GL-MT6000 - IOT wireless network setup problem

Technical Support for Routers
1

Please forgive me if this has been answered elsewhere, but I have searched and cannot find an answer.

I received my GL-MT6000 a few days ago and have been playing with it since trying to become familiar with the openwrt configuration firmware – LuCi. I am an ignorant network noob and don’t understand most of the settings (I just try to copy existing examples). YouTube has been helpful.

My router shows it is running firmware 4.6.2 (OpenWrt 21.02-SNAPSHOT r15812+1075-46b6ee7ffc Kernel Version 5.4.238). The wan port is connected to my primary router by cable for its internet and my desktop pc is connected to lan port 2. This is for testing and setup.

I have been using a one router home network setup for years. I am currently running a Netgear R7800 on dd-wrt giving me Primary, Guest and IOT networks. Using vlans, the Guest and IOT networks each have one ethernet port assigned, and the remaining two ports are in the Primary network. Each network has separate 2.4 and 5.0 wireless SSIDs (virtual access points). Each network is on its own bridge (br0, br1, br2) with its own subnet.

I want to create a similar configuration on the GL-MT6000 (IS THIS POSSIBLE ?) but have not been able to get the wireless IOT networks working. My setup procedure is to log into the GL interface, set system time and then activate both guest networks (2.4 and 5.0). Then I go to the advanced settings and log into the LuCi interface.

When I go to “Network-Interfaces” menu item in LuCi I get this message:

“Network ifname configuration migration

The existing network configuration needs to be changed for LuCI to function properly.

Upon pressing "Continue", ifname options will get renamed and the network will be restarted to apply the updated configuration.”

After hitting “Continue” I proceed with my setup.

At the “Network-Wireless” page I click “Add” next to the generic wireless for 2.4 and 5.0 radios.

Using the guest network interfaces in LuCi as examples, I configured IOT network wireless and interfaces for 2.4 and 5.0 networks. However, they never activate and each shows a message “Wireless is not associated” and the networks are disabled. I assume this means the interfaces are not associated/connected with the physical radios. How do I get them associated with the physical radios? (I’ll tackle my vlan port setup after I get the wireless setup worked out.)

Any help and clarification on the setup/configuration process for adding an IOT network is appreciated.

Thanks

2

I noticed both the LAN and GUEST interfaces contain bridges (br-lan and br-guest) which each have assigned MAC addresses.

Under Network-Devices I created an IOT network bridge “br-iot”, However the br-iot is created without a MAC address from the firmware and I don’t know how I should determine a MAC address for the bridge.

Also, I noticed at the “Network-Wireless” page when I click “Add” next to the generic wireless for 2.4 and 5.0 radios – then network devices “ra2” and “rax2” are created and show up under Network-Devices. These radio devices do not have MAC addresses similar to the ra0, ra1, rax0 and rax1 devices already existing. This may be why there is a message “Wireless is not associated”.

I suspect the lack of MAC addresses may be a reason “ra2” and “rax2” don’t get associated with “br-iot” but I don’t know if this is actually the problem or makes any difference at all. I just know my IOT interface has wireless that is disabled and “not associated”.

I confess I am just guessing.

1 Like
3

Hi,

Regarding this issue, please go to the SSH of the router, add the 'ifname' parameter for the WiFi radio which manually add in the Luci (rax'n', n≤3). Then, reboot the router.

image

4

Bruce,

Thanks for the quick reply. I assume I need to add the ifname parameter for each radio (2.4 and 5.0).

I have not used SSH for decades (my problem, not yours) and need to do some reading/study on how to use SSH and how to use SSH to configure openwrt.

If anyone has some good links on SSH and openwrt they can share they will be greatly appreciated. Otherwise - google is my friend!

As soon as I get more up to speed on SSH I may come back for more specific instructions.

Thanks again.

5

Thanks. It is not difficult, windows terminal or others:
ssh root@router IP,
input the password,
vi /etc/config/wireless
press i
edit the 'ifname'
press esc, :wq, reboot.

2 Likes
6

Here is the portion of /etc/config/wireless which contains the defective IOT configuration (and copy of the guest configuration).

Problem wireless
Problem wireless682×1350 159 KB

I understand I must make the following edits and reboot:
option ifname 'ra2' for the 2.4 radio
option ifname 'rax2' for the 5.0 radio

After the reboot will the additional configurations show up or do I need to make additional edits first? Please advise.

(I am reading up on the "vi" editor so hopefully I don't mess things up.)

7

Will these manual edits be required each time the firmware is updated?

8

That is correct. Refer to this:
image

Reboot and firmware update with 'keep settings' would not change this configuration, means it works unless you reset the firmware.

After reboot, the manually add radio will be supported to enable and work.

2 Likes
9

Bruce
Thanks for your help. Good news is I got the IOT network up and running. Bad news is I'm not sure how I did it.

I edited the wireless config file to add ifname for 'ra2' and 'rax2' and then saved and rebooted, but I still had the "not associated" error message. I deleted both IOT wireless SSIDs and started over.

After trying multiple steps many times in different orders and then editing the wireless config file to add ifname for 'ra2' and 'rax2' it finally worked. The IOT network was created but it had no internet. After I edited the firewall section everything is now working.

I don't want to put the router into service to replace my R7800 until I am sure I can quickly reconfigure it if there is a problem. (My family gets very upset if we lose internet service for any length of time.) At some point I will go back to factory settings and start from scratch again to make sure I have a clean configuration. At least now I know it is possible.

Thank you for all of your help. I am sure I will be coming back with more questions.

2 Likes
10

Success! I reset to factory settings and reconfigured from scratch. I made a record of my steps and had success on my first attempt. My IOT network is up and running along with my Guest and Primary networks. I will edit the SSIDs and wireless keys to match my existing R7800 and make the router replacement.

Bruce - thanks again for all your help.

2 Likes
11

Thank you thank you thank you. This solved my issue that I was running round and round for hours on!!!

1 Like
12

Hi @sweatbee ,

Would you mind sharing the steps, I tried the same but I find the new IOT WIFI shares the same MAC with the guest WIFI which show one WIFI instead of 2.

Thanks

1 Like
13

Hi All,

I figured it out but I find something odd, when I added a new interface to the new wireless network, I can see connected devices any more in the client tab in the GL-iNet admin Panel. Any suggestions to fix this

Thanks in advance

14

Would love to see these steps laid out. Any chance you could post?

15

Hi @engm ,

I found a listing of steps, but it is incomplete because I had to do other things to polish the final setup. I had to make edits to get the firewall working properly. I did not document these edits. I did all of my work on the router for a couple of weeks before going live with it on my home network. I really haven't touched it now that it is my active network router. My family will kill me if I disrupt our network operation now. It will take me some trial and error to go back and figure out exactly what I did.

The following is what I wrote down:
set password
set system time zone
Enable 5Ghz Guest wi-fi
Enable 2.4Ghz Guest wi-fi
rebooted
Switch to LuCi in advanced settings
Change to Bootstrap Dark under System Properties
Go to Network Devices
add bridge device br-iot "save"
add network device ra2 "save"
add network device rax2 "save"
Save and Apply
reboot
Network Wireless - add radios for IOT
configure then Save and Apply
reboot
Log back into LuCi
Network - Interfaces
Configure IOT to add br-iot "save"
Save and Apply
reboot
SSH to router root@192.168.8.1
edit /etc/config/wireless to add ifname settings
Save and reboot
Edit Firewall

I hope the above helps a little at least, even though it is incomplete.

Sweatbee

2 Likes
16

Does iot network now show in the VPN dashboard for you? There is option where you can configure the VPN proxy mode to be based on the source network. Out of the box, it will show a toggle for network 'Private' and 'Guest'.

By the way, kudos get this working. Im shocked that something that is actually rather simple to do in vanilla Openwrt, isn't straightforward with Glinet's openwrt fork. There is no guide anywhere to create more networks. But I seen many posts here asking.

17

I don't know. I have not set up my PIA VPN on the router.