I bought a Routerboard RB750GL the other day. It worked instantly with NAT and whatnot, and I was very easily able to find out how to log in, both via the web interface, SSH and SSH-FTP. So far, nice and logical. Hopefully, there are no Chinese/NSA backdoors in your products. But now I have a number of questions:
My router thinks it’s “Jan/02/1970”. What possible reason could there be for a router connected to the Internet by its very definition to not synchornize its clock automatically? Or at least offer me to do that in the control panel? Nothing like it in there.
When I surf around the web based control panel, many pages which supposedly should show content are just blank. I run up-to-date Firefox and have unblocked scripts and Flash etc. for the router, so it’s not that. What gives?
Whenever I SSH-FTP into the machine, the only dir is /, which contains some kind of backup script and one single sub-dir: “skins”. There is nothing else on the entire drive? That can’t be right.
“Current Firmware: 3.0” - “Upgrade firmware: 2.41” I clicked “upgrade”, and both now say “2.41”. What the hell? Did it just downgrade? Why is that even possible? What happened to 3.0? Why doesn’t it show the latest version as an available upgrade, whichever version that may be?
I looked for literally hours upon hours in every manual/wiki page you had, but nowhere does it mention where/how you upload your scripts onto the router so you can run them. I tried putting them in /, I tried manually making a dir called “system script” (to match the command used to run scripts), etc. Nothing works. It always says that the script cannot be found, or spit out various nonsensical errors.
RouterOS is extremely confusing on the command line. No commands such as “top” or “ls” work. It really has its own completely unique ideas about things. This is not really a question, but just me pointing out how bizarre it feels.
The only reason I need to run scripts (one script) is to scramble the MAC address of the router. I found the script to do this on your site, but like everywhere else, there is zero mention of how to actually get the script onto the router and run it. There just aren’t any examples anywhere. Makes me completely mad.
I even used the web interface to attempt to upload scripts that way, but when I run the script, absolutely nothing whatsoever happens. Nothing. I rebooted the router 100 times but it refuses to change MAC address. My only temporary solution was to simply run manually on the command line this command: /interface ethernet set ether1-gateway mac-address=D6-BB-49-11-91-A9 (where I change the last part randomly manually)
You need to set up internet time, in the SNTP menu
Could be anything, no easy answer here
There should be nothing in that drive
Yes, you downgraded. Upgrade firmware shows whatever firmware is uploaded, you shouldn’t have done that, but firmware rarely contains any major changes, so probably you will not feel any effect
Just curious, what type of files did you expect to run? RouterOS is configured real-time in the console
It is not linux. RouterOS has 100% unique commands. You would look into the Wiki you already found
Copy and paste it into the terminal, or if it is a long script, you can also save it in the “/system scripts” menu
It is not intended that way
Please do not post five identical posts in this forum. After each post, it clearly tells you, that your post is awaiting moderation from MikroTik staff, since you just registered. This only happens for your first post after registration.
I expect to run various scripts (in this case one to scramble the MAC address, found on your site!) and I don’t really know how to put this… I know you can run them by copying and pasting them onto the command line, but surely that can’t be “the way”, nor the only way… everything hints at it having a mechanism for this. Why would there be scripts all over your site with no instructions on how to run them?
And you don’t really get into details with the answers. I’m no wiser now than before. What’s the point of the scripts dir in the web interface if it’s not for this? Where do you put the actual scripts so you can run them? Etc. None of these things are answered and my time isn’t worthless so I can sit here and post on this forum for things that should not even require explanation. I don’t know how else to put it. Where do you upload the scripts? Which dir? Why does nothing happen when you run scripts in the script mechanism from the web interface?
It’s impossible to not sound rude when you’ve wasted so much time as I have on this. It doesn’t help to read the manual when the manual is nonsensical/incomplete. Sorry, but it’s simply the truth. The documentation and user interface hints are about as unclear as they possibly can be.
In console, type: “/system script”. then type “add” to make a new empty script. then type “edit 0” to edit the first script in the list (type “print” to see that list).
It is much easier to do this in the Web interface or Winbox GUI program. Just double click the script to edit it.
What’s the point of the scripts dir in the web interface
What dir are you talking about? You said yourself, there is no directory when connecting to the router. Scripts can’t be uploaded, like I said above
It doesn’t help to read the manual when the manual is
Manual is complete, please use the index to find everything you need, like the scripting manual you didn’t find before: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:TOC
Specific questions will give specific answers. Information in my signature will help you get even better answers.
Simply the scripts section/“dir”. OK, so there is no way to upload scripts except via the form on the Web interface. But the thing is, as said earlier, I did this and run the script, but nothing happens. There is no error, no output, no way to know if anything happened.
like the scripting manual you didn’t find before
The point is (as mentioned) that I read it for literally hours. I couldn’t find the answers to my questions anywhere. It just seems RouterOS has a very strange way of doing things. But even so, I don’t still understand why the Web interface seems broken for me, regardless of browser and settings.
Am I stuck with this ancient firmware now? I can’t upgrade to whatever is the latest?
Like I said, two times already it is not possible to upload scripts. This is not the scripts dir, and there is no scripts dir, because you can’t upload scripts.
But even so, I don’t still understand why the Web interface seems broken for me, regardless of browser and settings.
What is broken? Please post screenshots of your problem
Am I stuck with this ancient firmware now? I can’t upgrade to whatever is the latest?
Everyone has free upgrades to latest version. You should be running v6.1, if not, upload the new routeros NPK file and reboot (this is what the FTP access is for) http://www.mikrotik.com/download
As mentioned, I was running 2.41 or something low like that until you told me about this. As you can see (and surely know), there are zero instructions for how to install an upgrade on the page you linked to. The only reason I figured it out was because you mentioned this right here. (Many of us are extremely skeptical to running some EXE that we don’t trust, in case you will refer to the Netinstall binary.)
Well, 6.1 sure looks much better than 2.41. That one must be ancient. Now, I see all the graphics and stuff. So that’s nice, at least. But please… you should understand that there ought to be some basic instructions – not in total detail, but the overall process – for how to do things. They just seem to be assumed to be common knowledge, which is quite absurd IMO.
Hmm… now that I look at the page again, it still says 2.41… and I can upgrade to 3.02. Um. OK. I guess firmware/RouterOS are not the same, and maybe the “config panel” is also yet another separate thing. I don’t know what’s going on. Nothing about this is clear in the least bit. It should have one single page where it lists the currently installed version of all software (firmware/RouterOS/config panel) and whether or not they are up-to-date, with one button to “download and install latest”.
So far, my conclusion is this: MikroTik sure knows a lot about networks and stuff like that, and the control panel visually is quite appealing compared to everything else I’ve seen out there… but you really need to streamline/polish various processes. Basically clear a whole bunch of things up. That would be my biggest wish in regards to your products.
Your Firmware is 2.41, that is fine. This is something like BIOS version in PCs.
I was asking about Software. What version do you have now? You can see this in title of your web config or winox, or in console by typing “/system packages print”
So far, my conclusion is this: MikroTik sure knows a lot about networks and stuff like that, and the control panel visually is quite appealing compared to everything else I’ve seen out there… but you really need to streamline/polish various processes. Basically clear a whole bunch of things up. That would be my biggest wish in regards to your products.
Like any completely unknown operating system, you need to learn it, that’s all. It is just unfamiliar to you. Read manual, watch videos on www.tiktube.com, maybe even attend a conference in your area.
You didn’t say you run v6.1, only that you read it in my post.
Your text “Well, 6.1 sure looks much better than 2.41” looks like big confusion between versions, so I better asked again to confirm in the mentioned menus
I do not usually post, but this seemed like someone joking really bad or trolling. I admire your patience Normis.
Now on topic, everything is in the manual. The link is in the homepage, http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:TOC.
I suggest to pay a little more attention to the manual pages, everything is included with examples to get you started. I learned the same way, as well as reading the forums. Afterwards you can ask specific questions in the forums, well explained, and you will most likely get your answer.
RouterOS is similar to other router operating systems, it is not similar to linux as linux is an operating system for PCs.
I also like how you use the tired old “troll” accusations whenever somebody tells the truth. If you think asking for help is “trolling” or “joking”, you must have a severe mental illness. But that sort of shows.
Also, the guy didn’t read anything I typed, so I stopped trying. There is no point in asking for help when the people “helping” you don’t read what you type. Repeatedly. They are clearly not interested in explaining things in a sane manner, improve their products or do anything but churn out new half-assed products that you willingly pay for.
The one here with the patience is I, who paid for and still use this awful product. However, since there is no help to be had here, I won’t be hanging around anymore. Good bye.
Too bad. Mikrotik RouterOS is a very ‘accessible’ router OS for the more tech-savvy users. Also the Wiki is of great help. I honestly believe there is not a single OS with such great featureset and ease-of-use as RouterOS.
Professionally I work with Cisco IOS/IOS-XR/NX-OS, Juniper JunOS, Alcatel-Lucent, MRV, etc… In my spare time I also work with other systems like Vyatta, Ubiquiti EdgeOS (Vyatta ‘fork’), DD-WRT and the stuff that is installed on SOHO Netgear/Linksys/etc.. routers.
For professional use I like Juniper the most but that’s not really comparable to Mikrotik in terms of cost and performance. Vyatta / EdgeOS is also very good, but absolutely not as easy as RouterOS using Winbox.