RT-AC88U with 382.1 firmware Guest hidden network

[tomarius]

Just installed Merlin (382.1) on my router (RT-AC88U) and noticed that guest network SSID is hidden. I tried this:

nvram set wl0.1_closed=0
nvram commit
nvram set wl1.1_closed=0
nvram commit

but didn't do anything

Is there a way to make it visible?
Thanks

 

[ColinTaylor]

Just installed Merlin (382.1) on my router (RT-AC88U) and noticed that guest network SSID is hidden. I tried this:

nvram set wl0.1_closed=0
nvram commit
nvram set wl1.1_closed=0
nvram commit

but didn't do anything

Is there a way to make it visible?
Thanks

I don't know what those variables do, but did you restart the wireless system afterwards to apply the changes?

service restart_wireless

 

[tomarius]

I rebooted the router ...

 

[tomarius]

anyone?

 

[ColinTaylor]

What do you get when you issue the following commands?

nvram get lan_ifnames
wl -i eth1 closed
wl -i eth2 closed
wl -i wl0.1 closed
wl -i wl1.1 closed

 

[tomarius]

1
1
1
1

 

[ColinTaylor]

That doesn't look right. What about the first line I asked for?

nvram get lan_ifnames

 

[tomarius]

xxx@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram get lan_ifnames
vlan1 eth1 eth2 wl0.1 wl1.1
xxx@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# wl -i eth1 closed
1
xxx@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# wl -i eth2 closed
1
xxx@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# wl -i wl0.1 closed
1
xxx@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# wl -i wl1.1 closed
1

 

[ColinTaylor]

So that says all of your SSID's are hidden. Is that correct, or is just one (or both) of the guest networks hidden?

 

[tomarius]

All of them are hidden and I want both Guests to be visible

 

[ColinTaylor]

OK. Maybe whatever is set for the primary SSID is overwriting the associated guest SSID (AP isolation used to do this until it was fixed).

Try this as a test:

wl -i wl0.1 closed 0
wl -i wl1.1 closed 0

Can you see them now?

 

[tomarius]

after that still getting this:
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# wl -i wl0.1 closed
1

 

[ColinTaylor]

Hmm. Looks like it might be a limitation of the chipset/driver.

Just for interest what do you get from this:

nvram show | grep _closed | sort

 

[tomarius]

I had no issue with the factory Asus firmware I had prior.
w10.1_closed=0
w11.1_closed=0
wl0.1_closed=1
wl0.2_closed=1
wl0.3_closed=0
wl0_closed=1
wl1.1_closed=1
wl1.2_closed=0
wl1.3_closed=0
wl1_closed=1
wl_closed=1

 

[ColinTaylor]

w10.1_closed=0
w11.1_closed=0

It looks like those are probably typo's, typing 1 instead of l? So I'd get rid of them just to avoid confusion:

nvram unset w10.1_closed
nvram unset w11.1_closed
nvram commit

Then have one last go at doing it through the NVRAM variables:

nvram set wl0.1_closed=0
nvram set wl1.1_closed=0
nvram commit
service restart_wireless

Then check whether the router has changed them back again:

nvram show | grep _closed | sort

 

[tomarius]

This is interesting

@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram set wl0_closed=0
tomarius@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# service restart_wireless

Done.
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram show | grep _closed | sort
size: 63910 bytes (67162 left)
w10.1_closed=0
w11.1_closed=0
wl0.1_closed=1
wl0.2_closed=1
wl0.3_closed=0
wl0_closed=0
wl1.1_closed=1
wl1.2_closed=0
wl1.3_closed=0
wl1_closed=1
wl_closed=1
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram set wl0.1_closed=0
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram show | grep _closed | sort
size: 64366 bytes (66706 left)
w10.1_closed=0
w11.1_closed=0
wl0.1_closed=0
wl0.2_closed=1
wl0.3_closed=0
wl0_closed=0
wl1.1_closed=1
wl1.2_closed=0
wl1.3_closed=0
wl1_closed=1
wl_closed=1
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# service restart_wireless

Done.

But now both guest and private are visible

@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram set wl0_closed=1
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# service restart_wireless

Done.
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram show | grep _closed | sort
size: 64386 bytes (66686 left)
w10.1_closed=0
w11.1_closed=0
wl0.1_closed=1
wl0.2_closed=1
wl0.3_closed=0
wl0_closed=1
wl1.1_closed=1
wl1.2_closed=0
wl1.3_closed=0
wl1_closed=1
wl_closed=1

 

[tomarius]

@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram set wl0.1_closed=0
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram set wl1.1_closed=0
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram commit
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# service restart_wireless

Done.
@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram show | grep _closed | sort
size: 64356 bytes (66716 left)
wl0.1_closed=1
wl0.2_closed=1
wl0.3_closed=0
wl0_closed=1
wl1.1_closed=1
wl1.2_closed=0
wl1.3_closed=0
wl1_closed=1
wl_closed=1

 

[ColinTaylor]

OK So as suspected, whatever is set for the primary SSID is being copied to the associated guest SSID's. That makes sense because there is no option in the GUI to do that.

However, that still doesn't solve the problem of not being able to hide a guest SSID with a "wl" command.

My last idea is to try and do it in reverse.

Go into the GUI at set Wireless > General > Hide SSID to No and Apply (for both bands).
Then from the router's command prompt try to hide just the primary SSID's:

wl -i eth1 closed 1
wl -i eth2 closed 1

 

[tomarius]

@RT-AC88U-F3D0:/tmp/home/root# nvram show | grep _closed | sort
size: 64406 bytes (66666 left)
eth1_closed=1
eth2_closed=1
wl0.1_closed=0
wl0.2_closed=1
wl0.3_closed=0
wl0_closed=0
wl1.1_closed=1
wl1.2_closed=0
wl1.3_closed=0
wl1_closed=1
wl_closed=0

But I can see my private ones

 

[ColinTaylor]

Did you issue the commands I said or just change NVRAM variables?

eth1_closed and eth2_closed are not valid variables, you should unset them. The relevant variables are wl0_closed and wl1_closed. But as we determined above, that value is copied over the active guest nvram variables, that's why you have to issue the "wl -i" commands instead.