I just installed OpenWRT last night on my WAX202B.
I'm running an ethernet from my router's LAN port to my extender's WAN port and it is detected in Interfaces, but when I try to set up a 5ghz band, it does nothing. I tried setting the Network in General Setup to wan but that didn't help. The 5ghz radio also turns on and off sometimes?
What's even weirder is that my 2.4ghz band shows up in my wifi settings but not my 5ghz. And whenever I click on the 2.4, it is stuck in loading and eventually disconnects.
And I think it's configured in router mode?
I don't know if I should be using it in router or extender mode. I have some smart devices that I want isolated from everything else, but my main router doesn't have a 2.4ghz band, so would using it in router mode be better?
I haven't tried plugging into the WAX202's WAN and bridging the WiFi to it (in fact WAN isn't setup in a bridge and that's kinda complex to setup on routers with DSA switches like the WAX202 - unless you really need the extra port). I surmise your issue is that WAN doesn't exist in a bridge in which the WiFi can connect.
I would simply connect to LAN, make LAN DHCP client (or set it to an IP on the router's Network), remove DHCP on OpenWrt's LAN too...again there's Wikis and threads on that already.
I assume this would be with the same Ethernet you used to connect the WAN port. Just use LAN1, LAN2 or LAN3 instead. Feel free to follow the Wiki - your question is literally answered in the "TL;DR" section.
( You mentioned Netgear again.) OK, feel free to configure it as such in OpenWrt - I just noted it was possible; but you noted you were a n00b, so I didn't want to make things complex. If you insist on using the WAN port also, see:
In any case, you need to configure your interfaces properly. It seems simple just to alter LAN.
Oh I'm sorry I wasn't understanding what you meant. I changed to one of my lan ports and now ethernet seems to be working, but whenever I go to 192.168.1.1, it brings me to my main router's page, how do I access the 202?
Would I have to disconnect the 202's ethernet and configure everything and then plug it back in? Can you link me to a guide that shows me how to remove DHCP?
(You're asking questions that are steps in the WIki.)
Also, simply just browse to the LAN setting and remove it (once you fix your IP conflict so you can connect).
We established why this was the case already (it's likely your main router - unless you're noting the new IP and you already fixed the IP as suggested, which you failed to mention).
Ok so I configured the router to not use DHCP and when I saved and applied, it kicked me off the page and now I can't connect to it through any LAN or WAN ports.
It still bridges (I think that's the right term) to my router when I plug it in, but I can't access the router's page when disconnected.
Again I'm really sorry. I'm trying my best. I don't have much clue what I'm doing.
I think I set the LAN IP in the OpenWrt to 192.168.1.2, which is not used by any other device at the moment.
I turned off DHCP.
I put in Cloudflare's DNS (1.1.1.1)
My issue now is that I can't connect to the OpenWrt. In my network settings, it shows my ip address and subnet mask but no router ip. I tried the LAN IP I put above to access the browser, but it says no internet. The SSH also can't be accessed with that IP.
I disconnected the main router and connected my macbook to one of the lan ports.
I held down the reset button until the green power button flashed a lot and then pressed it again and now it's flashing orange even faster.
I assume now failsafe mode has been triggered. The page you sent says it will boot with an ip of 192.168.1.1/24 but I tried both of them and it's not letting me connect. What do I do from here?
Edit: my network settings still say that there's no router ip.