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Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:24 am
by Jack
Hi guys,

First can i say what a great project this is!! I am a mechanical engineer with hardly any experience of electronics but this has been great fun to dive into.

I have gotten so far as a working linux kernel on the Asus WL500gP V2 model, i have an LCD display working, scrolling the current mpc playing from radio slay but im stuck at the stage where i need to talk to the router via LAN ethernet since i will be needing the internal serial comms for the tuner. I can connect the router to my wireless just fine, everything on the wireless side seems to be working as it should but when i try connecting using LAN i cant seem to ping the router or connect using telnet. These are my router settings:

#### VLAN configuration
config switch eth0
option vlan0 "0 1 2 3 5*"
option vlan1 "4 5"

#### Loopback configuration
config interface loopback
option ifname "lo"
option proto static
option ipaddr 127.0.0.1
option netmask 255.0.0.0

#### LAN configuration
config interface lan
option type bridge
option ifname "eth0.0"
option proto static
option ipaddr 192.168.0.1
option netmask 255.255.255.0
Im a bit of a novice with networking, so i've set my LAN TCP/IP settings as:
Ip add: 192.168.0.185
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1

I am using the 192.168.0.1 instead of 192.168.1.1 since my sky router operates on 192.168.0.1, although im not sure this is correct?

Anyway when i try to ping 192.168.0.6 with a normal or crossover ethernet cable on LAN i get "destination host unreachable" which suggests my computer knows the routers there but something is stopping it talking, also this message is displayed when i ping any address with these settings.
Unfortunately i dare not continue with the project as Jeff rightly pointed out, the next step is disabling the internal serial comms which will make things very irreversible!
I would be greatful if anyone could guide me since i am currently walking blindly in the dark to solve this.

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:23 am
by foo_plinger
Here is my /etc/config/network file in its entirety (I don't see the last WAN stanza in yours)

#### VLAN configuration
config switch eth0
option vlan0 "1 2 3 4 5*"
option vlan1 "0 5"


#### Loopback configuration
config interface loopback
option ifname "lo"
option proto static
option ipaddr 127.0.0.1
option netmask 255.0.0.0


#### LAN configuration
config interface lan
#option type bridge
option ifname "eth0.0"
option proto static
# option proto dhcp
option ipaddr 192.168.1.1
option netmask 255.255.255.0


#### WAN configuration
config interface wan
option ifname "eth0.1"
option proto dhcp


I know Jeff made an update in a later part to this file, changing one of the "lan" entries to "wan". Maybe this will help?

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:14 pm
by mightyohm
You know, it's kind of funny, but I've never tried setting the router to anything other than 192.168.1.1. I wonder if there is a firewall setting or something else that is keeping 192.168.0.1 from working? Actually, the most likely issue is that you can't set the LAN and WAN to use the same subnet, which is what I think you are doing. Try using 192.168.1.1 for the LAN address instead.

One thing to note is that the router is always set to 192.168.1.1 when you hold the reset button and use tftp to load the firmware. This is why recommend using 192.168.1.1, since you can't change the tftp address you might as well use the same IP address for OpenWrt as well.

It's ok that the router's LAN IP is not in the same subnet as your home router. You should still be able to talk to the router via the LAN port if you get your PC's network settings set up correctly. Worst case, you may need to disable your wifi interface to force your PC to use ethernet to talk to the router, but this shouldn't be necessary.

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:14 pm
by Jack
Ok thanks a lot, i shall try it out tommorow if i get a chance, it sounds like the likely problem from what you have described it is probably a firewall issue or conflict of addresses but i will let you know when its fixed!

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:55 pm
by mightyohm
Sounds good, and if this doesn't fix it I'm sure we can get it figured out. Do not despair! :D

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:25 am
by Jack
Im still having troubles unfortunately. I can manage to speak to my router now via ethernet LAN using the static ip setup on the router but then it will not connect to the internet. Alternatively i can connect to the internet by setting the router to use "dhcp" but then it will not talk to my computer through LAN ethernet. Has anyone got any suggestions? Im figuring it's something to do with my home router setup not allowing a static ip?

This is my settings for when it works talking to the router through LAN but it wont ping the internet.
#### VLAN configuration
config switch eth0
option vlan0 "1 2 3 4 5*"
option vlan1 "0 5"

#### Loopback configuration
config interface loopback
option ifname "lo"
option proto static
option ipaddr 127.0.0.1
option netmask 255.0.0.0

#### LAN configuration
config interface lan
#option type bridge
option ifname "eth0.0"
option proto static
#option proto dhcp
option ipaddr 192.168.1.1
option netmask 255.255.255.0

#### WAN configuration
config interface wan
option ifname "eth0.1"
option proto dhcp

and if i change the LAN settings to use "option proto dhcp" instead of "option proto static" it will connect to the net but wont talk to my computer on LAN.

Anyone got any suggestions what im doing wrong?

Thanks, Jack

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 7:56 am
by Jack
Some more details, i have tried disabling wireless etc to force LAN connection when it is working on the net, i have also set a static address reservation on my home router and tried using 192.168.1.6 for the asus with the router MAC address but still no success.
One other point, i noticed you say to comment out the "option type bridge" when setting it up to talk through LAN, what exactly does this mean, do i not want to keep my asus as a wireless bridge?

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:09 am
by Jack
Well it seems i managed to get it working with a bit of trial an error :S. I have my asus running as a bridge using dhcp and using a crossover cable with static LAN ip settings i can talk to it through ethernet while having it still on the net. I dont understand quite why this works and the other settings didnt but its working now! onto the next step, linking in the tuner!

Thanks guys,

Jack

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:26 pm
by mightyohm
Jack wrote:Some more details, i have tried disabling wireless etc to force LAN connection when it is working on the net, i have also set a static address reservation on my home router and tried using 192.168.1.6 for the asus with the router MAC address but still no success.
One other point, i noticed you say to comment out the "option type bridge" when setting it up to talk through LAN, what exactly does this mean, do i not want to keep my asus as a wireless bridge?
You don't want to use it as a wireless bridge because you want to be able to talk to the router on the LAN ports, not have that traffic passed thru to the wireless interface. If you add a 2nd serial port (USB-serial) then you could use that port to talk to the LCD display, the original port on the PCB for the console, and use the LAN ports for bridging instead.

Re: Help connecting to LAN port on WL500gP

Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:05 pm
by Jack
Ok, i understand what your saying Jeff but oddly enough it is working as a wireless bridge, i can happily talk to it through LAN ports with it running as a wireless bridge. Maybe there is something different in the Asus WL500 model? although this is unlikely because its all software based changes.

Thanks,

Jack