One thing i used to love about MT devices, was how they had Mac-Telnet enabled on all interfaces, by default from the factory.
this made it very easy for a remote admin, with just a single Mikrotik on a network, to allow customers to have new MTs shipped directly to the customer and provide them with very simple instructions (just plug in power, and plug in to our network and the admin can do the rest (ie the real configuration, via mac-telnet).
As of about a year or 18 months ago, the default config that MT ships is one that has the router ready-to-go out the box as a more traditional "home/consumer router" with a WAN port, and the rest config'd as LAN ports. I totally understand why this is, and the market/consumer MT is going after.
However, i have many installs where we are using MT based POE power sources (ie hEX POE's) and it would be so nice if new, fresh out the box MTs at least had Mac-Telnet enabled on the WAN port. The scenario often is, a customer buys a MT Wifi (such as a hAP Lite or hAP AC) and then we need to remotely configure it. I would love to be able to tell the customer, just plug in ETH-1 into the wall jack, and we can do the rest (ETH-1 as we are also providing POE and thats the only POE-IN port on many MTs). However, the default config,
Short of manually resetting the config to default, and then shipping the MT to the customer, does any know of any work around or tricks that im missing to remotly access a Fresh out the box Mikrotik, from *another* mikroitk that is on the same Layer-2 network? (ie like you could do in the goodl ol' days, before the more recent default config that has Mac-Telnet off on port eth1)?
or maybe Mikrotik can consider RE-Enabling Mac-Telnet on ETH-1 for all new devices that ship (if security is the concern, maybe have a script that disables it 60s after a reboot, only if the default config is in use, this would give us enough time to Mac-Telnet in and do a quick "/sys reset-config no-defaults=yes" )
thanks!
EDIT #2: through discussions below, i think perhaps a better solution / compromise to this issue/request has presented itself:
maybe add a setting where if the physical reset button on the router is held for 15 or 20 seconds during power up, than the RB resets to /sys reset-config no-defaults=yes (ie longer than the standard 5s which resets to def. config) - this is something we as admins can easily communicate to the end user- (ie to end-user: order XYZ rb, when it arrives plug it in to our wall jack (it will power up), now hold physical button for 20s till lights flash/blink , then we (admin) will do the rest for you)
^^ (i actually think this might be the best solution / compromise for all , even if just enabled on lower end, AP type RBs)
EDIT: i usually end up hoping that i have another MT in wifi range of a newly added (fresh out box) MT so that i can connect to its default-config open WIFI and then run a quick "/sys reset-config no-defaults=yes" , so that i can do my actual initial config over ETH via mac-telnet