A Fritz!Box is a phone exchange, a modem, a router and a Wi-Fi access point in one box. A MikroTik is only the last two of those, and better at them. So the move stands or falls on one question: what else was that box doing for you?
What comes back directly
- Guest network
- A single switch on the Fritz!Box, an extra SSID on its own VLAN on a MikroTik. In the tool: pick the role Office router with VLANs, or switch the VLANs block on under One device, add a VLAN for guests with Isolated on, and attach your second SSID to that VLAN. See Example: guest network.
- Port forwards (Portfreigaben)
- One to one the Port forwards list in the Firewall section: protocol, external port, internal address, internal port. No separate filter rule is needed; the generated firewall lets forwarded connections through and drops the rest. See Port forwarding.
- Fixed addresses per device
- Those are static leases in the LAN section: MAC, address and a name. Note them down before you switch, they are in the Fritz!Box under the home network overview.
- MyFRITZ (dynamic DNS)
- The equivalent is IP Cloud DDNS under Management access: the router reports its public address to MikroTik and you get a name under
sn.mynetname.net. Useful for a VPN without a fixed IP. It is DDNS, not a portal: there is no app that shows you your files. - VPN to home
- Recent Fritz!Box models do WireGuard, and so does the MikroTik. In the tool WireGuard is in the VPN section, with ready-made client configurations. See WireGuard and Recipe: VPN to home.
- Wi-Fi across several points (mesh)
- The Fritz!Box does that with repeaters. On MikroTik you place access points that get their Wi-Fi from CAPsMAN, with the same SSID and 802.11r. That is better when cabled and different when not. See CAPsMAN.
What has no equivalent
- DECT. The base station for your cordless handsets is inside the Fritz!Box. A MikroTik has no DECT and will not get it. If you want to keep your Fritz!Fon handsets, the Fritz!Box stays.
- The built-in modem. A 7xxx model has a DSL modem, a 6xxx a cable modem. MikroTik routers have neither. So you need a modem in bridge, an ONT, or you let the Fritz!Box remain the modem.
- Telephony. The SIP accounts, the answering machine, the phone book and the call rules live in the Fritz!Box. Most providers will not hand you those credentials.
- MyFRITZ as a service, the FRITZ!App, FRITZ!NAS and the USB disk it shares. A MikroTik can share files over SMB (a toggle in Services and tools), but not as a service with an app around it.
- Parental controls with profiles and time windows. On RouterOS you build something comparable with address lists and firewall rules, but it is handwork and it is not a web portal.
What to do about the telephony
There are three workable routes, in order of how much work they are.
- Keep the Fritz!Box as a phone box. Put it in IP client mode behind the MikroTik, with its own DHCP off and its Wi-Fi off. It then only does telephony and DECT. Give it a fixed address through a static lease so you can find it again.
- Put the Fritz!Box in bridge as a modem and give up the telephony. Only sensible if you no longer use the landline.
- Run VoIP yourself with a SIP provider and a separate ATA or SIP handset. Put voice on a VLAN of its own. See Recipe: VoIP.
If you take route 1 and leave the Fritz!Box routing, expect double NAT: port forwards and VPN will not work. For a handset that only makes outgoing calls that is fine, for the rest it is not.
There is no import for Fritz!Box settings
The configurator only reads a RouterOS /export. A Fritz!Box backup (the .export file) is encrypted and tied to that device; the tool cannot open it and that is not going to change. So you rebuild your configuration from what you wrote down.
What to note down first
- The list of network devices and their fixed addresses, from the home network page.
- The port forwards, from the sharing page.
- The Wi-Fi names and passwords, for the normal and the guest network.
- Your LAN range, usually
192.168.178.0/24. Keep it and nothing in the house notices the switch. - How the internet arrives: PPPoE with a username and password, or DHCP, and whether a VLAN comes with it.
After that it is an ordinary first configuration. See Example: replacing the ISP router and Replacing your ISP router, where the switchover itself is set out step by step.