a 5G cellular connection.

I hope this information helps as you finalize the design of your routers.

1 Like
39

My recommendations:

Hardware: Two models - one for SMB and one for SME.
Pricing: $500 MSRP for SMB, $1000 MSRP for SME.
User Capacity: 500 concurrent users for SMB, 1500-2000 for SME.

Switchable WAN/LAN Ports: 4-8 for SMB; 8-16 for SME.
Port Speeds: Minimum 2.5Gbps; higher options for SME.
Mounting: Small form factor with optional rack mount for SMB; standard rack mount for SME.
Enclosure: Prefer metal for both.
PoE Ports: Not Essential
SFP/SFP+: Essential on both SMB and SME Routers.

2 Likes
40

I am waiting for the router to replace my existing Ubiquiti setup and go all in with Alta Labs with switches and 3-4 APs. But if it is going to cost $500+ then as a home user I will not switch… max $250-300 for the light one!

2 Likes
41

I will probably have the less popular choice to state, I really do not think a router would be needed to guard my network from the internet because after evaluating many routers for 10 years, Netgate and pfsense seem to have the features I need.

To answer your questions:

  1. I would probably stick with pfsense for a router next to the cable modem (or internet source). But I would not mind a router with 5 RJ45s and 4 SFP+ ports would be great. I would like to see the ports assigned by me with the option to not have a WAN port.
  2. As some of my recent laptops or desktop have 2.5 GBe ports, it would be good to have the router ports that go up to 2.5 on the RJ45 side.
  3. Rackmount.
  4. Metal with a two power supplies that could be replaced.
  5. POE is not vital.
  6. SFP+ would be great to connect between other routers and switches. I have a 4-port and 8-port using SFP+.
  7. I would focus on the backplane of the network with this router. I would not use this unit as my firewall or last hop to the internet. I have multiple public ips as well as a need to connect to other external networks. After looking at devices for the last 10 years, I landed on pfsense because it has all the features already. I don’t need all my network devices to be homogeneous.
1 Like
42

We would love to hear your feedback and answers to these questions:

  1. Do you find having a handful of switch ports available to you a benefit? If so, how many?
    4 RJ45 2SFP+ and 1 SFP28
  2. Would you like to see the WAN, LAN or WAN/LAN ports on the router 2.5Gbps? Or higher?
    WAN and at least one LAN port SFP28
  3. Is the ability to rack or wall mount the router a must? Or would you rather it maintain a small form factor with an optional accessory for a rack mount?
    do not care
  4. Any preference on a metal or plastic enclosure for your routers?
    100% metal
  5. How vital are PoE ports on a router? If they are vital, is PoE+ sufficient, and what should the total available PoE budget be?
    the RJ45 should have PoE+
  6. Should SFP or SFP+ be a standard on all routers? Or is that something we should leave off?
    SFP + for sure even SFP 28
  7. Is there anything else we should consider as we finalize the design of our routers that you would like to share?
    to keep prices in a range I would love to have some options, use SFP28 and skipt RJ45, or choose SFP+ and some RJ45 PoE ports.
1 Like