Hi everyone!

I would like to use my GL-AR300M with OpenWrt [1] as a mobile travel router. My notebook connects to the router via wifi (master mode, SSID GL.iNet). The router itself connects to the internet via the hotel's wifi (routed client mode, SSID PFALZconnect-hotspot):

Generic 802.11bgn Wireless Controller (radio0):

SSID: GL.iNet
Mode: Master
Channel: 6 (2.437 GHz)
Bitrate: 130 Mbit/s
BSSID: E6:95:6E:42:A9:DE
Encryption: mixed WPA/WPA2 PSK (CCMP)

SSID: PFALZconnect-Hotspot
Mode: Client
Channel: 6 (2.437 GHz)
Bitrate: 117 Mbit/s
BSSID: 6C:FA:89:90:31:43
Encryption: None

Basically, this setup works, but I have two problems with it:

• The router only connects to one specific AP (BSSID 6C:FA:89:90:31:43 in the example above). But I want it to connect to any AP with the same SSID (SSID PFALZconnect-Hotspot in the example).

• I cannot connect to the router via wifi (master mode, SSID GL.iNet) as long as it is not connected to the hotel's wifi with client mode. This is bad for a travel router since I cannot configure the device without connected client wifi.

Thus, what I want is simple: always have access to the router via wifi independent of the status of the client mode connection. For client mode I want it to use all APs with identical SSIDs. Is that possible? How?

Help would be very much appreciated!!

THX

[1] OpenWrt Chaos Calmer 15.05 r47065 / LuCI for-15.05 branch (git-17.136.58961-13aa5ff)

The first one is easy: delete the BSSID specification (delete the line in /etc/config/wireless, or leave the box blank in LuCI) and it will connect to any AP with the matching SSID.

The second one is a limitation of using the same radio for two functions.  While a STA interface is searching for its AP, the AP mode interfaces on the same radio go off the air.  There are scripts such as Travelmate to work around this, by disabling the STA when signal from the AP is not present.

Cool! Thanks a lot for your answer!

The first one is really easy. It seems to be enough to leave the BSSID box blank in LuCI. It seems to work quite well. So far, I did not figure out if roaming works, but I will test soon...

The second one was the perfect hint! I was not sure whether or not travelmate will work with OpenWrt since it says LEDE 17.01 on their website. I just tried and it seems to work! Perfect!

For further reference I wanted to post the link to the travelmate website but unfortunately, I am not allowed to... :-(

THX for your help!

If you look for a up-to-date version of a open source firmware use LEDE 17.01.04 from October 2017 instead for the outdated OpenWrt binary. You can update from OpenWrt to LEDE.

Yes, thanks, I know. But I have a GL-AR300M router with NAND flash (ar71xx/nand target). So far I was not able to find  LEDE 17.1 for the NAND flash of this router. I tried to compile the source from https://github.com/gl-inet/lede-17.01 myself, but so far without success. Can I find a working image for the NAND flash somewhere? Or is it better to wait until the two projects are merged again? Or maybe I should try to compile myself again? Hmmm....

(Last edited by Tom7320 on 3 Jan 2018, 20:43)

NAND flash is not supported on this device, see https://forum.lede-project.org/t/gl-ar3 … lem/1812/2 (see also the rest of the thread).

I think this is not true anymore:

https://www.gl-inet.com/forums/topic/gl … ost-350961

As soon as I'll have some spare time I'll try... :-)

While the stock GL.iNet 2.264 firmware is not on LEDE, I believe it has been KRACK patched and will address the lock out issue (No AP when STAtion is unavailable). It also has a Station Manager tool built in.   There even is some advice in the forums as to how to deal with the Portal issues typical in many hotels and hot spots. 

Travelmate is now at 1.01 (see LEDE forum) and is not kernel dependent, so should work on all versions of firmware.
https://forum.lede-project.org/t/travel … ad/5155/41

I managed to compile LEDE with NAND flash support and it - somehow - worked. Unfortunately I wasn't able to compile with LuCI and tun/tap kernel drivers (build process stopped with an error). But I'm really looking forward for the merge and official NAND support on this platform... :-)