Wireless Access Point (aka «Dumb» Access Point)
Summary: This document describes how to create and add a wireless access point ( AP ), sometimes called a “dumb AP ”, to an existing network with a single main router. The term dumb is used since the router provides no routing, DHCP or DNS services.
In truth though, a Wireless AP is anything but dumb, it just does not provide IP routing services.
One of the most common reasons for creating a Wireless Access Point is to add additional wireless coverage to an existing network, maybe on a different floor or to cover some other wireless dead spot. Adding a wireless AP will do exactly that.
The end result of following the instructions below will be a bridged LAN with no internal subnets. Devices connected to either router will “see” each other, and will be connected to the Internet through the main router. This setup is sufficient for small office or home networks but for larger networks a more sophisticated approach is often used.
TL;DR Here are the important configurations for a Wireless AP router:
The wireless AP is connected LAN -to- LAN to the main router by some means eg an ethernet cable, an 802.11s mesh, etc..
The wireless AP bridges its SSID wireless interface onto its LAN bridge interface. Wireless traffic on the wireless AP goes to its bridge LAN interface, and then to the main router.
The wireless AP bridge LAN can have a static or DHCP address on the same subnet as the main router’s bridge LAN interface, depending upon the detail of the configuration.
The wireless AP ‘s gateway ip address is set to the address of the main router, either in the configuration or by DHCP .
This article may contain network configuration that is version dependent post 2021-06
while legacy ifname syntax may work on 21.02 or recent master it is recommended that you migrate to device usage
More Information
External Videos for Reference
Several external videos are available on the topic which may be useful. These provide some background and context, but bare in mind they may have become somewhat outdated and generally do not take into account anything other than an ethernet backhaul.
Using OpenWRT v21 with DSA example:
Two-part older videos which are considerably outdated but give some background information:
WiFi roaming is much improved in more up to date mobile devices, so configuring Fast Roaming, aka 802.11r, may not be required. This video can be very misleading as 802.11r has nothing whatsoever to do with mesh networking. Nevertheless it may provide some background information:
Configuration via LuCI, the OpenWrt Web Interface
These instructions were up to date as of October 15, 2021, and refer to the interface found in OpenWrt version 21.02.0. The interface of v21 differs in some significant ways from earlier version of OpenWrt which we try to account for. but no guarantees.
This setup requires two routers, a computer with an Ethernet port, and an Ethernet cable. We refer to the routers as the main router and the wireless AP and we assume default settings on both. The main router should already be properly configured and connected to the Internet.
Disconnect the wireless AP from your network. Use an Ethernet cable to connect your computer to one of the LAN ports (not the Internet/ WAN port) of the wireless AP .
From a browser on your computer, navigate to the LuCI interface by going to http://192.168.1.1. Login. Change the admin password if necessary.
Go to Network → Interfaces and click on the Edit button of the LAN interface. Ensure you are on the General Settings tab.
It is best to configure the wireless AP to use DHCP to obtain an address from the main router, but here we will configure a static ip address. Give the wireless AP an IP address “next to” your main router. By default, the main router will have an address of 192.168.1.1, so use something like 192.168.1.2. (The address should be on the same subnet as your main router but out of the DHCP range used when assigning addresses to connected devices. By default, that means the wireless AP router IP should be between 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.100.) If you’re adding multiple wireless AP routers, you could use 192.168.1.3, 192.168.1.4, etc. for additional routers.
Save and apply the new IP address, then navigate back to that address (say, http://192.168.1.2). Make sure your browser uses the new IP address you assigned in the previous step. Why? Because in the next step, the gateway needs to be changed to point to the main router, and LuCI will not allow you to change the gateway to 192.168.1.1 while the wireless AP router is using that IP address. So back to Network → Interfaces, Edit the LAN interface, General Settings tab.
Change the IPv4 gateway to point to your main router, 192.168.1.1 by default. This sets the wireless AP router to use the main router for Internet access.
Use the main router for DNS . Same page but the Advanced Settings tab. Enter the IP of your main router in the Use custom DNS servers field and click +.
Use the main router for DHCP (and disable DHCP for the Wireless AP ). Same page again, now the DHCP Server tab. Should be at the General Setup sub-tab. (In version 18.06 and earlier of LuCI, no tabs: just scroll down.) Ensure the Ignore interface checkbox is checked.
Disable IPv6 DHCP . Same page, DHCP Server tab again, but click on the IPv6 Settings sub-tab. Set the RA-Service, DHCPv6-Service, and NDP-Proxy dropdowns to disabled.
In versions of OpenWrt older than 21.02.0: Under “Physical Settings” tab, ensure “Bridge interfaces” is ticked, and ensure BOTH of your interfaces (eth0, wlan0) are selected, in order to allow traffic between wireless and wired connections.
To save resources on the wireless AP router, disable some now unneeded services. Navigate to System → Startup. Disable the services labeled firewall, dnsmasq and odhcpd. (Perhaps ironically, click Enable to toggle.) Note even though these services are now disabled, after you flash a new image to the device they will be re-enabled. For a more permanent fix see Disable Daemons Persistently.
Optionally, remove or disable the WAN and WAN6 interfaces. On the Network → Interfaces page, Edit the WAN and WAN6 interfaces to uncheck the Bring up on boot checkbox. Or just delete the interfaces.
Note that by default OpenWrt does not enable wireless access. So, from a default installation, at the very least you will need to review the wireless SSIDs, enable wireless security, and then enable the wireless networks from the Network → Wireless page.
Use an Ethernet cable to connect one of the LAN ports on your main router to one of the LAN ports (not the WAN /Internet port) of the wireless AP router.
You may need to reboot or power cycle either or both routers, the device connecting your main router to the Internet, and potentially any connected devices. In many cases this will not be necessary.
Configuration via OpenWrt command line tools
The changes below assume an OpenWrt default configuration, the relevant files are:
Enabling a Wi-Fi access point on OpenWrt
Devices that have Ethernet ports have Wi-Fi turned off by default. This is a basic description of how to enable a Wi-Fi network and most importantly, how to properly configure your country code such that your Wi-Fi network complies with the legal regulations of your country.
Using the web admin GUI
Go to Network → Wireless. This page lists a separate Wi-Fi configuration section for each of your physical radios, (many devices you may have, will have one radio for 2.4 GHz and a second one for 5 GHz ).
On the first Wi-Fi network that you configure, go to the Device Configuration and open the tab Advanced Settings: in the Country Code field, select the correct county code, where your OpenWrt device is installed. This is important to ensure your OpenWrt device meets the legal regulations in your country. (all other configured radios will use the same device settings)
In the tab Wireless Security, select an Encryption method (e.g. “WPA2-PSK”, recommended for home/small office networks)
In the tab Wireless Security, enter a Key , a secret phrase which clients must use to connect to your Wi-Fi network. NB: With WPA2-PSK, the Key must be at least eight (8) characters.
If needed, configure further settings according to your needs. Other default settings ordinarily correct for general usage.
If you have configured 5GHz Wi-Fi and have just enabled it, but the 5 GHz Wi-Fi does not seem to start up, consider the following: If your device supports Wi-Fi channels > 100, your OpenWrt device first must scan for weather radar on these channels, before you can actually use such channels for Wi-Fi. This may take 1-10 minutes onetime after first reboot depending on your Wi-Fi situation and depending on the number of device-supported channels > 100. You may also experience 1 minute delay on each automatic channel change, as the same scan delay is required for regulation compliance.
Network / Wireless / Edit / Interface Configuration / General Setup / Network should be left to the “lan” default or to another interface where there is an active DHCP server, DO NOT select “wan” or “wan6” as that’s the upstream interface for Internet connection only
Using the SSH command line
This is not a complete howto on how to create a fine tuned Wi-Fi network on the command line.
It just shows you the important steps to initially set the basics for properly enabling the Wi-Fi on the command line, to meet the legal regulations of your country:
Execute uci show wireless to see all the wireless configurations and how many Wi-Fi chips (called “radio” in the config) there are on the device. Identify the radio number (0, 1, 2, etc) that are you aiming to. E.g., radio0 , radio1 , radio2 , radioX .
Find out your country in a list of ISO/IEC 3166 alpha2 country codes. There is a list in the Wikipedia article about ISO 3166-1 alpha-2.
Execute uci set wireless.radioN.country=’XX’ to set the country code XX for each (N = 0, 1, 2) radio devices your router may have.
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