I intended to reset the router to factory settings but did not know it has 3 "reset levels". Only the first one is what a regular home user of hap ax lite would consider a reset. Other two are switching a router to some mode not relevant to a home user. It happened to me and I ended up in caps mode. I though I will document it here so if anyone else is stuck then they at least have some information on how to get out of this. First, Mikrotik really
should not allow putting simple home routers accidentally to caps mode. But if it happens:
1. Find another router that works (does not need internet access, but must have DHCP - e.g, any router should have this)
2. Connect mikrotik router to another router using Internet port on Mikrotik and normal LAN port on another router.
3. Now Mikrotik should get an IP address from another router. Find it out (e.g., admin panel of another router shows connected clients and their assigned IP's)
4. Connect your computer to the same network (e.g. to another router). You might connect via cable or using Wifi, does not matter.
5. Open terminal or command line
6. Type "telnet x.x.x.x" where x.x.x.x is the IP address from Step 3 (for example, 192.168.0.65)
7. Login as "admin". Password was empty for me (although there was initial password for user interface before). Then it prompts you to change the password, you can enter just one digit there.
8. F1 gives you help and shows commands, but what you need is this:
9. type "system" and prompt changes to "[admin@MikroTik] /system>"
10. type "reset-configuration caps-mode=no" and confirm with y
Done! The router reboots to those factory settings that you wanted instead of caps mode
I struggled a lot to get my router back from the being a stupid brick so I though I'll post it here in case someone else has the same problem. If there is anyone who knows how to achieve this in a more sensible way, please comment. It was not possible to get back to "normal mode" by using the reset procedure. Looks like once in caps mode, your router is a brick until you learn how to hack in