// Topic
MikroTik, VPN, routing, DNS, BGP, connectivity, and access troubleshooting.
Typical tasks
// Materials on this topic
30 articles
2026-09-25
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) — an application-layer protocol by which a browser, mobile app, or script requests a resource from a server and receives a response. A resource can be an HTML page, an image, JSON from …
2026-09-22
RouterOS 7.22 was released on March 9, 2026. The main changes: Apps on top of containers, a built-in reverse proxy, notable BGP improvements and RA guard protection in the bridge. Below is a breakdown according to the …
2026-09-22
pfSense — a firewall and router on FreeBSD, one of the oldest open projects in this area. It is developed by Netgate, and today it exists in two editions: the open pfSense CE (Community Edition) and the commercial …
2026-09-22
OPNsense — an open-source firewall and router. It is installed on a dedicated PC, mini-PC, or virtual machine and becomes the gateway between the office network and the Internet: it filters traffic, assigns addresses, …
2026-09-22
OpenWrt is a free Linux-based firmware for routers and other network devices. It replaces the factory firmware and turns a router into a full system with a package manager: you can run a VPN, split the network into …
2026-09-22
Pi-hole is a DNS server with filtering that blocks ads and trackers for all devices on the network at once: computers, phones, TVs, and smart devices where you can’t install a browser extension. Pi-hole is …
2026-09-22
BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) — a standard that allows a mail service to show a company’s logo next to its messages. The logo is tied to the domain via a DNS record, and the right to it is …
2026-09-22
Certificates protect the tunnel well, but are a poor tool for managing human access. When there are dozens of employees, certificates have to be issued and revoked manually, and a dismissed person can continue to connect …
2026-09-22
This section explains what an OpenVPN Community installation consists of and how to assemble a minimal working configuration: a certificate authority, server and client certificates, a tls-crypt key, and the server.conf …
2026-09-22
OpenVPN is a VPN protocol and at the same time an open-source program that implements it. The project has existed since 2001 and runs on almost any system: Linux, Windows, macOS, BSD, Android, iOS, as well as on …
2026-09-22
Tailscale, cloud NetBird and ZeroTier are convenient, but network control in them remains with a third-party company: it verifies users, issues keys and access rules. If that is unacceptable — for security requirements, …
2026-09-22
ZeroTier and NetBird are services for creating a private network between your devices over the Internet, main alternatives to Tailscale. All three solve the same problem: computers, servers and phones see each other by …
2026-09-22
What is Tailscale Tailscale is a service that unites your computers, servers and phones into a single private network over the Internet. Devices get stable internal addresses and connect to each other directly using the …
2026-09-22
Mesh VPN — is a private network in which devices connect to each other directly rather than through a single central server. A laptop, a home server, an office computer and a phone see each other by internal addresses …
2026-09-22
When static routing is not enough In most home and small office networks routes are simple: all traffic goes to a single provider, and rare exceptions are set with static routes. But when there are several routers, …
2026-09-22
Why a VPN client on the router Configuring a VPN on each device is inconvenient, and TVs, game consoles and smart home devices often don’t support it at all. If the router becomes the VPN client, the tunnel can be …
2026-09-22
Why a VPN server on the router When you need to reach a NAS, cameras, a work computer via RDP, or smart home devices from home or while traveling, opening their ports to the Internet is dangerous. It’s safer to run …
2026-09-22
What is Keenetic Keenetic is a line of routers, access points and Wi-Fi extenders with its own operating system, KeeneticOS. The main thing about these devices is not the hardware specifications, but the system: it is …
2026-09-22
Firewall — the first thing you set up on a new server, even before Fail2ban, CrowdSec, and auditing. Its job is simple: allow only the traffic needed by running services and drop everything else. The fewer open ports, …
2026-09-22
For a website, online store or API the main risk is loss of Internet connectivity: customers stop seeing the service. For an office this is a halt in working with cloud services. Redundancy for Internet egress is built …
2026-09-22
When a company has multiple offices, warehouses or stores, they need connectivity between them: a shared accounting system, a file server, telephony, video surveillance. If a branch loses connection with the central …
2026-09-22
When the office loses internet or the switch in the server room fails, everything that depends on the network stops: mail, CRM, cloud accounting, IP telephony, order processing on the website. Redundancy of communication …
2026-09-22
UniFi — a line of networking equipment from the American company Ubiquiti: gateways, switches, Wi-Fi access points, surveillance cameras, telephony and access control. The main difference between UniFi and MikroTik is …
2026-09-22
For a small office people usually buy a consumer router from TP-Link, ASUS, or Keenetic. While there are five people and one Internet link, that’s enough. When a second provider appears, remote employees, guest Wi-Fi, IP …
2026-09-21
3proxy — a free open-source proxy server that combines HTTP proxy, SOCKS proxy, mail and FTP proxies, port forwarding and a caching DNS in a single small program. The author is Vladimir Dubrovin, known by the nickname …
2026-09-21
A proxy server is a program that accepts network requests from a client and forwards them to the target server. The response also passes through the proxy. As a result, the client and server do not connect directly, and …
2026-09-21
Cloud 1C relieves you of server maintenance, but not of choosing a provider or of responsibility for access to your data. In this part — how cloud services differ, how much they cost, how to retrieve your data, and how …
2026-09-21
Where to configure DNS records DNS records are edited in the control panel of the service that manages the domain’s DNS. Most often this is the registrar where the domain is registered, but DNS can also be …
2026-09-21
In addition to A and MX records for mail, three other records are important: SPF, DKIM and DMARC. They confirm that messages are actually sent on behalf of your domain, protect against sender address spoofing, and help …
2026-09-21
The website, email, and other services on a domain are connected by DNS (Domain Name System) — the system of domain names. When a visitor types example.ru into a browser, DNS servers tell the browser the IP address of …