Problems setting up RB450G, basic home router setup

techzilla · Sun Sep 04, 2011 10:35 pm

Just received my new RB450G, Very impressed with its capabilities.

I'm Brand new to RouterOS, so please bare with me.
I already updated my RouterOS to the newest 5.6, as well as RouterBOOT to 2.36.

I basically just want to set up the standard DCHP SOHO network, and then I'll be able to go from there.

All my equipment is plugged in as follows,
cable modem -> ether1
ether2 -> Linux WrkSt1
ether3 -> Linux PC1
ether4 -> Linux PC2

I want to serve to ether[2-5], ip range 192.168.15.2-192.168.15.15
network 192.168.15.0/24 and gatway on 192.168.15.1

The router should located on 192.168.15.1.

I am connected via Null Modem. But not able to put the router where it needs to be to be connected to the serial port.

cable modem serves dhcp to router at 192.168.100.1.... but I get a strange public ip?
please help me. nothing is really working out correctly!

fewi · Sun Sep 04, 2011 10:54 pm

First make sure you have a DHCP client on ether1 as your WAN interface. Sounds like that's already the case if you have a public IP on that interface via DHCP. That's normal. Cable modems bridge those in. Make sure you have the right settings to get a default route from your ISP.
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:IP/DHCP_Client

Then configure your LAN IP address, and configure ports ether2-5 to be switched in hardware.
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:IP/Address
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Interface/Ethernet
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Sw ... p_Features

/interfaces ethernet
set ether3 master-port=ether2
set ether4 master-port=ether2
set ether5 master-port=ether2
/ip address
add address=192.168.15.1/24 interface=ether1

Then configure the DHCP server. There's a wizard that just asks you questions.
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:IP/DHCP_Server

Then install a standard firewall setup that protects the LAN from the WAN, but allows LAN hosts to establish connections:
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:IP/Firewall/Filter

/ip firewall filter
add chain=input connection-state=established action=accept
add chain=input connection-state=related action=accept
add chain=input connection-state=invalid action=drop
add chain=input in-interface=!ether1 action=accept
add chain=input action=drop
add chain=forward connection-state=established action=accept
add chain=forward connection-state=related action=accept
add chain=forward connection-state=invalid action=drop
add chain=forward in-interface=!ether1 action=accept
add chain=forward action=drop

And finally configure NAT from LAN to WAN.
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:IP ... Source_NAT

/ip firewall nat
add chain=srcnat out-interface=ether1 action=masquerade

.

That's it. In general the wiki is fairly good for basic topics. It's the equivalent to reading the man pages.

Have fun.

tjc · Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:03 pm

Also don't forget to set up an NTP client at the very least so that the router knows the right date & time for logs and such.

tjc · Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:08 pm

Hey fewi, do you usually leave the default 192.168.88.x IPs in place and just add the desired private addresses on top of that?

fewi · Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:19 pm

I always remove it. I hate overloading IPv4 addresses on the same broadcast domain.

I don't usually include the commands to remove them when posting here, though. It tends to confuse people, particularly since it only comes up with beginners.

Good point on NTP, too.

tjc · Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:38 pm

The various new router setup guides on the wiki are worth mentioning too. Although the port knocking setup the one mentions is the type of thing that always makes me a bit nervous, and the firewall rules are a bit elaborate for a newbies SOHO config. http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Securing_ ... rOs_Router

fewi · Sun Sep 04, 2011 11:47 pm

It's true. It might be worth writing a long, long, long wiki article on "first steps" - but there's just too many routers and scenarios to cover everything. And if you cover too much people think it's too complicated.

techzilla · Mon Sep 05, 2011 4:10 am

Fewi, Thank you so much for your response!

I will try this out and post what i ended up getting.

The setup described is very similar to what I attempted earlier, but even though i received an IP from the dhcp server, I was unable to reach the router on 192.168.15.1

Also I would very much appreciate it if you did include those commands to remove the default rules.

FYI, although i'm new to RouterOS, I have worked with Cisco IOS and Juniper Netscreen Firewalls. Work as Linux Sysadmin, so i'm a systems person not a network admin.
If their is somethings i should look at (like NTP) let me know.

fewi · Mon Sep 05, 2011 4:26 am

I don't have a 450G around, and while I thought there was a wiki page that describes every router's default settings I can't find it right now.

When you reset a RouterOS device to factory defaults it'll apply a default script on next boot, but then let you revert it. That's probably the easiest way to clear it all out. Log in via the serial cable (just like a Cisco device, but 115200 baud instead of 9600). Then issue "/system reset-configuration" and confirm. After the reboot log in as 'admin' with a blank password, it should then ask tell you about applying default configuration. Press 'r' to revert and not apply that default script. Then issue the settings as I described earlier.

To configure an NTP client read http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Sy ... NTP_client:

/system ntp client set enabled=yes primary-ip=a.a.a.a secondary-ip=b.b.b.b

Find public NTP servers near you via http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/

At that point you'll have the equivalent of any given home router. Where you want to go from there is up to you - these puppies do everything up to BGP.

If you experience any issues please post back with lots and lots of details - here the commands you'd want to run to gather the relevant output: "/interface print detail", "/interface ethernet export", "/ip address print detail", "/ip route print detail", "/ip firewall export", "/ip dhcp-server export", "/ip pool export", "/ip dhcp-client export", and "/ip dns export".

tjc · Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:26 am

Learning how to reset the router and what the default configs are is one of those pieces of info that you just know you're going to need. I've already had to do that at least once after a bad cut & paste created a firewall filter rule that locked me out.

Here is the wiki page fewi was talking about: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:De ... igurations The PDF docs for the various models also have the crucial information on how to reset and what it will revert to.

I also got a lot of clues from this automated setup script: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/A_script_ ... ou_started

fewi · Mon Sep 05, 2011 6:40 am

This topic did motivate me to write a big ol' wiki article on everything that could be relevant for your average first time user.

Gonna take a while to finish, though. 4000 words in. About 1/3 done, or so.

techzilla · Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:43 am

this command?

add address=192.168.15.1/24 interface=ether1

so what actually says i want the router on 192.168.15.1?
that range could be anything 192.168.15.X
and the default is usually highest. how can i force 192.168.15.1?

and nothing seems to work anymore.
no dhcp nothing, not like it was working more then just handing out address that don't connect. here is all my print outs.

[admin@MikroTik] > ip address print 
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid, D - dynamic 
 #   ADDRESS            NETWORK         INTERFACE                                                                                                                
 0   192.168.15.1/24    192.168.15.0    ether1-gateway                                                                                                           
 1   192.168.15.1/24    192.168.15.0    ether2-master-local                                                                                                      
 2   192.168.15.1/24    192.168.15.0    ether3-slave-local                                                                                                       
 3   192.168.15.1/24    192.168.15.0    ether4-slave-local                                                                                                       
 4   192.168.15.1/24    192.168.15.0    ether5-slave-local

[admin@MikroTik] > ip dhcp-server print 
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid 
 0   dhcp1                                ether1-gateway                                           dhcp_pool1                                  1w         yes

[admin@MikroTik] > ip dhcp-client print 
Flags: X - disabled, I - invalid 
 #   INTERFACE                                                                                    USE-PEER-DNS ADD-DEFAULT-ROUTE STATUS        ADDRESS           
 0   ;;; default configuration
     ether1-gateway                                                                               yes          yes               searching...

[admin@MikroTik] > interface ethernet print 
Flags: X - disabled, R - running, S - slave 
 #    NAME                                    MTU MAC-ADDRESS       ARP        MASTER-PORT                                 SWITCH                                
 0    ether1-gateway                         1500 00:0C:42:BD:98:83 enabled    none                                        switch1                               
 1 R  ether2-master-local                    1500 00:0C:42:BD:98:84 enabled    none                                        switch1                               
 2  S ether3-slave-local                     1500 00:0C:42:BD:98:85 enabled    ether2-master-local                         switch1                               
 3  S ether4-slave-local                     1500 00:0C:42:BD:98:86 enabled    ether2-master-local                         switch1                               
 4  S ether5-slave-local                     1500 00:0C:42:BD:98:87 enabled    ether2-master-local                         switch1

not sure if i forgot to post anything, if so let me know.

techzilla · Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:50 am

I have decided to return the router, I want to salvage the last day of the extended weekend. I needed something to be working in a full day, we recently had a power outage and I have multiple items that need replacement/work or an RMA and just can't put in this kind of time. I'v been working on this for a couple days now and still am almost nowhere.

Also, My router won't even boot anymore. I really pray I can get a Refund.
I wanted something that would be a killer openwrt system, just drastically underestimated how different and difficult actually working with embedded devices could be. I also was misled by old documentation and failed to research as much as I should have.

Just wanted to thank everyone for attempting to help me, I really appreciate it!

Status Update:
Eventually got OpenWrt installed, which was the original reason I purchased the RB450G . I'm extremely happy with it, although it was a very rough first few attempts, my second RB450G was just delivered!

tjc · Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:42 pm

Sorry to hear that. My personal experience with RB was very different, within a couple hours the first night after it arrived (which was a work night) it was doing test firewall duty with the desired addresses, and by the end of that Saturday had been upgraded to RouterOS 5.5, was acting as the NTP and DNS server, had been pretty well locked down, and had tweaked logging and firewall rules. This was mainly just a matter of reading the first time setup and securing guides and walking the webfig menu hierarchy.

MicroTikNewby · Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:25 pm

techzilla-

I wish you wouldn't abandon Mikrotik so quickly. About me: I have little knowledge of the IT world. I'm actually a broadcast engineer, working on the studios of AM/FM radio stations. I moved to Mikrotik because I was tired of instability issues with the Linksys, Netgear, etc routers.

Like you, I started knowing NOTHING about Mikrotik. I purchased a RB750G as my first router, modified the default settings, and then began adding functions. I was successful with the 750G and now use the 450G. It does take time and some frustration, but you'll be very happy with the router once you have it up and running.

I agree that Mikrotik sorely needs documentation for the "Newbys." I'm glad that Fewi is writing an article on first-time configuration. I would like to see such an article that not only explains "how" but also "why". I think such an article would go a long way in getting folks up to speed with Mikrotik basics.

Good luck!

MicroTikNewby · Mon Sep 05, 2011 11:40 pm

techzilla-

Also, take a look at this video tutorial. It helped me quite a bit

http://gregsowell.com/?p=957

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