RouterOS is a stand-alone operating system based on Linux kernel. It powers MikroTik hardware devices, but is also available for virtual machines.
The following list shows features found in the latest RouterOS release:
Hardware Support
RouterOS is fully compatible with MikroTik hardware it comes preinstalled on. It can also be run on 3rd party devices if they meet the following requirements:
- i386 compatible architecture
- SMP – multi-core and multi-CPU compatible
- Minimum 32MB of RAM (maximum supported 2GB, except on Cloud Core devices and CHR installations, where there is no maximum)
- IDE, SATA, USB and flash storage medium with minimum of 64MB space
- Network cards supported by linux v3.3.5 kernel (PCI, PCI-X)
- Switch chip configuration support
Note: NVMe storage is supported only for CHR, x86, Tile and MMIPS architecture. For specific information, please look at each product brochure or block diagram.
Installation
- Netinstall: Full network based installation from PXE or EtherBoot enabled network card
- CHR: RouterOS version intended for running as a virtual machine
- CD based installation
Configuration
- MAC based access for initial configuration
- WinBox – standalone Windows GUI configuration tool
- Webfig - advanced web based configuration interface
- MikroTik - Android and iOS based configuration tool
- Powerful command-line configuration interface with integrated scripting capabilities, accessible via local terminal, serial console, telnet and ssh
- API - the way to create your own configuration and monitoring applications
Backup/Restore
- Binary configuration backup saving and loading
- Configuration export and import in human readable text format
Firewall
- Statefull filtering
- Source and destination NAT
- NAT helpers (h323, pptp, quake3, sip, ftp, irc, tftp)
- Internal connection, routing and packet marks
- Filtering by IP address and address range, port and port range, IP protocol, DSCP and many more
- Address lists
- Custom Layer7 matcher
- IPv6 support
- PCC - per connection classifier, used in load balancing configurations
- RAW filtering to bypass connection tracking.
Routing
- Static routing
- Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF)
- Policy based routing
- Interface routing
- ECMP routing
- IPv4 dynamic routing protocols: RIP v1/v2, OSPFv2, BGP v4
- IPv6 dynamic routing protocols: RIPng, OSPFv3, BGP
- Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
MPLS
- Static Label bindings for IPv4
- Label Distribution protocol for IPv4
- RSVP Traffic Engineering tunnels
- VPLS MP-BGP based autodiscovery and signaling
- MP-BGP based MPLS IP VPN
VPN
- IPSec – tunnel and transport mode, certificate or PSK, AH and ESP security protocols.
- IKEv2 support
- AES-NI hardware acceleration support for IPSec
- Point to point tunneling ( OpenVPN, PPTP, PPPoE, L2TP, SSTP)
- Advanced PPP features (MLPPP, BCP)
- Simple tunnels ( IPIP, EoIP) IPv4 andIPv6 support
- 6to4 tunnel support (IPv6 over IPv4 network)
- VLAN – IEEE802.1q Virtual LAN support, Q-in-Q support
- MPLS based VPNs
Wireless
- IEEE802.11a/b/g wireless client and access point
- Full IEEE802.11n support
- Nstreme and Nstreme2 proprietary protocols
- NV2 protocol
- Wireless Distribution System (WDS)
- Virtual AP
- WEP, WPA, WPA2
- Access control list
- Wireless client roaming
- WMM
- HWMP+ Wireless MESH protocol
- MME wireless routing protocol
DHCP
- Per interface DHCP server
- DHCP client and relay
- Static and dynamic DHCP leases
- RADIUS support
- Custom DHCP options
- DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation (DHCPv6-PD)
- DHCPv6 Client
Hotspot
- Plug-n-Play access to the Network
- Authentication of local Network Clients
- Users Accounting
- RADIUS support for Authentication and Accounting
QoS
- Hierarchical Token Bucket ( HTB) QoS system with CIR, MIR, burst and priority support
- Simple and fast solution for basic QoS implementation - Simple queues
- Dynamic client rate equalization ( PCQ)
Proxy
- HTTP caching proxy server
- Transparent HTTP proxy
- SOCKS protocol support
- DNS static entries
- Support for caching on a separate drive
- Parent proxy support
- Access control list
- Caching list
Tools
- Ping, traceroute
- Bandwidth test, ping flood
- Packet sniffer, torch
- Telnet, ssh
- E-mail and SMS send tools
- Automated script execution tools
- CALEA
- File Fetch tool
- Advanced traffic generator
Other features
- Samba support
- OpenFlow support
- Bridging – spanning tree protocol (STP, RSTP), bridge firewall and MAC natting.
- Dynamic DNS update tool
- NTP client/server and synchronization with GPS system
- VRRP v2 and v3 support
- SNMP
- M3P - MikroTik Packet packer protocol for wireless links and ethernet
- MNDP - MikroTik neighbor discovery protocol, supports CDP (Cisco discovery protocol)
- RADIUS authentication and accounting
- TFTP server
- Synchronous interface support (Farsync cards only) (Removed in v5.x)
- Asynchronous – serial PPP dial-in/dial-out, dial on demand
- ISDN – dial-in/dial-out, 128K bundle support, Cisco HDLC, x75i, x75ui, x75bui line protocols, dial on demand