Welcome to MikroTik dual WAN failover setup tutorial.

This tutorial is for advanced failover setup when your ISP’s backend router is in maintenance mode.

Generally, MikroTik has integrated failover method by default, when you have 2 WAN gateway as well as two ISPs. The first gateway distance is 1 and second gateway distance is 2, so, when first gateway’s fiber optic cable cut, the second gateway is automatically in place to give redundant Internet.

But I’m bringing here an advance scenario.

Although, your fiber/cable connection is up, your gateway reachable from your MikroTik to your ISP’s router, but you can not get Internet because your ISP’s backend router is in maintenance.

In this scenario, your MikroTik’s integrated default failover method does not work. Because MikroTik can see that the gateway is reachable, so MikroTik will not be switched to secondary gateway. And your Internet is down !

So, how to setup redundancy in the above scenario ? Please follow the guide below to setup advance failover method that will work for the above scenario.

It is better to have static IP addresses from your ISPs, not PPPoE authentication.
Public IP (real IP) is not necessary, you can get “class B” private IP (free) from your ISP to setup your Internet connection.

I’m creating this guide with the following IP addresses as an  example. Please replace these with your IP addresses given by your ISPs.

WAN 1 (ISP 1):

IP address: 172.16.1.36
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 172.16.1.1

WAN 2 (ISP 2):

IP address: 172.16.2.47
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 172.16.2.1