hEX S 2025 (E60iUGS)

The hEX S (2025), product code E60iUGS, is the hEX for lines faster than a gigabit. The box has stayed small, but the first port does 2.5 Gbit and there is a 10 Gbit SFP+ cage on it. It suits a fibre line above a gigabit, a home office with a fast NAS, or a small router hanging off a switch at 10 Gbit.

Our catalogue marks this model as not verified. That means we have not checked this device's interface names ourselves. The configurator therefore shows a note above the screen saying the port layout is unverified, and writes a line to the same effect at the top of the script. Before pasting, check what the ports are called on your unit with /interface print.

The ports

• ether1: 2.5 Gbit. This is the default WAN port and the reason to pick this model.
• ether2 through ether4: three gigabit ports for the LAN.
• ether5: gigabit, with PoE-out. The only powering port on this model.
• sfp-sfpplus1: a 10 Gbit SFP+ cage, for fibre or a DAC cable to a switch.

That split decides how you use it. The fast traffic belongs on ether1 and the SFP+ cage; the four gigabit ports are for ordinary desks. Put a NAS on a gigabit port and that port is the limit, not the router.

Because ether5 has PoE-out, the PoE-out per port field appears in Bridge and ports with that single port in it, offering auto-on, forced-on and off. See PoE-out.

The SFP+ cage counts as an ordinary wired port: in the bridge, as a trunk, or as a second WAN. See Bridge and ports and Multiple WAN connections. If you want jumbo frames towards a NAS, read MTU first.

No Wi-Fi

There are no radios in this device. The Wi-Fi step does not appear, and Access point, CAP, Wi-Fi repeater and Wireless CPE are greyed out with the message that there is no Wi-Fi radio. LTE / 5G router is greyed out because there is no modem. Wi-Fi here comes from separate access points; see Multiple devices and CAPsMAN.

What is inside

The catalogue records the ARM 32bit architecture, 512 MB of memory, the EN7523 switch chip and RouterOS licence level 4. At 512 MB the small-board note never appears here; the configurator only gives that at 64 MB and below.

For VLANs, this model carries no hw_vlan: switch-menu. So you do not get the note that bridge VLAN filtering turns hardware offload off: bridge VLAN filtering is the ordinary route here. See VLANs.

What the catalogue does not say, we do not say either: our data holds nothing about throughput with NAT, encryption speed, or how much of that 2.5 Gbit actually gets through on this model. Measure it on your own device before you promise anyone a 2.5 Gbit line.

Which roles fit

• Home router: the usual choice on a fast fibre line when the Wi-Fi does not have to come from the same box.
• Office router with VLANs: six wired ports, one of them 10 Gbit as a trunk to a switch.
• VPN gateway: usable, but remember that tunnel traffic always goes through the CPU and therefore does not scale with the port speed. See WireGuard.
• Router + CAPsMAN: routing and managing the Wi-Fi of access points.
• Hotspot and Harden only (baseline): both available.

The quickest route to a working configuration

1. Pick One device and search for E60iUGS. "hEX S" also turns up the older model, which has different ports.
2. Act on the unverified-ports note: run /interface print on the device and compare the names.
3. Pick Home router or Office router with VLANs.
4. Fill in your internet connection on ether1, optionally through a provider preset.
5. Set an admin password, reset the device and paste the script. See Using the script.

What trips people up

• Grabbing the old hEX S. The hEX S and this E60iUGS share a name and have different ports and speeds.
• Taking the port names on trust. This model is not verified on our side. Check them on the device before you paste.
• 2.5 Gbit over a gigabit cable. An old cable, or a gigabit switch in between, turns the fast WAN port back into a gigabit port.
• An empty SFP+ cage. Without a matching module or DAC, sfp-sfpplus1 does not come up. Check with /interface ethernet print.
• QoS on a fast line. A queue tree turns FastTrack off and puts everything on the CPU. Above a gigabit that is asking for trouble. See Bandwidth (QoS).