Manual:First time startup

After you have installed the RouterOS software, or turned on the Router for the first time, there are various ways how to connect to it:

Monitor and Keyboard

Simply attach a monitor to the video card connector of the computer (note: RouterBOARD products don't have this) and see what happens on the screen. You should see a login promt like this:

MikroTik v2.9.8
Login:

Enter admin as the login name, and hit enter twice (because there is no password yet), you will see this screen:

  MMM      MMM       KKK                          TTTTTTTTTTT      KKK
  MMMM    MMMM       KKK                          TTTTTTTTTTT      KKK
  MMM MMMM MMM  III  KKK  KKK  RRRRRR     OOOOOO      TTT     III  KKK  KKK
  MMM  MM  MMM  III  KKKKK     RRR  RRR  OOO  OOO     TTT     III  KKKKK
  MMM      MMM  III  KKK KKK   RRRRRR    OOO  OOO     TTT     III  KKK KKK
  MMM      MMM  III  KKK  KKK  RRR  RRR   OOOOOO      TTT     III  KKK  KKK 

  MikroTik RouterOS 2.9.8 (c) 1999-2005       http://www.mikrotik.com/


Terminal ansi detected, using single line input mode
[admin@router] >

Now you can start configuring the router, by issuing the setup command.

This method works with any device that has a video card and keyboard connector

Console Cable

If your device is a RouterBOARD then it doesn't have a monitor connector. You will have to find a console cable (or Null modem cable), plug one end into the console port (also known as a serial port or DB9 RS232C asynchronous serial port) of the RouterBOARD and the other end in your PC (which hopefully runs Windows or Linux). Run a terminal program (HyperTerminal on Windows) with the following parameters for RouterBOARD 500:

115200bit/s, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control by default.

or for RouterBOARD 200:

9600bit/s, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control by default.

and you should be conneced to the Router and can start by logging in and issuing the setup command (see top of the page for details).

This method works with any PC or hardware device that has a Serial Port.

Winbox and MAC telnet

You can download the Winbox application from here: demo2.mt.lv. Make sure that your Windows computer is directly connected to the router with an Ethernet cable, or at least that they both are connected to the same switch. Run Winbox, then click the ... button and see if Winbox finds your Router and it's MAC address. If yes, connect to it and the winbox GUI interface will be shown. Follow the manual about configuring the router

This method works with any device that runs RouterOS