Obtaining IP in bridge mode on Mikrotik switches

I got my hands on a Mikrotik switch and is happy with it. One problem I haven't solved for a while has been getting WinBox to connect to it remotely (it's at by dad's place). I have been ssh-ing into a server thebn mactelnet into the switch. WinBox however can't work with that even with VPN (VPN works on L3 not L2). But I finally got it to work.

The core of the problem is that the switch by default is in bridge mode. While the document says that to enable DHCP do /ip/dhcp-client add interface=ether1 disabled=no. However that'll fail as the port is a part of the bridge. With error:

[admin@MikroTik] > /ip/dhcp-client/add interface=ether1 disabled=no     
failure: can not run on slave interface

I can't believe I haven't thought of this before. The solution is to add the DHCP client to the bridge interface. So the command should be:

[admin@MikroTik] > /ip/dhcp-client/add interface=bridge disabled=no

And that legit works. Now check IP with /ip/dhcp-client/print and you should see the IP address assigned to the switch. And now VPN into the network and WinBox should work pointing to the obtained address.

I don't have an dedicated management interface or VLAN so this is the best I can do. I know there's problems. But I'm happy with this solution for now.

Author's profile. Photo taken in VRChat by my friend Tast+
Martin Chang
Systems software, HPC, GPGPU and AI. I mostly write stupid C++ code. Sometimes does AI research. Chronic VRChat addict

I run TLGS, a major search engine on Gemini. Used by Buran by default.


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