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Topic: How to extend my wireless network with OpenWrt?

The content of this topic has been archived on 28 Apr 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

My original question is here: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions … th-openwrt

So what am I doing wrong? Please, wireless&OpenWrt gurus help me!

I have a WRT160NL router (OpenWrt 10.04) (connected to the ISP, using it as an AP with SSID: "160AP" using WEP with password: "AAAAA" on channel 5).

My purpose: extend the range of the WRT160NL with another router.

doc: https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/bridgedclient

The another router is an Asus WL500GPv2. (OpenWrt 10.04)

I do "Step 1" on it, so I:

    vi /etc/config/wireless
    config 'wifi-device' 'wl0'
        option 'type' 'broadcom'
        option 'channel' '5'
        option 'disabled' '0'

    config 'wifi-iface'
        option 'device' 'wl0'
        option 'network' 'lan'
        option 'ssid' '160AP'
        option 'mode' 'sta'
        option 'encryption' 'wep'
        option 'key' 'AAAAA'

ok!

then I'm trying to run the wifi command:

    root@OpenWrt:~# wifi
    Command 'set wepkey' failed: -1
    root@OpenWrt:~#

Why? What am I missing? The 5 char password for the WEP is **good**. The SSID, the channel of the WRT160NL is good too.

If I'm continuing then [XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX is the MAC of the WT160NL wlan0]:

    root@OpenWrt:~# iwconfig wl0
    wl0       IEEE 802.11-DS  ESSID:"160AP" 
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.432 GHz  Access Point: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
          Bit Rate=54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:32 dBm   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=5/5  Signal level=-52 dBm  Noise level=-92 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:7  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0


WOW! so the "Command 'set wepkey' failed: -1" was just a warning, and it actually connected? Ok! (???)

So I continue:

    vi /etc/config/network

    #### LAN configuration
    config interface lan
        option type     bridge
        option ifname   "eth0.0"
        option proto    static
        option ipaddr   192.168.1.2
        option netmask  255.255.255.0

-

    /etc/init.d/firewall stop
    /etc/init.d/firewall disable

-

    vi /etc/config/dhcp
    config dhcp lan
        option interface        lan
        option start    100
        option limit    150
        option leasetime        12h
        option ignore    1

-

    /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart

Ok!

Now I reboot the router, and scan the available wireless networks from my notebook. But here comes the fun part (I'm trying to solve this about ~2 hours now, yes, very funny):

I can Only see the "160AP" Access Point which is the original WT160NL router (I think this because the signal strength is the same... my notebook is next to the WL500GPv2).

Question: What's the problem with my setup? What am I missing? I just don't get it.

11n doesn't work well with WEP encryption.

Create WDS between the two aps.

The discussion might have continued from here.