I am trying to use the windows terminal application that comes with Mikrotik neighbor viewer to connect to a router on my network that is on version 6.45.8. Every time I attempt to connect, it gives me a username / password error. I can connect every time to another router on my network having version 6.44beta40 configured with the same credentials. I can also connect by MAC winbox to both routers and it works every time.

Has something changed in the MAC login server recently?

Note:
We're using terminal application in our provisioning process. If this is no longer supported, are there any plans for a MAC login API we can use? This would streamline configuration as a router with no configuration wouldn't need an IP address provisioned on it before a system can connect via API to push the final configuration.

FYI for anyone else having this same problem:
I believe Mikrotik is changing MAC telnet as we had some errors a few months ago where certain versions would always give a username/password error when you connect via MAC telnet. They don't seem to want to acknowledge this though as they haven't replied to this thread and won't reply to my email to support@mikrotik.com

The authentication procedure changed significantly in 6.43. That change affects everything, including MAC-server. I am not aware of any third-party MAC-telnet clients that are compatible with the new versions of RouterOS.

That is correct. You will need to put a MikroTik router (or CHR) between your provisioning system and the router to be configured. Then you can connect to the intermediate router via API and have it connect to the new router via mac-telnet.
It is a bit unfortunate, indeed.

That is correct. You will need to put a MikroTik router (or CHR) between your provisioning system and the router to be configured. Then you can connect to the intermediate router via API and have it connect to the new router via mac-telnet.
It is a bit unfortunate, indeed.

Hmm this seems like a good idea. Thank you for the suggestion.

I wish Mikrotik would just publish the new MAC telnet protocol so we could build a connector though

That is correct. You will need to put a MikroTik router (or CHR) between your provisioning system and the router to be configured. Then you can connect to the intermediate router via API and have it connect to the new router via mac-telnet.
It is a bit unfortunate, indeed.

Hmm this seems like a good idea. Thank you for the suggestion.

I wish Mikrotik would just publish the new MAC telnet protocol so we could build a connector though

Unfortunately, Mikrotik says this (Mac Telnet from API) is not possible.

viewtopic.php?t=40738

Ok... mac-telnet from telnet or ssh should be possible then.

Ok... mac-telnet from telnet or ssh should be possible then.

Yes good idea.

I'm curious about this.

I used to be able to connect to RouterBoard via Winbox when no ip was configured on the router.

It seems this is not possible any longer. I just killed over an hour trying to figure out why
I can't connect to an unconfigured port on the router. Running 6.47.1 it seems no longer possible
to connect to an interface without an IP address.

I can connect via mac address, as long as there is a valid IP configured on the interface.

I'm not sure how anyone will be able to connect to a router with the default config removed.

This is not correct. It still works.
Maybe you have an issue with your computer, e.g. a firewall or other config that prevents you from doing the MAC-level connect.

I suspect this issue may be related to the (unannounced as far as I have found) change to the MAC Telnet Server and MAC Winbox Server configuration.

The new default configuration at Tools > MAC Server > MAC Telnet Server and Tools > MAC Server > MAC Winbox Server defines interface list "LAN" as the only interfaces from which one can connect via layer 2.

Once I discovered this change to the default configuration, I adjusted my config template to add Then I add the interfaces I want to allow L2 access to that list and set the MAC telnet server and MAC winbox server interface list to ifl.l2admin.

This is something I'm missing too. I purchased a few mikrotik devices when I saw how easy it was to administrate from Linux with Debian's packaged mac-telnet, but I was disappointed to find out it doesn't work anymore.

Mikrotik engineers, please help us out! https://github.com/haakonnessjoen/MAC-Telnet/issues/42

Is mac-telnet safe??