RouterOS is a stand-alone operating system based on Linux kernel. It powers MikroTik hardware devices, but is also available for virtual machines.
If you are reading this document and have no prior experience with RouterOS, please use the menu on the left hand side, to learn about first steps with RouterOS. The different methods of connecting to your device are discussed under the "management tools" section.
/ip firewall filter
add action=passthrough chain=unused-hs-chain comment="place hotspot rules here" disabled=yes
add action=accept chain=input comment="defconf: accept established,related,untracked" connection-state=\
established,related,untracked |
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 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