RB850Gx2

The RB850Gx2 is a router board with five gigabit ports and no Wi-Fi. The catalogue lists it with the default configuration router, ether1 as the WAN port and a verified port layout. In shape it resembles the RB450Gx4: a bare board for a cabinet or a rack.

One catalogue field deserves attention here: the architecture is recorded as PPC. That is an older family than the ARM and MIPS boards that make up the rest of this list. The configurator always writes RouterOS v7 syntax. So before you paste, check with /system resource print which RouterOS and which architecture the board really runs, and see From v6 to v7 for what changes between the two versions.

The ports

• ether1: 1 Gbit, your WAN port by default.
• ether2 through ether5: 1 Gbit, ordinary ports for the LAN or for a trunk.

There is no PoE-out on this model: the catalogue records no feeding port, so the PoE-out per port field never appears. Anything behind it that needs power needs an injector or a PoE switch. See PoE-out per port.

Five ports is well above the three that Office router with VLANs, Router + CAPsMAN and Hotspot demand, so those roles are available. What joins the bridge is covered in Bridge and ports.

What is inside

From the catalogue: PPC and 512 MB of memory. With 512 MB the small-board warning does not appear here. The licence level and the switch chip are not recorded for this model, so this page does not quote them.

hw_vlan is empty, so you will not get the warning that bridge VLAN filtering turns hardware offload off on this model. The Hardware offloading (switch chip) toggle is on by default. The catalogue not naming a switch chip does not mean there is none; it means we make no claim about it. After pasting, check with /interface bridge port print whether offload is actually active.

No radios and no modem: all Wi-Fi roles are greyed out with "No wifi radio" and LTE / 5G router with "No LTE modem".

What it is good at, and where it runs out

Good at: being a plain five-port router for a network that already exists. As a replacement for an existing RB850 in the same spot it is the obvious choice.

Where it runs out:

• The architecture. Check what is running before you paste a v7 script.
• No Wi-Fi, no PoE, no fibre. Five copper ports and nothing more.
• Throughput figures. Our catalogue does not record them. What you get depends on firewall rules, fasttrack and queues; see QoS and bandwidth.
• New features. Everything RouterOS v7 brought along stands or falls with whether this board runs that version.

Which roles fit

• Home router: one network, DHCP, firewall.
• Office router with VLANs: available, with enough ports for WAN, LAN and a trunk.
• VPN gateway: offered. Encryption happens in software here; do not expect high speeds.
• Router + CAPsMAN and Hotspot: available on port count.
• Core router: offered. No NAT and no bridge, for a routed setup.
• Switch: technically offered.
• Harden only (baseline): the safest choice on a board whose version you have not checked yet, because it leaves the network alone.

The quickest route to a working configuration

1. Look at the board first: /system resource print for version and architecture, /interface print for the port names.
2. Pick One device and search for RB850.
3. Pick Home router or Office router with VLANs, depending on whether you need VLANs.
4. Fill in the internet connection on ether1 and walk through the rest of the wizard.
5. Set an admin password, reset the board and paste the script. See Using the script. Work in safe mode if you are unsure.

What trips people up

• Pasting a v7 script without checking the version. If v6 is still running, lines fail on syntax v6 does not know; see The script returns an error.
• Expecting PoE. This model powers nothing.
• Treating an old board as a new one. Look at free memory and storage before attempting an upgrade; see Upgrade fails, no space.
• Putting the management VLAN untagged on an ordinary port. Send it tagged to your switch.
• Locking yourself out. Write the management address down before you paste; see Locked out.