Issues w/ Wireless Client & Repeater (R6250 v3.0-R33555)

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Ellylw
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Joined: 23 Aug 2018
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 14:37    Post subject: Issues w/ Wireless Client & Repeater (R6250 v3.0-R33555) Reply with quote
Hello,

I recently switched back to DD-WRT because of a major mishap with wanting to try out other firmware to see what's new but being unable to go back to my former firmware (AndreDVJ's AdvancedTomato fork) because they were all removed.

I've tried a few of the newer 40#### firmwares, but they wouldn't allow me to connect to my gateway despite following the instructions provided by the wiki for setting up a Wireless Client connection. Afterward downgrading a few times, I kept running into the same issue I mentioned earlier still persisted throughout each version I tried alongside that other issue that made me switch from DD-WRT in the first place: my devices giving me an error prompt for my security key being incorrect for my network connection figured with DD-WRT.

I spent about a day looking for a stable release of DD-WRT because FreshTomato doesn't support WPA2 Personal for Client Mode (the only type of security my gateway seems to be rigged to support), and OpenWRT only provides limited support for Broadcom.

This was when I happened to cross mentionings of R33555 being reliable, so after I installed it and properly set up Wireless Client Mode, I was still refused connection to my gateway, and the only thing that changed was my router's IP address—the subnet.

I thought just maybe Wireless Repeater might work instead—nope, same issue: settings are properly configured based on DD-WRT's wiki but no connection whatsoever.

Is there something I'm missing or doing wrong? I tried disabling my gateway's security, but my router still refused to connect to it. I tried rebooting, erasing NVRAM, different firmwares of DD-WRT, and nothing worked.

These two days of troubleshooting without any good results really makes me deeply regret flashing over the former firmware I used that actually worked for my model.

These are the two wiki pages I used to set up Wireless Client Mode and Wireless Repeater Mode:

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Mode_Wireless

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wlan_Repeater

If anyone could help me fix this, or either has a copy of AndreDVJ's fork of AdvancedTomato for R6250 saved, I would really appreciate it because I feel like everything I have tried with DD-WRT and FreshTomato resulted in nothing good happening.
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kernel-panic69
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Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 14126
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 15:30    Post subject: Reply with quote
Well sh*t. I hate to hear that AndreDJVs fork builds were pulled. I think he was working on a FreshTomato base with the Advanced Tomato UI, if I remember right?

Anyhow, these modes in DD-WRT for K3.x and up may or may not work, it is a known issue. I haven't tried WPA2 on wireless client / ethernet bridge in FreshTomato, but the version I am running isn't even posted publicly, it is a private test build @ 2019.3.180. Which version of FT were you trying to use?
Ellylw
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Joined: 23 Aug 2018
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Location: United States

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 15:56    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
Well sh*t. I hate to hear that AndreDJVs fork builds were pulled. I think he was working on a FreshTomato base with the Advanced Tomato UI, if I remember right?

Anyhow, these modes in DD-WRT for K3.x and up may or may not work, it is a known issue. I haven't tried WPA2 on wireless client / ethernet bridge in FreshTomato, but the version I am running isn't even posted publicly, it is a private test build @ 2019.3.180. Which version of FT were you trying to use?


It was really disheartening to find out, but he's thankfully still providing support for R7000 and R8000 because he owns those routers—I think ASUS A1/A2 as well from what I read. Whenever I can afford to replace my router, I'm certainly going to upgrade to either of those two routers to stick to his firmware; he's really something.

Here's a discovery post about it if you want to read it: https://www.reddit.com/r/TomatoFTW/comments/bljhuk/andredvj_advancedtomato_downloads_removed/

Also, yeah, I believe his is a fork of FreshTomato with AdvancedTomato's UI, but I did wonder from time to time if it was actually just a fork of AdvancedTomato that used Shibby's Tomato. I did notice that it was a modified version of AdvancedTomato because there were tweaks in it I didn't see in the original AdvancedTomato and FreshTomato that actually helped with getting my connection flawlessly going besides the one little odd issue I had with missing channels.

Ohh, that exactly explains quite a lot because the issue persisted no matter which firmware I used beyond the one I'm using now, and this is the FreshTomato I flashed over AndreDVJ's AdvancedTomato: https://exotic.se/freshtomato/?p=159

I honestly have no idea where to find stable firmware for my model since DD-WRT's forums are a confusing and ancient place.

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

The page above tells me "r6250 build 23082 20131212" for my model, but I didn't know where to find it, and searching for it led me to another sad discovery regarding Kong retiring.
kernel-panic69
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Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 14126
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 16:59    Post subject: Reply with quote
The last public (beta) of FT is 2019.3.118 : https://exotic.se/freshtomato/?p=165 . I have my own git repo for MIPS, but not ARM.

If AndreDJV hasn't removed the recipes for your router, it's not all that difficult to setup a build environment and compile your own. I have thought about doing a fork for MIPS using my FT repo for giggles, but haven't got around to it. He was contributing to FT development at one time, not sure if he is still actively doing that.

The supported devices wiki is a little dated, but a good starting point, most of the time. It is indeed sad that <Kong> has moved on from here. Do you still have your previous firmware file for the version of Advanced to revert back to? Probably not what you want to hear, but it's an option. You may also wish to try 33772 or 35531 builds and work your way forward on DD-WRT, but again, bridge, repeater, client modes may or may not work on ARM. You *can* try looking here: http://ddwrt-kong.clonevince.fr for Kong builds that may work. I don't know how long CloneVince will keep that site up, though.
Ellylw
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Joined: 23 Aug 2018
Posts: 20
Location: United States

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 17:37    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
The last public (beta) of FT is 2019.3.118 : https://exotic.se/freshtomato/?p=165 . I have my own git repo for MIPS, but not ARM.

If AndreDJV hasn't removed the recipes for your router, it's not all that difficult to setup a build environment and compile your own. I have thought about doing a fork for MIPS using my FT repo for giggles, but haven't got around to it. He was contributing to FT development at one time, not sure if he is still actively doing that.

The supported devices wiki is a little dated, but a good starting point, most of the time. It is indeed sad that <Kong> has moved on from here. Do you still have your previous firmware file for the version of Advanced to revert back to? Probably not what you want to hear, but it's an option. You may also wish to try 33772 or 35531 builds and work your way forward on DD-WRT, but again, bridge, repeater, client modes may or may not work on ARM. You *can* try looking here: http://ddwrt-kong.clonevince.fr for Kong builds that may work. I don't know how long CloneVince will keep that site up, though.


That's the one I skipped because of the "beta" flag, but I'll give it a shot; however, I doubt it'll let me set up my router as a Wireless Client or Repeater because it may still be missing WPA2 Personal as a security type like the original AdvancedTomato did. Maybe I can tinker around with it a bit and see what other kind of wireless connection I can make out of it if I can remember what I did with AndreDVJ's.

I honestly have no idea how to compile anything in all honesty—not even code; I don't even know what the leftover files in AndreDVJ's repo do. At most, all I know how to do is tinker with GUIs, tinker with configurations, recognize when something may be sketchy or not sketchy (settings, software, firmware, and so on), and troubleshoot simple things as long as it has an easy-to-understand interface, so basically everything that's rudimentary for PC usage.

Are you referring to the previous version of AndreDVJ's AdvancedTomato? Not anymore. It's long gone, and I wish kept a copy of it, but my network was so tranquil for the longest time that I thought I wouldn't need any firmware again, but that was a mistake to think that since anything can change at any time. I don't mind staying on older firmware at all as long as it works, but I'll give the latest version of FreshTomato a shot, one of those versions of DD-WRT a try, then report back here if nothing works out.

Ahh, this is all such a pain, but I hope someone saves Kong's builds and maybe immortalize them somewhere before that site does go down; I wouldn't want them to disappear forever.

Regarding the recipes and compiling thing, how exactly do I even recognize which files are the recipes for my router? Is there a program or guide for newbies that could be used for compiling those files into something I could use to flash over my router?
kernel-panic69
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Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 14126
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 18:25    Post subject: Reply with quote
If I remember the layout correctly for Tomato, it's the Makefile under release/src*** where the different build recipe options are at -- and all the recipes for 6250 are there (I just checked). Setting up the build environment and compiling your own isn't absolutely impossible to do -- I would probably have to do some magical command-line voodoo to tinker with it as my build environment for FT is set up for MIPS, and I have the path for the toolchain hard-set in the shell settings. Anyhow, it is a learning process if you aren't familiar with Linux or compiling / the Make process.

I have a habit of keeping firmware downloads in case I brick and have to recover and start the fun all over again. Luckily, I have only hard bricked twice. Hindsight is always at least 20/20, if not 20/10, 20/05, or 20/00. Hopefully, you can find a working solution amongst all this relevant and irrelevant text.
ACwifidude
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Joined: 18 Mar 2019
Posts: 56

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 19:11    Post subject: Reply with quote
Seems like a repeater bridge would work:



https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge

I’d install 40270 and give repeater bridge a try: http://ddwrt-kong.clonevince.fr/40270/

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kernel-panic69
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Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 14126
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 19:24    Post subject: Reply with quote
Maybe it won't throw it into a boot loop like it did my R7000P. RB definitely didn't want to work on that one for me, I am not sure if I possibly goofed the configuration, but after reading this in that wiki, I decided not to try a second time:

Quote:
Broadcom dhd driver models (e.g. AC5300 routers) cannot support RB (nor client bridge) modes since the driver is controlled by wireless firmware internal to the chipset. This makes it impossible to implement fake bridge modes, and is not fixable. While it can sometimes work without encryption, there is no guarantee nor official support. The driver will usually crash in these modes.
Ellylw
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 23 Aug 2018
Posts: 20
Location: United States

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 20:32    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
If I remember the layout correctly for Tomato, it's the Makefile under release/src*** where the different build recipe options are at -- and all the recipes for 6250 are there (I just checked). Setting up the build environment and compiling your own isn't absolutely impossible to do -- I would probably have to do some magical command-line voodoo to tinker with it as my build environment for FT is set up for MIPS, and I have the path for the toolchain hard-set in the shell settings. Anyhow, it is a learning process if you aren't familiar with Linux or compiling / the Make process.

I have a habit of keeping firmware downloads in case I brick and have to recover and start the fun all over again. Luckily, I have only hard bricked twice. Hindsight is always at least 20/20, if not 20/10, 20/05, or 20/00. Hopefully, you can find a working solution amongst all this relevant and irrelevant text.


I'm actually amazed that I have yet to brick my own router based on how inexperienced I am in comparison to your experience, but I do make sure to do proper resets and erasing of my NVRAM before flashing—if my router lets me, but so far, it seems very flash friendly for just about any firmware that isn't the same as the one it had before.

I've never used Linux before, but I'll cross my fingers and hope I can compile it correctly; I don't have any faith that I'll know what I'm doing since this is my first time, but I've wasted a lot of time trying to reconnect my router back to my gateway anyway, so I don't know, I just want to stop troubleshooting since this is Day #2 going on Day #3.

So, something called "Makefile" under his release/src is what I need to compile it all together into one of those dot flashing file types accepted by routers? I'm not sure what "build environment" if that's needed for compiling.

Keeping firmware downloads is exactly what I'm going to start doing if they happen to be isolated forks.


Last edited by Ellylw on Sat Sep 07, 2019 20:48; edited 1 time in total
Ellylw
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Joined: 23 Aug 2018
Posts: 20
Location: United States

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 20:34    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have a bit of good news!

While looking through my forum account for Linksys, I found an old post about AdvancedTomato's Wireless Ethernet Bridge, and I remembered that's exactly the setup I used—Wireless Ethernet Bridge with a Virtual Wireless Interface on top of it (both were configured under 5 GHz).

This means I didn't use Wireless Client for AdvancedTomato even though... it keeps calling it Wireless Client when I hit an error related to Wireless Ethernet Bridge.

I flashed to the official AdvancedTomato's build for my model, even though it's been abandoned at the moment, and I followed the same instructions that were shared with me in that post I found again.

Now... here's the bad news: similarly to the issues I kept encountering with DD-WRT's Client Mode, none of my configurations seem to give me a connection to my gateway for internet.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I feel like I'm precisely following each step correctly. These are the two guides I followed for AdvancedTomato's Wireless Ethernet Bridge:

https://www.spideylab.com/tomato-router-wireless-repeater-ethernet-bridge-mode/

https://translate.google.pl/translate?hl=pl&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fopenlinksys.info%2Fforum%2Fviewthread.php%3Fthread_id%3D21678 (This is the one someone shared with me that got my entire setup working last time under AndreDVJ's.)

I'm still going to try compiling AndreDVJ's files into a firmware that works for me anyway, but I'm hoping I can get this new discovery working whilst I work on compiling it just in case it doesn't work out.
Ellylw
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Joined: 23 Aug 2018
Posts: 20
Location: United States

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 20:40    Post subject: Reply with quote
Sorry about the spam, but I wanted to mention that I found the Makefile, and... umm... I have no clue how to make sense out of any of it; however, I did find a few lines that mentioned R6250 and a few recognizable words that might not mean anything important.

What am I supposed to do with all of these lines and codes? This really seems out of my element unless there's some sort of program or guide I'm missing that makes this file more... legible and easier to understand.
kernel-panic69
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Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 14126
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 20:58    Post subject: Reply with quote
This is where we're probably getting ourselves in trouble not discussing DD-WRT. But, to kinda help you out, if you wish to try doing your own compiling, the readme on this page might help, or it might scare you off:

https://bitbucket.org/kille72/freshtomato-arm/src/shibby-arm/

I have a feeling that Andre's repo contains the fixes for the wireless bridge/client modes, since it WAS broken in shibby at one point, if I am not mistaken. I haven't tinkered with setting up client or bridge, etc. modes in FT myself, but you might have better luck with 2019.3.118 beta over Advanced.

Anyhow, if you can't get client bridge or repeater bridge or client, repeater, etc. working in DD-WRT, you have options, I s'pose.
bushant
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 21:35    Post subject: Reply with quote
FWIW, I have Repeater working on R6200V2 using Kong
40270 dd-wrt.K3_R6250.chk file.
Using that file is the easiest way for me to update this router.
Probably will try (again) getting BS on this router soon.

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Ellylw
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Joined: 23 Aug 2018
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 21:38    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
This is where we're probably getting ourselves in trouble not discussing DD-WRT. But, to kinda help you out, if you wish to try doing your own compiling, the readme on this page might help, or it might scare you off:

https://bitbucket.org/kille72/freshtomato-arm/src/shibby-arm/

I have a feeling that Andre's repo contains the fixes for the wireless bridge/client modes, since it WAS broken in shibby at one point, if I am not mistaken. I haven't tinkered with setting up client or bridge, etc. modes in FT myself, but you might have better luck with 2019.3.118 beta over Advanced.

Anyhow, if you can't get client bridge or repeater bridge or client, repeater, etc. working in DD-WRT, you have options, I s'pose.


That makes sense to me; I don't really know since his version was the first of the bunch I used before trying the others I tried yesterday and today, but it does seem to be the case that he fixed it in his versions (and hopefully it has been fixed in the newer versions of Fresh if I can't go back to his version).

It's not exactly scary since it seems like kille72 tried to make it simple and not wall of text with technical lingo all over the place, but it is slightly confusing because I don't know where to input these lines under each step nor which firmware I should be using for what's provided in that page—if some correct firmware relative to what's being compiled is needed.

From what I understand so far, it seems like... it's all done through scripts somewhere within the router? If so, that's surprising to me because I didn't expect routers to be able to compile firmware; I just don't know how my router will do it without internet access. (Update #1: Oh, never mind! I think I found the program mentioned within the same link that's needed for compilation. I believe it's called "Debian"? I'm not sure how to download it since it seems to be for things like CDs and USBs.)

Is there somewhere I can talk with you at your own leisure about this outside this post—possibly PMs if it works here? I just realized myself since the mentioning of compilation and my discovery that we're deviating from DD-WRT; I don't want to get either of us in trouble here, haha.

ACwifidude wrote:
Seems like a repeater bridge would work:



https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge

I’d install 40270 and give repeater bridge a try: http://ddwrt-kong.clonevince.fr/40270/


bushant wrote:
FWIW, I have Repeater working on R6200V2 using Kong
40270 dd-wrt.K3_R6250.chk file.
Using that file is the easiest way for me to update this router.
Probably will try (again) getting BS on this router soon.


I'll download that particular firmware and keep it at the ready if this whole compilation and Advanced/Fresh thing blows over. Thanks to both of you!

I feel like it will in all honesty, but I'm surprisingly an itty-bit optimistic about it. All I know is that if it doesn't then... the firmware that caused me the most problems will be the only thing that works for my router until I can trash and replace it.

(Update #2: Latest version of Fresh didn't work with the same exact settings I used prior to all of this chaos, so I guess 40270 is up next.)

(Update #3: KongAC's 40270 boots me off its GUI before I can even click more than three tabs, and it prevents me from accessing its GUI again until I hard reset my router only to boot me off yet again a few seconds later after changing the GUI's credentials, and setting a static IP doesn't seem to help. I really don't know what to do at this point since it feels like everything I try goes against me.)
ACwifidude
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Joined: 18 Mar 2019
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 0:02    Post subject: Reply with quote
I would clear your browser cache and power cycle the router.

Use a static IP, hard wire in, disconnect the router from all other networks, and reset everything to default settings.

40270 is a good build so just make sure you set everything fresh before you configure it.

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