MikroTik RB941-2nD RouterBoard hAP lite 2.4GHz home Access Point lite

This unit is very small and flat. I hid it away behind some shelves.In spite of this placement, the WiFi strength is perfect for my house. It is a small house.I initially bought this router because it is compatible with OpenWRT, but the stock admin interface is very complete. You can even SSH into the device and control all settings through the command line. The command line interface is a customized Linux shell that makes navigation through the commands and getting help very easy. I liked it so much that I turned off the web interface entirely.Initial setup of this unit may be difficult for everyday users. You will want to have at least some experience with networking.I am very impressed with this unit. High quality hardware and software, especially for the price. I am purchasing a second one for my office.

This is a fantastic portable AP, I carry it to work with me to prove to customers their wireless APs are defective, or to hotels to have my own Wifi.Like other Routerboard products, you use Winbox to log in and manage the unit. Tons of features and can customize to whatever you want.Runs on Level 4 of the Mikrotik license, which is more than what you need for a home router or AP.Constant updates. Always adding new features and fixing bugs. This is by far the best I've seen from router manufacturers.Can be modified for a WISP, or a wifi-bridge.Can be powered from a computer/laptop. I'm currently typing this on a laptop with a USB cable powering the unit.BGP/OSPF/RIP routing protocols, which is great for testing or introducing into a large network environment.No Console port. Not even worth taking off a star. You can use Winbox to connect over MAC address even if you screw something up on layer 3.Overall, still a fantastic Wifi router/AP after a lot of testing and use.

I bought this device for two main reasons, the price and the large number of features this router has. At the time that I purchased this device, I was able to get it for $20, so my review will be based on that price point.I would like to say that this is my first MikroTik router and I'm not necessarily extremely knowledgeable when it comes to the large feature set this router has.The device includes a 2x2 300 Mbps wireless chip with a 22 dBm output, 4 100 Mbps Ethernet ports, 5V USB power supply, and a 650 MHz processor. I will talk more about things like RAM down below. Lastly, it also runs MikroTik's RouterOS.This package includes the router itself, a USB to two prong plug(which is sideways if that matters to anyone), and a little piece of paper briefly describing the router's specs. When the box first arrived, I was incredibly surprised how small this router was. It's just slightly larger than my LG Volt smartphone. Due to it's small size and low weight, I was worried of it tipping over or being dragged around, but the grips on the bottom seem to keep it in place well enough.On the back, this device has a USB power connector, a reset button, an activity light, a power light, and then 4 100 Mbps Ethernet ports. By default, port 1 is setup to be a WAN port. Please note that there aren't any lights on the front of the device. In some cases, you can sometimes see the lights on the back of the device without looking since they can shine through the holes on the case above them.When I first turned on the device and was trying it out, I noticed that my 4th Ethernet port wasn't working. My cable wouldn't snap in and it seemed like the ports weren't exactly perfect with the case(there was a gap on the left side of the switch and the 4th port didn't exactly had a smooth side). I tried to adjust it and disable and enable it in the settings and it eventually began working. If boot time matters to any of you, I noticed the complete boot time was roughly around 40-50 seconds.When it comes to the features, I won't go too in depth since I am not too familiar with them. However, I will say that this device has loads of features. I do hear that since this device runs a different firmware version than its big brothers, it loses out on some features, but compared to anything else in this price range, the feature list is huge. I primarily used the WebFig (web based) UI throughout my time using it so far. I have noticed that it is a little slow at times in terms of moving around the UI. The "Quick Set" page usually takes a long time for it to load. I bought this device mainly because of it's large number of wireless features, particularly the multi-SSID feature. I am able to run a lot of SSIDs off this little guy and it's entirely stable. I was having issues with multiple SSIDs at first, but once I changed it from "bgn" to "n only" mode, it went a lot smoother.I know there are a lot of concerns about memory and space on this device. Here are my current stats listed on the resource page:*Free Memory = 8.2 MiBTotal Memory = 32 MiB*Free HDD Space = 8.3 MiBTotal HDD Space = 16 MiBBecause of this, as I mentioned above, this router will run a "smips" version.My firmware was outdated when I received my device and I was able to update it to 6.29.1 which is what was current at the time of this review. For those unfamiliar with the firmware update process as I was for these devices, you must first download the firmware from MikroTik's website. Then, you go to "Files" in your WebFig and upload it. Once that is done, you must then reboot your device. Now, you go to "System" -> Routerboard and click "Upgrade." Make sure the "Upgrade Firmware" is the newest firmware you're trying to update to. Now reboot again. I had a few little improvements to the overall performance by upgrading from the stock firmware.For wireless performance, the range is ok. It's not the greatest as you might expect, but it's certainly not the worst. For it's size, the range is pretty surprising. It won't blow your mind though. Make sure you turn on 20 MHz down from 40 MHz wireless channels since it will cause reduced range, while also choosing either channel 1,6, or 11. The signal itself is overall pretty stable and doesn't sway all over the place as some other devices. One neat feature this device includes that many this price range don't, is the ability to do site surveys and frequency usage scans. You have to be connected by Ethernet to do this.One thing I really liked about this device is the fact that is applies settings so fast. Probably because of the amazing firmware it comes with by default. If I was messing around with wireless settings, this thing instantly changed before I even tabbed back to my inSSIDer scanning. I wasn't even able to tell if things applied at times, the wireless signal just stayed constant and didn't have to drop out for a few seconds to apply a new setting.For those curious, I hooked this up to my 5V/1A portable battery and it worked fine.I wasn't sure whether or not to give this 5 stars or 4. I ended up with 4 mainly because I'm not entirely sure MikroTik knows who they're trying to market this to. The design and price point of this router seems to be marketing it to the basic user. On the other hand, I can see where a lot of basic users can get lost in the UI. There could have been a basic UI overlay on top of this feature rich typical MikroTik one. Sort of like a button to take you from a basic UI to the one there now.

You won't find anything better at this price point. Don't let the size and price fool you, this is a powerful WiFi router with high end features. If you don't need 5GHz and gigabit ethernet, this is going to work as good or better than any of the "Cisco"/Linksys, low end netgear, or similar Belkin offerings. The RouterOS system is unmatched by all the competition in this price range. Many of these companies don't offer timely updates or stop releasing firmware upgrades altogether. There are limitless possibilities with cheap devices like these from MikroTik. Granted, they may not have a as clean and polished a configuration experience for the new user as they would be accustomed to. The quick setup page is certainly enough for any novice user to get going, but for anything beyond that I wouldn't want to try to train anyone that isn't already comfortable with networking and IT. In short, MikroTik has been the most exciting thing to happen for me which inspired and renewed my passion for networking. I have two more on the way now that I've seen how well they work.

Finally MikroTik the maker of amazing enterprise class routers has built a consumer SOHO router at a price that nothing available on the market today can touch. MikroTik routers are not the easiest to configure (the advanced features) if you aren't familiar with their language. But if you want 100% control of your network this is it. I use it for QoS (prioritizing devices over others) and many many other advanced features. WiFi output power is much greater than other consumer routers. Another plus is this works as a great travel router for hotels or to keep safe with personal WiFi when Ethernet is available. Because this takes MicroUSB for power you can power anywhere off of USB battery pack, car charger, etc...