If your goal is to secure access to your Mikrotik router, your first task is not to set usernames and passwords or access control lists; your first task is to change the services port numbers on your Mikrotik router! Changing the services ports on your Mikrotik router provides an extra layer of security to your devices by ensuring that all login attempts without the port number are dropped before even getting to your router; guarding against brute force/DOS attacks and saving your device the processor power required to perform important tasks.
Changing service port numbers on a MikroTik router can be done through the Terminal or Winbox interface. In this post, which I have chronicled in a video on my YouTube Channel, you will see how it is done via the Winbox application.
Changing your Mikrotik IP services port Numbers
Using Winbox, click on IP, Services and double-click on any service of your choice to change the port number to any number within the allowed range, provided that no other service on your network is running on that port number. For example, you can change the Winbox default port number from 8291 to 7012 by double-clicking on the Winbox service in IP>Services, and simply typing in the new port number. After that, open a new Winbox session and type in the IP address of your Mikrotik device followed by a colon (:) and the new port number to access the device (e.g. 192.168.106.132:7012).
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Please watch my video below for a step-by-step guide on how to secure your Mikrotik router by change the IP services port number.
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