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marcperea
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Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 4:50 pm

It's come to my attention by viewing these forums that lots of Mikrotik users are looking for some additional cloud management software that makes operating Mikrotiks easier.

I'm part of a team that helps Mikrotik users all over the world amplify their workforce by providing great tools for Mikrotiks:
  • Push a command to multiple Mikrotiks
  • Centralized backups with configuration diffs
  • Graphs and monitoring with historical charts
  • Firmware update tool that does both the packages and system/routerboard (in the maintenance window)
  • User management based on RADIUS
  • Alerting/notification
  • On-premise available for larger deployments
  • Remote access (including through NAT)
We enable big results from small teams.

Check out https://remotewinbox.com and post a comment with your feedback. We continue to evolve the software to enhance our customers' workflows.
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:05 pm

Uhm...
1) Try us for FREE! Your first license is free.
2) Each managed MikroTik unit is $.50 per month.
3) Each managed MikroTik unit is $2.00 per month.

Better to wait free solution from MikroTik than to risk that happen something similar of other dozen of products, like LogMeIn:
at the beginning it is free, or near-free, but when there is a large user base, with a minimum notice of 30 days,
it goes to $900 a month, so someone who has put it everywhere, is being cornered and forced to pay...
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:22 pm

That sounds like an interesting solution. However, I have some thoughts about safety. Is there any more detailed information on security, such as how passwords are stored, support for certificates, MFA, etc?
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:29 pm

If it's in the cloud, it's impossible for it to be secure.
Hackers are always around the corner and there are constant reports of data breaches.
Anyone within the company could take all of their login details and sell them on the dark web, who is stopping them?
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 5:58 pm

That's not entirely true. Yes there are plenty of bad implementations when it comes to security but there are also means to make it secure enough, both for on premise and "cloud" installations which are basically the same just different operating and run time strategies.

I've seen a lot of weakness for example master keys exposed in code, password extracted in clear text to temp files, passwords not stored safely using TPM key stores etc.

This is often due to inexperienced architects and developers in combination with a huge pressure to get a solution fast time-to-market which might result in a deployed POC which hasn't been secured enough ("we'll fix it later in the next version kind of management ")
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 6:42 pm

ANOTHER CLOUD SCAM?
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 7:32 pm

For sure :?:
 
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Znevna
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 8:10 pm

Ok, maybe not a scam, but I still don't trust 3rd parties controlling my equipment.
 
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marcperea
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 8:34 pm

Uhm...
1) Try us for FREE! Your first license is free.
2) Each managed MikroTik unit is $.50 per month.
3) Each managed MikroTik unit is $2.00 per month.

Better to wait free solution from MikroTik than to risk that happen something similar of other dozen of products, like LogMeIn:
at the beginning it is free, or near-free, but when there is a large user base, with a minimum notice of 30 days,
it goes to $900 a month, so someone who has put it everywhere, is being cornered and forced to pay...
Certainly everything we do can be done for free by anyone who would like to spend the time and effort, and if you check our blog we include some tutorials for things like using your own VPN concentrator and using good security for example. https://thaea.software/blog/. However, our customers tell us that they love not having to spend hours maintaining the infrastructure required to do all the things we do and that our dashboard has a great UI that saves them tons of time and effort and provides functionality that they otherwise would not have.
That sounds like an interesting solution. However, I have some thoughts about safety. Is there any more detailed information on security, such as how passwords are stored, support for certificates, MFA, etc?
We use a zero trust security policy, separate credentials for every VPN, user, router and password and leverage hashing. All router traffic to our service is encrypted using an SSTP VPN. Each company and their Mikrotiks are firewalled from every other company and there's an on-premise version we call Admiral for large deployments that's completely isolated https://admiral.remotewinbox.com. We're enhancing our 2 factor implementation right now and take all security suggestions. Certificates is on the feature request list, but we haven't yet committed resources. Read more on our thoughts on security: https://thaea.software/?s=security
If it's in the cloud, it's impossible for it to be secure.
Hackers are always around the corner and there are constant reports of data breaches.
Anyone within the company could take all of their login details and sell them on the dark web, who is stopping them?
The conspiracy theorist in me agrees with this, but without cloud services there would be no video services, no social networks, no gaming, no communication systems. We are one cloud service of probably millions that offers a service, some more secure than others. We are diligent about our security and we absolutely respect that if a compromise occurred on us it could be devastating for our customers. I wonder if/how is it different than using a banking app, paying your internet bill online, sending someone a message, or enrolling in an online class. Any insider at those companies who went rogue could do similar damage, I think. At some point many people choose to extend trust to get things they want to have and it is the duty of service providers like us to be vigilant about security.
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 8:45 pm

ANOTHER CLOUD SCAM?
Certainly not. We've been providing remote access to Mikrotiks since 2020. In 2021 we added stuff like backups, firmware, bulk configuration and more. In 2022 we added charts and historical info and are now working on stuff like OSPF mapping and automation/orchestration. We host regular open webinars, quarterly roadmap reviews with customers, and all of our features are developed based on customer requests & feedback. We have thousands of customers all over the world ranging from 1 router to nearly ten thousand in a single deployment. We're here for the long run: https://thaea.software/ and you can check out our YouTube to see just how much things have evolved in the last 2 years: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-oOq ... yBQ/videos
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 8:56 pm

Sorry, I was harsh.
But every few months comes some user promoting some cloud based closed source secret service with secret sauce claiming many things, in the end .. it's just that, down to a matter of trust.
MikroTIk is "thinking" on something similar (maybe?) so I'll stick around to see where they go with the idea. viewtopic.php?t=186352
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:45 pm

You forgot to say something about ths...
Better to wait free solution from MikroTik than to risk that happen something similar of other dozen of products, like LogMeIn:
at the beginning it is free, or near-free, but when there is a large user base, with a minimum notice of 30 days,
it goes to $900 a month, so someone who has put it everywhere, is being cornered and forced to pay...

And speaking of conspiracy theories, I just tell the truth...
I didn't write "They want to do this so they can put whatever they like on their customers' routerboards to spy on everything",
that's it, the latter is a conspiracy thing....
So before calling someone a conspiracy theorist, maybe they just have more experience than you ...
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Wed Jun 15, 2022 12:45 am

You forgot to say something about ths...
Better to wait free solution from MikroTik than to risk that happen something similar of other dozen of products, like LogMeIn:
at the beginning it is free, or near-free, but when there is a large user base, with a minimum notice of 30 days,
it goes to $900 a month, so someone who has put it everywhere, is being cornered and forced to pay...

And speaking of conspiracy theories, I just tell the truth...
I didn't write "They want to do this so they can put whatever they like on their customers' routerboards to spy on everything",
that's it, the latter is a conspiracy thing....
So before calling someone a conspiracy theorist, maybe they just have more experience than you ...
I'm not here to fight nor call you any names - I apologize that it came off that way as to imply you're into conspiracies - whether you are or not is none of my business. I'll try again - what I wanted to say is that when I think about conspiracies, I think no company can be 100% safe from attacks if it's connected to the Internet. Then I think about government capabilities and the technology I know about and I believe that skepticism is healthy. But the truth is that no one at RemoteWinBox wants to spy on anyone. We are a bunch of nerds, network ninjas and computer scientists who are building a business out of helping other Mikrotik users by listening to what problems there are managing a bunch of them. Trusting us or not is each person/company choice, but what motivates us is delivering new features and hearing about the stories of when our customers use our software to improve their work.

To answer the question of comparing to LogMeIn, I never used it and don't know why you're using it as a comparison. Companies can and do change their pricing, go bankrupt, get acquired and all kinds of things. I can say we have no strategy in mind to gain a huge user-base by undercharging and then flipping a switch to rip off the market, if that's what you're trying to say. Our prices, unlike many of our competitors, are published right on our website and we try to have the right price for every size of Mikrotik network.
Sorry, I was harsh.
But every few months comes some user promoting some cloud based closed source secret service with secret sauce claiming many things, in the end .. it's just that, down to a matter of trust.
MikroTIk is "thinking" on something similar (maybe?) so I'll stick around to see where they go with the idea. viewtopic.php?t=186352
If MT builds in more orchestration that will be phenomenal! My impression this will be great for all Tik users. Looking at that thread, I think what they are building is the Tik to Tik protocol that will enable configuration pushes that behave like CAPSMAN does for WIFI. So imagine a whole building of Tiks controlled by 1 master that has configuration templates for switches, routers, APs, firewall rules and all that jazz and a protocol allows you to control 100 routers by updating 1 setting on the master. I think this is what they are getting at (and also what our software can do), but if you read the MT response it looks like they are not going to have a user interface or app, just a router -- router communication mechanism. I could be reading it wrong though.
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:43 pm

I consider the critics here, regarding security and confidentiality of a cloud based service, not to be fair.
Although, I have switched from using miktotik for custom hotspots many years ago, _ALSO_ because of the fact, that RoS is _NOT_ open source.
Therefore, critics regarding security and confidentiality can be applied to using RoS/MT, too.
Opposed to openwrt, which is completely open source.
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:49 pm

Erm, flawless logic there.. not.
How many 3rd party closed source apps/services do you use to manage your Cisco/Fortinet/whatever or even your OpenWrt routers?
Last edited by Znevna on Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:06 pm

As a developer, I did various custom management services for openwrt-routers, for various clients, mostly in the area of hotspots. Clients have all sources, of course.
So no public open source, but open to the client himself.
Thus, the answer in short: No 3rd party stuff.

In case of more general management required, various (public) open source packages exist for openwrt.
 
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Re: Cloud based Mikrotik Controller and Management

Tue Aug 06, 2024 6:39 pm

I used this product when it first started up as remote winbox. The developer I worked with was a nice chap, honest in my opinion and was making a cool product. The only drawback from my point was that yes, one was trusting another third party provider. Much as one does with cloudflare with zerotrust ( irony for a name in this thread jajajaja ), or even Mikrotik with BTH!! The other concern was the SSTP connection was not using credentials. Not sure how they are handling customer connections now, hopefully there are more secure options. What I did like was the connection to my router from anywhere or any other router I was responsible for, FROM ONE LOGIN. I didnt have to login for each Wireguard connection for example. At the time they were just starting and were developing APIs, which I view as easy to configure solutions for common needs/services and thus the library was small but probably has expanded greatly.
Yes, overkill for my hobby limited needs. However, if managing multiple MT devices, including WIFI, this makes life super easy. The other thing I like which they did after I stopped using the service was partner with more enterprise security entities involved in miniminizing DDoS attacks at the earliest part of the travel of the attacks which is always a good thing.
In any case its a portfolio that keeps expanding, and recommend it for sampling to see whats out there..........

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