Trouble With Bridging To OpenWRT Router

[Taikero]

I'm trying to figure out the best way to bridge the following routers:

TP-Link Archer C2600 - OpenWRT firmware - I want this to be the master/host for the bridge due to its AC capabilities.
ASUS RT-N66U - Merlin firmware - I want this to be the client connecting to the master/host, with wired devices connecting to the C2600 over the bridge.

My problem here is that if I set the RT-N66U in Media Bridge or Repeater mode, and attempt to connect to the wireless network that the C2600 uses, it never connects. The C2600's network currently has "Open/None" set for authentication in order to eliminate that as a potential roadblock. I've considered WDS mode, however I haven't tried that yet because as I understand it, that mode halves the Wi-Fi throughput which I'd like to avoid.

Any ideas or thoughts here? Previously when the Archer C2600 had TP-Link's stock firmware, the RT-N66U's Media Bridge mode worked flawlessly. Now that OpenWRT has been applied to the C2600, I seem to be up a creek.

Any ideas? I'd really appreciate some thoughts here. I'm really happy with OpenWRT other than this stumbling block (and OpenWRT seems somewhat obtuse UI-wise), so if there's any advice you have, I'd be grateful.

 

[ColinTaylor]

What firmware version are you running on the N66U?

What band are you trying to connect the bridge with, 2.4GHz or 5GHz? What channel and bandwidth is the C2600 using?

You say "it never connects". Do you see the C2600's SSID? What error message do you get when it doesn't connect? Are there any messages in the C2600's syslog?

Set the authentication method to WPA2-Personal.

 

[Taikero]

What firmware version are you running on the N66U?

What band are you trying to connect the bridge with, 2.4GHz or 5GHz? What channel and bandwidth is the C2600 using?

You say "it never connects". Do you see the C2600's SSID? What error message do you get when it doesn't connect? Are there any messages in the C2600's syslog?

Set the authentication method to WPA2-Personal.

• 380.70 is the firmware version for the RT-N66U.
• 5 GHz band. C2600 has the following specs:
• Mode: Master | Channel: 52 (5.260 GHz)
  Tx-Power: 23 dBm
  Signal: -79 dBm | Noise: -104 dBm
  Bitrate: 6.0 Mbit/s
  
• As for seeing the C2600's SSID, I generally run with my SSIDs hidden, but for the sake of fixing this issue I can set them to unhidden for the time being.

One other big issue I'm seeing with the 5 GHz band in particular is that every time I try to alter settings or restart that band, it fails to restart that band due to a hostapd error. I have to reboot the entire router in order to get my 5 GHz band back at that point. This is mostly an irritation that makes troubleshooting take much longer than it should.

Thu Jul 18 15:43:59 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state ENABLED->DISABLED
Thu Jul 18 15:43:59 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-DISABLED
Thu Jul 18 15:43:59 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING
Thu Jul 18 15:43:59 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Thu Jul 18 15:43:59 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: nl80211: Failed to remove interface wlan0 from bridge br-lan: Invalid argument
Thu Jul 18 15:44:00 2019 user.notice mac80211: Failed command: iw phy phy0 set antenna all all
Thu Jul 18 15:44:00 2019 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (2235): command failed: Not supported (-95)
Thu Jul 18 15:44:00 2019 user.notice mac80211: Failed command: iw phy phy0 set distance 0
Thu Jul 18 15:44:12 2019 user.notice mac80211: Failed command: iw phy phy0 set antenna all all
Thu Jul 18 15:44:12 2019 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (3280): command failed: Not supported (-95)
Thu Jul 18 15:44:12 2019 user.notice mac80211: Failed command: iw phy phy0 set distance 0
Thu Jul 18 15:44:12 2019 daemon.err hostapd: Configuration file: /var/run/hostapd-phy0.conf
Thu Jul 18 15:44:13 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 263.261307] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
Thu Jul 18 15:44:13 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 263.266229] br-lan: port 3(wlan0) entered blocking state
Thu Jul 18 15:44:13 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 263.266275] br-lan: port 3(wlan0) entered disabled state
Thu Jul 18 15:44:13 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 263.272150] device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
Thu Jul 18 15:44:13 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->COUNTRY_UPDATE
Thu Jul 18 15:44:13 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: ACS: Automatic channel selection started, this may take a bit
Thu Jul 18 15:44:13 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state COUNTRY_UPDATE->ACS
Thu Jul 18 15:44:13 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: ACS-STARTED
Thu Jul 18 15:44:33 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: ACS-COMPLETED freq=5260 channel=52
Thu Jul 18 15:44:33 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state ACS->HT_SCAN
Thu Jul 18 15:44:33 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: interface state HT_SCAN->DFS
Thu Jul 18 15:44:33 2019 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: DFS-CAC-START freq=5260 chan=52 sec_chan=1, width=1, seg0=58, seg1=0, cac_time=60s

 

[ColinTaylor]

Try setting the C2600 to a fixed non-DFS channel (like 36). At the moment it's automatically choosing a DFS channel (52). DFS wasn't originally supported on the N66U and was only added later (for EU models only IIRC).

 

[Taikero]

I've changed it to 44. Some of my tablets wouldn't connect on 52 either, but now they will. I'll see if the N66U wants to play nice now.

 

[Taikero]

Looks like I'm in business now! I guess "auto" on OpenWRT for channel selection is not really a good option, considering it selected channel 52 which is outside the "normal" consumer band range.

Thanks for your help! I was frustrated with this last night and didn't even think it could be the channel. I figured I was dealing with some kind of hardware/software mismatch or some other incompatibility.

Thanks again!

 

[Taikero]

A final note here: I had decent success with the lower channels, but it turns out that channel 161 has worked out best for performance and is supported by the C2600 and the RT-N66U.