Managing the Mikrotik CRS304-4XG-IN

Date: 2026-01-31

Tags: Networking

My Mikrotik CRS304-4XG-IN is an affordable, fanless, 4-port 10G network switch. To make such an affordable switch Mikrotik cut corners in its documentation.

Getting straight to the point, these are the items I wish the documentation contained:

  • The switch is configured with a static IP of 192.168.88.1, and does not have DHCPv4 enabled out-of-the-box.

  • The switch serves only http, not https out-of-the-box.

  • The password isn’t blank, it’s laser engraved on the bottom of the unit.

  • The management port is configured as a switch port out-of-the-box.

Setup procedure

  1. Remove all cables from the switch including power and Ethernet.

  2. Plug an Ethernet cable directly from a Linux computer into the management port.

  3. Connect the Mikrotik CRS304-4XG-IN to a power source.

  4. Setup your Ethernet adapter for a static IP of 192.168.88.2, find your adapter name with ip a, and replace enp0s13f0u4 in the below example with your adapter name.

sudo ip addr flush dev enp0s13f0u4
sudo ip addr add 192.168.88.2/24 dev enp0s13f0u4
sudo ip link set dev enp0s13f0u4 up
sudo ip route add default via 192.168.88.1 dev enp0s13f0u4

  1. Open http://192.168.88.1 in a web browser.

  2. Login with the username admin and the password laser engraved on the bottom of the unit.

What you do after you’ve logged into the management interface is up to you. I changed the default password, enabled DHCP, reconnected the switch to my LAN, and updated the software.