My first question is what options are available to recover an unresponsive RB493G? No ping on any ports, no MAC connection with the WinBox app. It does beep on boot, link activity lights are working, and I’ve tried shorting the reset pads. I plan on trying the com cable tomorrow, is there anything else I should be prepared for?
Thanks in advance, yes I’m a new (unprepared) RB user.
Best Regards,
James
RouterBOARD usually beeps once when entering bootlaoder and beeps twice if it booted up and everything is fine. If second beep is missing better check what it writes out on serial.
Also, what port you are using, if ether1 , maybe try some other port.
Also, you can check green led near blue led, when power is supplied blue led lights up, when board enters bootloader green led turns on, when board continues to boot RouterOS green led goes off, if green led stays on, means router is stuck into bootloader (like running etherboot)
Get as null modem console cable and console into it to see how far it boots. If it gets past the boot loader, but no further, then use netinstall to reinstall the OS. If it doesn’t even make it to the boot loader, RMA it to your supplier.
Great, I installed minicom, hooked up a null modem serial cable and watched the boot and load process. The password was removed, IP changed (and rejecting Winbox) so I added an IP to ether1 and that one is now accepting.
Could someone recommend a good tutorial that starts with a bare system and walks through setting up a standard gateway/firewall? If I had a good start I’m sure I could pick this up quickly, but the ones I’ve read so far seem to make assumptions I am unsure of (like the switch config, that is elusive to me). Thanks for the advice guys!
Don’t ask why it took so long, this week, ugh..
I’m thinking that you were typing in the IP address into winbox and trying to connect that way?
If you click on the … next to where the IP address goes, a list of connected routerboards will show up. You can either click on the IP address ** OR ** the MAC address. If it is not configured with a IP address, then click the MAC address.
Don’t worry, I think we were all there one time.
It’s all in the Wiki:
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Category:Manual
Basically first focus on these areas, and work out from there
/ip address
/ip firewall NAT
/ip firewall filter
/ip route
That’s where you will most likely spend most of your time, and where most of the router type functions happen. If you are learning this product for work, talk your boss into letting you attend a training session, it will give you a very good handle on the basics. Otherwise read the Wiki, read user examples, try out what is posted for yourself and modify to fit your needs. Just always keep that console cable handy for when you mess something up 
.