Hello everyone. This is my first time here, and my first time purchasing or using a Mikrotik (Hex S). The device just arrived and I have been reading about it, and watching youtube, and there is a lot of conflicting information floating around! Some say that you must configure all the settings prior to it working, while others have said that once you connect it to the WAN it automatically downloads/loads a stable configuration and nothing else is needed unless you want to make changes. While I have limited experience making changes to consumer oriented gear (linksys, netgear, cable co provided routers, etc) I have never used one with this level of options. Ideally, I am looking to get it working as turn key as the other models I mentioned, and then over time make changes to the settings as I start to learn more. The challenge I face is that it just needs to "work" from day 1 otherwise the wife and kids will be hassling me non stop. Can someone advise as to what exactly you get out of the box, and what if any changes you need to make for it to work safely? This will be for a standard home network so I won't need to put into place any crazy rules. Think a bunch of PC's, Playstation, smart TV's and IOS devices.

When it comes out of the box, there is a standard configuration on the device. Port 1 is the WAN port, the rest LAN. Port 1 is also a DHCP client. A default firewall is present. Don’t forget to setup the admin password.

The little leaflet in the box should get you going.

Look on the MikroTik channel on youtube. They have an app explained. MikroTik home.

My advice is to not use quickset and to leave the default firewall rules (and most of the config) alone until you understand what the default config is doing for you and why.
In MT, very little is automated in that the admin has to tell the router what to do with the packets flying around.
The default setup has that done for you in very basic terms. As soon as your requirements grow you will have to modify the config to do so.
Your best bet is to come here and detail your use cases and requirements in terms of what you want users/devices to be able to do and many here will help you design the config.

Your best friend is the safe mode button at the top of winbox. Basically if you make a wrong move, the router will burp and kick you out, but just log back in.
Without safe mode its easy in this situation to be locked out and have to reset the router (paperclip hole or button) to defaults and start from scratch.
If you have made a series of changes and wait about 10 secs and you are still up, then undo the safe mode button (so the change is kept) and then re-enable it for the next error (and there will be a next error LOL).

Winbox provides a friendly gui interface but soon you will be using the Window Terminal for small stuff and later probably more regularly.

When it comes out of the box, there is a standard configuration on the device. Port 1 is the WAN port, the rest LAN. Port 1 is also a DHCP client. A default firewall is present. Don’t forget to setup the admin password.

The little leaflet in the box should get you going.

Look on the MikroTik channel on youtube. They have an app explained. MikroTik home.

Thank you, I will check out their website as the pamphlet doesn't really have much info.

My advice is to not use quickset and to leave the default firewall rules (and most of the config) alone until you understand what the default config is doing for you and why.
In MT, very little is automated in that the admin has to tell the router what to do with the packets flying around.
The default setup has that done for you in very basic terms.

This is reassuring. Will the standard config have any limitations that a consumer piece of equipment (Linksys, etc) won't have? Basically, will there be any functionality lost using just the standard setup? As long as all the devices on the network work as they do now, I should be good while I explore the broader feature set over time.

Yup you can browse the internet and all the devices will be able to reach other on the lan.
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ ... ng+started

Best thing to do is come back and state your requirements when they differ from what the router provides with default configuration.

Mikrotik isn't even close to being as automatic as you might think it is, unlike erro and those junk mesh WiFi systems. Follow the guides above and you'll have a head start in the "real world" of networking!

The MikroTik iPhone/Android app is excellent in terms or providing a very user friendly way for even the most non-technical of home users to get their router configured properly.

If you move outside of the app, you may find things are too complicated for you to handle.

Mikrotik's configuration cannot be used as any other commercial router, due to its configuration and abilities.
In your case make a drawing with the simplest network diagram that you have i mind and and how to access the Internet. Once you got that, then start thinking what else you need, features perspective, in your network, so you can start adding things up.
Seeing from your post that you simply need to have a few clients accessing the Internet. What about the Internet connection.

• Will you use pppoe on the Mikrotik or static IP to access the Internet?

Tell us a few things how you connect

• Will you have a dhcp server to send the IPs or will you have static IPs

I could help you with a basic config to start with, once i have the basic's of your network, especially connectivity to the Internet.

Personally, i would NOT go to any app to configure the Mikrotik, as you will not get the idea how thinks work and what to do next. I use the app to mainly monitor things.

Let's begin with the basic config and then you can get a grip to start learning the rest.

Everything is setup using the default config, and working great. I am now looking to dig in a little deeper and start making some changes, which I hope you all can assist with.

1) I see there is a "kid control" section, which sounds good. However, it only appears to allow you to block off access during defined times on a given day. I would instead like to limit it by amount of time per day. For instance, the default config, as I read it, says you can block access (for example) before 9am and after 8pm. What I would like it to limit the child from using more that a given hour per day, regardless of when its used. Is this possible?

2) I am battling a bit of bufferbloat, and the solution according to the 'net is to setup a simple queue on the WAN interface at roughly 10% below the ISP's stated max upload and download. First, does that make any sense? Assuming so, I navigated to the Queues section but can't seem to figure out how to assign a rule to a specific interface.

1. At the moment, Kid control only does what you saw
2. Any reasoning behind this? With queues you can do that, but this is another CPU process and I don't understand why you want to do this

Could you elaborate a bit more what isaues do you experience with bufferfloat?

1. At the moment, Kid control only does what you saw
2. Any reasoning behind this? With queues you can do that, but this is another CPU process and I don't understand why you want to do this

1. Thank you
2. My understanding is that this will provide better performance on my network by eliminating the overhead on the ISP connection

Could you elaborate a bit more what isaues do you experience with bufferfloat?

I am not experiencing any notable issues at the moment, but I am looking to avoid latency that would interfere with time sensitive/real time traffic (voice, video, etc). I found the below article, one of many, describing this issue:
https://blog.yijin.uk/posts/bufferbloat-mikrotik/

I am looking to avoid latency that would interfere with time sensitive/real time traffic

I apologize for resurrecting an old thread, but I just happened to be listening to FLOSS Weekly episode 638 where they interview this guy and wanted to know what MT is doing about bufferbloat, leading me to this thread.

In my searching I also found that the algorithm in that linked man page is part of the Linux kernel that the 7.1beta firmware is based on, and MT have exposed controls for this in 7.1beta3.

I cannot recommend running this on your main Internet router at this time, but it's good to know that a stable version of this feature will be out eventually.

In the meantime, yes, interposing queues can work around bufferbloat. To get the most from it, you wouldn't limit everything across the board, only those streams that cause problems, allowing everything else to squeeze into that last 10% when the problematic streams are trying to choke the whole channel. This will be a more stable solution while you're waiting for 7.1 to become "ready," however you define that.