How To Block Neighbor Discovery On MikroTik (Complete Guide)

So, you’re poking around Winbox and suddenly notice something called Neighbor Discovery. Looks harmless, right? It’s just helping your MikroTik spot other devices on the network. Cool.

But here’s the weird part: if your MikroTik is connected to the internet and MNDP is still running you might be exposing way more than you think. Your MAC address, system identity… even your device visibility can leak out to anyone scanning.

Yeah. Not ideal.

In this quick guide, I’ll show you how to block that both through Winbox and the terminal. Doesn’t take more than a minute, but it can save you a lot of headaches later.

Oh, and by the way if you’re doing this on a VPS (which is smart), make sure it’s one you trust. Here’s a solid Mikrotik VPS if you need one. Also, if you’re hungry for more MikroTik tips, our tutorials page is packed with them.

2 Easy Ways to Turn Off Neighbor Discovery on MikroTik Router

There are two ways to block Neighbor Discovery on your Mikrotik.

1) Block Neighbor Discovery via WinBox

2) Blocking Neighbor Discovery via Mikrotik Terminal

Let’s see how you should use these solutions and how do they function.

Step 1: Disable Neighbor Discovery Using Winbox

Let’s kick things off with the easiest method doing it right through Winbox. Follow these quick steps to turn off MNDP on your MikroTik router.

1) First, connect to your MikroTik router using Winbox.

2) Click on Neighbors from the IP menu.

3) Now, go to the Discovery Interfaces tab.

4) In the latest step, you are ready to choose any one of the interfaces you prefer to disable the MNDP protocols on them by clicking on the disable icon as shown below.

Note: In case you want to disable the MNDP protocol forever, you should disable all available interfaces.

Step 2: Disable Neighbor Discovery Using the Terminal

Prefer using the terminal? No problem. Here’s how you can turn off MNDP with just a couple of simple commands.

Step 1: Open your Mikrotik Terminal and type the following command:

ip neighbor discovery set ether1 discover=no

Note: Replace your interface name with ether1

Step 2: To check the status of your interface discovery, type:

ip neighbor discovery print

That’s that! Neighbor Discovery is now blocked!

Conclusion

That’s it you’ve just blocked Neighbor Discovery on your MikroTik device. Whether you used Winbox or the terminal, the result is the same: your router is no longer visible to others on the network.

It might seem like a tiny change but if your MikroTik is reachable from the internet, this step could save you from a serious security headache. Just keep in mind: once MNDP is disabled, you won’t be able to discover other MikroTik devices either so be sure it’s what you want.

If you’re running MikroTik on a VPS or remote setup, this change can seriously improve your network privacy. For more tips like this, don’t forget to check out our full collection of MikroTik tutorials.