[thicknet]

Router/Version: Archer C7 v2
File/Kernel: build 43099
Mode/Status: WDS Station
Issues/Errors: VAP not working, clients don't get address

on my WDS Station, I have a VAP on 1 one of the radios, ath1.1. ath0 and eth1 work great. Client devices find and seem to connect to the VAP without problem. They then abort the connecting process (I believe because they are never served an IP address. )
The configuration is fairly clean, I started with an nvram erase && reboot. Then configured the system as a WDS Station. Then I added the VAP per #10 the WDS page, saved and reloaded the config. The VAP appears to clients, but they can't successfully connect to the network.

In the VAP (ath1.1) config it's set to bridged, and on the Setup > Networking page, current bridging table includes ath1.1 in br0.

Am I missing something dumb? I noticed this following in the build notes, but I think it doesn't apply b/c my VAP is bridged:
VAPs not working at boot fixed for unbridged VAPs with r40564:40566. Workaround startup command:
sleep 10;stopservice nas;stopservice wlconf;startservice wlconf;startservice nas (there are a few alternatives, search).

Thanks.

[msoengineer]

You never mentioned anything about DHCP.
Did you add the necessary additional DHCP server/s?

Each vap interface will need a DHCP server.

[thicknet]

Added a DHCP server on br1, and ath1.1 is on br1. Devices are still not connecting to the VAP. I didn't add any configuration to iptables (i don't want any isolation), so maybe that's it. Here's the config where I am now. 192.168.2.1 is the network on ath1.1

"Network address server settings (DHCP)" on setup > Basic is disabled.
Didn't add any additional dnsmasq options b/c the following looks close to what it should be (except not sure why br0 is in interface - although if this needs to change, do dnsmasq options overwrite what the GUI produces?).

From /tmp/dnsmasq.conf:

[msoengineer]

The VAP needs to be on BR0 otherwise you will never get the WAN to propegate over to the VAP.

There is no need for a BR1... everything is on BR0

[kernel-panic69]

Some of the info (especially when it comes to wireless security) is likely out of date, but:

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

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Guest_WiFi_%2B_abuse_control_for_beginners

[thicknet]

reconfigured it for ath1.1 on br0 (no br1), with dnsmasq doing DHCP on ath1.1, no luck. I have the VAP as open for testing so there's no security.

[msoengineer]

USE WPA2-Personal CCMP-128 (AES) only, using anything else is asking for issues.

If you need more wifi security, you have other idiosyncrasies to overcome...

[mrjcd]

any network is good on a br1 if setup properly --- worky good on the EA8500
been using this long long time

[thicknet]

appreciate all the help. I've done all manner of configuration permutations, up to installing wireshark on my laptop to see if my VAP clients hear anything, when connecting to ath1.1 NO packets are captured. Connection to ath0.1 starts seeing its own arps, but no reply from the router.

Need to pause for now. I think I'll come back in a few days and install a later build first.

thx again.

[bvideo]

I suppose you have checked there is nothing in the MAC filter page that would prevent connections.

[egc]

One thing different between @mrjcd and OP is that the OP is using WDS STA to connect his router upstream I think

The Wi-Fi drivers have seen a lot of updates for the C7 so it could be that something is broken.

For the OP if you leave the VAP on br0 you can not have a different subnet you basically leave the VAP bridged.

You should be able to unbridged it and have it run on its own subnet either by using the radio itself as interface (that is called the modern way) or make an extra interface (br1) and set it to that bridge

On thing I noticed, the root MAC for br0 and br1 seems the same, I am not sure if that can work.

So you can try to unbridged the radio and set its own subnet but just use the radio 's interface just like you are doing now but do not set it on br0 (that is just wrong I think)

[thicknet]

Thanks @egc.
So the GUI was being picky, but I finally got the config to look right. I was concerned about what MACs need to be assigned to what devices, but configured and reconfigured enough to get:

BR0 (and ETH0): EC:08:6B:ED:93:3B
and BR0 has the following devices: ETH0, ETH1 (:3A), ATH0 (:39), ATH1 (:3D)

created BR1 (and ATH1.1) EC:08:6B:ED:93:3D
and BR1 has ATH1.1, ATH0.1 ( :39) - and BR1 had STP enabled.

I have DHCP 0 serving Interface br1: IP 192.168.2.1/255.255.255.0.

Turns out that devices can connect to ath0.1 (2.4GHz)!! I don't have iptables configured yet so I can only connect to the host and configure the dd-wrt interface but that's huge.

At the same time I can't connect to ath1.1 (5 GHz). I tried that device in both AP mode and WDS AP mode, no luck either way. Remember that ath1 is WDS Station.

Unfortunately I wanted to extend the 5 GHz, and that's not quite there yet.