The hardware alone is far better than almost anything you can find in consumer routers - dual or quad core CPUs, plenty of RAM, etc.

Mikrotik is a Latvian based company that produces both hardware (called RouterBOARD) and software (RouterOS) that provides a solid platform on which to build a router. Thankfully there's a good step in between full grade business routers like Cisco (real Cisco, not Linksys) and the off-the-shelf consumer routers that you find at your local PC store.

While some routers offer QoS options to help prioritize traffic, they have very limited functionality and can even reduce performance since the hardware in such routers is not meant for any kind of serious processing. Many of them also have glaring security holes too which open your network to attack. From NAT table overflows to DHCP server crashes, your off-the-shelf router isn't that great. It's not a surprise that the first troubleshooting technique is to reboot the device - consumer routers are designed to be low price and use cheap hardware with limited memory and poorly written software. Many people are familiar with the trouble consumer grade routers can cause. Whether you share an internet connection with roommates or operate a gaming house, LAN center, etc, this can quickly become a problem. No matter how fast your internet connection is, if another program or person on your network competes for bandwidth, the packets are processed with the same priority, resulting in increased latency (or worse, packet loss) for your game or other interactive applications. Or perhaps you just want a really good home router? This page will guide you through setting up the Mikrotik hAP AC, a powerful 'small business' router with dual band Wi-Fi.

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