My flashbacks have eased off enough that I was able to read further down your email. The behavior of "working until a reboot" implies the possibility (likelihood?) that the flash is so full that there isn't room to persist changes to the writable filesystem and your configurations are just sitting in a tmpfs. If you can get an ssh session on them, check "df -h".
My recommendation is to douse these things with some gasoline and light them on fire, get something more modern with more flash and ram that's supported. I saw an Archer c7 (dual-band 802.11ac, 16MB SPI-NOR flash, 128MB ram) on ebay for less than $25. https://www.ebay.com/itm/276759564551. A generation older, you can find WDR3600's (dual-band 802.11n radios, 8MB SPI-NOR flash and 128MB ram) for $15. Eldo has mentioned Extreme Networks WS-AP3825i devices with PowerPC cpu, 801.11ac radio, 64MB (NAND, probably) flash, and 256MB ram, also ~$15. I recycled all of my old 4MB devices, except one or two mint-in-box WRT54G's, which are waiting for a museum. Stuff with only 32MB of ram have become basically unusable anymore and I've been shedding them as well. -- Russell Senior [email protected] On Sat, Nov 30, 2024 at 9:44 PM Ted Mittelstaedt <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi All, > > > > So I have a network that (among other things) has several devices on it that > have ethernet only ports and are not conveniently located to be able to run > cable to them. > > > > So for a number of years I have made do with so-called "wifi-to-ethernet" > bridges using DD-WRT. > > > > DD-WRT had a nice "client bridge" selection in it's GUI that with one click > would allow you to create a client bridge. > > > > Unfortunately, a few years ago Broadcom made some changes in their binary > blob wifi drivers and it damaged the house of cards that client bridging was > built on. > > (DD-WRT supports Broadcom devices you see, and these devices used to be far > more common on the used market) > > > > The 10/28/2021 release of DD-WRT is the last reliable release that supports > a client bridge on Broadcom gear. In recent years the client bridge > > Functionality has been completely eliminated in favor of "station bridge" > from DD-WRT even on Broadcom gear. > > > > DD-WRTs "Station Bridge (routed)" configures the "relayd" daemon and it > works well on devices such as > > The TP-Link TL-WR940ND v4/v5 and the Linksys WRT400N which OpenWRT USED to > support but now turns up it's nose at. OpenWRT also > > Supports relayd. Unfortunately, "Station Bridge" is only reliable if you > have ONE device behind the wifi AP while the old "client bridge" > > That was in the Broadcom driver allowed more devices. Fortunately, these > older AP's are cheap enough to use 1 per device. > > > > Anyhoo, I came into position of 2 little Netgear WNR2000v5 wifi routers and > decided it was time to see if I could duplicate this functionality on > > OpenWRT. (DD-WRT does not support these models, unfortunately) > > > > I loaded version 18 of OpenWRT onto these devices (there is a > user-contributed build of OpenWRT for this model out there that thoughtfully > includes the > > Relayd daemon) and dug up the instructions here to do this: > > > > <https://gist.github.com/AzimsTech/fee582c7c5a89e9295e78f4c8bbda824> > OpenWrt Wireless Network Bridge (With IPv6 Support) . GitHub > > > <https://wiki.terrabase.info/wiki/WRT_Router_Series_Wireless_Client_Bridge_M > ode_with_OpenWRT> WRT Router Series Wireless Client Bridge Mode with OpenWRT > - Wiki.TerraBase.info > > > <https://www.nerd-quickies.net/2019/08/20/setup-lan-wlan-bridge-with-openwrt > -luci/> Setup LAN/WLAN Bridge with OpenWrt (LuCI) (updated) - Nerd Quickies > > > > After sorting through the various misconceptions in these instructions I > came up with these instructions - and they work - with one small problem: > > > > 1) Factory Reset router (either from command interface or from hidden reset > button on bottom) > > 2) Make sure the 18. lede special build of OpenWRT is loaded on the router > > 3) Configure PC with 192.168.1.80 and secondary IP of 172.16.100.80 > > 4) Login to router and set password (system, Administraton) > > 5) Network, Interfaces set Ethernet interface to 172.16.100.8. Clicking > Apply, Unchecked never works here. > > 6) Once it takes, remove the secondary IP address > > 7) Put in Gateway and Custom DNS servers > > 8) Set Ignore DHCP for ethernet interface > > 9) Network Wireless, remove master interface > > 10) Wireless, Scan, Join Bit O Heaven network (set encryption to AES) > > 11) Status, make sure it's associated, Diagnostics Ping 75.75.75.75 make > sure it responds > > 12) System Startup , relayd enabled > > 13) Network, Interfaces, Add Interface, name stabridge. Protocol Relay > Bridge, Submit > > 14) In Relay Between Networks that appears, dropdown lan and wwan check > both save and apply > > 15) Network Firewall, Zones Add, name bridgezone change Forward to Accept, > in covered networks select Lan wwan, save & apply > > 16) Change static IP in PC back to DHCP and it should get an address, should > work > > > > The small problem is that even after saving the configuration - once the > router is rebooted - the client bridge does NOT work > > On restart. Relayd is running, the firewall and additional interface is > there, everything seems to be in order - it simply does not > > Pass packets. I can telnet into the router and ping the Internet, it does > re-associate with the wifi network. > > > > I can factory reset the router and rebuild the config again - and it works - > passes packets and so on - until reboot. > > > > The DD-WRT routers configured as station bridges have no problems with > saving their config and restarting station bridging. > > > > I am wondering if POSSIBLY the problem might be in some kind of startup > ordering issue - that is, relayd has to be started after > > The AP has associated - or after the soft interfaces are created - or > something. > > > > Of course, it would also be cool to build a newer OpenWRT for these devices > - there ARE community built versions of OpenWRT 22 > > For 4MB flash devices such as the Netgear WNR1000 and the WNR2000v3, - so it > is possible to do it (if you delete the non-essential stuff) But, > > This is a basic networking function and I don't think the versions of things > are too old. > > > > Anyone have any suggestions? > > > > Ted >
