{"slug": "routeros", "name": "RouterOS", "category": "networking", "category_name": "Networking and VPN", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.144, "rising": -0.65, "first": "2026-07-06", "latest": "2026-07-20", "why": "found Mikrotik and RouterOS. Used RouterOS at home since", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "found Mikrotik and RouterOS. Used RouterOS at home since", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["RouterOS"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 782922112, "item_id": 48932632, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932632", "by": "adamcharnock", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been a long-time fan of Mikrotik", "excerpt": "I've been a long-time fan of Mikrotik. I even ran an ISP on it a fair while ago. I have a couple of archived GitHub projects if they are useful to anyone: - Router OS Diff - Can diff two configs and give you the commands needed to bring the existing config up to date with the desired config. It's certainly not perfect, but a starting point of anyone needs something like this. [1] - Netbox Routeros \u2013 A netbox plugin f", "context": "ran an ISP on it", "use_case": "routing, ISP and datacenter", "switched_from": "", "story": "LLM Networking with MikroTik"}, {"id": 780973313, "item_id": 48810832, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48810832", "by": "philamonster", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "found Mikrotik and RouterOS. Used RouterOS at home since", "excerpt": "I used OPNSense briefly when I got 1gig synchronous fiber ~2015 at home on an old i5 desktop, which I think was shortly after the pfSense fork, and then found Mikrotik and RouterOS. Used RouterOS at home since and have been replacing aged out Cisco switches in the datacenter (100gig) and closets (20-40gig) cheaply. I'm looking to dump a handful of ASA's for OPNSense and the messing around I've done so far has been po", "context": "manages datacenter and home networks", "use_case": "home router", "switched_from": "OPNsense", "story": "OpenWrt One \u2013 Open Hardware Router"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "adamcharnock", "context": "ran an ISP on it", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932632", "date": "2026-07-16"}, {"by": "philamonster", "context": "manages datacenter and home networks", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48810832", "date": "2026-07-06"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["switch configuration", "routing, isp and datacenter", "home router"], "compared": [{"slug": "opnsense", "name": "OPNsense", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48970772", "title": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48927915", "title": "LLM Networking with MikroTik", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48808482", "title": "OpenWrt One \u2013 Open Hardware Router", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 783666737, "item_id": 48979171, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48979171", "by": "mindslight", "date": "2026-07-20", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use both SwOS and ROS, but moving towards ROS for dot1x", "excerpt": "Bingo. I use Mikrotik for my switches. They were the first I found that had 10Gb uplinks, inexpensively and with low power usage. L2 configuration is janky (like every other switch) but workable. I use both SwOS and ROS, but moving towards ROS for dot1x (unfortunately inescapable to have that functionality on the switch). But the actual router? That lives on NixOS in a virtual machine on a generic amd64 machine that ", "context": "", "use_case": "switch configuration", "switched_from": "SwOS", "story": "HomeLab #1: MikroTik as a Home Router"}, {"id": 782922112, "item_id": 48932632, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48932632", "by": "adamcharnock", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've been a long-time fan of Mikrotik", "excerpt": "I've been a long-time fan of Mikrotik. I even ran an ISP on it a fair while ago. I have a couple of archived GitHub projects if they are useful to anyone: - Router OS Diff - Can diff two configs and give you the commands needed to bring the existing config up to date with the desired config. It's certainly not perfect, but a starting point of anyone needs something like this. [1] - Netbox Routeros \u2013 A netbox plugin f", "context": "ran an ISP on it", "use_case": "routing, ISP and datacenter", "switched_from": "", "story": "LLM Networking with MikroTik"}, {"id": 780973313, "item_id": 48810832, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48810832", "by": "philamonster", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "found Mikrotik and RouterOS. Used RouterOS at home since", "excerpt": "I used OPNSense briefly when I got 1gig synchronous fiber ~2015 at home on an old i5 desktop, which I think was shortly after the pfSense fork, and then found Mikrotik and RouterOS. Used RouterOS at home since and have been replacing aged out Cisco switches in the datacenter (100gig) and closets (20-40gig) cheaply. I'm looking to dump a handful of ASA's for OPNSense and the messing around I've done so far has been po", "context": "manages datacenter and home networks", "use_case": "home router", "switched_from": "OPNsense", "story": "OpenWrt One \u2013 Open Hardware Router"}]}