Enhance your router with OpenWRT
Raise your router with OpenWRT
Use OpenWRT to make the most of your router
(Image: © deepblue4you)
If y'all think your wireless router is only skillful enough to dish out IP addresses to continued devices around your business firm, you need to infuse new life into it with the OpenWRT firmware.
Just every bit y'all tin can supersede the operating system on your figurer and on your Android telephone, you tin flash a new firmware on your router too.
In fact, there are several embedded operating systems designed for routers, but few offer as much dexterity equally OpenWRT. The open up source embedded Linux distro offers a lot more than options out of the box than your router'southward stock firmware. Moreover it can exist fleshed out though a Linux-like parcel management system.
Features
OpenWRT supports thousands of additional packages that you can use to add all sorts of extra functionality to your router.
For instance, Airbnb hosts tin can use OpenWRT to create a guest WLAN that enables access to the Internet, but not their internal network. Similarly, small businesses can use OpenWRT to set a virtual private network (VPN) based on OpenVPN or WireGuard.
If your router has a USB port, yous can claw up a USB disk and employ it as a network attached storage (NAS), or stream content across the network. You tin can also connect a USB webcam for live video surveillance, or for streaming video.
While OpenWRT works with a host of routers, its developers suggest it works all-time with multi-core, ARM-based devices with at least 256 MB of RAM for adequate performance for most tasks. Also, while a router without USB support tin nevertheless exist used equally a web or application server, a USB port can extend the utilise of the router manifold.
Installation
Loading new router firmware volition vary based on the make of your router. The page for your router on OpenWRT's website will have the exact steps.
Broadly speaking the project produces two types of images for supported routers. If you are installing OpenWRT for the first time you'll need a Factory image. If y'all are upgrading from one OpenWRT version to another you lot need the Sysupgrade image.
Generally speaking you tin can flash the OpenWRT prototype on your router through the firmware upgrade page on its stock firmware.
Recollect however that earlier you flash the firmware, make sure you connect the router to your computer via an Ethernet cable. The flashing procedure can take a few minutes, and you shouldn't interrupt the procedure. Once it'due south complete, the router will automatically reboot.
Initial configuration
Once the router has been flashed and restarted, fire up a browser on the computer continued to the router via the ethernet cablevision and head to 192.168.1.one, which is the default address that OpenWRT assigns to the routers.
This volition bring upward a login folio. OpenWRT uses the root user every bit the default ambassador, which past default doesn't have a password. You tin can login and configure the router without setting a countersign, merely OpenWRT volition keep displaying a imprint at the top of the administration interface to remind you to ready a password, until you do so.
To set a password for the root user, log in to the administration page, and head to System > Assistants. Enter a password and click the Save & Apply button to finalize the changes.
As you might have noticed, the administration interface also has a Save button. Y'all can use this button to save changes across multiple tabs, without committing them to the router. Once y'all have made all the changes, you tin ask OpenWRT to commit them to the router with the Salve & Apply button.
Before proceeding farther, information technology's also a good idea to enable SSH access to log into your router from the terminal. While the graphical administration interface offers a lot of flexibility, some tasks take a lot less time when done from the command-line interface (CLI).
To enable SSH admission, switch to the SSH Access tab from under System > Administration. Click the Add instance button to add a Dropbear instance to connect to the SSH server within OpenWRT. You tin can safely leave the other settings to their default values, and click Save & Employ to bring the SSH server online.
Yous can now connect to the router either using the ssh control from a Linux motorcar, such as ssh root@192.168.i.1, or using a SSH client similar PuTTY from Windows. The password will be the same as the one y'all've set for the root user.
Setup WiFi
The last bit of configuration that you need to practise before y'all can play around with the interesting stuff is setting up the WiFi, which is desabled by default for security reasons.
To allow computers in your network to connect to your OpenWRT router over WiFi, head to Network > Wireless. This folio will listing all the wireless radios in your router. Many modern routers accept multiple routers, 1 for ii.4Ghz, and another for 5Ghz, but the process of setting up either is the same.
Begin by clicking the Add push button corresponding to the radio you lot want to configure. Scroll downwards to the Interface Configuration section, make sure the Mode is set to Access Point, and enter the ESSID of the wireless network in the space provided.
Then switch to the Wireless Security tab, and use the pull-down menu to select the WPA2-PSK encryption, which is what OpenWRT recommends for small-scale/dwelling role users. Then enter the password in the Primal textbox.
And so switch to the Advanced Settings tab, to select the correct land code for your OpenWRT router to ensure it meets the state'south legal regulations. You can leave the other settings to their default values, or tweak them according to your needs.
Click Salve, and repeat the steps for the other radio if your router has one. When you're done, click Relieve & Apply. You can now scan and connect to your router using the ESSID and the specified countersign.
You can now access the OpenWRT router from any computer or device on your network.
Conclusion
You tin now flesh out your router equally per your needs. One of the best things most OpenWRT is its ample documentation that have step-by-step instructions for virtually all popular tasks, such as setting upwardly a captive portal, configure dynamic DNS, setup a NAS, and a lot more.
With almost 2 decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to recall he'due south TechRadar Pro's practiced on the topic. Of course, he'south but as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
Source: https://www.techradar.com/how-to/enhance-your-router-with-openwrt
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