Mikrotik – Changing/removing a master-port disconnects from a router

mikrotik

I have a Mikrotik router with 5 ports. By default ether2-master is a master port for the ports 3-5. If I try to change it – I'm disconnected from the router, so I have to reset it to get the connection back.

So far I've tried:

  1. to remove everywhere a master port setting;
  2. to set ether4 as a master port;

..no luck. In the first case ether2 is the only working port, in the second – when I set a master port for ether2 – I have to reset the router again to get the connection back.

Please help – how do I change/remove the master port? ether2 seems somehow special. I want ether1 to be for WAN, and ports 4-5 for my local usage, ports 2-3 will be disabled.

Best Answer

There is a safe mode in Winbox although I never use it and I'm not sure exactly how it functions.

Personally I always set up a management port first, remove every firewall rule and make sure I can get in on my management port. (In your case you could probably just put a temporary IP on port 1).

Once you're in on a port you don't need to mess with, set the master port on 2/3/4/5 to none (so they're all masters effectively), then set 5 to a slave of 4 so you get hardware switching** between those ports (if that's what you want). You can then assign your correct IP to port 4 and hopefully get back into the device on port 4/5 to finish configuration.

**Apparently in the latest version (still RC status) they are removing the master port options and everything should be done with bridges. The OS is supposed to automatically enable hardware offload for switching where available without having to manually set master/slave ports.

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