So I have a Pi-400 set up as a bridged LAN WAP and plugged in to one of the LAN ports in my home fiber router.
To access and admin on the fiber router I access 192.168.254.254.
The IP pool for that router is 192.168.254.100 - 192.168.254.200
I have allocated a static IP address of 192.168.254.2/24 to the Pi-400.
The gateway is 192.168.254.254. I have turned DHCP off and I have set up 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for my DNS.
With my PC's wired connection set to 192.168.254.3 and connected to the Pi-400 via and Ethernet cable I can ping it and administer it via LUCI at 192.168.254.2 as expected. Mask is 255.255.255.0 so same subnet.
If I plug the Pi-400 in to the back of the fiber router I can no longer ping it or admin it at 192.168.254.3 unless I connect to the WIFI of the bridged LAN on the Pi-400.
I would have thought I would be able to both ping and administer it from my home PC with a Wireless IP address of 192.168.254.200 to the Pi-400 at 192.168.254.2.
If you have a true bridged AP config, you should be able to reach the device anytime your computer is connected to the same subnet.
What is the purpose of the pi400 on your network?
And let’s see the config:
Please connect to your OpenWrt device using ssh and copy the output of the following commands and post it here using the "Preformatted text </> " button (red circle; this works best in the 'Markdown' composer view in the blue oval):
Remember to redact passwords, VPN keys, MAC addresses and any public IP addresses you may have:
You would think with my PC being on 192.168.254.200 (Modem/Router WIFI) and my RPi-400 being on 192.168.254.2 (static IP Modem/Router LAN port via Ethernet same subnet) I would be able to access it, this is not the case. I checked the Subnet Mask (255.255.255.0) it cannot be pinged. If I get on to the WIFI that the RPi-400 exposes though I can ping it. I suspect there is something going on that is isolating the LAN ports of my fiber modem/router from the WIFI.
The fiber modem/router is unaware that there is a wifi AP on the Pi. From the perspective of the router, the Pi is just another (ethernet) device on the network, and even the wifi device appear as ethernet from the router's view point (that's how they're ultimately connected to the router).
It is certainly possible (although very unusual) that there is some port isolation on the router's ports, but that would be consistent across any two (or more) ethernet devices directly connected to the ports on the router. That is to say, if you replace the Pi with another ethernet device, try connecting form your PC to that other ethernet device -- if it doesn't connect, the issue is something with your router's configuration, not OpenWrt.
Looking at your OpenWrt config, though, there is literally zero distinction between the wifi and ethernet connectivity in terms of connecting to the Pi itself. That is because both ethernet and wifi are connected to the same network interface (lan) via the bridge (br-lan). In the case of a bridge, it is the equivalent of an unmanaged switch except handled in software.
Meanwhile, it would be great if you could answer this question:
In my opinion (and i’m not the only one who thinks so) is a RaspberryPi the least useful device for a router or even an bridged AP. The wi-fi is mediocre (to express it politely).
But a RPi 400 with its keyboard deems me an unnecessary risk. Just add a screen, and everybody could hack into your network.
If you don’t have any better use for your RPi, sell it and buy some recent used plastic router to use them as an AP.
The purpose of the RPi-400 is a guest access point but I eventually wish to run opennds on it.
I have a laptop plugged into one of the LAN ports on my Modem/Router with an Ethernet Cable. I have internet access on that laptop which has a static ip address of 192.168.254.2
I have another PC on the WIFI who's address is 192.168.254.200. This is the output
youngie@youngie-OptiPlex-7050:~$ ping 192.168.254.2
PING 192.168.254.2 (192.168.254.2) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.254.200 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
Maybe the problem is in your fiber modem/router has it reserved the 192.168.254.2 address already for something else?
Or does you RPi need an IP address within the pool (which is unusual but software of ISP routers is usually crap)
This clearly suggests that the problem is not with OpenWrt, but with your upstream device.
However... building on what others have said, the Pi400 (and for that matter, all Raspberry Pi devices) makes a terrible choice for use as an AP. Even a 10 year old cheap "plastic" all-in-one wifi router will outperform the Pi's on-board wifi in essentially every way. The Pi's contain a very low end wifi chipset and antenna that is extremely limited in range, bandwidth, and multi-client connectivity. It also only supports single-band operation (i.e. 2.4G XOR 5G) and cannot support multiple SSIDs (if you wanted to have a guest or iot network, for example). Don't expect that to improve significantly with USB-wifi dongles -- those also don't typically perform well, and you may run into other issues. On top of that, using a Pi400 specifically is just a bit of a strange form factor.
You will be much better served by getting a "plastic" AiO wifi router (that has OpenWrt support) with a built in switch. Then you can connect your upstream via one port and all of your other lan devices (ethernet + wifi) to your OpenWrt AiO device -- this will simultaneously fix your connectivity issue (you won't be dealing with the port isolation that seems to be happening on your fiber modem/router) and you'll get better overall wifi performance.
That said, as stated above, this is not an OpenWrt related problem, so I would suggest that this thread can be resolved while you look into the reason for the port isolation on the upstream device and/or acquire equipment that is better suited to the job.
If your problem is solved, please consider marking this topic as [Solved]. See How to mark a topic as [Solved] for a short how-to.
Thanks!
SOLVED. This is came down to a GLOBE FIBER modem issue. The HG6245D has highly strangled firmware (RP2786) not letting you do an awful lot. There is a setting called "Port Isolation" or "AP Isolation" which isn't accessible to mere mortals
You cannot access devices connected via Ethernet to the LAN ports if you are on the WIFI even though they are in the same address space. I will be getting rid of this POS.
