Let us have a nice Wi-Fi range extander be born from the ashes of a long discarded router now, shall we?
I’m going to assume that you’ve successfully:
- installed OpenWRT on your router of choice
- had accessed the admin page
- have your radio0 interface up and running
- have radio0 is connected as a Client to the distant Wi-Fi Access Point
(that you would like to make accessible thru another Wi-Fi Network SSID) - you also have password protected the root user account
- your are able to SSH your way in to the router.
Scenario: [distant_router][ssid:’AP_1′] <—-> [openwrt][ssid:’AP_Extended’] <—> [you_as_a_client]
What for?
- sharing a net connection with your roommate
- giving access to your own network to someone (pseudo-ISP)
- makeshift solution for range extending without fiddling with WPS
The Steps
Log in to your router via SSH and issue the following command:
vi /etc/config/wireless
Press ‘i’ to enter interactive mode, then paste in the following but keep in mind that you have to change the necessary parts of the config to reflect your setup (mostly ssid and the password related stuff)
config 'wifi-device' 'radio0'
option 'type' 'mac80211'
option 'macaddr' '74:ea:3a:f2:3c:2c'
option 'hwmode' '11ng'
option 'htmode' 'HT20'
list 'ht_capab' 'SHORT-GI-40'
list 'ht_capab' 'TX-STBC'
list 'ht_capab' 'RX-STBC1'
list 'ht_capab' 'DSSS_CCK-40'
option 'txpower' '27'
option 'country' 'US'
option 'disabled' '0'
option 'channel' '1'
config 'wifi-iface'
option 'ssid' 'AP_1'
option 'encryption' 'psk2'
option 'device' 'radio0'
option 'mode' 'sta'
option 'network' 'wwan'
option 'key' 'DistantPassword'config 'wifi-iface'
option 'device' 'radio0'
option 'network' 'lan'
option 'mode' 'ap'
option 'ssid' 'AP_Extended'
option 'encryption' 'psk2'
option 'key' 'OurShinyNewPassword'
Source can be found here: source