I just checked the VPN box in the Quick Setup page and now I can’t access the router and have no internet connectivity. Does the quick settings page essentially override all other settings I’ve made manually elsewhere? Is there any way I could gain access to the router or do I have to reset it to factory default and start over again?
The Quickset is “forbidden ground” after making manual adjustments.
Hope you have an export (or backup) of the config.
You can’t connect while using MAC address on Winbox? Using the neighbor tab?
One of the rules of any MT admin:
DON’T use Quickset unless the very first time after factory reset. Then never again.
Yes, it can mess up things in a real bad way, as you have experienced.
Learn from it and factory reset 
Yes.
Rules of the Mikrotik Club:
- You do not use VLAN1
- You DO NOT use VLAN1
- You remove default user admin and set a strong password before connecting to the internet.
- You do not use Quickset.
- You do not use detect internet.
- You keep routerboard firmware upgraded to the same release as Ros software update
- You manually set admin-mac= and auto-mac=no on bridge(s)
- …
BTW I am thinking that #8 will be something like:
8. You take a port out of any bridge and VLAN, give it a static IP and reserve it for management
The complete #4 is more like:
4. You do not use Quickset. OK, you can use it, but only once and only starting from default configuration.
The problem is that Quickset changes/sets a number of things presuming that the whole configuration is the default one, these changes may (or may not) create havoc depending on what has been changed in the configuration when compared to the default one, and as well the “damages” that it can do may be trivial (and thus easy correctable) or catastrophic (as it happened in your case).
That Quickset thing is a booby trap. I was able to regain access to the router connecting an ethernet cable directly to one of the ports (previously I was connecting via a switch). I’m still unable to access it via switch or WAPs (all of which are connected to the switch).
I tried restoring a backup but it didn’t work. I get an error saying that there is already an interface with that name (paraphrasing here), so it seems restoring exported settings may not be as straightforward as I had expected. Any advice welcome. I’m just running a file compare between the previous backup and current settings after screw-up to see what has changed. Unfortunately the last backup I had misses some configs I did later so it’s going to take some work to get things back to normal. This is annoying…
If you want to import a config file, you have to reset the device with no default config.
/system/reset-configuration no-defaults= yes
Afterwards, import the configuation file.
Be aware that you have to connect through MAC address after resetting.
It’s called “a learning process”
Jaclans rules are gold.
In terms of approach, pretend you are on an alien spacecraft and there is a console with what looks like buttons, they are blinking and enticing but the symbols on these what look like buttons are incomprehensible. Do you start pushing these ‘buttons’ willy nilly ???
Of course not, its the same with mikrotik, learn before you push buttons, there is documentation, youtube videos ( network berg, is my fav ) and of course here the forum.