Need Help: hAP ax lite Not Responding After LAN IP Change - How to Do Full Factory Reset?

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Hello!

I’m completely new to MikroTik devices and not a network expert. I have a hAP ax lite, and I think I may have misconfigured it.

The default router IP was 192.168.88.1, and I was able to connect to it successfully. I also set up the Wi-Fi without issues and even installed the latest update using the web interface.

However, I changed the LAN address to 192.168.2.1 and may have forgotten to update the DHCP settings - so it might still be trying to hand out addresses in the 192.168.88.x range.

I’ve tried several times to reset the device to factory settings, but something doesn’t seem to be resetting correctly. I can’t connect to it anymore.

I’m using a MacBook with a USB-C Ethernet adapter. When I plug in an Ethernet cable directly between my Mac and the hAP, my adapter gets an IP like 169.254.138.10, so I assume DHCP isn’t working. The default WiFi network is not visible anymore.

How can I perform a full factory reset so I can start over from scratch?

Thanks so much for your help!

2

I read about the netinstall procedure, and I do have a Windows laptop at hand as well. Is that my only option? :smiley:

3

You can try Winbox since it allows access via L2 (MAC address)
Since you also have a Windows laptop, you can run it from there.
Connect to any other port then ether1 and you should see it coming. Connect via MAC address using the required credentials.

Factory reset =

  • power off the router
  • hold down the reset button
  • then power it back on
  • Continue holding the button until the green LED starts flashing, then release it
4

Winbox helped! Thank you! :+1:

I was able to set it up, and this time left the local network as 192.168.88.1. I was even able to set custom DNS addresses and one static IP for my NAS. Success! :sweat_smile: