MikroTik Netwatch – Smarter Dual WAN Failover (Full Setup)
Check-gateway can lie to you — it only pings the box right next to you, not the actual internet.
Here's how to fix that with Netwatch on MikroTik (RouterOS v7): real detection, your own scripts,
and faster failover. Exact commands below.
This is the direct upgrade to my Dual WAN Failover video: same two routes, same setup — I just swap
the detection for Netwatch, pin each probe to the correct WAN line (the part everyone gets wrong),
and prove it catches an outage check-gateway completely misses.
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 The blind spot in check-gateway
00:21 The plan
00:42 Pin the probe to the right WAN
01:16 Create the Netwatch entry
01:59 Verify — kill the real internet, watch it catch it
🛠️ All commands
Pin each probe to the right WAN
/ip/route add dst-address=1.1.1.1/32 gateway=100.1.1.1 comment="Pin WAN1 monitor"
/ip/route add dst-address=8.8.8.8/32 gateway=200.2.2.1 comment="Pin WAN2 monitor"
The Netwatch entry
/tool/netwatch add host=1.1.1.1 interval=2s timeout=1s comment="Primary internet check" \
up-script=":log info \"WAN1 internet OK\"; /ip route enable [find comment=\"MAIN GATEWAY\"]" \
down-script=":log info \"WAN1 internet DOWN\"; /ip route disable [find comment=\"MAIN GATEWAY\"]"
Verify — block only the Netwatch target, then restore
/ip/firewall/filter add chain=output protocol=icmp dst-address=1.1.1.1 action=drop
/ip/firewall/filter disable [find dst-address=1.1.1.1]
#mikrotik #netwatch #failover #dualwan #routeros