A regular AP-STA client can't be in a bridge due to limitations of the standard as only three MAC addresses are transmitted. The final destination MAC is assumed to be the same as the client radio MAC, which is true if the client is an endpoint device like a laptop or phone.
AP(WDS)-STA(WDS) transmits the additional MAC of the final destination (4 address mode), allowing a true bridge.
A simple way to fight that is to set the minimum modulation rate of the AP higher, so that a distant client will not be able to receive beacon packets from the AP, it will drop off. This is the cell_density setting.
I might make a new thread on this, but just in case anyone has any quick ideas off the top of their head...
When I powered off the old TPLink Archer, I lost my "is MAC online" SNMP walk that it provided. Because it was the internet router it seen everyone's mac and kept a handy list of them in SNMP.
I used this to determine which rooms are occupied/in use based on whether the TV or PC (or lights) are on in that room.
So, 2 questions come to mind...
Is it easy enough to get these OIDs (I think it's the ARP table) into SNMP on OpenWRT?
How much difference will VLANs make to that, assuming that I use the ARP table on a central trunk router?
My alternative is to use a imapi query to the LAN dhcp server to collect MACs with valid leases that answer pings, but the technique is hardly tested for reliability and response.
So far I can find this:
IP-MIB::ipNetToMediaPhysAddress.12.10.0.0.2 = STRING: x0:cx:xx:23:xx:21
But they are not volatile it seems. When the host disappears the entry remains.
I'll dig a little more.
I found this. It looks a little TOO volatile, but I might be able to work with it. Query the IP from the mac in the other table and check here if it's been "reachable". The "if it's been" bit might take effort.
why do you not do ubiquiti? the uap-ac lite is awesome. I went through router after router then finally bought ubiquiti. i use the edge router x and a uap-ac lite. has been in place for over 3 years without a single hiccup.
I found that most router seem to fail do to wifi issues or just simply the wifi begins failing. i setup a few networks using a decent router like Asus rt-ac66u with third party firmware (tomato for the 66u) and a uap-ac lite. the asus is just used as a router (all wifi disabled). and that setup has worked great thus far.
i suggest finding a decent router or even one you have that works well with OpenWRT and your needs. then let a ubiquiti access point handle your wifi. they run about $80 to $90, but are well worth it. if you live close to a Microcenter, they sometimes have them openbox for under 70.
continuing to buy regular routers, even the expensive ones, and relying on it for good wifi, is a waste of time and sometimes a lot of money. they all seem to fail way too soon.
I agree, it is much more effective to separate the functions in different devices, going business style.
But what to expect?
A home wifi router that most want to buy cost about 80€ give or take. But that is not what people want from functionality viewpoint.
The EdgeRouter 4 is about 300€ and a 8-port PoE managed switch is about 150€.
And a real business class access point is about 80€.
What technology quality do you expect if you want 630€ worth of equipment in a small designed plastic box with a lot of antennas for max 60-90€?
And the most costly thing for that home router is actually the colorful box and the plastic router chassi with strange design. It isn’t even the electronics that you pay for.
And “tired of hit and miss”…well if you miss a couple of times it is a lot more expensive than buying business class equipment from the beginning.
Seems to work ok for me. The only downside is fairly surprising because it is obvious in use; I don't get the blue LED when running OpenWRT. I also have some U6Lite APs and they do have the blue LED when running OpenWRT, but the LR is a completely different architecture.
Now prices are a bit higher, but when i bought my edge router x, I paid $40 us, now they run about $60. and i paid about $75 for my uap-ac lite. For a cost of $115 us, i have a setup that still outperforms my needs with excellent wifi coverage. And is still going strong over 3 years later. Todays cost would be about $140 for the same. and a PoE switch isnt needed since the AP comes with an injector.
for the money, if you reuse a decent router with wifi disabled, and pickup an AP lite or even a new wifi 6 uap for $99, that make a great setup for under $100.
Or for a little more, buy a ubiquiti router that works for you.
i have had pretty good success with older gig routers running third party firmware. with wifi disabled. seems with most used routers i have played with, the wifi gets weak or fails. I even had one (tp-link archer c7 1st gen) that would not boot until i removed the 5g card. then it ran great with openwrt and only 2.4 wifi.
But for anyone looking for rock solid wifi with longevity, my recommendation is a ubiquiti AP. i have yet to have a single issue with any of their APs or bridges i have setup. And obviously, it takes a little learning to set up, but it is well worth it.
I personally have not tried openwrt on Ubiqiuti APs. I assume that yields the benefit of not having it linked to a controller.
normal i just set them up using a local computer running the unifi software. then just run the software when updates are due. But the AP is linked to that controller unless you link it to a new device, which is a bit of a process.
flashing to openwrt seems appealing if that allows you to just log into the AP directly. then you could configure it without having to use a separate program.
Does it work that simply with openwrt on the AP? or is there a process to it?
As AP I would recommend them Cisco Meraki running OpenWrt. My main driver for the longest time has been an MR33. I have friends which run multiple of them with hundreds of IoT devices and it's been rock solid. Only downside is that if you get one from eBay now it might come with a too new bootloader requiring a non-trivial downgrade. However, there are chaps including me which could help you with that. Nowadays, I also run an MR42 and an MR52 whose OpenWrt support got recently merged into master. The later of which even has two gigabit Ethernet ports and could act as a very capable (as in R7800 class) firewall router.
At the moment, touch wood, with the R8000 downstairs handling Wifi, 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz and the Linksys 2.4Ghz switched off... things are stable. I brought the WAN VLAN up to the Linksys as it has the better CPU for VPN'ing. For a recent member to the magic of VLANs it still feels creepy to just plug the modem into a switch and materialise it elsewhere for a router.
On product ethos. I just don't like "buy in" eco-systems. I prefer "buy out" eco-systems, like OpenWRT or Arduinno for examples. "Buy in" are commercial product practices that, assuming you will pay the premium, they standardize and convention-ize their products to make them easier to use together and they gaurantee that if you buy all your systems from them, they will all work together. Microsoft Office is a fairly good example, but even it has been forced to open up to other formats.
Cisco do it. Microsoft do it. Oracle do it. Juniper do it. They all do it. Once it becomes a large enough product base phase 2 is obfuscation. They make it progressively less intuitive and less straight forward to do anything, moving away from "standard" nomenclature, etc. so they can then sell training courses and certifications.
I asked my CCNA teacher why nobody came out with a basic webUI for making console access easy. He said, "Cisco would buy it, make it go away, Cisco make a LOT of money teaching people how to use the CLI"
"Buy-out" strategies are either from companies who do not own the IP and do not intend to own the IP for technologies. They pick standard parts and licenses off the shelf. "buy out" in that it literally provides you with options to "buy out of brand". At the cost that it's usually left up to you to hook it up using those standard mechanisms/protocols.... and trusting the devices specific implementation of said protocols are they are far from equal.
In an odd sense, OpenWRT as a firmware on devices is a way to provide standardization across your devices without having to buy in. I think OpenWRT should support more "back plane" features where routers can be made aware of each other for special functionality.
Ohh! I remember my first meeting with WebUI. That was on the WRT3200ACM. I didn’t even know it had a webUI.
Officially I logged in to the router from LAN…
But I was by accident configuring it while connected through a NordVPN tunnel.
And then when I installed OpenWRT I couldn’t connect to the router!? It was impossible! Until after a while I found out that I was trying to connect to 192.168.1.1 from the VPN server on the internet and not from LAN side.
But those WebUI is also a free way for the manufacturer to do as Ubi licence agreement say: “we have the right to install what we want on your router”.
My main router is connected to a BT vDSL router in modem mode. So the router is a PC running OpenWRT and just connected to a switch in the plant room. I have a number of Ubiquiti APs around the building, which are all running OpenWRT.
The main reason for running OpenWRT on the APs is so that I don't need a proprietary controller; I found Ubiquiti very opaque in terms of what the different bits of equipment would do.
More specifically, I run a Radius server on the router which uses a separate LDAPS server, to authenticate the users on the private WiFi network which is running on a separate VLAN to the guest WiFi.
In general, I like the Ubiquiti APs, but less keen on the single vendor lock-in you get with the Ubiquiti firmware.
Another benefit of this, as I understand it, is freeing up airtime by shortening the time packets take, I.E beaconing and things that get sent at lowest speed, or those far away weak signal stations, take a smaller percentage of the total available airtime. Helpful, if you have a busy network. Did I get that right, mk24?
Oh, on the "which AP to buy" question, no experience by me, but that Jim Salter guy of many good Ars Technia articles highly recommended the TP-Link EAP225 - 245 AP's for great range. They're pretty cheap now, especially the 225 (Wave1). Both have fairly reasonable OpenWrt support, and their chipsets support the improvements made for wifi, (Make-Wifi-Fast project) that you probably can't find elsewhere, yet. Still using my old C7 as an AP, haven't hauled off and bought an EAP yet...