I converted my LinkSys WRT54GS v3.0 system from its original software to OpenWRT 19.07.0; setup the WiFi, and have confirmed that I can connect to it from computers and tablets. I cannot get it to connect directly to the internet. When I try connecting to one of the four ports on the Alcatel-Lucent I-240G-B unit provided by my ISP it does not achieve a WAN connection. If I connect it (by cable) to the ActionTec R1000H WiFi router provided by my ISP the WAN connection works fine. There is no advantage to me to run a WiFi network inside a WiFi network, I would really like to figure out how to get this router to work while connected to the Alcatel-Lucent box.
I confirmed that I do not have an address range issue; the ActionTec router is using 192.168.2.1. Just to be sure I changed the address range on the WRT54gs to be 192.168.3.1. It still will not connect to the Alcatel-Lucent box.
Here is the WAN Configuration screen from the ActionTec WiFi router provided by my ISP:
Also, configuring the IGMP Proxy is disabled and the Adjust MTU Settings is set to 1500.
Any assistance that you can provide that would help me get the WAN working on this Linksys WRT54gs v3.0 when connected to the Alcatel-Lucent box from my ISP would be greatly appreciated.
I'm not sure I understand your goal here -- are you trying to replace the ISP router with the WRT54GS v3? If so, why? The ISP router (R1000H) is a gigabit router with 802.11n -- not the latest technology, buy much faster than your WRT54GS v3 which is 100Mbps (on a good day) with 802.11g wifi.
Anyway, if you can draw a diagram of what you are trying to achieve, that would be helpful.
It's possible that your ONT (Alcatel ethernet to fiber box) requires the router to apply / remove VLAN tags on the WAN cable.
This can be configured in OpenWrt... but realize the WRT54GS has a 160 MHz single core CPU which is only going to handle about 25 Mb WAN speed. which is way too slow for fiber service. Also its memory is very limited.
Part of what I am trying to do is to learn how to use OpenWRT and since I had a Linksys WRT54GS sitting in my drawer I decided to work with it. The other thing I was trying to do was to setup a second network directly from the Alcatel box (ONT?) so that when a large number of us in the house are doing things on the network at the same time we would not be limited by the ActionTec box. I was planning on having everyone connect their phones and tablets to the WRT54GS box as they do not require much bandwidth and leave all the computers using the ActionTec unit.
If I can figure out how to get this working I would likely consider upgrading the WRT54GS box to a better unit.
Is your Alcatel box an ONT (optical network interface)? Or a router?
Chances are you only get one public Ip from your isp, so you won’t be able to do what you have in the diagram.
Learning openwrt is great, but I think you will find that the Wrt54gs is far more limited than the other router. So much so that even if you could do what you want, you’d be worse off.
You can learn on that box, but you could also buy a better device up to modern standards for $30-$50 us.
