GL-MT6000 (Flint2) How change LAN2 - LAN5 port to WAN

[kipsta]

I updated to 4.7.4 and the settings remained.

[RobWilJas]

I have the same problem. I really want to buy a Flint 2 but what's stopping me is I need to use the 2.5Gb WAN port for my main ISP (2Gb cable) and to use the second 2.5Gb port for my lan, but I want to be able to use one of the 1Gb lan ports for a backup ISP connection since my wife works from home.

It seems it should be easy to implement in firmware if it can be done by modding, which I don't want to have to do.

[Lastimosa]

@EugeneKey . Would you kindly share how you have managed to get this to work as I am trying to achieve a similar set up to yours without using Luci?

[bruce]

To modify the physical LAN1 port to WAN mode, Luci or SSH is required.

[Lastimosa]

Hi @bruce — could you share a beginner-friendly, step-by-step guide to converting the Flint 2’s LAN2 port into WAN2 for failover, while leaving WAN1 and LAN1 unchanged? Many thanks in advance!

[bruce]

Please let me know what firmware version of your Flint2 is.

What is the order of the physical interface of the Flint2 casing? The fourth port, that is the second gigabit port?

[Lastimosa]

Many thanks @bruce for the rapid reply. My Flint 2 is currently running latest 4.8.0-op24 Beta 2 firmware (OpenWrt 24.10.2 r28739-d9340319c6).

Why I am trying to achieve is to change the LAN port marked by red arrow in picture to a second WAN port for WAN failover as I would like to preserve the LAN1 port for my 2.5Gbps Intranet. Thank you once again for any guidance.

[bruce]

Hi,

Please follow this quick tutorial to modify the port configuration in SSH:

1. SSH to your router
2. Modify the file /etc/config/board_special, configure according the screenshot:

vi /etc/config/board_special

3. Modify the file /usr/share/gl-eth-ports.json, configure according the screenshot:

vi /usr/share/gl-eth-ports.json

4. Restart the router or re-initialize the network:

/etc/init.d/network restart

[Lastimosa]

Many thanks indeed @bruce for the clear and detailed instruction that have worked brilliantly. Much appreciate your help but I have a couple of questions if you don't mind please:

1. I have this extra (highlighted) line on my "/etc/config/board_special" file which is not showing up on your screenshot and I am wondering if it should be there or not.
   

   

2. Will the Interface Priority in Multi-WAN settings continue to function and the failover order be respected as usual.
   

   

Finally, is there a way to make your instruction as a sticky post on this forum until such time that this great feature is hopefully impemented within GUI?

Thank you once again for your help.

[bruce]

Hi,

1. Leave it alone, as the first wan interface name is eth1.
2. I haven't tested this part, I assume there should be no problems. Please feel free to let me know if failover does not work.

LOL. If other users need it, I will tell them this way.

[glide9919281]

If anyone has this kind of setup working with failover, please let us all know! I would like to use one of the LAN ports as a 5G/cellular WAN failover port.

[Lastimosa]

Yes, mine had been working flawlessly.

[glide9919281]

Thanks for sharing. I just tested this same setup and it’s working for me too.

The only note I have is that if you backup the config via LuCI and then restore it, the changes to /usr/share/gl-eth-ports.json appear as though they aren’t kept. I was testing this on a spare unit and had to manually make that edit again post-restoration of the config via import into LuCI.

[Lastimosa]

Thanks for your input. That is very good to know but I have to say that I will always and forever recommend fresh installs of any firmware upgrade followed by setting things up from scratch as I have always found this to be the best practice with all different routers that I have used over the years.

[Pro4TLZZ]

So I've been using this for ages with no issue on 4.7.7. 4.8.2 seems to not like this and causes sporadic internet drops, using another router with the same wan cable during the outage works fine so it's not an ISP issue.

Until I revert wan to eth1 my internet won't connect back again.

At least this time I have some full logs for gl staff.

I haven't been changing the glinet JSON file at all.

[dandiego]

No issues for me using the newest firmware version 4.8.3.

[glide9919281]

I can also confirm this same setup is still working going from 4.8.2 to 4.8.3 - however it did require me to restore the changes made to /usr/share/gl-eth-ports.json - as these seem to get wiped with the version upgrade.