GL-MT3000: How to change BSSID?

Technical Support for Routers
1

Good day!

We need to be able to have same BSSID on all our MT3000, but I can’t figure out how to do that.

These have no effects:

uci set wireless.wifi5g.macaddr='62:b1:eb:45:d1:2f'
uci set wireless.wifi5g.bssid='62:b1:eb:45:d1:2f'

This works fine on an ATX1800:

uci set wireless.default_radio0.macaddr='62:b1:eb:45:d1:2f'

If it’s not possible yet, may I ask it as a feature request? We really need to be able to change it.

Also, in the Admin under MAC address, the UX is confusing, if I choose Manual, I expect to be able to change independently:

  • MAC Address (Ethernet)
  • MAC Address (Repeater)

and maybe there it’s also the right place to add a BSSID customisation:

  • MAC Address (AP/BSSID)

Thank you!

2

If you want to be able to change BSSID then you have to choose the right router.

Usually, all routers that supports “EAP” - do also support BSSID change:

You should avoid routers that do not have EAP as a basic feature

3

I’m concerned about the information provided regarding the BSSID change feature. The ability to change the BSSID should not be inherently tied to the router’s support for EAP. These functions serve different purposes and are not dependent on each other. It wasn’t clear in the product description that EAP support would be necessary for BSSID modification, and as such, I was expecting this feature to be available. If this capability is being added in an upcoming firmware update, could you please confirm when this update will be released? Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

4

This issue might help you: Allow manually setting MAC/BSSID on each wireless interface (client, AP, etc) [Enhancement] · Issue #5845 · openwrt/luci · GitHub

PS. The only “reliable” way to change the MAC/BSSID so far is using “uci -q set wireless.@wifi-iface[-1].macaddr=$mac_addr” as explained in OpenWrt Forum Archive comment 20 Jun 2016, 23:30. It’s not persistent, I have to figure out if I can run it from rc.local or a cron job. Changing it with ifconfig or in /etc/config/wireless didn’t work.

This should work, you may have to try it out.

5

Thank you @admon ,
I mentioned in my post above that:

uci set wireless.wifi5g.macaddr='62:b1:eb:45:d1:2f'

does not work, which is what you are suggesting.

6

Oh, sorry - hadn’t seen that or checked if those are the commands mentioned there. Sorry!

7

@alzhao Could you please have a look at this, pretty sure, GL-Inet custom code to change wifi sta MAC address (the MAC cloning feature) can be recycled to change BSSID.

Thank you!

8

From your comparison link, do I understand correctly that it’s possible to change BSSID on Flint, but not on the freshly released new Flint 2 ?

9

Sorry MT3000 use MTK wifi driver and cannot change bssid.

MT6000 Flint2 uses open source wifi driver and you can change bssid.

1 Like
10

@meo

The ability to change the BSSID is NOT inherently tied to the router’s support for EAP. It is true that these functions serve different purposes and are not dependent on each other.

I gave the EAP comparison because it is easier to recognise which ones does support BSSID change.

I think that all glinet routers that have EAP basic feature, also have open source wifi driver - and all glinet routers with open source wifi driver do support bssid change

There are exceptions to this, exceptions with very unreliable firmware versions like MT1300, Beryl 1.

If Flint 2 has open source WiFi driver then it should support BSSID change. (it should also have EAP basic feature too)

1 Like
11

@silkweb

That makes sense, thank you for the clarification!

12

I can change the BSSID on the guest network but not on the private network. How would this be a limitation of the driver? There must be some other bug, I think.

1 Like
13

That will be very surprising because the MT3000 wifi driver does change bssid.

1 Like
14

Interesting. It would appear that I am unable to change on my newly purchased:

Hostname GL-MT6000
Model GL.iNet GL-MT6000
Architecture ARMv8 Processor rev 4
Target Platform mediatek/filogic
Firmware Version OpenWrt 23.05.0 r23497-6637af95aa / LuCI openwrt-23.05 branch git-23.236.53405-fc638c8
Kernel Version 5.15.134

Using luci, it will let you enter a different BSSID save then save & apply but it does not actually change anything.

Quiet disappointing, had to go round and re login on all the wifi stuff....

15

Dont reply an old post.

The op24 firmware may support chaning BSSID via luci.

https://dl.gl-inet.com/router/mt6000/

1 Like
16

@alzhao on E750 and X750 can I use above commands to change BSSID?

17

On the 2nd batch of update, as announced here:

18

Now change in Luci for the two models.

The command may be a little different so not sure if you can get it right.

19

@alzhao so both support it?

20

Interesting article! When using a hidden SSID and randomizing the BSSID as suggested, won't that make it impossible for any devices to connect automatically if the signal is in range? Even manually... how do you connect to a SSID the name of which is hidden and whose BSSID is not known because it was randomized on the last reboot?

You should really provide an RSS feed for your blog.