Joined: 30 May 2017 Posts: 582 Location: Rural Manitoba
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 15:13 Post subject: VAP problems on wrt's when in client mode
Last night I lost my link to my 3200 so I was forced to do some testing and reconfiguring. Since I had a 2.4ghz ap running on it I was able to access and check the syslog, which showed me nothing of value. At the time I was running a 160mgz link from my master 3200 and thought maybe it was due to that so I dropped it to 80mhz and switched to channel 149 (UU+6) which after a rest on the client all seemed well, BUT;
I was running a VAP on this client router to another router (1900) and couldn't seem to access it. I brought up Acrylic and discovered that even though I had changed the channel to 149 the VAP on the client router still was broadcasting on channel 100. I thought maybe a full power reboot would fix the problem however it did not. It seemed that no matter what channel I used for the link, the VAP on the client always tried to run on channel 100 regardless of the width setting. Oh, and this vap was inaccessible even though it was broadcasting.
Out of curiosity I tried the same process on a 1900 with the same results.
Both the 3200 client and 1900 would broadcast a vap on the same channel as long as the primary radio was in AP mode but if set to client mode the vap always seems to defaut to 100.
As long as I use channel 100 I can daisy chain out multiple times without problem, but not at any other frequency. _________________ Starlink & DSL -> TPLink TL-R470T+
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WRT3200acm Master WDS 5GHz 80Mhz CH 100 (+6) r55819
Ath1 2.4Ghz Disabled
99 Static Leases
ExpressVPN
WRT3200acm r55819 WDS Station 5Ghz
Ath1 AP N/G Mixed Channel 11 HT40
WRT1900Ac V1 5Ghz r55819 WDS Station
(Defective, no 2.4Ghz but 5Ghz works great)
WRT1900AC V1 5Ghz AC 80Mhz WDS Station r55819
2.4Ghz AP Ch1 HT20 Mixed
WRT1900ACS SPARE r54914
WRT1900AC SPARE r54914
WRT1900AC V1 5Ghz AC 80Mhz WDS-AP r55819
2.4Ghz AP Ch1 HT20 Mixed
WRT54G DD-WRT v3.0-r37305 micro AP CH 6 Mixed - Not in use
Joined: 04 Aug 2018 Posts: 1447 Location: Appalachian mountains, USA
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 22:40 Post subject:
My travel router uses 2.4 GHz in client mode to connect to a host router, typically in a hotel. This is effectively my WAN link. Then all my devices connect to my 5 GHz radio in AP mode. On that 5 GHz radio I have two VAPs, so there are three 5 GHz SSIDs to choose from. All three work just fine, of course on one channel, which I choose in the ath0 wireless config section.
It sounds like you are trying to run a VAP on the radio in client mode that provides the WAN link. I'm not an expert in this stuff and can't really offer detailed debugging here, but I do not think this is possible. I think a VAP has AP in the name for a reason. I don't think one radio can be both a client and an AP. _________________ 2x Netgear XR500 and 3x Linksys WRT1900ACSv2 on 53544: VLANs, VAPs, NAS, station mode, OpenVPN client (AirVPN), wireguard server (AirVPN port forward) and clients (AzireVPN, AirVPN, private), 3 DNSCrypt providers via VPN.
Joined: 30 May 2017 Posts: 582 Location: Rural Manitoba
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2019 23:12 Post subject:
SurprisedItWorks wrote:
It sounds like you are trying to run a VAP on the radio in client mode that provides the WAN link. I'm not an expert in this stuff and can't really offer detailed debugging here, but I do not think this is possible. I think a VAP has AP in the name for a reason. I don't think one radio can be both a client and an AP.
You're absolutely on this one. Normally I have all my client routers linked by 5Ghz and run AP's on the 2.4Ghz for cameras and control devices.
In an effort to reduce the load on my master I setup my remote 3200 to connect to a 1900 on the 5Ghz. At the time I was running on channel 100 160Mhz spread which seemed to work fine.
I have since jumped back to 80Mhz spread and allow all remote routers to connect to the master. I just found it strange that as long as I was on channel 100 the setup would work since I thought as you that being in client mode the 5Ghz could not support a VAP. _________________ Starlink & DSL -> TPLink TL-R470T+
->
WRT3200acm Master WDS 5GHz 80Mhz CH 100 (+6) r55819
Ath1 2.4Ghz Disabled
99 Static Leases
ExpressVPN
WRT3200acm r55819 WDS Station 5Ghz
Ath1 AP N/G Mixed Channel 11 HT40
WRT1900Ac V1 5Ghz r55819 WDS Station
(Defective, no 2.4Ghz but 5Ghz works great)
WRT1900AC V1 5Ghz AC 80Mhz WDS Station r55819
2.4Ghz AP Ch1 HT20 Mixed
WRT1900ACS SPARE r54914
WRT1900AC SPARE r54914
WRT1900AC V1 5Ghz AC 80Mhz WDS-AP r55819
2.4Ghz AP Ch1 HT20 Mixed
WRT54G DD-WRT v3.0-r37305 micro AP CH 6 Mixed - Not in use
Joined: 04 Aug 2018 Posts: 1447 Location: Appalachian mountains, USA
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2019 0:43 Post subject:
Yeah I have to agree. That channel 100 exception is quite a strange quirk. I have no idea what to make of that. _________________ 2x Netgear XR500 and 3x Linksys WRT1900ACSv2 on 53544: VLANs, VAPs, NAS, station mode, OpenVPN client (AirVPN), wireguard server (AirVPN port forward) and clients (AzireVPN, AirVPN, private), 3 DNSCrypt providers via VPN.
