Configuring Mikrotik for Smart Home

In an effort to choose the best smart home router that has VPN client functionality, we suggested using Mikrotik. Let's now consider here exactly how to set up a Mikrotik router for smart home.

Don't be afraid to experiment with the settings! If you suddenly make a mistake somewhere, all you need to do is perform a reset to get back to the starting point. To do this, press the Reset button. Then connect the power cable. Wait until the ACT LED flashes. And release the Reset button. The router is reset to factory settings.

Suppose you have just taken the router out of the box and you need to configure it. Turn on the router and open your laptop (or phone) to search for a new WiFi network with the name Mikrotik. Find it and connect to it. No password is required.

Now open a browser and specify the address of the router, by default it will be 192.168.88.1. The first thing we are asked to do is to set a password, which is reasonable. Make up a password for the router. Click Change Now.

Now we are in the panel Quick Set, i.e. quick settings. There are several typical configurations here, we are interested in the variant Home AP.

Let's start with the settings WiFi. We come up with the name of the network. Now, specify its password.

That's it. Now connect to the Internet. This information should be provided to you by your provider. We will use the automatic option. Just connect the cable to the first port. Pay attention, exactly to the first one. There is an inscription Internet, or WAN.

As soon as the cable is connected, the provider's network data appears. Let's continue further and configure the local network. Here is the IP address of the router itself. The first two digits 192 and 168 are standard for the local network, but the third can be set by you. You can leave it as it is by default - 88. However, for this example, I will change it to 77. The fourth digit is the number of the device on the network. It is quite logical to start counting from the first device, which is usually the router itself. That's why it has the number 1. Next, we should note that if you decide to change the network number, then here, in the list of numbers for future devices, you should also make changes. Change the network number to 77. Next, the number from which the numbering of network devices will start. Let it remain at ten. Next, the end of the range. Here we also change the network number to 77. We'll also reduce the automatic issuance of device numbers to one hundred. That's it. Press the Apply Configuration button.

The router starts rebooting. We open the list of WiFi networks on the computer again and connect to a new network, this time with a password. As you remember, we changed the router's network address, so now in the address bar I type the new router's address 192.168.77.1.

Done. Enter the password for the router. If everything was done correctly, you should already have Internet on your computer through the new router.

This completes the basic configuration of the router!

Useful! When you purchase a new functional router Mikrotik, you get additional means to improve stability. So pay attention to other useful settings that we recommend you to perform!

First of all, it will be good to download the program WinBox in order to get convenient access to the router, or you can continue to configure the router as before through the web-interface WebFig.

The main task of a smart home router is its ability to withstand failures. For example, if your computer freezes, you manually reboot it. But since, you may be far away from the router, it needs to be done by the automation that is inside it. This is called Watchdog (left menu System -> Watchdog).

Here you need to specify the IP address of some server on the Internet, if you lose connection with it, the router will automatically reboot. Usually the reference address of a well-known DNS-server is used - 8.8.8.8.8. Besides, you should set the time from the moment of switching on, after which Watchdog will be activated, for example 20 minutes.

Another NetWatch feature (left menu Tools-> Watchdog) will also be useful. For example, if you are using Mikrotik 951 series in combination with a USB modem, it can happen that you need to reboot the modem itself. For example, the first rule is to check the same DNS server (four eights), every 5 minutes, and with a wait time of one second. When the connection is lost (Down tab), we give this command:

/system routerboard usb power-reset duration=5s.

It is needed to forcibly turn off the power of the modem for 5 seconds.

It will be good if we add a second check here. This is the IP address of the modem itself. And completely similar settings.

But that's not all. As practice has shown, though extremely rare, there are also such failures when the router works but unstably. That's why it is recommended to reload it once a day in your free time. To do this, use the Sheduler section (left menu System -> Sheduler).

Here we add the task AutoReboot. Starting today from eight o'clock. The interval is every day. And, of course, the reboot command itself: /system reboot.

It remains to mention another very useful function for backing up all settings: section Files, operation Backup. With its help, you can save the current configuration. This is useful if for some reason, such as setting up new features, a failure occurs. Then you can quickly and easily restore the current settings.

In conclusion, let's summarize: not all routers are suitable for a smart home project. That's why we recommend using a Mikrotik router, or for advanced users, reflash your router to OpenWrt. Perhaps your router also has the function VPN, Watchdog, AutoReboot etc., then try to make similar settings on it. We are sure that when organizing a smart home, the router is an important element, hence buying a new and more functional router will be inevitable in any case and will definitely pay off.

Now that your router is ready, it can be connected to the cloud server.