Ring Doorbell connection issues over OpenWrt

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

I am using a Model

Linksys Viper (E4200v2 / EA4500)

OpenWrt 18.06.1 r7258-5eb055306f / LuCI openwrt-18.06 branch (git-18.228.31946-f64b152)

Having heck of time getting ring door bell to communicate.

I look through the syslogs and I can see the WiFi authentication and the DHCP address obatained but then everything stops after that. I have captured using TCDUMP and no evidence of anything failing

Any help is appreciated

V

2

Hi vmermut.
Can you explain better what you are doing.
What doorbell hardware are you using? How it communicates with OpenWRT?
B/R

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3

Please explain how you know the device isn't "communicating" then?

4

The doorbell uses the openwrt linksys hardware router to communicate with the outside world the internet.

I go through the setup procedure to register the ring doorbell and the last step is to select the WiFi APN name I created. At this point I am tailing the syslogs on openwrt router and running tcpdump as well to see what’s transpiring.

I see isn’t syslogs is the wireless authentication and handshake which looks all normal, then I see the DHCP obtain the IP address.

At this point I would think the doorbell should be working but the doorbell complains ( LED blinking lights) about not being able to communicate to Internet. The last message I see in pcap is the arp request to gateway. Unfortunately the Ring Doorbell folks are Useless in providing me any method of diagnostics as they don’t provide any device level diagnostics outside a couple of LEDs.

Secondly if I take the same Ring Doorbell and co figure it through another WiFi router not using the openwrt software it seems to work just fine. I am not able to capture sysylogs or tcpdump to capture any traffic in this standard router as the manufacturer does not allow this.

I was trying to see if anyone had experienced anything similar here.

5

Your statement was difficult to understand; due to use of non standard terms when describing key points.

  • Have you verified that the OpenWrt AP is working by using another wireless device to test?
  • Have you installed packages or altered the default OpenWrt router configs?
  • Can your wired clients get Internet?
  • By any chance, are you plugging the OpenWrt into another upstream router on-premises?
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6

It’s quite simple and I am using very standard terms as I have some network engineering background.

I have installed the version describe with minimal changes ( I added tcodump for diagnostics and capturing)

Simple configuration with internet connection on one side and wireless client on the other side. There are NO CONNECTIVITY ISSUES with all other wireless clients.

I am simply asking for the experts here who are familiar with openwrt debugging further then current syslogs or further debugging or have experienced similar issues?

7

OK, since you don't wish to actually troubleshoot or answer all my questions - due to your network engineering background...

  • I can suggest increasing the logging level of the various packages involved
  • Someone had an issue with a similar device, but I believe their root cause was insufficient WAN bandwidth - you'll have to search the forums

Sounds like it's time to get a refund on the Ring, then.

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8

Your device uses the same mwlwifi drivers as some WRT routers from Linksys (https://openwrt.org/docs/techref/driver.wlan/mwlwifi), known to show similar symptoms: ESP8266 devices (used in may small IoT devices) are unable to connect: https://github.com/kaloz/mwlwifi/issues/278. As far as I know, there is no known solution.

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9

I have a WRT3200ACM with mwlwifi driver. I have no issues with ring to connect. I do use the latest trunk (kernel 4.14.103) maybe the driver is newer.

Marvell Mac80211 Wireless PCIE Network Driver version 10.3.8.0-20181210

Maybe you need to wait for the next version of openwrt or compile yourself the firmware

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10

This bug has been confirmed and is still open on the upstream repo where the mwlwifi drivers are being developed, plus there are no further patches on the OpenWrt repo. I doubt that installing a SNAPSHOT is going to be of any help.

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11

Your router uses mwl8k driver, not mwlwifi.
And currently, mwl8k driver is very unstable and stopped development.
So, do not use EA4500(E4200v2) as WiFi Router. Use ethernet only.

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12

@intdev, my attempts to get usable wifi on EA4500 confirm your observation, and that mwl8k driver has basically been abandoned in an unusable state. So I've had to abandon my EA4500, and will pay more attention to wifi drivers when I next purchase a device for OpenWRT -- just because the TOH says that they are supported by OpenWRT does not mean that they have decent driver support from the SOC manufacturer.

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13

If such issue is confirmed, I suggest you add a note to the device page so that others know about it before they buy or flash such device.

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