Mikrotik Utility

[Marine Farinha]

WinBoxis a small utility that allows the administration of MikroTik RouterOS using a fast and simple GUI. It is a native Win32/Win64 binary but can be run on Linux and macOS (OSX) using Wine. All WinBox interface functions are as close as possible mirroring the console functions, that is why there are no WinBox sections in the manual. Some advanced and system critical configurations are not possible from the WinBox, like MAC address change on an interface.

WinBox loader can be downloaded from the MikroTik download page. When WinBox.exe is downloaded, double click on it, and the WinBox loader window will pop up. There are two WinBox loader modes: simple which is enabled by default and advanced.

To connect to the router enter the IP or MAC address of the router, specify username and password (if any) and click on the Connect button. You can also enter the port number after the IP address, separating them with a colon, like this 192.168.88.1:9999. The port can be changed in the RouterOS services menu.

From the list of discovered routers, you can click on the IP or MAC address column to connect to that router. If you click on IP address then IP will be used to connect, but if you click on MAC Address then the MAC address will be used to connect to the router.

It is possible to use the command line to pass connect to, user, and password parameters automatically to connect to the router through RoMON. In this case, RoMON Agent must be saved on the Managed routers list so WinBox would know the user and password for this device:

WinBox neighbor discovery is capable of discovering IPv6 enabled routers. There are two entries for each IPv6 enabled router, one entry is with IPv4 address and another one with IPv6 link-local address. You can easily choose which one you want to connect to.

Starting with macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple has removed support for 32bit applications, meaning it is no longer possible to use regular Wine and regular WinBox in this OS. Wine has made available a 64bit version for macOS, and MikroTik has released a special WinBox64.exe version as well.

Child windows can not be dragged out of the working area. Notice in the screenshot above that the Interface window is dragged out of the visible working area and a horizontal scroll bar appeared at the bottom. If any window is outside visible work area boundaries the vertical or/and horizontal scrollbars will appear.

Almost all windows have a quick search input field on the right side of the toolbar. Any text entered in this field is searched through all the items and highlighted as illustrated in the screenshot below

Notice that on the right side next to the quick find input filed there is a drop-down box. For the currently opened (IP Route) window, this drop-down box allows to quickly sort out items by routing tables. For example, if the main is selected, then only routes from the main routing table will be listed.

A similar drop-down box is also in all firewall windows to quickly sort out rules by chains.

By default, WinBox shows the most commonly used parameters. However sometimes it is needed to see other parameters, for example, "BGP AS Path" or other BGP attributes to monitor if routes are selected properly.

It is possible to list items by categories. In this mode, all items will be grouped alphabetically or by another category. For example, items may be categorized alphabetically if sorted by name, items can also be categorized by type like in the screenshot below.

It is possible to upload and download files to/from the router using WinBox drag & drop functionality. You can also download the file by pressing the right mouse button on it and selecting "Download".

Make sure that the Windows firewall is set to allow WinBox connections through Private and/or Public network interfaces in the Windows firewall, it can be changed in Control Panel\System and Security\Windows Defender Firewall\Allowed applications or disable the Windows firewall.

If you used the initramfs to save a copy of the firmware partition before flashing OpenWrt, then you can just flash that file back by using it as a sysupgrade (with -F to force install and -n to not try to save settings) in OpenWrt. The router will reboot to RouterOS exactly as you left it.

Hi.

I don't have any experience with reverting mikrotik boards from openwrt.

But I was succeed to use netinstall mikrotik utility a few times to recover some unresponsive units.

You should give a try with this option.

Some tips:

I suggest you try a few different / older Netinstall versions, that's how I was able to restore RouterOS on my RB750Gr3. Neither latest v7 nor latest v6 Netinstall worked for me, however I used 6.44.5 which DID work.

While running OpenWrt you can configure boot options by writing to the files in /sys/firmware/mikrotik/soft_config. In particular the Mikrotik tools probably need boot_proto to be bootp. Write a 1 to the file named commit to write the change to flash, then cut the power and reboot. Holding the button until the LED goes out should always force a netboot.

this is new thing, can you elaborate more about " Write a 1 to the file named commit to write the change to flash", sorry not really a tech guy LOL. did you mean i should change the default content of boot_proto from "dhcp" to "bootp" and save it, then just turn off the router and try again with netinstall ?

Reading "clean" from commit confirms the changes have been saved to flash. Then you can reboot holding down the reset button and it should execute a BOOTP netboot.

Also you can look at the settings in boot_device but you probably want to leave flash as an option so you can get back to OpenWrt if RouterOS doesn't install.

Winbox is a small utility that allows administration of MikroTik RouterOS using a fast and simple GUI. It is a native Win32 binary, but can be run on Linux and MacOS (OSX) using Wine. All Winbox interface functions are as close as possible mirroring the console functions, that is why there are no Winbox sections in the manual. Some of advanced and system critical configurations are not possible from winbox, like MAC address change on an interface Winbox changelog

To connect to the router enter IP or MAC address of the router, specify username and password (if any) and click on Connect button. You can also enter the port number after the IP address, separating them with a colon, like this 192.168.88.1:9999. The port can be changed in RouterOS services menu.

From list of discovered routers you can click on IP or MAC address column to connect to that router. If you click on IP address then IP will be used to connect, but if you click on MAC Address then MAC address will be used to connect to the router.

It is possible to use command line to pass connect to, user and password parameters automatically to conenct to router through RoMON. In this case RoMON Agent must be saved on Managed routers list so Winbox would know user and password for this device:

Winbox neighbor discovery is now capable of discovering IPv6 enabled routers. As you can see from the image below, there are two entries for each IPv6 enabled router, one entry is with IPv4 address and another one with IPv6 link-local address. You can easily choose to which one you want to connect:

Wine is a software that allows you to run Windows executable files on macOS. Install latest Wine software from the official Wine HQ homepage, during installation you must check the "64 bit" checkbox, so that it can operate in macOS Catalina and newer. Then, you will have to launch Winbox 64bit version using this command line:

For older macOS versions, It is possible to use Winbox in Apple macOS operating system by using Wine emulation software. For easier use it can be combined with WineBottler software to create a more convenient executable.

Child windows can not be dragged out of working area. Notice in screenshot above that Interface window is dragged out of visible working area and horizontal scroll bar appeared at the bottom. If any window is outside visible work area boundaries the vertical or/and horizontal scrollbars will appear.

Notice that at the right side next to quick find input filed there is a dropdown box. For currently opened (IP Route) window this dropdown box allows to quickly sort out items by routing tables. For example if main is selected, then only routes from main routing table will be listed.

Similar dropdown box is also in all firewall windows to quickly sort out rules by chains.

By default winbox shows most commonly used parameters. However sometimes it is needed to see another parameters, for example "BGP AS Path" or other BGP attributes to monitor if routes are selected properly.

It is possible to list items by categories. In tis mode all items will be grouped alphabetically or by other category. For example items may be categorized alphabetically if sorted by name, items can also be categorized by type like in screenshot below.

I was thinking while running the other day. How could one monitor utility power at a POP (Point Of Presence) without forking over your standard $200 for a monitoring device. So this is what I came up with:

If done correctly, you should be able to scrape all of this together for less than $15. If you spend $15 putting this together and it saves you a truck roll in the middle of the night, then it was well worth it!

Another clever way to do this is to recycle an old 411 or 911 board, particularly one that came back with a blown radio. It has to be a model with a readable voltage monitor. Run the power jack directly off a 12V transformer plugged into street power, and run 24V POE from a transformer on your UPS into the Ethernet jack. Normis says dual power is supported ( ) and that the unit will use whichever is the higher voltage. Then just have a script in the device check its own voltage periodically and report as appropriate.

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