Help to solve copy of old router failure

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I have a TL-WR1043ND router that connects as in Client Mode to subscription wifi hotspots, it has been working for ages but performance is a bit dire so I bought a later model.

I am using 2.4Ghz Radio to connect to the hotspot and delivers the Internet via WWAN on the old router, there is nothing on the WAN connection.

I connect via Ethernet a second router which is an AC router, also running OpenWrt and it provides the Wifi.

I also have other wired connections to the TL-WR1043ND, note there is no RelayD software in use, it just works. I did have a Wifi network configured on the old router but disabled it to avoid conflict and improve performance.

So I got the replacement router (Archer c7), there are a few differences, for example it has two radios, but nothing that I thought would be an issue.

I have copied every aspect of the configuration from the old to the new, but the new will not give me a connection to the login page of the Subscription Hotspot where I get Internet access.

I have put a copy of the status screen of the NEW router below, I also copied the interfaces of both old and new.

Can anyone see any glaring errors or shed some light on why the C7 may not be working?

2

hot did you copy it ?
manually, or by using configuration backup & restore ?

3

This is a standard routed client use case so I would suggest starting from scratch with a default configuration on the C7. Relayd is never used when you are connecting to a third-party network only for Internet access.

If you're never going to have a wired WAN, use the existing wan as the wan interface, then the firewall is already set up.

  • Remove the Ethernet interface from the wan physical settings. The 'bridge' box must not be checked.
  • Do not use the join network button. Go to wifi config and configure a wifi client on wan. Set ESSID and encryption to match the hotspot. BSSID should be left blank unless you want to force connection to a particular hotspot in the network. Enable the radio.

Since it appears there is not an IP address overlap (the WAN issues IP's outside 192.168.1.0/24) it should work. If the hotspot authenticates you by MAC address you will need to either re-authenticate the new MAC or clone the MAC of the old router.

1 Like
4

.... or wait for the DHCP lease to time out, if you did a quick rip and replace.

5

Manually, setting by setting

6

I started again twice, even beginning to take screen shots of all the different screens to lay them out in one view.

I never say never, are you saying that there is no firewall for WWAN in default config?

I have to lock the BSSID otherwise I can't stop it connecting to a poor performing hotspot.

Out of interest, is the reason for not Joining Network from a Scan to stop it going to WWAN or is there another concern?

On a Laptop or Iphone connecting to Google or using an App it a working router makes a login page come up. It does not mind what the client device is.

I can see from the 100.x.x.x subnet that the connection to the server is made, just getting it to AC wifi or to Lan switch seems to be the issue.

When I start over with reset to factory on new router I did notice one difference on firewall, although it is on WAN so probably not relevant

https://i.imgur.com/mGpSsMo.png

7

That is the new default setting, and it is OK to leave it at "reject". The "forward" default for a zone controls forwarding between two networks in the same zone. Since you only have one network in the wan zone, it is moot. Forwarding between lan and wan (different zones) is set up elsewhere.

The "join network" button creates a new wwan network and places it in the wan zone. Which isn't a big deal but it is unnecessary compared to just changing the wan network's physical device from wired to wifi.

Again if you start from a default configuration and only change the wan's physical device from wired (the default eth0.2) to wifi, it should work. Using any device with a web browser on the lan side should bounce to the ISP's login page, which will log in the router's MAC, and then every device connected to lan will have access to the Internet.

Later you can reconfigure the switch to make the now unused blue "WAN" port to be LAN. This is not necessary at first.

8

I will start over but going back to the first image, if you connect to hotspot with 2.4Ghz radio and connect phone etc to 5Ghz, will connections to 5Ghz wifi require any configuration to be able to access the Internet that the 2.4Ghz has connected to.

Also if the 100.x.x.x/16 subnet is what the 2.4Ghz delivers (see Network section at top of first image) how does that get mapped to the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet in OpenWrt? Note the 100.x.x.x/16 address usually changes every 2 to 4 hours when a new login is forced.