Woobm-USB How Much Can It Do?

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

Seeing the Woobm-USB added to a few online retailers, still with zero stock or coming soon..

My question is, what are they capable of? ESP8266EX CPU says maximum flash is 16MB so this should be enough.. Even 8MB should be sufficient..

My primary question is what all is it capable of and how will it work.

This looks like a really nice product and exactly what I have been looking for for a few devices.. Easier than reset and re-configure for simple mistakes..

A feature that I absolutely require though is the ability to access it remotely through the internet.. Reverse SSH perhaps? Have it connect to an intermediate server from behind a NAT or other firewall at the location (like many of the other devices using the ESP8266EX SoC), OpenVPN maybe?

I would need to be able to connect to it from 1000 miles away, perhaps through a network I don’t control.. Put another way, if I have the WiFi client in the Woobm-USB setup to certain settings, can someone bring their smartphone into the area with the hotspot feature setup with the predefined settings, the Woobm connect to it and somehow make a connection outgoing that I can use..

Does this make sense? A data center that also provides WiFi access, have the Woobm connect to it, if I need to get access to a console, it can make an outgoing connection that I can use to access it.

To be useful this is another connection option that needs to be implemented, that I haven’t seen in any of the scarce documentation for the Woobm-USB.

2

Yeah I’d also like to ask about this product. What it even is? Is it like routerboard with ROS powered via usb or is it more like just wifi card compatible with ROS devices with usb. Does ROS support other usb wifi cards as well? What Woobm really does and how ROS sees it. Can I use it as second wifi interface for wifi routerboards with usb? Or as wifi interface for non-wireless routeeboards?

3

It is a way to connect out of band, to a Mikrotik Router. You plug it in the router’s USB, it will be configured as a serial access. You connect your laptop, mobile, whatever, to the woobm via wireless.

Presto! Now You have access to the console, or webfig, to the router. It is a tool to do maintenance, under certain conditions.

At least, that was the gist of it, to me. :smiley:

4

Paternot is right. There is no RouterOS on this device. It is a basic console over wireless adapter. You connect to the AP it sets up, and when you telnet to it, you will have access to the parent device serial console. There is only telnet, and the basic Web interface it comes with (there is a web based terminal).

The device can also work as a wireless client, but the same still applies - connect to it’s IP with Telnet, and you are in the serial console of the parent device.

5

That sounds pretty handy. Would be awesome if there were 4G and Ethernet versions. I’m using some RB411U’s with 3G cards in them to give me console access to routers that are >400km away (and I just used it to do a recovery this afternoon). Once I add in the mobile broadband card, case and antennas, my solution is a few hundred dollars, but that’s still way less than OpenGear or CradlePoint’s options.

We’re not allowed to put wireless/4G devices in our datacentre, so a rackmount Ethernet OOB management option would be handy there. Of course we can achieve this with an RB2011, but it’s kind of overkill.

6

Serial to Ethernet, there are a lot of products on the market.. I would look at an AP set with ultra low transmission power (so it is contained to your rack) or a Faraday cage around the AP and Woobm… I am curious how you can get console access plugging a cellular modem into the RB411 to perform a recovery.. Or does it depend on the fault if it can be fixed remotely?

I am looking at colo for a RB750Gr3.. The ability to access the console remotely is what I am looking for. :slight_smile:

Hopefully more functionality gets added.. The CPU is capable so just depends on Mikrotik what they add (how much memory for example). Also curious if we will be able to ‘build our own’ with the Woobm as a starting point. haha

7

I have the RB411U connected to the router by serial cable. I can ssh to the RB411 which has a 3G card in it (as long as it’s connected and working) and use that to connect to the router. I can use EoIP to do a netinstall from my laptop remotely.

Yesterday I did this when a customer’s CRS109 switch had failed. I had to ring them and ask them to move the RB411 into the other room and plug it into the switch, but I didn’t have to send a tech onsite, which is good because it was in another city.

8

Alright, so you have a cellular modem and another RB to do this.. I was thinking you were doing it just with the modem connected and I was trying to figure out how that could be accomplished.. haha

Back to the Woobm, as a followup, the Woobm works by creating a serial port over a WiFi IP network.. As an extension of this, will RouterOS simply accept a USB-Serial adapter to create the console port as well? I haven’t found any documentation mentioning this?

If so, this would also accomplish exactly what I want to do, without even needing WiFi at the remote location… Just a Ethernet-Serial adapter.

9

yes, RouterOS has supported USB-Serial adapters for quite some time.

10

What other kinds of usb devices does it support? >.>

11

Ethernet, 3G, LTE, disks and USB flash sticks.

12

I am seriously asking…

Why isn’t this documented anywhere?

13

It is

https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Supported_Hardware#USB_serial_adapters

14

Warning: Page no longer maintained. Please use the new Peripherals page for supported devices
This page only kept for archival purposes!

https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:Peripherals

Not listed on the supported devices page, not even mentioned on the Console page.. I wonder if I have Wiki-Edit privileges…

15

It was mentioned else where but I cant find the old references. There is a few old forum posts about it.I was using it all the time at one stage to remotely configure new switches from home at my leisure.I would plug it all in before i left of an evening.

16

USB-Serial adapter I can make work.. lol

Might require a few devices to achieve remote access, but doable..

USB-Serial adapter and a second router with a COM port..

Or a USB-Serial adapter, Serial-Ethernet adapter, and than a second remote router..

Turning off the console of the working one to manage the non-working one, as long as it is remembered to turn the console back on when finished, this could may work..

Regardless, the USB-Serial adapter feature needs to be better documented. And no, I can’t edit the wiki :frowning:

17

How would you connect PC(usb) to Mikrotik(usb) to have console? What type of cable? It’s like two usb-serial cables back to back.

18

Exactly.. Need to use a Null-Modem (F-F) serial cable. Same as if you were connecting two Mikrotik routers with serial ports together.

19

So something like this…

http://au.rs-online.com/web/p/interface-development-kits/0537420/

20

Honestly, I have no idea if that would work or not.. I suppose it would depend on how it presents to the USB controller. But USB connection at both ends, but operating at TTL levels? Why would it matter what voltage it is operating at.. It is USB on both ends, it doesn’t matter what voltage the cable is at.

Two USB-Serial adapters and a Startech SCNM9FF1MBK cable would do the job - KISS principle. :wink: