Photo Courtesy: Suryaraj Timsin

On March 13, the exiting router in the DWIT premises was changed for the better. This day, the new Fortinet Fortigate replaced the old Mikrotik router. Obviously, the new router is better than the last and its pros and cons compared to old Mikrotik is mentioned below:

Bandwidth: The bandwidth that DWIT owns remains same i.e. 7.5 Mbps. Additionally, 2 Mbps with be dedicated to training department,  so that 7.5 Mbps bandwidth will be allocated solely for the DWIT members.

Performance: According to IT club," In the Mikrotik router, as the number of Internet users increases, users lose connectivity with the wireless network in their devices". This was the exact reason why they had to replace the router.

The Mikrotik router supported 110 max users at 100% CPU usage which is quite poor considering as there are more than 150 users inside the college.

The new router, however, should be able to easily support the number of users currently in the college.  According to IT club, on March 16, at 9:40 AM when there were 155 users, the CPU usage was only 6% which vastly outstripped the old Mikrotik router.

Features:

The old Mikrotik had a Winbox feature (Winbox is a small utility that allows administration of Mikrotik RouterOS using a fast and simple GUI. ) The Fortinet has Firewall authentication feature. The firewall feature allows the admin to block the certain site for a specified time.

Use:

The Mikrotik is usually used in a small office for routing purpose only but Fortinet, said to be used in banks in Nepal, can also be used for applying firewall.

Currently, the Network coverage is more than what was in the past. It is due to the new router as well as the 3 Unifi APs that replaced the TP link APs. The ongoing tests conducted by the IT club are about to come to an end and soon we will be able to enjoy an active connection with adequate internet speed.