I recently acquired a Mikrotik SXT Lite5 ac wireless device for my network and everything was doing great with Winbox and the entire setting. By the way, nothing inside the device’s configuration was changed but SSID and password. By default I noticed SXT Lite5 ac has a bridge between Ethernet interface and the Wireless interface (I think with the both wireless interfaces 2.4 and 5Ghz), can’t remember well because can’t access the device anymore. I need no bridge for what I’m trying to do so decided to remove it (so far bridge interface isn’t mandatory, I guess). The Winbox suddenly closed (I think this is normal because I was accessing the Mikrotik through the bridged interface’s IP address) but now the MAC address is shown in the Winbox with 0.0.0.0 which is also normal but when try to connect (login) into the device got the error message “Error couldn’t connect to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX”. This surprised me because as far as I know there is no problem for Winbox to login into the device using the MAC address. After trying this (login into SXT Lite5) in two different and separated PC got no success so decided to open the case to verify if it was a hardware problem. I see three LEDs inside with the “names” USER, POWER and ETH.
USER: Blinks at booting only (maybe ~10 seconds) and then stops.
POWER: Blinks all the time of course.
ETH: Blinks one time in a year but mostly seems to be like powered off (dead)
Here is the picture showing the three LEDs:
So I decided to RESET the device to factory defaults and pushed the RESET button inside the case for a while (~30 seconds) but nothing happens. I thought this is weird so decided to unplug the power source, keep the RESET button pressed and then plug in again the power to see what happens. After ~30 seconds got the same result which is nothing. In the paperboard case says that default Ethernet’s IP address is 192.168.88.1 so tried to ping it all the time and nothing. Right now I’m worried because I waste money and seems to be I got nothing. Can’t access the device nor reset to factory defaults.
RESET button:
I actually have a preference for Mikrotik products because are awesome and hope can fix this issue very soon.
PS: Already tried with two different versions of Winbox (one of them the latest 3.7).
If you remove bridge while you are connected to it using MAC address, you might get disconnected and unable to connect again, because bridge takes MAC from one of its ports, and it’s not necessarily the one you were connected to. So this part makes sense. But if you reset device, you should get the original config back. Not being able to ping 192.168.88.1 is also possible if perhaps the original config failed to restore itself for some reason.
But if the device is alive, you should see it under Neighbors tab in WinBox loader.
@Sob The thing is I can see it as a neighbour (@jarda) with the 0.0.0.0 IP address and also can see the MAC address but cannot access which find odd. Several times have successfully log into a mikrotik device without IP (0.0.0.0) by selecting just the MAC. @Sob You recommend to reset the device but there is no way to achieve this by pressing the inner button. I also have been pressing it by ~1min and 30 seconds but nothing. Is there an alternative way to reset this device to factory defaults?
So:
I can see the device as a neighbour but can’t ping it nor telnet it to see opened ports. I cannot also get access through the web browser. Basically it is a device without a purpose. All I got left is to try to reset the device to factory defaults but can’t even get this done. There was no power losing or anything when I removed the bridge, but still I don’t want that bridged interface so in case successfully log into the device I will remove the bridge. This shouldn’t had happened.
PS: If I manage to reset to factory defaults the device will lose the license? I’m worry about this! @Sob@jarda Thanks for take your time and read my post.
I don’t know what’s the default config for your device, maybe it’s possible that MAC connections are enabled on bridge, but disabled on ethernet port. That could explain what’s happening now.
Device reset should take care of it, according to manual you need 5 seconds, 30 seconds is too much, that probably put your device in netinstall mode.
Config reset does not break licence. And if you succeed and want to get rid of bridge again, rather decline default config as whole, when routers asks you if you want to keep it. Or reset whole config using “/system reset-configuration” command.
If you see its mac in neighbours, you can mac telnet to it. There is no risk of loosing license by any way of resetting. You can also make netinstall if you fail to reset the device. Just do not format nand.
@Sob I followed the reset tutorial and will do it to see what happens but every time I previously pressed the button no LED started to flash. @jarda I was doing some telnet (192.168.88.1) tests using Windows cmd and nothing, neither ssh (22) nor https (80,8080,443). By the way, did you said MAC telnet? Is there a way to telnet a MAC instead an IP address?
Yes, there’s MAC telnet. The most reliable and accessible way for me so far was using it from another RouterOS device. Other option is MikroTik’s Neighbor Viewer (should be on download page). Or if you have Linux, there’s also https://github.com/haakonnessjoen/MAC-Telnet.
@Sob I downloaded the Mikrotik Neighbour for Windows and for my surprise there actually is MAC Telnet. Now, in case cannot resolve with this custom-made app the command line from RouterOS to use telnet will be /system telnet isn’t it? And in case I could successfully telnet the device, which could be the command line to set the device to factory defaults (maybe /system reset-configuration as you suggested)? I know I should do what was said here instead of keeping answer but the device is in my home and right now I’m connected from my workplace (don’t have Internet at my home because live in Cuba) so want to gather all possible info before leave here.
Easiest way to use MAC telnet from other RouterOS is to open IP->Neighbors in WinBox, right click target device and select MAC Telnet from menu. From CLI it’s /tool mac-telnet host=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx. Then /system reset-configuration has another interesting parameter no-defaults=yes, which gives you blank config, no addresses or anything, but all access allowed. You should be able to use MAC connection from WinBox then.
First of all thank you guys for your time again and finally solved the issue. I have to say it was partially my fault because the solution was in the reset manual provided by @SobReset manual. I followed the instructions and took the second choice Resetting the RouterOS configuration in which you have to wait ~5 seconds until the LED starts flashing and release the button. The rest was easy. By the way, when a windows prompts asking you by using the normal configuration (bridged) I clicked remove configuration so right now I’m able to start configuring the device the way I really want. Thanks again and sorry about my ignorance. The solution was always there and I made you guys waste time on a simple thing.
Peace.
A few hours ago I crossed the bridge just like "Ophion "
I could not reset the device.
I did not understand how to reset should be performed.
I realized that:
Click on the button reset when power is disconnected, connect the power and after 5 seconds to leave the reset?
No matter how much time I press the button LED is not blinking.
At first that happened to me but watching more carefully I saw the LED blinking. Let me elaborate, the LED doesn’t start to blink several times it only blinks one time or to but it is not several times as I said. I hope you already figured out this!
