RT-N66: Asuswrt-Merlin Feature Enhancement/Addition for Guest Networks

[F5ing]

Hi folks,

I use the time limit feature of the guest networks quite frequently and always hoped that Asus would allow time limits greater than 23 hours 59 minutes. Nevertheless after flashing newer and newer Asus firmwares and now Merlin's great enhancements I see that the time limit max is still 23:59. I was wondering how hard it would be to increase that max to something like 99:59. That would increase the max timeout from 1 day to 4 days plus a few hours which would make these guest networks much more useful (for me anyway).

Another thing I thought was rather odd was the fact you can only set AP Isolation on or off for the 2.4g radio and/or the 5g radio. I understand that this may be a harder issue to deal with (and maybe totally "out-of-scope" for RMerlin's project), but why was it not set up to where you can leave AP Isolation off for the main (2.4 and/or 5) network yet turn it on/off for the individual guest networks?

 

[RMerlin]

Hi folks,

I use the time limit feature of the guest networks quite frequently and always hoped that Asus would allow time limits greater than 23 hours 59 minutes. Nevertheless after flashing newer and newer Asus firmwares and now Merlin's great enhancements I see that the time limit max is still 23:59. I was wondering how hard it would be to increase that max to something like 99:59. That would increase the max timeout from 1 day to 4 days plus a few hours which would make these guest networks much more useful (for me anyway).

I will have to see how this is implemented (I never looked at the Guest mode code) to determine how feasible that would be.

Another thing I thought was rather odd was the fact you can only set AP Isolation on or off for the 2.4g radio and/or the 5g radio. I understand that this may be a harder issue to deal with (and maybe totally "out-of-scope" for RMerlin's project), but why was it not set up to where you can leave AP Isolation off for the main (2.4 and/or 5) network yet turn it on/off for the individual guest networks?

Each Guest network has an option called "Access Intranet" that should be quite similar. I would expect clients to be unable to see one another if they are forbid to access the Intranet. Have you tried it?

 

[F5ing]

Thanks much for the quick response!!

I will have to see how this is implemented (I never looked at the Guest mode code) to determine how feasible that would be.

Thank you for a look see.

Each Guest network has an option called "Access Intranet" that should be quite similar. I would expect clients to be unable to see one another if they are forbid to access the Intranet. Have you tried it?

Yeah, tried it. The only way I could isolate two or more machines connected to a particular guest network was by enabling AP Isolation for that particular band (tried it only on the 2.4g band).

 

[F5ing]

I see two lines in the code for what I think is the guest networks page for the UI that appear to pertain to the hour/minute limits that the page will accept from the user. Might this be the only thing that needs changing to allow timeouts greater than one day?

<input type="text" maxlength="2" name="wl_expire_hr" class="input_3_table"  value="" onKeyPress="return is_number(this,event);"onblur="validate_number_range(this, 0, 23)"> Hr
<input type="text" maxlength="2" name="wl_expire_min" class="input_3_table"  value="" onKeyPress="return is_number(this,event);" onblur="validate_number_range(this, 0, 59)"> Min

Or do you think that it's really deeper than this. I realize the code probably just restricts what the user enters and nothing more.

I'd be willing to test this for you if you think that might be all there is to it (that is, if it's worth your time to bother with it). BTW, this is on an RT-N66 (first version).

 

[netmik3]

Test it with firebug

I see two lines in the code for what I think is the guest networks page for the UI that appear to pertain to the hour/minute limits that the page will accept from the user. Might this be the only thing that needs changing to allow timeouts greater than one day?

<input type="text" maxlength="2" name="wl_expire_hr" class="input_3_table"  value="" onKeyPress="return is_number(this,event);"onblur="validate_number_range(this, 0, 23)"> Hr
<input type="text" maxlength="2" name="wl_expire_min" class="input_3_table"  value="" onKeyPress="return is_number(this,event);" onblur="validate_number_range(this, 0, 59)"> Min

Or do you think that it's really deeper than this. I realize the code probably just restricts what the user enters and nothing more.

I'd be willing to test this for you if you think that might be all there is to it (that is, if it's worth your time to bother with it). BTW, this is on an RT-N66 (first version).

 

[F5ing]

Test it with firebug

Thanks much for the suggestion. I'd heard of firebug but didn't know what the heck it was.

Looks promising and I'll give it a shot. Looking to see if there's a way to use it with a portable version of Firefox...

 

[netmik3]

You right click, inspect element and you can edit it live. Built in firefox inspector MAY work, not sure it does live edits or not.

Thanks much for the suggestion. I'd heard of firebug but didn't know what the heck it was.

Looks promising and I'll give it a shot. Looking to see if there's a way to use it with a portable version of Firefox...

 

[F5ing]

Firebug did it. At least for entering larger values. Thanks so much!

Changed the hour max limit from 23 to 99, and it accepted a value of 99. When I did the same to another guest network, the UI responded with the popup message stating to enter a value between 0 to 23, but accepted the 99 I had entered anyway.

Changed "maxlength" from 2 to 3 and max limit to 999 for the hours entry and that worked as well (letting me enter 999 for hours).

Disabling and reenabling the network starts the timer from the previously set value (either the preset value of 99:59 or 999:59).

Apparently Firebug only changes the page that's in memory or cache, right? After closing the browser and reopening it appears the line I changed is back to its original value. And the UI won't allow new entries for hour values greater than 23. Regardless, a network's preset value of 99:59 or 999:59 sticks. I just can't change it unless I go back in and change that line of code.

Now for the testing to see that the timers works reliably.

 

[F5ing]

I can see the preset timer values stored in NVRAM, either 99:59 or 999:59 (but in total number of seconds). So I can see how these values stick after disabling then reenabling (regardless of UI entry limits).

 

[netmik3]

Yes firebug only effects that page. A simple refresh will reset it.