Hi all, here's what I am trying to do. First off, I have a Linksys R7800 running the latest OpenWRT (22.03.3). Next, I am using the R7800 for wifi as WAN and have another linksys router connected to the LAN port for the house network. Everything works just fine. BUT... i am trying to improve the speed. I'm only getting about 6Mb/s down atm. I hooked up a 2.4/5Ghz panel 13db antenna to port 3 and am now getting in the mid-70s for dbm in the 2.4 Ghz range and mid-hi -80s for 5Ghz. What I'm thinking i can do is to have 2 different clients (one on each radio) from the R7800 to attach to the AP and the bond the interfaces together. Both the 2.4 and 5GHz I am connecting the R7800 to have the same SSID and IP subnet. Not sure if its possible in OpenWRT to get this, but it seems plausible. Am I off my rocker? Or can I accomplish this?
pretty sure it'd create a loop, killing your LAN.
Hi Xtreem, welcome to OpenWrt!
I'm trying to understand your topology:
A B
eth --------- eth --------- 2.4g radio /\/\/\/>>>
<-wan-- | R7800 | <--lan / wan--> | R7800 | to devices
--------- --------- 5g radio /\/\/\/>>>
Is this correct? You have two R7800s. One, call it router A, is connected to your house WAN over ethernet. The other, let's call it router B, is connected to A's lan port over ethernet. You are using B for the house wi-fi. The problem you are trying to solve, then, is low speeds in end device connections to B?
Its actually the reverse... Wifi as WAN
A B
eth --------- eth --------- 2.4g radio /\/\/\/>>>
<-lan-- | R7800 | <--wan / lan--> | R7800 | to AP (WAN/INTERNET)
Home --------- --------- 5g radio /\/\/\/>>>
Router A is the house router running my house LAN & Wifi with my own /24. Router A's WAN is hooked to router B's LAN. I have a small /29 subnet in there. Then router B is a wifi client to the AP that provides the internet and gets its WAN IP from that AP. (But the WAN IP is just another 192.168.x.x).
Ok, that makes much more sense as to why you want the bonded connection.
You will need the luci-proto-bonding package. I've never done link aggregation on WiFi before. Only on LAN, so I'm hoping some else with more experience can chime in here. Every time I activate the bonded adapter, both wifi radios go into an endless loop of re-authenticating, first one then the other.
Have you considered using high gain directional antennae instead of a 13db omni antenna? You can double the gain by going the directional route
Its a 15dbi panel directional. I'm 250-300yds from the AP I need to connect to. Yeah, a yagi or a parabolic may help, but they start getting a little more expensive and don't easily cover both wifi frequencies.
Hey, can you actually go into a bit of detail on how you did Link Aggregation on LAN? I'm trying to do so myself, and having a hard time with it.
I've made a post dedicated to it, but if you could help with how you've done it that be great!
I have tried this with mesh 802.11s and it didn't work. Setting VLANs with unique MACs was my stumbling block (it might be possible now with DSA but I don't know). Setting STP didn't fix it. The SOC is not designed to do this from what I have seen. It might be possible though but I haven't seen any solutions.
In the meantime I would suggest:
- getting the client and AP routers at least 6-8ft off the ground with a clear LOS
- sticking with 2.4Ghz due to the better RSSI
- setting the transmission distance optimization option under wireless settings on the AP. (not sure if you can for client)
- setting the 2.4Ghz radio to legacy mode (although this could be slow 54Mbps link = ~20Mbps throughput? Better than 6Mbps though.
Other workarounds:
Get a wireless bridge (point to point pair) $65USD widely available online. That will give you a much better connection (300Mbps) and they can cover miles of distance.