Choosing your device

Everything that follows hangs on the model you choose. The configurator knows each model's port names, speeds, PoE-out, which radios it has and which Wi-Fi package RouterOS v7 uses for it. That is exactly what a generic example from the internet does not know, and why such an example breaks on your device at an ether5 that does not exist.

The first screen

You start in a grid of every model. Above it sit a search box and a row of filters: All, Routers, Switches, Wireless, Wi-Fi and LTE. The last two filter on what the device can do rather than the category it sits in, so Wi-Fi also shows routers with a radio in them.

Search matches the name, the article number, the short name and the series: ax3, hEX, RB5009, CRS326. Each card summarises the ports (5x 1G and 1x SFP+, for instance) and carries labels for Wi-Fi, LTE, SwOS or virtual.

What the model decides

• Ports and their names — ether1 to ether8, sfp-sfpplus1, and which one is the WAN port by default.
• Speeds — where the 2.5 or 10 Gbit ports are, and therefore where your uplink belongs. The network board uses this later, once you fill in the speed of your subscription.
• PoE-out — which ports can power an access point or a camera.
• Radios — 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, and which generation (ac, ax, be). That decides how the Wi-Fi is written in the script, and whether Multi-Link Operation is offered at all.
• Wi-Fi package — older models use wireless, newer ones the wifi package, and some, like the hAP ac², can run either. The configurator writes the script for the package your model uses.
• Switch chip and hardware VLAN — whether VLAN filtering on the bridge can be handled by the chip instead of the processor. That costs speed when it cannot, and the generator uses it to decide what goes into your script.
• Architecture — containers only run on ARM64 or x86, so on other models that part is not offered.
• RouterOS level — which sets, among other things, how many tunnels you are allowed to run.

After you pick one

The next screen carries a note where your model needs one: that the device ships with SwOS and this script only applies when it runs RouterOS, or that the port names come from the specifications and were never checked against real hardware. Some models also carry a note of their own, about licensing for instance.

Change the model later and the sections go back to the defaults for the new device. They have to: port names, radios and the default WAN differ. So pick your model before you fill everything in, not afterwards.

Model not in the list?

The list follows our own catalogue and covers the models you can buy today, plus the older Cloud Core Routers. If yours is missing, there are three ways out:

• Pick the nearest model from the same series and adjust the port names where they differ. An RB750Gr3 and an RB760iGS are close enough to start that way.
• Use Some other MikroTik at the end of the grid. There you give a name, the number of ethernet, SFP and SFP+ ports, whether it has Wi-Fi and with which package, whether it is dual band, and whether it has an LTE modem. You then get ether1 and up, in order. Check those names afterwards with /interface print, because a device we do not know is a device we cannot verify either.
• Tell us through the form. Adding a missing model is small work for us.

No physical device

For a virtual router pick CHR, for an install on ordinary hardware pick x86. Those have no fixed port list, so the tool asks how many network cards you have first. Neither has RouterBOOT, a switch chip or PoE, so those settings never reach your script.

Checking on the device itself

Not sure you have the right model? Look at the device. /system resource print gives the board name, /interface print the real interface names, and /system package print which packages are installed, the Wi-Fi one included. If something differs from what the tool assumes, adjust it in advanced mode or pick another model.

Verified or not

Some models are marked as checked against real hardware. For the rest, the ports and radios come from MikroTik's specifications, and the script says so in its own header. If something is wrong, report it: that is the fastest way to fix it for everyone.

More than one device

Building a network with a router, a switch and a few access points? Then do not pick a single device but switch to site mode at the top. There you pick a model per device and fill in VLANs, SSIDs and the password once. See Multiple devices in one site.

Further reading: The wizard and Switches running SwOS.