I have never tried the serial port on the router. I would like to be able to take the router out of the box, connect a serial cable to my pc, and program the router with a standard template to get it going. Is this possible? If so, how is the connection made? How does my pc recognize the mikrotik, and what transmission protocol is used?
Thanks for the help.
What Mikrotik are we talking about?
And what is wrong to have it programmed through SSH?
If you need to deploy say 20-100 Mikrotik’s, you can setup one correctly, make a script / setup file (backup), and yopload it at the same time when you use Netinstall. That way Netsinstall install the latest Mikrotik version, and after that it applies the backup file you created.
We use the ccr models.
I want to be able to remotely log in to a pc via team viewer which is connected to the mikrotik via serial and set it up.
If there is another way I would be willing to try it.
On the serial port you get the normal console interface so indeed what you want to do is possible.
Connect a PC with serial cable, start a serial terminal program like minicom or putty and you can login and
issue commands. When you have some initial config as export you can paste it. The router, on first boot,
offers to load a default config or start blank (however, the CCR does not offer a default config I think).
The advantage of this method is that you do not need to connect the network and set an IP address where
the router is reachable.
Can you update the firmware via the serial port, or do you have to use net install to do that?
Not via the serial port itself, but of course you can send a command via the serial port to make it update
the firmware via a network interface. Then you need to connect the device to some network with internet
access. netinstall is not required for upgrades from a working situation.