Ok... so this is going to be a "really? you can't figure that out?" type question i guess, but one thing is driving me *NUTZ* with my new CRS125;

ether2-master-local <--- Is this a *VIF* or a physical interface binding or both?

Ie; I have 24 physical ports, of which ether1 is set as a wan dhcp client, from there, the rest of the ports are bound as master-port=ether2-master-local

I cannot for the life of me determine if this means that with the default config, I can't technically use ether2, or if it will always assume that it is a given port configuration (I found a static arp entry for it that seemed to have bound to the mac address of my client macbook air)...

I understand the fact that ether2-master-local is representative of a local router, but *how* does that come into play on the *physical* ether2 port?

Sorry for the nub question, but it doesn't really explain how this works very well, given that it appears to be *both* physical *and* virtual at the same time?

neither - it just means that all ports are connected together in a switch (traffic between ports 2-24 is forwarded through the Switch chip, and is not processed by the CPU and RouterOS software).

If you want to use some ports for routing (use firewall, NAT, etc.), you need to remove them from the switch configuration. Any port can be master, it doesn't matter which.

If you want to use two ports for routing, say, 1 and 2, then just make ether3 master of all the other 4-24 ports and ether 1 and 2 will be out of the swich, and will be usable as separate ports for routing etc.