EA6350v3 Failing to operate as an AP

Good Evening,

I've got a simple (I think) mistake that I'm making setting up a Linksys EA6350v3 to operate as an AP. I have a DHCP server upstream of this device. I have this device working as an AP but I'm having problems seeing though it. There is wireless and ethernet working to get internet access, but I can't access any of my other devices upstream of this router. Any ideas what I might have missed? I'm happy to upload a configuration.

EA6350 v3 with OpenWrt works fine as a dumb AP (But you will find stock linksys firmware in 'bridge' mode is faster).

Ensure the IP address of the EA6350 does not conflict with any other device. Disable the DHCP server on the LuCI -> Network -> Interfaces -> LAN -? DHCP server tab. otherwise you may find you can't access internet. Finally, make sure ethernet cable from your main router goes into one of the four vacant LAN sockets.

See the wiki for detailed LuCI steps
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/dumbap

wan and wan6 interfaces can be deleted if you wish.

fyi, using iperf3, EA6350 v3 gigabit LAN to 802.11ac wireless laptop can max out at around 420 Mbps in multithreaded test. With OpenWrt 19.07, it maxes out at around 360 Mbps downloading, and 300 Mbps uploading.

Post your /etc/config/network file if you still have problems and tell us IP address of your main router.

I’ll give it a shot and get back to you.

Out of curiosity, 1. Why is the router not capable of max WiFi speeds acting as a dumb AP? 2. Why is the Linksys software so much faster? 3. I need to go check...isn’t there a button to click to enable the WAN port as another on the switch, or is establishing that software bridge just going to slow me down that much more? (I guess now thinking about it, it probably would.....)

I guess one other question while I’m on it-
Can this router act as a “Dumb AP” as described above AND host Samba or miniDLNA server? It seems to now, but I haven’t gone through to delete the interfaces yet.....

Maximum data transfer speeds using wifi with OpenWrt is often lower when compared using original OEM firmware for any number of reasons particular with lower end routers. The open source wifi drivers may not be as good. No support for hardware acceleration. Someone far more knowledgeable may be able to provide a better answer.

I discovered compatibility issues with two of my wifi devices (802.11g internet radio and win10 laptop with intel 6300 802.11n wifi card), which eventually forced me to abandon OpenWrt and return to Linksys firmware for dumb AP operation. This is in addition to known hostapd 2.9 bug afflicting 19.07.0 stable.

Official OpenWrt for EA6350v3 does not properly support VLANs. NoTengoBattery custom built image fixes the VLAN problem, and it perhaps 'may' be possible to convert the unused WAN port to become a 5th LAN port through switch configuration in LuCI.

I don't use Samba or DLNA with OpenWrt. I think NoTengoBattery's custom build has both functions included.

fwiw, I've taken delivery of a cheap Asus RT-AC57u V1 with USB2 port. In dumb AP mode, Asus FW supports samba and Media Server (DLNA?) unlike original linksys firmware for EA6350v3 where you probably discovered these features are disabled !

I’d like to confidently say that @NoTengoBattery and I are good friends. He’s a heck of a guy and hopefully on the upswing now!

Yes, his builds do a nice job with VLAN and he does incorporate the features you mention and a number of others in his builds. I’m actually running a build that he designed for me and it’s wonderful....This router is running a build of his as well but I’ve screwed up the config and it was annoying me trying to figure out what I had done. Applying your config tomorrow!

I know that an interface to create a software switch can be created between the WAN and the LAN ports but it slows down the whole switch due to required processing power. I was not aware the WiFi took a hit as a dumb AP....that I find very interesting. I would understand it was a repeater and didn’t have the LAN cable but being that it gets everything from the LAN, I’d think it’s speed shouldn’t be touched....unless the router just doesn’t hit the speeds they advertise.

If you are using my build, you need to disable odhcpd manually on the /etc/config/dhcp because it doesn't use DNSMASQ and LuCI does not provide an option to disable odhcpd.

If that doesn't work, try disabling the boot script for odhcpd. All because DNSMASQ is buggy (it randomly spawns threads that hand forever filling the device's RAM).

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I am using your build. I’ll give it a try in the mañana!

I think you can 'disable' odhcpd using
LuCI -> System -> Startup -> odhcpd click Disable and Stop buttons.

I’ll take a look but using @NoTengoBattery’s build, I’ll probably have to SSH into it....

@bill888 is right, @sassriverrat. You can disable it in the Startup page from LuCI. Please be careful and do not disable anything else. I hope some day DNSMASQ developers can listen to my bug reports, till then, it's an annoying side effect.

So out of curiosity, because the EA6350v3 isn't going to hit the 1gb/s speeds that are being fed to it (yes my ISP is giving me 1gb/s speeds :slight_smile:), if I were to bridge the WAN and 4LAN ports on the AP, would I expect to see a performance/speed hit?

Thank ya gentlemen! I disabled DNSMASQ and left my setup as it was and it still wasn't working....I was about to follow as Bill said to double check mine and realized I needed to move the incoming LAN line over to the switch side....working like a champ right now.