Ethernet Interfaces

Document revision 29-Nov-2002
This document applies to the MikroTik RouterOS V2.6

Overview

MikroTik RouterOS supports the following types of Ethernet Network Interface Cards: The complete list of supported Ethernet NICs can be found in the Device Driver Management Manual.

Contents of the Manual

The following topics are covered in this manual:

Ethernet Adapter Hardware and Software Installation

Software Packages

The drivers for Ethernet NICs are included in the 'system' package. No installation of other packages is needed.

Software License

The license for Ethernet NICs is included in the Basic License. No additional license is needed.

System Resource Usage

Before installing the Ethernet adapter, please check the availability of free IRQ's and I/O base addresses: 

[admin@MikroTik] > system resource irq print
Flags: U - unused
   IRQ OWNER
   1   yes  keyboard
   2   yes  APIC
 U 3   no
   4   yes  serial port
   5   yes  PCMCIA service
 U 6   no
 U 7   no
 U 8   no
 U 9   no
   10  yes  [e1000]
   11  yes  ether3
   12  yes  ether1
   13  yes  FPU
   14  yes  IDE 1
[admin@MikroTik] > system resource io print
 PORT-RANGE            OWNER
 20-3F                 APIC
 40-5F                 timer
 60-6F                 keyboard
 80-8F                 DMA
 A0-BF                 APIC
 C0-DF                 DMA
 F0-FF                 FPU
 1F0-1F7               IDE 1
 2F8-2FF               serial port
 3C0-3DF               VGA
 3F6-3F6               IDE 1
 3F8-3FF               serial port
 9400-94FF             ether1
 F000-F007             IDE 1
 F008-F00F             IDE 2
[admin@MikroTik] >

Loading the Driver

PCI, PCMCIA and CardBus adapters do not require a 'manual' driver loading, since they are recognized automatically by the system and the driver is loaded at the system startup.

ISA adapters require the driver to be loaded by issuing the following command: 

[admin@MikroTik] driver> add name=ne2k-isa io=0x300
[admin@MikroTik] driver> print
Flags: I - invalid, D - dynamic
  #   DRIVER                            IRQ IO         MEMORY     ISDN-PROTOCOL
  0 D RealTek RTL8129/8139
  1 D NationalSemiconductors 83820
  2 D Intel PRO 1000 Server Adaper
  3   ISA NE2000                            0x300
[admin@MikroTik] driver>

There can be several reasons for a failure to load the driver:

Note that for some ISA cards there is an utility that configures the resources used by the card. Some other cards might have jumpers that control the same thing. If another cards use the requested resource, try changing these settings.

For more information on installing PCMCIA cards, check Notes on PCMCIA Adapters first.

Ethernet Interface Configuration

If the driver has been loaded successfully (no error messages), then the Ethernet interface should appear under the interfaces list with the name etherX, where X is 1,2,... You can change the interface name to a more descriptive one using the set command. To enable the interface, use the enable command: 

[admin@MikroTik] > interface print
Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic, R - running
  #    NAME                 TYPE             MTU
  0 X  ether1               ether            1500
  1  R ether2               ether            1500
  2 X  ether3               ether            1500
[admin@MikroTik] > interface enable 0
[admin@MikroTik] > interface enable ether3
[admin@MikroTik] > interface print
Flags: X - disabled, D - dynamic, R - running
  #    NAME                 TYPE             MTU
  0    ether1               ether            1500
  1  R ether2               ether            1500
  2  R ether3               ether            1500
[admin@MikroTik] >

You can monitor the traffic passing through any interface using the /interface monitor command: 

[admin@MikroTik] interface> monitor-traffic ether6
    received-packets-per-second: 271
      received-bytes-per-second: 148.4kbps
        sent-packets-per-second: 600
          sent-bytes-per-second: 6.72Mbps

[admin@MikroTik] interface>

For some Ethernet NICs it is possible to blink the LEDs for 10s. Type /interface ethernet blink ether1 and watch the NICs to see the one which has blinking LED.

In /interface ethernet submenu it is possible to set ethernet interface-specific parameters: 

[admin@MikroTik] interface ethernet> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
  #    NAME                 MTU   MAC-ADDRESS       ARP
  0  R ether1               1500  00:50:08:00:00:F5 enabled

[admin@MikroTik] interface ethernet> print detail
Flags: X - disabled, R - running
  0  R name="ether1" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:50:08:00:00:F5 arp=enabled
       disable-running-check=yes

[admin@MikroTik] interface ethernet> set 0 ?
changes properties of one or several items.
                    arp  Address Resolution Protocol
  disable-running-check
               disabled
                    mtu  Maximum Trasfer Unit
                   name  New interface name
Parameter description:
name - interface name
arp - Address Resolution Protocol, one of the: mtu - Maximum Transmit Unit. Default value is 1500 bytes.
disable-running-check - for 'broken' ethernet cards it is good to disable running status checking (as default).

For some Ethernet NICs it is possible to monitor the Ethernet status: 

[admin@MikroTik] interface ethernet> monitor ether2
              status: link-ok
    auto-negotiation: done
                rate: 100Mbps
         full-duplex: yes

[admin@MikroTik] interface ethernet> monitor ether3
              status: no-link
    auto-negotiation: incomplete

[admin@MikroTik] interface ethernet> monitor ether1
              status: unknown

[admin@MikroTik] interface ethernet>

Please see the IP Address manual on how to add IP addresses to the interfaces.

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