Audience

The Audience (product code RBD25G-5HPacQD2HPnD) is a standing box for the room you actually live in: two gigabit ports and three radios. It is meant as a router and an access point in one, somewhere it is allowed to be visible, because an antenna does better in the open.

The catalogue lists it as a router with ether1 as the default WAN port. You can also use it purely as an access point behind another router; both ports then go into the bridge.

The ports

• ether1: 1 Gbit, your WAN port by default.
• ether2: 1 Gbit, your LAN port.

Two ports, no SFP, no PoE-in and no PoE-out, so the PoE-out per port field does not appear here. Two ports is exactly enough for a router with one cable leaving it, and it is the reason several roles are not offered: a WAN, a LAN and a trunk do not fit side by side. For more wired devices, put a switch behind ether2 and use that port as a trunk. See Bridge and ports and VLANs.

Wi-Fi

The catalogue lists three radios on this model:

• wlan1: 2.4 GHz. For reach, older devices and IoT.
• wlan2: 5 GHz.
• wlan3: 5 GHz.

Two radios on the same band is unusual, and it is worth knowing what the configurator does with them. In the SSID table you pick bands per SSID, not radios. Put an SSID on 5 GHz and it lands on both 5 GHz radios, with the same security and channel width. That is usually what you want: two radios broadcasting the same network, so more clients are served at once.

Do watch the Frequency 5 GHz field. Enter a fixed frequency there and both 5 GHz radios get that same frequency, at which point they sit in each other's way. Leave that field empty on this model unless you know exactly what you are doing. See Channels, width and power.

The Wi-Fi package for this model is wireless, the older of the two Wi-Fi packages in RouterOS v7. So the configurator writes the wireless side as /interface wireless. That has one consequence you will notice: the old package has no WPA3. Pick WPA2/WPA3 or WPA3 and the tool sets the SSID up as WPA2-PSK with AES, and says in the notes that it did. See Setting up Wi-Fi.

What the configurator does not do is build a wireless backhaul or a mesh between two of these boxes. The third radio is set up as an ordinary AP radio, not as a link to another device. Tying two places together over the air is the Wireless CPE role on two devices, with all the drawbacks that brings. A cable is better.

What is inside

From the catalogue: a 32-bit ARM processor and 256 MB of memory. That is generous for what this device does, and well above the point where the configurator warns about tight memory. The switch chip and the licence level are not recorded for this model, so this page does not quote them.

What it is good at, and where it runs out

Good at: Wi-Fi in a home or a small practice, with the router in the same box. Three radios lets you keep 2.4 GHz free for IoT and spread fast clients over two 5 GHz radios.

Where it runs out:

• Two wired ports. Roles that need at least three wired ports, such as Office router with VLANs, Router + CAPsMAN and Hotspot, are blocked with "Needs at least 3 wired ports". VLANs are still possible, but over the trunk towards a switch.
• The old Wi-Fi package. No WPA3, and station-bridge only works towards another MikroTik that also runs wireless.
• One gigabit on the WAN side. Above a gigabit it stops, and with a queue tree for QoS FastTrack goes off and the work lands on the processor. See QoS and bandwidth.

Which roles fit

• Home router: the normal choice. Internet, one network, firewall, IPv6 and Wi-Fi in one script.
• Access point: when there is already a router. Both ports in the bridge, SSIDs optionally per VLAN, management address by DHCP or static.
• CAP (managed by CAPsMAN): when SSIDs and security come from a controller. See CAPsMAN.
• VPN gateway: home router plus WireGuard. See WireGuard.
• Wi-Fi repeater / extender: with three radios the radio carrying the uplink does not have to rebroadcast as well. The tool asks which radio becomes the uplink. Still expect a serious drop in throughput.
• Wireless CPE / point-to-point: as the connecting or the broadcasting end.
• Harden only (baseline): for an Audience already running.

The quickest route to a working configuration

1. Pick One device and search for Audience.
2. Pick Home router if it replaces your ISP router, or Access point if there is already a router.
3. Walk through the wizard. At the Wi-Fi step: pick your country, put one SSID on both 2.4 and 5 GHz, and leave the frequency fields empty.
4. Set an admin password, reset the device and paste the script. See Using the script.

A complete replacement of an ISP router is in Example: replacing the ISP router. For a separate guest network, see Example: a guest network that is actually separate.

What trips people up

• Entering a fixed 5 GHz frequency. Both 5 GHz radios then get it, and they interfere with each other. Leave the field empty.
• Expecting WPA3. The old Wi-Fi package does not have it; the tool falls back to WPA2-PSK and says so.
• Expecting mesh. Tying two Audiences together over the air into one network is not a function of the configurator.
• Planning for too few ports. There are two. A switch behind it with one trunk is the usual answer.
• Putting it in a cupboard. This device is designed to stand in the open. Behind a cupboard door you get little out of the three radios.