Hi,
Apologies I've searched and failed. Travelling frequently with a chromecast and keep encountering DNS issues on the road, so looking for an easy way to keep my laptop and chromecast on their own private wifi network. I'd like to plug my travel router into a LAN, and then have my own wifi hotspot which acts as DHCP and DNS server for my devices.

I have problems with ISP DNS settings that can't be changed, either because VSL router won't allow or more often I don't have admin access to a router.

1. TP-Link TL-MR3040 with openwrt using GUI. Attached via ethernet cable to lan, to a router.
2. MR3040 given static IP, and wifi network setup
3. Custom DNS server addresses populated in openwrt.

I can't seem to get the MR3040 to behave as it's own DHCP server, my laptop always seems to pick up an IP from the router not the MR3040. Likewise the laptop's DNS seems to ignore whatever settings are on the MR3040.

Besides being stupidly tired and jet-lagged, where am I going wrong?

Thanks,

Owen

If you bridge LAN and WAN, then you effectively have just one network, and two DHCP servers on it. You should revert back to the default configuration (and cope with the double NAT), and configure the DHCP / DNS server in your LAN according to your needs.

I see, as obvious as it sounds this simply bridges, OK.

Would :
wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/guest-wlan-webinterface

This resolve my problem?

Thanks.

If I have understood what you need, you do not have to follow any recipe: the stock configuration is the best starting point.

Thanks for the reply, scratching my head, in default configuration I can't get the mr3040 to use alternate DNS servers, seems to always follow dns on the router supplied by ISP, which can't be modified.

Yes, but that is easy to change:

* In the WAN interface, go to "Advanced settings" and uncheck "Use DNS servers advertised by peer".
* In the "DHCP and DNS" section, put your DNSs on "DNS forwardings".

I have LAN but no WAN, as the the mr3040 is an access point not a router. Am I missing something?

If you have a wired and a wireless interface, I do not see why it cannot be configured as a router; or perhaps your hardware has some specific limitations I do not know.

Thanks for sticking with me, I persisted yesterday and made some progress.
I was able to configure using the default settings and also using a wlan.
I was able to deselect advertised by peer, however my laptop still showed an ip address and dns supplied by the ISP's router.
Using the wlan method I could connect a couple of devices. The mr3040 showed that they both were on a unique subnet, different to that of the LAN. However both devices still reported that their ip address and dns were on the same subnet as the LAN, not the wlan.

(Last edited by o_griff on 15 Aug 2017, 07:00)

Please, pot your current config files (network and firewall) here, and let me have a look at them.

Sorry for the late reply, I've been on the road again and only just had a chance to sit down and look at this again.

Problem solved by using Putty and editing config files manually rather than using the Web interface.

Successfully configured a separate wlan, with it's own DHCP and my specified DNS servers.

All working now.

Thanks.