Wireless WAN on TP-LInk RE450 a device with only one LAN [Solved]

[ffries]

Dear friends,

I installed OpenWRT 19.07.3 on TP-LInk RE450, a device with only one LAN RJ45 network connector, which I am planning to use as MESH to extend my network. The problem is that there is no WAN and I need to upgrade and install a few packages.

I want to avoid bricking the RE450 which could happen very easily because there is only one LAN. What is the best and easiest approach?

I already created a WAN client to another AP

config wifi-iface 'wifinet2'               
        option encryption 'psk2'           
        option device 'radio1'             
        option mode 'sta'                  
        option key 'mypassword'
        option ssid 'myAP'

Now how do I declare the Wireless client as WAN in OpenWRT? I tried to create a bridge interface, but it did not succeed in receiving a DHCP address. Can anyone guide me, thanks ...

Kellogs

[mk24]

You've created a wifi client but not attached it to any network. Add option network 'wan' in /etc/config/wireless. In /etc/config/network, create a non-bridge 'wan' network with proto DHCP. A regular STA cannot be in a bridge. It doesn't need to be a bridge because everything will be NAT to the one IP you have on the upstream network.

The default /etc/config/firewall that installs with every OpenWrt includes rules to forward from 'lan' to 'wan'. So as long as you name your networks that the firewall is ready.

[ffries]

Thanks it worked like a charm. In LuCi, I created a WAN:

config interface 'WAN'
        option ifname 'wlan1'
        option proto 'dhcp'
        option auto '0'

The WAN interface could DHCP and it sufficed to add the correct gateway. Now I can proceed with further installation, thanks.

[tmomas]

If your problem is solved, please consider marking this topic as [Solved]. See How to mark a topic as [Solved] for a short how-to.

[ffries]

Done, thanks.