Hello. Brand new here, and I am completely lost. I purchased a CRS305-1G-4S±1N. I have tried to get RouterOS, so I can set it up as a simple switch to get all the computers in my recording studio to be able to transfer files to each other, and to/from my NAS in 10G. I just cannot get anything to work. Mostly, I am unable to understand the difficulty. I would think I could download a windows program and install it. But everything is ISO, where I have to boot from my bios? Or net install, which doesn’t seem to work for me. I even tried to open a support ticket, and it asked for my username and password, while I was already logged in, and it said my username or password were wrong. While I am logged in with my account open! I know my password:) It is like they intentionally designed things to thwart ease of use, or make me feel insufficient - mission accomplished!
All I want to do is use the little guy as a switch. I don’t want it connected to the internet, nor do I need it as a router, I have plenty of those. It is a closed system of 2 Macs and 2 PCs. I can’t set the ports, or anything else. I looked at step-by-step instructions, and it does not work, or not enough information. Could someone put me on the right path? Do I have to buy the program to make the device operate? Am I making it too difficult? Please advise. Thank you in advance.
Software is already on the device, you don’t have to install anything. Have you read one manual page, or watched one youtube video about MikroTik? Please do.
Hi Mike, you have two choices to run the switch, either in native switchOS, or as you desire RoS.
The download Normis provided is a tool called winbox which is a gui front end that helps connect you to mikrotik device. The download can also be discovered from the Mikrotik Support Downloads page (at the top next to bandwidth test ) - https://mikrotik.com/download
Lots of folks can help you here but you need to be able to provide your config.
There should be a default configuration in place and thus you dont need to do anything additional, if its like other devices,
plug into etherport 2 and you should be able to access the router (doent have to be attached to the ISP).
What we will need to see to offer assistance is the config.
This is done, once you have gained access to the unit and know your way around a little bit.
One enters the Winbox GUI and from the main left hand menu, selects TERMINAL (command line access).
here you put in
/export hide-sensitive file=anynameyouwish
This puts a file of the name chosen into a files folder. This is also a left hand main menu selection of ‘FILES’.
Then right click aka download the file to your desktop, open in notepad++, copy and paste to put in a post here.
The only caveat is if there is any public IP information just remove it.
One enters the Winbox GUI and from the main left hand menu, selects COMMAND LINE
here you put in
/export hide-sensitive file=anynameyouwish
I know you are trying to help the OP but the quote above left me wondering what you are referring to. I have nerver seen a button in the left hand menu called “Command Line”. It sounds like you are talking about “New Terminal” which opens up the Terminal Window were the OP can put in the export command.
I think the problem is OP didn’t know “winbox” was the admin tool name, and thought the X86 RouterOS was the X86 admin tool too.
@mikehulse, you run winbox (Windows management GUI for the Mikrotik) from a PC connected to the only ethernet port on your device. The default IP is 192.168.88.1. The device may give you a DHCP address from the management. But if you got an auto-assigned address, setting a static IP on the PC to something like 192.168.88.101/24 should allow winbox to connect to 192.168.88.1. Default user/password is in the QuickStart guide (here its, admin / no passport). Once in, you can adjust the SFP ports using the following guide: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/CRS3xx+series+switches
If you need more help once you get into the router… the specific configuration on the device be useful to share as @anav suggests – even if it’s the stock/default, not all Mikrotiks have the same default config (and the default are sometimes even different depending on what version it shipped with)… So hard to tell you how to configure it, without knowing what’s actually currently on the device.
without the need to adjust some settings, there even is nothing to do at all, isn’t there?
Switch it on and it will perform the function of a simple switch on all ports.