Adding devices

Every feature works from this device list. This page covers getting devices into it, and keeping the combinations you will want again.

Import the WinBox address list#

If you already keep an address list in WinBox, importing it is the fastest route.

1. Choose Import WBX/CDB.
2. Pick your .wbx or .cdb file.
3. Decide whether the passwords stored in it should come across. This is a real choice — who else uses

this machine?

1. Decide what happens to entries already in the list: fill in only what is missing, or overwrite them.

Go and look#

Scan neighbors finds MikroTik devices sitting on the same network segment as you. At a site you have just walked into, this is the quickest way to fill the list.

Two things to know first:

• It only finds devices on the same network segment as your machine. Devices on the far side of a router

will not appear — that is a limit of this way of looking, not a fault.

• What you get back are addresses, not credentials. You still have to supply a username and password before a

device can actually run anything.

Type it in#

You can also enter an address directly. Over the connection WinBox uses (8291), that address may be a MAC address — which means you can reach a device with no usable IP yet. Two conditions apply:

• you are on the same network segment as the device, and
• the device allows that on the interface.

Over API, SSH and REST you always need an IP address or a host name.

Ticking a box is a deliberate act#

What is on the list and what you mean this time are different things. Tick only the devices you actually mean. The list header shows two numbers: how many are ticked, and how many of those can actually run.

Those two differ when a device is in the list but cannot run — most often because it has no credentials. And sorting or filtering the list never changes what you have already ticked.

Useful when the list is long:

• Search (Ctrl+F) filters by name, address or group.
• Check highlighted / Uncheck highlighted act only on the rows you have highlighted.
• Select all runnable ticks every device that can actually be reached.
• Clear all empties the selection without touching the list itself.

Saving the group you use often#

You can save a set of devices under a name that means something to you — "the branch ones", "the ones that failed last night", "check these before maintenance". It is still there after you close and reopen the application, so a group only has to be picked once.

1. Tick the devices you want to keep together.
2. Open Manage stashes and save them under a name.
3. Next time, bring the group back instead of picking them again.

After a run, Stash problem devices puts everything that had trouble into a saved group in one action. That is usually how the smaller second round gets assembled.

Usernames and passwords#

Credentials you save go into the Windows Credential Manager — the place the operating system already keeps your other passwords. While the application is running, a password you type stays in memory.

A few deliberate behaviours:

• A saved profile is not applied to newly added devices automatically. When to use it is your call.
• Password fields are always shown as a fixed number of dots, so someone glancing at your screen cannot even

tell how long the password is.

• Support will never ask you for a device password. See Support.

Next#

• Running commands — now that the list has devices in it.
• Health check — a read-only check of the devices you ticked.