Howto Easy start of a guestnet?

[bobbobatar]

I would like to use the guest net feature with timers that only opens the guestnet for a certain time, but I would like a 'foolproof' way of enabling this guestnet.

Usecase i something like this: I want my kids to be able to open up a guestnet for their friends when they visit us. Guestnet should be open for preset time, eg. 3 hrs only, then automatically shutdown. (i.e using the functionallity that is in the fw already.
The problem is that kids cannot loginto the router & turn this feature on, its to complicated for them. I would like somekind of script or similar installed on my kids PC so that I can say "Hey, just click on this little icon and this will open the guestnet for your friend", i.e. a script that enables the preset guestnet.

Any smart solution to this need I have?

 

[RMerlin]

The following will enable the first guest network on both radio bands:

nvram set wl0.1_bss_enabled=1
nvram set wl1.1_bss_enabled=1
nvram commit
service restart_wireless

Set it back to "0" to disable.

You could create two scripts with these commands. Store them in the JFFS partition, then have two cron jobs to run these at the desired times.

Note that this will disrupt your wireless network, as it needs to restart the whole wireless network to enable/disable those changes. Something to keep in mind if you really want to make it automated at a specific time.

There is no simple way to make this accessible through a webui however if you still want it to be manually possible to enable/disable. Going to the Guest Network page to enable/disable it is pretty much as simple as you could get it.

 

[bobbobatar]

Thx for very quick answer - and HUGE thanks for your great FW!

I'll try this out, even though it really doesnt solve my problem since I would need some kind of external trigger. Kid's computers are already on intranet so they could create external trigger if there where only a way for the Asus to get that event.

Using the Guest Net Page would mean I need to give them admin uid/pwd I guess?

 

[linkmaster]

Using the Guest Net Page would mean I need to give them admin uid/pwd I guess?

Pretty much

 

[ScottW]

I'll try this out, even though it really doesnt solve my problem since I would need some kind of external trigger. Kid's computers are already on intranet so they could create external trigger if there where only a way for the Asus to get that event.

Perhaps the script could look for a file on a USB drive as the trigger? The cron job could launch the script every few minutes, the script would check for the "trigger" file on USB, and (if found) enable the guest net and delete the file. The kids would only need the ability to create that file on the USB drive to start the Guest net. Disabling automatically after X hours would be a bit more difficult, but maybe someone here with better scripting ability than I can help with that...

 

[bobbobatar]

Yeah, would work! I have 2 hard discs connected via USB. Could easily have a batch file on my kids PC that copies a file there and a cron that is monitoring the file existence.
I think disabling automatically would be sort of built-in already-since if I create a guest net that is valid for eg. 3 hrs. Next time I enable that network again it is already preset to 3 hrs and starts to count down.

 

[bobbobatar]

...but, the more I think about it, it would be nicer with a web-page like http://192.168.1.1/Guest_network.asp but that *only* shows the 'enable' button for a certain guest net, that do *not* require admin rights. Maybe a little checkbox with the settings for guest net that enables the http://192.168.1.1/Guest_networkXYZ.asp page. This page could have limited access from LAN only and maybe certain IP's as well to minimize the risk for tampering.

Can't I make such page myself? I mean, the Guest_network.asp can apparently do the job plus much more?

 

[RMerlin]

...but, the more I think about it, it would be nicer with a web-page like http://192.168.1.1/Guest_network.asp but that *only* shows the 'enable' button for a certain guest net, that do *not* require admin rights. Maybe a little checkbox with the settings for guest net that enables the http://192.168.1.1/Guest_networkXYZ.asp page. This page could have limited access from LAN only and maybe certain IP's as well to minimize the risk for tampering.

Can't I make such page myself? I mean, the Guest_network.asp can apparently do the job plus much more?

All pages would require to go through a login. Excluding a single page requires changes in the httpd service code.