Recommendation needed

Technical Support for Routers
1

Hi I am using openvpn mainly as my travel router. Currently I’m using qotom installed with full fledge sophos to establish site2site and a slate as the wifi AP.

Now my problem is that, the qotom device is bulky and heavy.
Brume might solved my problem as the openvpn throughput is sufficient.
But my problem is that, in the places where they only have wifi as WAN, I will need to use 2x slate with Brume to allow it to connect to WiFi as WAN and the other slate to act as AP.
Is there any recommendations or out of the box supported USB wifi that Brume can use so it can connect to hotel WiFi as WAN? Preferably with 5GHz band support.

2

802.11ac, AP use, USB, and “reliable” are pretty much an impossible set of requirements.

Are you sure you can’t use a single GL-AR750S?

As long as:

  • The STA and the AP are on the same channel
  • You’re willing to accept the repeater effect

I would think a single GL-AR750S would suffice.

The one case I can easily think of is if the channel to which you are obtaining 802.11ac service from is changing. In that case, use of a USB-attached, 802.11ac adapter in STA mode would be able to mitigate that issue.

There has been quite a bit of discussion around USB-attached, 802.11ac adapters on the OpenWrt forums. Admittedly, I haven’t paid much attention to STA-only operation.

3

Problem is. You will need the Brume to process the openvpn.
So it will looks like this:

Hotel WiFi – Slate (WISP Client) – Brume – Slate (Client AP)

I’ll check out the USB ac on openwrt forum.

Does anyone know will RALINK USB WIFI RT5370 will works with Brume to allow it to connect to hotel WiFi?

4

@alzhao does GL-USB150 usable as WISP client for Brume?

5

I am not sure what you mean.

USB150 works as WISP client. But Brume does not have wifi.

Do you mean that you want to plug USB150 to Brume directly and work as wifi?

6

One Slate, one Brume, even one cable and one port on each device if you use VLANs!
(And possible to do with a single cable without VLANs as well)

Hotel Wireless
       |
Slate STA interface <--- VLAN mmm ---> Brume "VPN out" interface
Slate AP interface  <--- VLAN nnn ---> Brume "VPN in" interface
       |
Your clients
7

Hi @alzhao, yes. Can I plug it into Brume, and Brume identify it as WAN source?

8

Hmmm interesting, I never try this before. Will try to explore.

9

Yes you can. USB150 will create a Ethernet interface in Brume and then you can use that as WAN. Brume will think it is Tethering, e.g. a phone.

Check here

10

Nice… I asked through Facebook messenger and was told it’s not possible. Lucky I asked again here

11

Maybe they didn’t understand what you mean.

For technical questions always here.

1 Like
12

Hi Jeff,

Can you give me more hand holding guide. I can see how to set VLAN under the switch config in Luci, but I am not sure how to set it for the Wireless.
is this setting covered under [OpenWrt Wiki] Configure A(ccess) P(oint or 'hotspot') + STA(tion or 'client') ?

13

Which devices do you have now?

As I understand it, you want to be able to:

  • Use “Device 1” as a router/firewall
  • Use “Device 2” as a client of a “public” wireless
  • Use Device 2 to offer an AP to your other clients, that “repeats” the public wireless
14

Hi @jeffsf, I have brume and slate.

What I wanted to do. To use slate as wifi bridge for brume so slate LAN as Brume WWAN. Brume will run openvpn client, And then, use the same slate to transmit processed VPN traffic to Mobile phone as an AP

1 Like
15

My apologies for not getting back with you quicker – with the US Holiday and some bad weather here near San Francisco, things were a bit of a mess. Let me look more carefully at my Brume’s configuration approach and I’ll sketch it out for you in the next day or two. Are you comfortable editing the config files directly or do you use the GUI for configuration?

16

Hi Jeff,

GUI preferable, but I’m quite comfortable with issuing command through cli too.

1 Like