Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 13:47 Post subject: RPi3, VisibleR2, WRT54G
I use a WRT54G as the main router for my LAN. The clients are Raspberry Pis. I would like for the network to be accessible from the internet. I am rural. I use a Verizon Visible ZTE R2 as a hotspot. I would like to use the WRT54G for SSH, ftp, MotionEye OS, and other LAN related functions, BUT, I would also like to access the internet through the phone.
Is there a way to configure the WRT54G so it will pass internet traffic back and forth between the phone and the pis, and also act as a LAN router?
The WRT54G is flashed with build 12548M.
thx Dualfuel
Up to the present we have used the Visible R2 (ZTE) connected to a TP travel router connected to a WRT54G. Its worked for a couple of years now.
I have always wondered if I can use the WRT54G directly. It appears so. Although I have some problems to work out.
I am using an Ubuntu OS laptop to configure the router.
I find its better to configure the router with an ethernet cable directly connected between the laptop and the LAN side of the router (the side with four ethernet connections in a row). When I do this I turn off the laptop's WiFi. This means I have to have all the code present to copy, already on the laptop because I won't have internet access.
Apparently the reason the R2 phone does not let more then one device connect to the hotspot, is Visible is counting the Time To Line (TTL) increments and will not allow more then one increment. The work around is to use mangle to change the packet header in the router (cite this). The code has to be placed in the router thusly:
Login to the router's DD-WRT OS by opening a browser and typing only 192.168.1.1 no https// or anything else.
select the Administration tab
select the Commands tab
In the "Commands" box paste in:
iptables -t mangle -I POSTROUTING -o $(get_wanface) -j TTL --ttl-set 65
Select Run Commands
Select Save Startup
Ok that got the TTL thing fixed.
Now I have to configure the router to connect to the phone and act as a router for my LAN.
Joined: 18 Mar 2014 Posts: 12910 Location: Netherlands
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:56 Post subject:
I will transfer this thread to the appropriate forum.
See the forum guidelines with helpful pointers about how to research your router, where and what firmware to download, where and how to post and many other helpful tips:
https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=324087
I assume you want to connect the router wirelessly to the hotspot, if your clients are only wired then use client mode if you also have wireless clients then use repeater mode (but then the radio is doing double duty and this is already a really old an anemic router so not something to recommend)
Joined: 18 Mar 2014 Posts: 12910 Location: Netherlands
Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 12:34 Post subject:
Excellent, not saying you should upgrade (as this router is not directly connected to the internet there probably is no need) but you are not running the latest build, latest build is 48646.
I followed all the steps except for reading peacock. I had read Peacock a few years ago and will circle back to review, I just wanted to roll faster.
I did the hard reset on the WRT54G v.2 and followed the steps.
I turned on the Visible R2's hotspot and watched the WAN IP address in the upper right of the dd-wrt setup page...no cigar. Nothing but zeros.
I went to the status-wireless tab and scrolled down to the site survey button and clicked that. Here is where the adventure gets weird. All the APs around me, my router, my neighbor's routers, at least 8 of them, appeared in the site survey. The Visible hotspot does not appear. I checked the available WiFi networks with my laptop and other phone. Both showed the Visible R2 hotspot.
I, then, noticed that a MAC address was flashing intermittently on the status-wireless-wireless nodes list. It was the Visible ZTE R2 phone. It gets listed for about 5 seconds or less, then disappears.
My conclusion is that the WRT54G is trying to connect and cannot. Remember though...no address appears in the upper right WAN IP.
To confirm its the phone...I reconfigured the hotspot data on the WRT54G,for my moto Z^3 running on the Verizon network. After the router rebooted, I could no longer connect to it with the ethernet cable via laptop. I had to shut off the ethernet connection, and connect to the WRT54G's wireless connection. That worked, and I noticed immediately that the WAN IP address went to 192.168.43.230.
I could not connect with the internet, but remembered I had done a hard reset and didn't add the TTL commands. Once I added the command. I immediately got internet access on my laptop. In fact, am using same to type this.
Sooooo, the mystery remains.
Why can't I connect to the ZTE R2 on Visible, with my WRT54G, when I can connect to it with my laptop, and Moto Z^3???? Why does the TP Link travel router connect and provide AP to the WRT54G but not the WRT54G directly?
I believe there is a setting that isn't right, something stupid simple but I remain clueless.
@EGC thanks again for those tips.
I checked the signal from the moto Z^3 and it was b/g/n. The router was able to figure that out.
I watched the Status-wireless page and watched as the router searches through the channels. The Visible R2 transmits its hotspot on channel 1. The WRT54G does spend some time on that channel but moves on. I could not find a setting to lock the router on a specific channel.
