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Comment by hamandcheese | Hacker News Reader

I was interested in Mikrotik devices, but then I looked at the API documentation[1] and was a bit horrified.

[1]: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/API

Just wait until you see the Mikrotik scripting language. I dabbled with it a bit in the past and it's like an extremely buggy and finicky version of PHP. I still have a Mikrotik router in my basement, but it's the last one I think I'll buy.

I love the idea of scripting on a router, but please give us a real language to work with.

I set one up for the first time a few weeks back. The Web UI would sometimes time out my session after less than a minute, and then many of the sidebar buttons would be duplicated. Choosing a "template" option for how the WiFi/LTE is used would appear to take effect, but be ignored. There was no option to enter a password for the 5GHz radio, it simply remained open. It stopped responding and had to be factory reset. This was all over a stable wired Ethernet with a browser config that allows scripts, cookies etc, and before any work I'd upgraded its firmware and performed a factory reset. I too was a bit horrified.

Been using them since the 00s, never had that experience, I've got 190 permament installs globally and another 50 or so which come and go as the need arises.

Sounds more like an issue with your browser.

No, I commented independently about this earlier having noticed it after rebooting (and then again - duplicated again). Must fetch & store menu items on login I suppose, but not clear them first nor check for duplicates.

I’ve never had that happen but it will act a bit weird if the webpage thinks you’re logged in but you’re not. Check cookies and passwords or use the command line.

Or install openwrt.

FWIW, the primary way to configure a Mikrotik device is via WinBox (desktop app). The web UI is definitely not as polished, even if it looks similar.

If you're not using Windows, WinBox will run just fine under Wine on Mac/Linux. That's how I run it.

What's wrong with SSH and API access?

ssh/web works fine for me for 10+yrs and many thousands of devices

I'd rather use windows 95 inspired interface then a castrated linux shell. Even CTRL+L doesn't work

Why, oh why do vendors decide to come up with their own mutually incompatible set of shell commands. And it's always so ugly compared to modern bash

SSH/API works fine too.

My point is more that the web interface isn't the best option. Take your pick of the others. :)

Thanks for this info! It had to be installed and working rather promptly, which meant I didn't have the time I'd usually like to acclimate to a new operating system. I'll look into WinBox.

Hmm. I've been using MT routers for 15 years and never knew there was an API. Presumably you want to use them in some SDN scenario?

It's easier and cleaner to automate than sending SSH commands.

I don't care about SDN per se, but I do desire a home network that I can configure and deploy (or easily re-bootstrap) from a git repo with a plain text editor.

The result is that I use NixOS for my NAT gateway/firewall, and simply live without fancier network features (I only have two NICs in that machine).

For wifi I begrudgingly use an off-the-shelf wifi router combo in bridge mode.

v7 has a REST API. Much easier to use.

https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/REST+API

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