WISP managed router recommendations?

Products cnMaestro
1

Hello all;

I'm looking for advice on upgrading my current managed router and possibly adding another managed router on another network with the potential of adding on 80 to 100 clients (homes) at a new tower site. I currently run off of a Peplinks Balance 30, but the most I can run without overloading is around 50 homes. Recommendations on managed routers that will run 100 homes or more without any problems would be greatly apprectiated! 

Thanks!

2

When you say managed router... can you tell us what your expectations are for this? I'm somewhat familiar with the Peplink Balance series (I have a balance one at home) and I know that there's a cloud server you can manage and monitor their routers from. Are you wanting a similar experience? What's the peak throughput you're expecting to push through it? What services are you needing it to run, e.g DHCP, VLAN's, OSPF, PPPoE, etc.? Are you NAT'ing your clients now and using multiple service providers and the load balancing/failover functions that Peplink has to offer?

That being said, Cambium doesn't have any managed routers ATM. They have some managed switches (cnMatrix) that provide some L3 functionality with basic router functions.

I'd say that most WISP's are using Mikrotik, Juniper, or Cisco routers (in that order of popularity most to least)... however I know of not one admin that's using cloud management for any of them. We use Mikrotik and they do not offer any cloud management services. I don't know if Juniper or Cisco have these kinds of services, but I doubt anyone would use them. An admin might casually use them for monitoring and alarms but that's about it.

If you know and like Peplink, you might want to just buy a bigger/better Peplink(s). The Balance 30 is on the entry side of their portfolio and they have routers that support much higher user counts and bandwidth throughput, especially if you're not using their speedfusion/VPN stufts. Maybe push the B30's out farther on your network to smaller sites, and upgrade your edge/core router with a faster one, like the BPL-305.