Wi-Fi Network Being Detected as Metered on Devices

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I'm using an OpenWRT router with a very cheap 5G data connection in India. However, Android devices connected to the router are detecting the Wi-Fi network as "metered." This is limiting background tasks and updates, even though the WAN connection is unmetered.

How can I configure OpenWRT to broadcast the Wi-Fi as an unmetered connection so that all connected devices treat it as a normal, unlimited network?

I know I can set the Wi-Fi as unmetered on a per-network basis in Android settings, but I'm looking for a solution at the router level that applies to all devices.

Any help or insights would be appreciated!

2

We can review your OpenWrt config, but generally speaking, this is not an option that OpenWrt has. I suspect that the detection is happening on the android side with some heuristics or other methods, as there isn't a special "metered connection" setting for OpenWrt.

Please connect to your OpenWrt device using ssh and copy the output of the following commands and post it here using the "Preformatted text </> " button:
grafik
Remember to redact passwords, MAC addresses and any public IP addresses you may have:

ubus call system board
cat /etc/config/network
cat /etc/config/wireless
cat /etc/config/dhcp
cat /etc/config/firewall
3

Thanks for the response, I really appreciate it! Since OpenWRT doesn't seem to have this option for managing metered connections, I think I'll skip the debugging for now. :slight_smile:

Thanks again for the insights!

4

Ok... there is still the possibility something is misconfigured, but it's up to you if you want us to check.

5

But 3/4/5G is usually in the rest of the world metered connections?
Like “you can download 20GB for a fixed price per month”.

6

In India, most people pay around ~$3 per month for 2GB of mobile data per day, and it works across 2G/3G/4G/5G—doesn't matter which. But currently, 5G is in the trial phase here, so it's essentially free for everyone. Personally, I've consumed terabytes of free 5G data over the last year until I got a 5G modem of sorts.

The plan I have now costs me ~$11 + taxes for 1000GB of data per month, and it works over 5G.

So, to answer your question, I can indeed download 20GB at a much cheaper rate than in most other parts of the world, which is why I consider it not metered.

There’s a cap after 1000GB, but I’m unlikely to use that much data anyway.

7

You could try the TTL trick, to bypass the data limit.

8

How does changing the TTL bypass the data limits? The carrier network still knows how much data is flowing through it to/from your device.

2 Likes
9

usually it does, and yes, they do, but all carriers aren't the same ...

10

This is a ChatGPT summary on how Android devices automatically detect Wi-Fi networks as 'metered'.

You might change this behavior by reconfigure settings on the device to prevent Android from automatically detecting Wi-Fi as 'metered'.

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ChatGPT and a search result - what URL on the page provides the OP needed instructions?

  • If someone asks a question on the forum and you do not know the answer, DO NOT turn to any generative AI or LLM instance, ask the question, and post the output as an answer - attributed or otherwise.

It's far better that the forum is populated with posts from knowledgable subject matter experts rather than unattributable, unproven content from LLMs which will then feed back via web scraping into the LLMs again, potentially compounding a wrong answer many times over.

4 Likes
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You're totally right not to trust LLMs in general but the summary was actually pretty legit (and I was too lazy to write it myself). Anyhow, if you take a look at the source code and developer guides you'll find all the grand details. Here are a few examples:

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So if I were going to try to auto-detect metered networks I'd use some reflector to grab my public IP (and/or grab public v6 prefix) and then look that up in a database of mobile network providers or something similar. If they are doing that, there's not much you can do because your IP is part of a 5G/mobile network, so it would show up, and it has nothing to do with the router or anything like that.

Routing everything through a VPN might help in that case. But I'm just speculating on the mechanism so, hard to know.

1 Like
14

You may consider your wifi network as unmetered, but the fact of the matter is that your connection to the internet is metered. You said it yourself.

Your mobile devices are correctly identifying the wi fi connection as metered, and there is nothing the OpenWRT device can do to stop this. Maybe a VPN could trick the mobile devices, but that's it.

1 Like
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Yes, it's metered.

I want connected clients to think of it as an unmetered connection so auto updates and stuff work for me.

My WhatsApp and Google Photos backups are working fine; it's only Google Play Store that's causing the issue. I think it has something to do with Google Play Store specifically, not with Android or OpenWrt.

16

:+1:

1 Like