Central Networks uses RemoteWinBox to help automate work!.

We heard that Kelvin Murithi over at Central Networks has been working on some cool software integration between RWB and UISP and we thought we'd ask him to share with us what he's been up to. Here's some info on his project, in his own words:Central Networks is a small WISP in Kenya which I started after the coronavirus pandemic due to a gap in the market, most locations are not yet covered with high-speed fiber and the people in some of these locations really needed internet through the lockdown. Most WISP around the world mainly uses Ubiquiti hardware for wireless networks because of the simplicity to use, readily available in the market and also good prices compared to other vendors.So I made the decision to also use Ubiquiti gear for our Wireless networks and Mikrotik routers for the central office.  One of the reasons we also choose UBNT was because they have a WISP management software called UNMS/UISP where we can manage and monitor all wireless devices and also manage our clients. And this comes for free. 

 Our current CRM is the UBNT UNMS, but the CRM couldn’t completely meet our needs because we were mostly doing installations in MDUs which Is not the model the CRM is built for, so we had to look for options to fill this gap. In the search for how to connect to our CO routers remotely, I came across Remote Winbox in the Mikrotik MFM page and initially started using it for just connecting to WinBox remotely. But as we gained more customers we needed to do some automation from our CRM to our CO Mikrotik Routers. I started writing an API service which could be called by our CRM webhooks and in turn, connect to Mikrotik via Remote Winbox VPN and execute actions like

• Create user PPPoE accounts
• Create user Service 
• Enable, Edit or suspend the user service etc

We added a custom field in the CRM to support PPPoE Users 

 CRM Webhooks 

 To Monitor the Web Service running the Mikrotik APIs which connect to the router via remote winbox we use PM2 Metrics 

 For the API library, I choose Router OS Client for Node Js because of my familiarity with Node js 

 Because our CRM runs in the cloud, we needed a way to connect to our Mikrotik Router in the office remotely and this is where Remote WinBox saves our day. 

 After connecting to the Mikrotik router using Remote Winbox VPN will are then able to carry out basic ISP management stuffs .ie. Adding Customer to Mikrotik 

 With Remote Winbox I have been able to automate most of our tasks and also can connect remotely to the routers with WinBox, Remote Winbox made this very easy because adding the VPN to the router is just as simple as copying the config and pasting in the routers terminal. Regards,Kelvinhttps://centralnet.co.ke/Thanks for sharing the excellent work you've done with us, Kelvin. We're glad RWB is helping you get work done, and best of luck to you!And if you've built software that has RWB integration, or have an interesting and unique usecase and you'd like to share your story, feel free to email us at support@remotewinbox.com