AP+STA : not working, need help

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

hello people,

i'm using openwrt to use the router as an hotspot client + AP.
the idea is to provide a link between two networks, by a client device who resend itself the wifi.

i followed this one :
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/ap_sta#step_3revert_to_ap_only_mode_on_boot_when_hotspot_is_not_available

and it's not working.

then i would like to know the requirements to enable ap+sta, means on a tplink or my X1000 linksys.

here is my iwinfo :

 root@linksysX1000:~# iw phy
Wiphy phy0
        max # scan SSIDs: 4
        max scan IEs length: 2285 bytes
        Retry short limit: 7
        Retry long limit: 4
        Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
        Available Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
        Configured Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
        Supported interface modes:
                 * IBSS
                 * managed
                 * AP
                 * AP/VLAN
                 * WDS
                 * monitor
                 * mesh point
        Band 1:
                Frequencies:
                        * 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
        interface combinations are not supported
        HT Capability overrides:
                 * MCS: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
                 * maximum A-MSDU length
                 * supported channel width
                 * short GI for 40 MHz
                 * max A-MPDU length exponent
                 * min MPDU start spacing

is it possible to have an idea about using that device as a client for the hotspot wifi, plus as an AP for two laptops?

(i just add that it's on a closed network, not linked to the internet)
thank you vm

2

Can you provide the links to the device pages?

I'm having difficulty looking up the 2 devices you noted.

Usually, only devices with Atheros Wifi chips are capable of STA+AP.

3

According to iw phy, your device does not support AP+client mode wifi at the same time. A device supporting it would report something like the following instead.

valid interface combinations:
  * #{ managed } <= 2048, #{ AP, mesh point } <= 8, #{ P2P-client, P2P-GO } <= 1, #{ IBSS } <= 1,
    total <= 2048, #channels <= 1, STA/AP BI must match, radar detect widths: { 20 MHz (no HT), 20 MHz, 40 MHz }

Support depends on wifi hardware/firmware and driver. For some devices, it may be possible to add the desired function by replacing driver or firmware, when such alternatives exist.

1 Like
4

hi,

thank you for your quick replies
a) there is no indication about what i did with the iw command in the how to, means i'm surprised if nobody else failed doing this howto without asking here
b) there is no indication on the howto related to any wifi brand or manufacturer
c) my two devices are linksys x1000 and wr841n

d) means i'm a bit bad about how to success in this type of infrastructure...
i already created a such design as AP+sta but with separated devices so one wifi card for each network. As the idea here was to use one wifi card for two wifi networks, such as sta+ap features of owrt.

thank you for your help :slight_smile:

5

Did you also check the allowed interface combinations with iw phy on the wr841n?

I found these device pages:

  • Linksys x1000 - apparently there is no page on the OpenWrt wiki
  • wr841n - Which hardware revision do you have?
6

I agree with you that many of the "how to" pages assume that your device has sufficient resources and functionality to accomplish the task. https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/432_warning and the limitations of Broadcom wireless chips are, unfortunately, not discussed on every page.

I don't see an "X1000" in the Table of Hardware, the closest is the https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/e1000 which is a 4/32 device (and should have the https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/432_warning, but doesn't right now).

Depending on the version of the WR841 you have, https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr841nd suggests that you will also run into problems there with low flash and RAM.

What you are trying to do is supported on many devices.

It may be a challenge on 2.4 GHz only as any kind of single-channel 802.11 repeater immediately reduces the throughput by 1/2 (the data packet, then the repeated packet). At least on 5 GHz, most people are able to start out with higher bandwidth than on 2.4 GHz, so the end result is still enough bandwidth to be useful.