So I have the default config and it has a bridge for interfaces 2 and 6. That default bridge is a bit of a mystery to me. I get, in general, that it is making it so the two switch chips inside the RB2011 are playing nice… but there’s really no explanation I’ve found anyway.
Regardless… I set up a new bridge (“test”) and add a given port to it… then I try to connect to Winbox via that port and can’t. Remove the bridge (or put that port back on original bridge) and it works fine.
What gives?
Ether 2 and 6 are masters of their bridges in the default config. It means that connect itself as computer by that ports. You can put them into bridge to join them together to simulate one big switch by software or leave them splitter. You can do this with whatever port in ros, if you unslave it from the switch group. If you would like to talk to ros, each port that you use needs to have correct ip configuration and the firewall should not actively drop that input traffic. But for winbox mac connection you don’t need any address, you can use whatever port even it is switched, bridged or left alone, also without valid ip configuration.
The bridge connects involved ports together. It works even if you cannot reach the ros on it by any way.