When you configure a hotspot in MikroTik, the masquerading (also known as NAT or Network Address Translation) option within the hotspot configuration may be redundant if you already have a NAT rule configured on the WAN interface.

This NAT rule on the WAN interface is responsible for masking your internal network's private IP addresses to a public IP address for Internet access, which is a common requirement in many network setups.

If this is the case, that is, if you already have masking configured on the WAN interface, then specific masking within the hotspot configuration is not necessary.

Indeed, maintaining both rules may be redundant and could complicate troubleshooting or network administration without providing additional benefits. Configuring NAT on the WAN interface should be sufficient to allow hotspot users to access the Internet.

To remove the redundant NAT (masking) rule from the hotspot, you can follow these steps in Winbox or via the MikroTik RouterOS command line:

1. Winbox: go to IP > Firewall and select the tab NAT. Find the rule that has been created specifically for the hotspot (usually it can be identified by the comment or the output interface), select it, and click the delete button.
2. Command line: You can list all NAT rules with the command /ip firewall nat print to identify the rule associated with the hotspot. Then use the command /ip firewall nat remove numbers=XWhere X is the number of the rule you want to delete.

It is important to ensure that the NAT rule on the WAN interface is configured correctly to handle Internet traffic from hotspot users.

Additionally, it is always advisable to make a backup of the current configuration before making significant changes, so that you can restore the system in case something does not work as expected after the adjustments.