TheBrothersWISP Podcast 8 – Andrew Thrift, MPLS, MTK Newsletter 41

Comments

15 responses to “TheBrothersWISP Podcast 8 – Andrew Thrift, MPLS, MTK Newsletter 41”

1. 

   Sam Anderson

   2012-08-29

   Replaced Justin?!?! Say it aint so?!?!? 🙁 sad

   Reply
   1. 

      greg

      2012-08-29

      @Sam
      Nah, Justin was just too good for us last night…hehe. We couldn’t get hold of him, so we called in a stunt double.

      Reply
2. 

   Wayne Hancock

   2012-08-31

   Love the show guys!

   I check daily to see if there is new content!

   Reply
   1. 

      greg

      2012-08-31

      @Wayne

      If you use an RSS reader, you could just subscribe 🙂

      Reply
3. 

   Wayne Hancock

   2012-08-31

   Now, I just need to find out how to get into the beta for AirControl2!

   Reply
4. 

   Ty

   2012-09-03

   Hey Greg, any chance you would share your Mikrotik template for Cacti? I have been trying to graph just the things you mentioned on the podcast but keep hitting snags. Thanks for a great podcast!

   Reply
   1. 

      greg

      2012-09-03

      @Ty
      I’ve been using the same one for ages…I believe it is this one http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?t=25349

      Reply
5. 

   edward

   2012-09-05

   Curious, what SFP transceiver do you prefer to use with that Mikrotik 2011? These vary in price quite a bit, often more than the entire cost of the router.

   Also, an ongoing question I have (as a startup WISP) is do (or SHOULD I) set up a public IP for all of my subscribers? Currently, I am NATing everyone and they all roll up to a public IP that is closest to the internet POP. Is this a bad idea? I got an inquiry from someone on setting up port forwarding so they can map a custom port to their own internal service. I’d need to assign them a dedicated public IP, which doesn’t seem to work with my NAT model. What’s the best practice for WISPs, especially when you are a small startup, like me?

   Reply
   1. 

      greg

      2012-09-06

      @edward

      I’m using generic Cisco compatible SFPs with good success. I can usually get these between $20-30 USD.

      The best way to start is generally to NAT everyone to a single IP. If you have a business customer, do a 1 to 1 NAT at your border of a public IP to their specific private. This should be the cheapest and easiest option for you to start on.

      Reply
      1. 

         edward

         2012-09-06

         Thanks for the info!

         Ya’ll need to set up a forum – like UBNT, but vendor agnostic and more expansive – the combined skills you guys have here will be a great foundation/seed to spool up. Your videos will drive a lot more visitors.

         Reply
         1. 

            greg

            2012-09-06

            @Edward
            Sounds like a good idea, but I’m not sure we would really have time to keep up with it 🙂 I would be afraid questions would get missed.

            The other guys might have a different opinion…in which case I’m all ears.

            Reply
            1. 

               edward

               2012-09-07

               If you continue to attract more experts, it becomes a self-servicing community with less involvement of every forum, and do the highlighted posts (videos, etc, like you do now) to continue to draw people in. You guys would be the forum founders/leaders.

               Your consulting businesses would probably go through the roof.

               Couple questions:
               1) You mentioned in one of your videos a web site you like where you can get used Cisco gear cheap. Can you remind me where that is?

               2) Someone mentioned the idea of having pre-terminated fiber runs for tower installs. Any sources on where to order that? I’m assuming this means putting SFP terminators on two ends of a 300 foot (or whatever the tower height dictates) fiber, yes? I need this for an install on a high-RF tower (5 x 100kw stations within 50m).

               3) Blue Suits (RF suits) – where is a good source for these? I found some, but I’d love a referral.
            2. 

               greg

               2012-09-07

               @Edward

               Consulting is less important to me now than community support and putting decent content out 🙂

               1. cablesandkits.com, http://www.osihardware.com/, http://www.canvassystems.com/
               2. http://www.accu-tech.com/, http://www.cxtec.com/
               3. have to ask JJ or Justin 🙂
6. 

   computercolin

   2012-09-08

   Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Ether11 and 12 renumbering themselves on RB1100s?!? Does it affect the RB1100AHx2s? Can someone confirm this? Ports 11 and 12 are great for routing because they aren’t part of switch groups! Has this been resolved in 5.19? 5.20? We were hoping to standardize our network on 5.20 since that version includes the PoE firmware update for the 750UPs.

   Reply
7. 

   lorsungcu

   2012-09-08

   love this cast, have not found anything like this yet. really nice. can you explain the benefit of using MPLS on a point to point link? seems like it makes more sense on routes that might have more than a single endpoint?

   Reply