Connect to client Wi-Fi network
This page will explain how to connect your OpenWrt device to another Wi-Fi network by using its own radio. Due to technical limitations, your OpenWrt device will create its own subnet (in the example below it’s 192.168.2.x while the Wi-Fi router’s subnet is 192.168.1.x ) just as it would when connected to a modem, your OpenWrt device and devices connected to it will be able to reach the Internet, but won’t see devices connected to the other Wi-Fi/router).
If you want to actually set up a Wi-Fi repeater or keep devices connected to this device in the same subnet as the devices connected to the other router, you will need to follow this tutorial instead.
Web interface instructions
Refreshed with 21.02 LuCI images.
As said above, the LAN interface must be set in a different subnet than the Wi-Fi network you are connecting to. In our example the Wi-Fi network we are connecting to is using 192.168.1.x addresses, so we will need to change the IP address of the LAN interface first to 192.168.2.1
The LAN interface must be set in a different subnet than the Wi-Fi network you are connecting to.
We will now set up the client Wi-Fi network, the configuration needed to connect to another Wi-Fi network.
Once you are logged into the router,
Recommend to tick the ‘Replace wireless configuration’ to delete the wireless access point (Master) for the chosen radio.
If there is no *wan* firewall zone you need to create it, don’t save the Wi-Fi configuration. Go to bottom of this section describing how to create *wan* firewall zone.
Enter the Wi-Fi password, leave the “name of new network” as “wwan” and select wan firewall zone.
You will land in the client Wi-Fi settings page. Edit as required.
The most important settings are on the Operating Frequency line.
Set the Mode to Legacy if you are connecting to a Wi-Fi g network, or N if you are connecting to a Wi-Fi n (and so on).
Set the Width to the same value that you set on the Wi-Fi you are connecting to (to avoid bottlenecking the connection for no reason).
Press Save
Press Save & Apply.
Configuration is now complete.
This is the final result. Note how the client network has a ? instead of a IP address.
The wwan IP address is only visible in the Network Interfaces page.
This step should not be necessary if you had reset the router to OpenWrt defaults. If you have no “wan” firewall zone you must create it.
Click on Network and then on Firewall, then click on the Add button, and set up the new zone as you see in the following screenshot (which is a default wan firewall interface),
After you have done this, go back and repeat the other steps to add and save the Wi-Fi connection.
Command-line instructions
Before doing any actual configuration, the Wi-Fi interface must be enabled in order to be able to scan for networks in the vicinity:
uci set wireless.@wifi-device[0].disabled="0" uci commit wireless wifi
if you have more than one Wi-Fi radio in your device, then you can use the others in this tutorial instead by substituting their number. For example to enable the second Wi-Fi radio (usually a 5Ghz radio) you would need to uci set wireless.@wifi-device[1].disabled=0 and then use wlan1 instead of wlan0 in the command below.
Now we can list networks in range substituting your actual wireless interface for wlan0 :
# iw dev wlan0 scan BSS c8:d5:fe:c8:61:b0(on wlan0) -- associated TSF: 24324848870 usec (0d, 06:45:24) freq: 2412 beacon interval: 100 TUs capability: ESS (0x0411) signal: -72.00 dBm last seen: 140 ms ago Information elements from Probe Response frame: SSID: Violetta RSN: * Version: 1 * Group cipher: CCMP * Pairwise ciphers: CCMP * Authentication suites: PSK * Capabilities: 1-PTKSA-RC 1-GTKSA-RC (0x0000) BSS f8:35:dd:eb:20:f8(on wlan0) TSF: 24225790925 usec (0d, 06:43:45) freq: 2457 beacon interval: 100 TUs capability: ESS (0x0431) signal: -90.00 dBm last seen: 1450 ms ago Information elements from Probe Response frame: SSID: GOinternet_EB20FB HT capabilities: Capabilities: 0x11ee HT20/HT40 SM Power Save disabled RX HT20 SGI RX HT40 SGI TX STBC RX STBC 1-stream Max AMSDU length: 3839 bytes DSSS/CCK HT40 Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003) Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: 4 usec (0x05) HT RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-15, 32 HT TX MCS rate indexes are undefined HT operation: * primary channel: 10 * secondary channel offset: below * STA channel width: any RSN: * Version: 1 * Group cipher: TKIP * Pairwise ciphers: TKIP CCMP * Authentication suites: PSK * Capabilities: 1-PTKSA-RC 1-GTKSA-RC (0x0000)
In the example, there are two networks, a Wi-Fi g one called Violetta and a Wi-Fi n one called GOinternet_EB20FB. The device was configured to connect to the one called Violetta.
These are the uci values that were added or changed by the configuration procedure.
For SSID, BSSID, and encryption you must use the info you got from the Wi-Fi scan above.
For an explanation of why these values were changed, please read the luci tutorial above.
network.lan.ipaddr='192.168.2.1' network.wwan=interface network.wwan.proto='dhcp' firewall.@zone[1]=zone firewall.@zone[1].name='wwan' firewall.@zone[1].input='REJECT' firewall.@zone[1].output='ACCEPT' firewall.@zone[1].forward='REJECT' firewall.@zone[1].masq='1' firewall.@zone[1].mtu_fix='1' firewall.@zone[1].network='wwan' wireless.@wifi-iface[1]=wifi-iface wireless.@wifi-iface[1].network='wwan' wireless.@wifi-iface[1].ssid='Violetta' wireless.@wifi-iface[1].encryption='psk2' wireless.@wifi-iface[1].device='radio0' wireless.@wifi-iface[1].mode='sta' wireless.@wifi-iface[1].bssid='C8:D5:FE:C8:61:B0' wireless.@wifi-iface[1].key='myWifiPasswordHere'
Known Issues
This website uses cookies. By using the website, you agree with storing cookies on your computer. Also you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree leave the website. OK More information about cookies
Self-registration in the wiki has been disabled.
If you want to contribute to the OpenWrt wiki, please post HERE in the forum or ask on IRC for access.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license:
CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
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.
This website uses cookies. By using the website, you agree with storing cookies on your computer. Also you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree leave the website. OK More information about cookies
Self-registration in the wiki has been disabled.
If you want to contribute to the OpenWrt wiki, please post HERE in the forum or ask on IRC for access.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this wiki is licensed under the following license:
CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International