Possible to download a copy of the User manual wiki?

Talk about Documentation
1

Hi:

I'm not nearly as technical as many of you here, but I do know some networking basics. I'll be doing some configuring of a couple of routers where there is no Internet access. I'd also like to have a local copy of the User Guide for speed and convenience. Is the wiki available to download, and if so, is it considered acceptable to download a copy of it with a web crawler or simlar? I don't want to offend, but I could really use an offline copy.

Thanks

2

This question has been asked several times: there is no offline manual. You must download all the docs you might need before.

That should not need many pages to download. Browse the forum in case any of the devices has some tweaks to be known. Also download any tool to recover the devices, and the original vendor firmwares.

3

Thanks, but it's a bit more complicated than that. I don't understand a fair amount of the concepts and terminology. I'm used to FreshTomato, but there's different terminology used here. And again, I will be in areas where I will be offline for a while.
Will it cause problems if I were to run a Web crawler program on the site?

4

OpenWrt's default configuration is setup as a basic router that serves the needs of most users, with the possible exception of two things:

  • The wan is setup as a DHCP client -- you need to change this if your connection requires PPPoE or Static IP.
  • Wifi is disabled by default -- you need to connect by ethernet first. You only need to set your country code, SSID name, encryption type, and passphrase (and then enable wireless).

Aside from that, you should be back online fairly quickly if your configuration is relatively basic, and then you can make adjustments from there if you have a more complex plan for your network.

That said, if you have special requirements, you can describe them to us and we can help you get used to the terminology that OpenWrt uses for the various technologies and methods.

A single crawler request... probably not an issue. But you'll end up with a fairly large archive of the pages -- much larger than is necessary for most users.

5

Well, so much for trying to download the site. Most pages got an nginx errro: 429 (Too Many Requests). Can I adjust settings in the web crawler to delay each download a certain period of time to prevent this or does the website just not tolerate crawlers?

Is there another way to get around this? I promise you I'll only need to download once (every few years).

And thanks for being so willing to help out. I appreciate it greatly.

6

I have no idea... I'm not sure how the main site is configured.

I trust you... I just don't know the technical constraints or workarounds.

Yes....

And from there, we can also advise about what pages you may want to grab and/or what operations are easy/safe to perform on a 'production' device vs which ones may be more complex and cause you problems.

Another thing to remember -- you can make backups of known-good configurations. If you soft-brick your device, it's easy enough to use failsafe mode so either fix the problem or to reset to defaults (and from there, you can restore your backup). This means downtime should be minimal even if you mess up.

7

I'm not that worried about bricking this device, as I got it for under 20 dollars. This won't be my main router for a while, as I'm used to using FreshTomato.

I think it will take me quite a while to learn how to use OpenWRT.

Who could I ask about the web crawler issue?

8

In that case, you should be online without interruption most of the time. So you’ll have access to the online wiki.

9

Unfortunately, that won't be the case.

10

Why not?

And can you tell us what you plan to do on your router that is sufficiently complex as to have you concerned that you'll be offline and unable to figure out the proper way to configure your device?

11

Maybe just take my word for it? Let's just call it how I want to learn, and not just about setting up the gear, and leave it at that.

12

Sure. What I'm trying to do is understand your goals so we can help you most effectively. If you really want to just sit and read wiki articles that you scrape from the site, go for it. But keep in mind that the wiki is very very non-linear... it's not like sitting down with a networking text book. Meanwhile, you have a lot of OpenWrt experts who can help jumpstart the process here on the forum.

Sorry if I've hit a nerve here. It's rather unusual for someone to join the forum and then not accept personalized help when it is offered by the forum volunteers. I'll stop asking, but just so you know -- we can help you with the networking concepts (broadly), the terminology and nuances of those concepts within OpenWrt, and the details of configuring OpenWrt if you simply share with us what you are trying to learn and/or achieve; or at the very least, we can point you to the wiki pages that are relevant, rather than you spending the time and effort to pull the entire corpus. But it seems that you don't want to discuss any of this, so I'll just leave it alone.

13

Thanks. I appreciate that. It's nothing personal, of course. But my learning style is a bit weird to say the least, due to a health condition.

I'll be back on the forums soon enough to ask for advice, and appreciate that you and others are so willing to help.

14

Surely someone must know how I can download a copy of the wiki without encountering the Too Many Requests error?

15

Honestly, I'm not so sure. While your request isn't the first of its kind, it is a pretty uncommon one. And it certainly hasn't been one of pressing need for most of the previous requests (especially if they have some alternate on-line ability like a phone or if they know that they need a few targeted wiki articles -- make a pdf and you're good to read offline), so there haven't been any 'solutions' described on these forums, to my knowledge.