How to auto connect vehicle installed MT300N v2 to open Wifi Hotspots automatically?

Hello Good People,
After reading the forum threads for a week I decided to become a member with the hope of sharing and exchanging of ideas.
I just received my MT300N v2 and getting ready for a road trip with several seniors that now have smart tablets.

Is there a startup script that can be added to the MT300N to connect to any new nearby open Wifi Hotspot automatically? I hope my senior guest will not have to go inside coffee shops, and department stores to get online if the MT300N can pickup a strong enough signal.

Back in my DD-WRT days this startup script did the deed
nvram set wl_ssid=“”

Someone mentioned installing Psiphon as an option?
Any help would be much appreciated.

The router does not have this feature now.

Hello friend,
Thanks for the response.

Did it ever have that feature?
I really need to get this up and running. Would DD-WRT be the better option instead of OpenWRT for this feature? Could I downgrade the firmware?

Thanks

Yes, it does not have this feature. I have not tried DD-WRT, so I don’t know if it can.

@Pamela

I’m pretty sure that when you connect to a network via WISP mode and “Save network” then the next time the network is “available” then it should auto connect so I guess you could either preconnect to the networks before the road trip and save the network if feasible or if you know the name of the open hotspot then you could manually add the hotspot details to the file that contains the “saved networks” (sorry I don’t know what it is :joy:)

I’m not sure if that’s a handy feature or a potentially dangerous feature of DD-WRT. I personally wouldn’t just attach to any old open hot spot and start surfing. :thinking:

Thank you for the tip :slight_smile:
Sadly I see DD-WRT doesn’t install on v2 of the MT300N router.

Any cool scripts to a least get me started or would I have to continue to access the webUI to manually add hotspots?

Thanks

@Pamela

Sadly I’m no OpenWRT expert but I am a chronic fiddler :slight_smile:

The saved networks file is /etc/config/ssids

config network
option ssid ‘TelstraAXXXX’
option key ‘XXXXXXXXXX’
option disabled ‘0’
option encryption ‘psk2’
option device ‘mt7628’

config network
option ssid ‘Telstra Air’
option disabled ‘0’
option encryption ‘none’
option device ‘apcli0’

As this shows my main WISP network and also an open Wifi network I just added and editing this file adds “saved networks” so perhaps try editing that with your known open networks…

If you populated this with your known open networks e.g. McDonalds, Starbucks etc then this may do what you want it to do.

config network
option ssid ‘McDonalds’
option disabled ‘0’
option encryption ‘none’
option device ‘apcli0’

config network
option ssid ‘Starbucks’
option disabled ‘0’
option encryption ‘none’
option device ‘apcli0’

config network
option ssid ‘Free-Wifi-1’
option disabled ‘0’
option encryption ‘none’
option device ‘apcli0’

I have just tested this:

Create 2 saved WiFi networks.
Network 1
Network 2

Connect to network 1.
Turn off network 1.
The Mango connects (after a little time) to network 2.

So I’d suggest maybe having a play around with this. It may well do what you want it to do (albeit connecting to only named hotspots NOT ANY open hotspot) !

YMMV :slight_smile:

Very Nice!
I am starting to get the picture, thanks for the tip, its very much appreciated.

Thank you:smiley:

AR150/AR300 - different chipset than Mango

The AR’s are Atheros - well understood and very open, well supported by the larger community.

The MT is closed source, and different from the FOSS drivers, so hard to work issues at the driver level.

It’s not that the MT is bad - just a bigger challenge to work with.

Thanks for the response.
I think your on to something, I will switch out the MT300N for the GL-AR300M with the 2 dBi antennas. Would 9 dBi antennas make a difference?

Thank you :slight_smile:

Hi gain antennas generally don’t help much, and can actually hurt performance.

Thank you my friend for the response
2 dBi Low gain antennas here I come!

Thank you :slight_smile:

Hi Pamela,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

Although it is easy to tell these routers to scan and pick any available Router Access Point and to have it remember it, it would be great if these routers had an option for automatically connecting to any open AP (Access Point - router).

I have been researching this after reading your post, and there is a script called “AutoAP” available.

AutoAP - DD-WRT Wiki
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Autoap

I do not know the best way to install and activate this script in these routers using Linux LuCI, but it might be in the link I provided. I would also like to know how to do this in a safe way that does not mess up my router.

FYI: Some other articles

Finally got 802.11r roaming working : openwrt

802.11r (Fast-Roaming) in LUCI - Installing and Using OpenWrt / Network and Wireless Configuration - OpenWrt Forum

FYI: Is higher or lower antenna gain better?
higher has more gain, but less of a broad field pattern, meaning it’ll go further but cover less area. Good if your far away and don’t move stuff around, so you can position the antenna for best reception and leave it. lower gain, covers a more broad area, but shorter distance.Apr 4, 2014

Lower or Higher dBi? | Tom’s Hardware Forum

router high gain vs low gain antenna - Google Search
[router high gain vs low gain antenna - Google Search](http://google search for router high gain vs low gain)

Hope this helps …

Regards,
Phil (phd21)

Is it good to connect to open AP randomly?