A try with OpenWRT 8.09 in April to setup a WDS with additional AP functionality and encryption, like described in the documentation, failed. So I keeped with my halfbroken solution running on DD-WRT, which is going a bit too commercial these days in my eyes.
Now I have found time to try OpenWRT again for this purpose, since the issue was fixed really fast. I just did setup a stock 8.09.1 installation and then dropped the following into /etc/config/wireless:
config ‘wifi-device’ ‘wl0′
option ‘type’ ‘broadcom’
option ‘channel’ ’5′
option ‘disabled’ ’0′
config wifi-iface
option device “wl0″
option network lan
option mode ap
option ssid “OpenWrt”
option encryption psk2
option key “keyforclients”
config wifi-iface
option device “wl0″
option network lan
option mode wds
option bssid 00:16:B6:19:63:C8
option ssid “OpenWrtWDS”
option encryption psk2
option key “pskforWDS”
And guess what? It worked like a charm! So I could replace the odd DD-WRT boxes. Anyways ... does anybody have an idea where to find the sourcecode of anything > v23 SP1?
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Hi,
While WDS in OpenWrt (8.09.1) is working rather good (some minor problems with getting connected to the 2-nd AP after reboot), I was also esting it earlier usind DD-WRT. I like the more proffesional feel of OpenWrt so I’m sticking with it.
Recently I’ve had an occasion (wireless network labolatory on my university) to establish WDS connection between two Cisco Aironet (don’t reember the exact version) running their IOS operating system. I must admit that it was working flawlessly. Both console and web configurations are very powerfull.
Having a possibility of running very similar config on much cheaper hardware with OSS is great!
What great timing on your post. I’m trying to get WDS on my linksys wrt54gs router running 8.09 OpenWRT to pair up an airport express and be able to extend my network and stream music from itunes. Unfortunately, I have a broadcom wireless chip in the WRT router, and 8.09.1 uses a 2.6 kernel which doesn’t support the (closed & stable) BCM4320 wireless controller. The b43 (open but unstable) doesn’t support the wireless very well last I checked. So I seem to be stuck on 8.09.1.
What I don’t seem to follow though is, where the link to the problem being “fixed” actually shows the WDS being fixed? It looks like it was a change to the nas4wds package changing the boot wait time. I wonder if I could just re-compile nas4wds and drop it into /usr/sbin/ to fix this?
I also ran across a post from a 2005 that said afterburner technology messes with WDS and to turn it off. I wonder if this is something I should look into? https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=1361
The fix can be found here and was linked in my origin post. About your broadcom chip … just use brcm-2.4, that should work since I also have a broadcom chip on my wrt54gl and wrtsl54gs.
Thanks for the tip. I (hesitatingly) reflashed the router with the 8.09.2 RC2 brcm2.4 .trx file you linked to. Upgrade success! I lost my X-WRT webif, but I’ve been SSHing so much I may not even miss it. We’ll see… Unfortunately I still can’t get my Airport express to connect via WDS. It stays with a flashing orange light???
WRT54GS v2, my wireless clients connect to the AP device fine and see the internet. Followed your example for /etc/config/wireless, except I’m not even using encryption on the WDS.
config ‘wifi-device’ ‘wl0′
option ‘type’ ‘broadcom’
option ‘channel’ ’05′
option ‘disabled’ ’0′
option ‘maxassoc’ ’6′
config ‘wifi-iface’
option ‘device’ ‘wl0′
option ‘network’ ‘lan’
option ‘mode’ ‘ap’
option ‘ssid’ ‘WRT54GS’
option ‘key’ ‘###############’
option ‘encryption’ ‘psk2′
option ‘wds’ ’1′
config ‘wifi-iface’
option ‘device’ ‘wl0′
option ‘network’ ‘lan’
option ‘mode’ ‘wds’
option ‘bssid’ ’00:14:51:6a:15:97′
option ‘ssid’ ‘WRT54GS-WDS’
option ‘hidden’ ’1′
option ‘key’ ‘################’
option ‘encryption’ ‘none’
option ‘macpolicy’ ‘allow’
option ‘maclist’ ‘ 00:14:51:6A:15:97′
AE firmware 6.3, I setup my airport express according to these tutorials :
http://logit.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/wds-between-airport-express-and-openwrt-kamikaze/
http://lifehacker.com/400235/turn-your-iphone-or-ipod-touch-into-a-multi+room-wireless-music-remote
ifconfig shows wds0.1 is up, but no packets are being sent/received. Still no luck getting the airport to connect. Can you shed any more light towards my dilemma or direct me to who I could ask for more help?