BGP on MikroTik with LABS - From Entry to Intermediate level

Demonstrate BGP neighborship between MikroTik routers, including manual neighbor configuration, exchange of routes, and advertising networks, with beginner labs and simple two-router setup.

Configure external BGP neighborship between two MikroTik routers, form peers, and advertise connected networks across autonomous systems, using lab-based hands-on steps.

Configure eBGP authentication using a tcp md5 key on both routers, ensuring identical keys to establish a secure neighbor relationship and verify session states.

Learn to configure eBGP multihop on MikroTik routers to form neighbors across non-directly connected ASes by increasing TTL and using static routes or an interior gateway protocol as the path.

Master eBGP multihop on MikroTik by configuring neighbor relationships across two links, enabling multihop, load balancing, and using update-source from a lookback bridge to form stable eBGP sessions.

Configure internal BGP in an ISP-style three-AS topology, advertise the 1.0.1.0/24 network, and establish IBGP over loopback with an IGP to ensure reachability and proper neighbor sessions.

Configure iBGP between routers using a lookback interface, establish neighbors, and verify BGP reachability; troubleshoot next-hop issues by advertising networks or enabling next-hop-self for full connectivity.

Configure iBGP across all routers in the transit autonomous system, use loopback interfaces with update source, advertise the networks, and verify reachability via ping.

Demonstrate iBGP split horizon inside an autonomous system, showing how prefixes fail to propagate without a full mesh, and discuss how route reflectors prevent loops in BGP networks.

Explore BGP messages and neighborship states in MikroTik labs, including idle, active, and established states, and how open and update messages drive neighbor formation with Wireshark demonstrations.

Explore the four BGP messages: open, update, keepalive, and notification, through a MikroTik lab, demonstrating session establishment, network advertisement, prefix withdrawal, and error handling.

Examine how MikroTik BGP sessions transition from idle through connect, active, open sent, open confirm to established, detailing neighbor sessions, three way handshakes, keep alive messages, and update messages.

Learn how BGP route selection and attributes determine the path to a destination, comparing IGP metrics like hops and bandwidth, and why BGP sometimes favors routes with more hops.

Explore MikroTik BGP route path selection and attributes, including weight and local preference, and understand how autonomous system path decisions influence traffic while respecting neighbor autonomy.

Explore configuring the BGP weight attribute on MikroTik in a lab with multiple autonomous systems, using bridges and neighbor relationships to steer traffic toward preferred paths.

Learn how to use the BGP local preference attribute in MikroTik labs to influence routing decisions, contrasting it with weight. Configure IBGP across lookback interfaces with update-source, advertise networks, and raise local preference values (default 100) to 200 on specific routers.

This lab shows configuring the BGP local preference attribute on MikroTik to influence path selection within an AS, advertising a network via router three, and verifying reachability with pings.

Explore how BGP AS path prepending on MikroTik controls traffic by lengthening the AS path to steer routes, with lab 11 demonstrations of advertising networks and comparing path selection.

Learn how BGP origin code attributes affect route selection by advertising networks with the network command versus redistribution, showing IGP vs incomplete and the deprecated egypti.

Explore the BGP MED attribute, also called multi exit discriminator, and learn how it advertises routes to enter the AS and how lower MED values influence path selection.