Setting up Wireless Repeater WDS on Archer C7

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

following this guide: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/atheroswds
device: archer c7 v5

I added option wds '1' to the /etc/config/wireless file via vim.
rebooted device

... no new wlan.sta1 was created.

There is a radio0, and radio1; both of these are used in normal operations.
radio 1 is the 2.4ghz, which is what i wish to repeat.
adding this to the correct configuration, under what is

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path 'platform/ahb/18100000.wmac'
        option channel '1'
        option band '2g'
        option htmode 'HT20'
        option cell_density '0'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option key 'redacted'
        option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'
        option ssid 'reda cted'
        option wds '1'

output form ip address shows wlan0 and wlan1 as normal.

Is this an exception as noted also by the 'Barrier Breaker'? (for OpenWrt 22.03.5 r20134-5f15225c1e ?)

notes:
under wireless settings, the interface configuration mode shows up correctly as Access Point (WDS)

2

Did another full reboot, and it's working out of the blue now.

3

I wouldn't quite call this out of the blue, merely editing a configuration file does not automatically ensure that the changes are applied to the running system (a reboot will naturally do this, as would more targetted service reloads/ restarts).

4

That is true; I failed to mention I previously restarted this after editing the configuration files. figured it was implied by "another". Woops. Anyway, It's all working really well now! The downside is that the repeater (client (wds)) is unable to update packages, even after setting the custom dns servers. instead of walking over to the gateway, i set up a bridge for my wifi and ethernet port on windows 11, then plugged my computers ethernet port into the wan port of the client (also set dns servers on the bridge adapter of the computer) and it still errors, but it shows lists of packages now at least. Unsure if this is a misconfiguration on my part, or how openwrt handles updating packages, seems it only wants to update off of the WAN port of these particular devices.

5

gateway/ subnet and DNS need to be properly configured on the repeater for that to work (and it will work, if that's correctly set up); dhcp-client is an easy method to take care of that automatically (but it's more prone to fail in case of misconfiguration or if the main router/ dhcpd isn't reliable).

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6

Just FYI:

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