New user help using lan port for vpn

hi
i bought this GL.iNet GL-AR300M16 Mini Router
solely for vpn purposes to hide my torrent downloads
my current set up is
torrent client on raspberry pi connected wired to my main router
plan is
to put this ar300m router between my pi and main router.
i connected the ar300 router to my main router using wlan port.
i connected the pi to ar300 using lan port wired
but i cant see my pi connected to ar300.
should i enable anything?
pi was dhcp
ar300 is dhcp too

Did you follow this?

Yes. Followed the same steps.
I connected my laptop to the gli router via WiFi.
My pi was connected via cable.
Laptop can be seen under connected devices but not my pi.
Will reset and try from beginning.
I want it to be in same subnet of main router.
At the same time don’t want to use WiFi but need wired for full speed for downloads.

If you can gain ip address via WiFi, I don’t think there is any issues on router. How about attach the pi to your main router? Check if your pi works with dhcp or not.

pi gets ip via dhcp when connected to router by wire. but i cant see it when i connect it to gli router by wire

Do you have a try to reboot the router or factory reset?

yes, rebooted home router and gli router both

Does the device’s led indicator is right? The power led and wifi led is lighted. If it isn’t, I think it’s bricked or dead. You can have a try to debrick by this guide to confirm if u-boot works or not.

lights work fine. so i am assuming its not bricked.

@bittihuduga I’m not sure if it is possiable to do it the way you want, at least not with the normal GUI, don’t know if you can do it some how with openWRT.

If i understand you correctly, you it looks like this?:

The thing is, when you connect your main router to the mini router (in the WAN port) the mini router opens a new network, and you now access from the main network.
The mini router can connect to a VPN and all devices in it’s network is going over an VPN, so your pi, which you connect in the LAN port is going over VPN.

If you want that the devices from the mini router are in the main network, you need to connect the main router and mini router via the LAN port on the mini router. This way the main router does the DHCP in the hole network, so you can connect to your pi via ssh from your PC. But you can’t connect to a VPN in the mini router because it doesnt have internet via the WAN port.

I would recommend. to connect the main and mini router via WAN port, connect your pi to the mini router via LAN port and when you want to download some thing on your pi connect your laptop/smartphone to the WIFI of your mini router and start download. Then you can disconnect again and the pi will continue to download.

(I just tried the setup where I connect my mini router with LAN, I can see every device in the network from the mini router when I’m in the main network and the other way around. But I can not connect to the VPN in the mini router.)

The other thing I can think about is, port forwarding the port you need to connect to you pi in the mini router. But I don’t know how to do it.

Actually port forwarding is not that difficult , just did it my self use this:
https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/port.forwarding

Just FYI, do not does this when you want to take the router in an public network!!
Or disable it again when going out in the work. Otherwise people in an public network will have access to your router and you don’t want that.

If you want SSH do this:
config ‘redirect’
option ‘name’ ‘ssh’
option ‘src’ ‘wan’
option ‘proto’ ‘tcp’
option ‘src_dport’ ‘22’
option ‘dest_ip’ ‘192.168.8.1’ (Ip of pi)
option ‘dest_port’ ‘22’ (not sure if needed because it’s the same port but I did it. It had it not the first time and it did not work, but forgot reboot. But did a reboot after adding this line, now it work and I don’t want to change it :smiley: )
option ‘target’ ‘DNAT’
option ‘dest’ ‘lan’

If you add this, you can also access the web interface from the main network:

config ‘redirect’
option ‘name’ ‘webpage’
option ‘src’ ‘wan’
option ‘proto’ ‘tcp’
option ‘src_dport’ ‘80’
option ‘dest_ip’ ‘192.168.8.1’
option ‘dest_port’ ‘80’
option ‘target’ ‘DNAT’
option ‘dest’ ‘lan’

thank you very much for your detailed diagrams and explanation.
if the 2 routers are on different network, then i have a small problem.
i have the hdd connected to pi. this hdd serves my 2 tv and music.
if they are on different networks then i connect to the hdd via samba.
is that correct?

Your welcomen.
I don’t understand you completely.
You have a TV connected to the main router and want to access the HDD (which is connected to the Pi), or the HDD has movies and music on it, which you use on your PC?

As mentioned you need to port forward the port you want to access. So for SMB is it 445 (I think, I newer used samba).
I am not sure how it will be visible for you on your PC, I also don’t know if you use windows (which version)/Mac/ or Linux (which Linux/GUI).
I know that in nautilus (gnome file manager) you can connect to to an IP and port.
I think it would be easy to “mount” the HDD in Linux even through the mini router after you port forwarded it.

I have no idea how this is on windows, mac or an TV.

I don’t know what your main router is capable of. But I would strongly recommend give the mini router a static IP (this should also be possible to do in the mini router. Not sure because I gave my mini router an static IP in my main router). Your pi also need a static IP in the mini router network. I’m not sure how the mini router (gl-inet router) hold the IP, for how long, or how it is possible to give static IP to devices in the network via advance mode.

thanks man… working on your notes now.
i use raspbian on my pi.
and use hdd on tv via android app - kodi