Broadcom Repeater (brcm-2.4 only)
Applicable: Kamikaze, Backfire, Broadcom.
Tested: Linksys WRT54GL v1.1, Kamikaze 7.09, Kamikaze 8.09/8.09.1/8.09.2, Backfire 10.03. Platform brcm-2.4
DOES NOT WORK: Kamikaze 8.09/8.09.1/8.09.2. Either brcm47xx
Kamikaze and Backfire can be configured as a wireless repeater in AP+STA mode. In this setup a wireless network replaces the WAN as the Internet source and a new SSID directs connections to the Linksys.
The configuration files here connect the Linksys to an unsecured wireless access point (in my case, attached to the cable modem) and creates a new unsecured network called OpenWrt. In the real world you will be using encryption; change your encryption type to wep, psk, or psk2 and insert the correct passphrases/keys, using the commented examples.
Just edit the following two files and reboot!
/etc/config/wireless
config wifi-device wl0
option type broadcom
option channel 5
# disable radio to prevent an open ap after reflashing:
option disabled 0
config wifi-iface
option device wl0
option network lan
option mode ap
option ssid OpenWrt
option encryption none
# option encryption wep
# option encryption psk
# option encryption psk2
# option key 'passphrase'
config wifi-iface
option device wl0
option network wan
option mode sta
option ssid 'Host SSID'
option encryption none
# option encryption wep
# option encryption psk
# option encryption psk2
# option key 'passphrase' |
/etc/config/network
config switch eth0
option vlan0 "1 2 3 4 5*"
option vlan1 "0 5"
config interface loopback
option ifname "lo"
option proto static
option ipaddr 127.0.0.1
option netmask 255.0.0.0
config interface lan
option type bridge
option ifname 'eth0.0'
option proto 'static'
option ipaddr '10.0.0.1'
option netmask '255.255.255.0'
option gateway ''
option dns ''
config interface wan
option proto 'dhcp' |
Notes:
- The secondary wireless network MUST be on a different address range than the host network. If this isn't what you want, you may want to research 'wireless repeater bridge', but I haven't tried it.
- To make sure your setup is working, run `ifconfig' to see if wl0 has an IP address from the upstream router, and `iwconfig' to see if the Linksys is associated to the upsteam router.
- If you run `brctl show' you will see that eth0.0 and wl0.1 are bridged.
- This configuration is apparently BROKEN on Kamikaze 8.09, 8.09.1, and 8.09.2. It WORKS with Kamikaze 7.09 and Backfire 10.03.
- The "magic" comes from the fact that the Broadcom chip really has two wifi interfaces that can be configured to work independently: one as an AP and the other as a STAtion. This functionality is only possible with the brcm-2.4 series firmware that includes Broadcom's wl driver, not with the brcm-47xx series firmware that includes b43.
- As alternative you can try http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/relayclient
doc/recipes/broadcom.repeater.txt · Last modified: 2012/01/05 18:07 by jow