TravelRouter#2 - Updated to Routed Client Mode using LuCI

I was pretty pleased with how easy it was to put the GL.iNet 6416a into a Routed Client Mode using LuCI (generic instructions are here).  The basic connection was through an Ethernet cable from my laptop to the router plugged into the LAN port.  The full-up connection is shown in the image:

In the expedience of time I will explain the process in the following paragraphs.

(1) connect the router via an Ethernet plugged into the LAN port and the other end placed into a USB to Ethernet adapter on the laptop.

(2) disconnect the laptop from all Ethernet connections except for the router connection.

(3) log into the router with credentials using your browser; select Network -> WiFi.

(4) click on the Scan button next to the "Generic MAC80211 802.11bgn (radio0)" line.  Select the WiFi network that you wish to join by clicking on the "Join Network" button.

(5) leave "Replace Wireless Configuration" checked, this will ensure that everything is replaced.  Enter the wpa2 passphrase.  Make sure that WAN is selected; this will ensure that the wireless setup is associated with the WAN connection on the router.  Select save.

(6) When the next screen comes up, make sure that WAN is selected.  Click on Save and Apply.

(7) At the next screen you should see the selected WiFi under the "Generic..." line.  Next, click on the Add button next to the "Generic..." line.  Select LAN to associate with this new WiFi SSID.  Change the name from"OpenWRT" if you desire a different SSID for your LAN network connection.

(8) select Wireless Security tab to setup the WPA2 data.  Select WPA2-PSK for encryption and "Force TKIP and CCMP (AES)" from the dropdown next to Cipher.  Add the passphrase as necessary.  Click on Save and Apply.  This will bring you back to the screen with the "Generic..." line.  You should see both the SSID of the WiFi you are connected to on the WAN side, and the SSID for the LAN side.  At this point you are set up.

That is pretty easy setup for OpenWRT.  Next, I got to figure out a couple of different setups including one with OpenVPN back to my house.

TravelRouter #1 - I Bought a GL-iNet 6426A Travel Router

After some looking around, I ended up buying a GL-iNet 6416A Travel Router from Amazon for $24.  What intrigued me about this router was the (1) OpenWRT based system and (2) the ability to reflash it with a new version of OpenWRT if I wanted.  So the first thing that I did after getting the router was to reflash it (instructions here) with the latest Chaos Calmer version.  This eliminated the tweeks that the company had placed on the router, but I wanted to customize my own.  BTW, the company provided a very nice suite of abilities for the novice.  This router was also the basis for the nefarious TOR routers that showed up on kickstarter a couple of years ago.  Those routers were tossed because they claimed original prototypes and manufacturing when in fact they were just repackaging the GL-iNet 6416A.  The following is an image of the router from rednerd.com (his site has a very good description of how to add TOR to this router).

I also immediately set the system to allow ssh connections on the LAN side.  The next tweek was to update the software listings and setup LuCI for web interface.  I did that through ssh (instructions here).  I next setup the router with my own SSID and WPA2 password (without enabling the wireless).  The interface allowed me to choose between putting the wireless on the LAN or the WAN side of things, I chose LAN.  After all that, it would appear that I have about 11.95 MB more space for software.  That means that I can do a lot with it.

My main thought is to setup some standard configurations with some kind of selection through the web interface to easily set the router to what I want.  That may take some doing.  More Later.

Cluster#1 - 802.1q at L2 Along with Routing at L3 in the 1-Port Router

Ok, I am still playing around here with routing and 802.1q.  My latest endeavor is using Quagga along with shorewall to produce some useful home appliances.  Unfortunately, this is all going to be running at a 100MHz clip on Ethernet rather than the nice 1GHz Ethernet lines I have running through the house.  However, I get to play with the outcome.

When I last broached the subject here, I had added the 802.1q capability to the RPi Raspbian load.  I have since been adding a number of RPis, without a clear purpose to what I would do with them.  I now have a quad RPi cluster (shown in the image above) that I can use for some of the networking experiments.  The latest experiment is to setup each RPi in the cluster with a Quagga and shorewall routing load.  Shorewall is primarily a firewall, but with some alterations to the definition files, it will serve its purpose as a router capability.  The Quagga software allows me to experiment with OSPF and BGP routing protocols, the idea being that I can simply configure them and drop them into my network at home at any place and the routing tables will automatically be built for me.

My idea is to use the normal Ethernet interface to the RPi as the connection point to the other Quagga/shorewall RPis on a separate no-mans land VLAN.  I would then use 802.1q to trunk my way into VLAN switches which would then distribute the information as necessary.  I can also modify the way that I am connecting and actually have a VLAN switch capability on an RPi with attached USB hub running to USB-to-Ethernet adapters, each "port" having a trunk line or untagged port.  This of course gets somewhat expensive since the cheapest I can find those adapters is $6.99 at amazon.  I wish that I could find an Ethernet switch adapter that would allow me to experiment with an RPi controller.

Update: as you can see from the new site picture, I have been able to setup the RPi cluster along with some cheap ($6.99) USB to Ethernet adapters.  Now the fun begins!