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Comment by ur-whale | Hacker News Reader

One question I have is: I would like my wifi router to be 100% "invisible", as in: I want the router to behave exactly as if it was an ethernet switch, where devices connected to the router via wifi would behave exactly as if they were connected to an ethernet switch.

In other words configure my router such that the only difference between it and a switch is the fact that connected devices are not connected via an ethernet cable but via a wifi connection.

I specifically don't want any kind of NAT, firewalling, filtering or any other kinf of "smart" features. Just a dumb switch that uses wifi instead of ethernet physical connections.

Does OpenWRT support this mode of operation?

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Yes. If you’ve bought a consumer router, and not an “access point”, it will likely have a Ethernet port labeled WAN. Due to this label, the OpenWRT profile for this model will most likely also set up this port as a WAN port for you by default (where it requests DHCP from somewhere and applies NAT and some basic firewall rules). Just delete this interface, and make the LAN network also span the WAN port. Then disable DHCP and IPv6 RA on the LAN interface. Your router is now a dumb “access point”.

I think you're looking for a secondary router set as a "Wireless Access Point" or "Dumb Access Point". I have the same issue, I have 2 wifi routers, with 2 subnets, and it's a pain for some devices, if I'm connected to wifi on subnet A with my phone, I can't cast Youtube to the TV if the TV is on subnet B, I have to switch networks. https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/dumbap

I'm gonna try to set a WAP/DAP soon.

Can't you disable DHCP on one of them and connect it physically to the other? Won't that make it work as a dumb AP, basically?

They are connected, and defaut gw is set so you can have internet without problem, but maybe I'm just missing additional routes to specific devices, didn't spend much time looking into it since I usually am connected to the right network when close to my TV. Either way, it's an use case for dumb access points so I should set this up.

EDIT: I missed that you don't want NAT. The device below, should be able to run in that mode, but I've only done so with IPv6.

Yes, and if you want auto-updates, check out the Turris Omnia: https://www.turris.com/en/omnia/overview/

It's the best wireless router I've ever owned.

Pros:

  - nice simple GUI for your typical stuff
  - advanced GUI (that runs in parallel) for advanced stuff
  - auto-updates with timely patches
  - open source (inc. their additions) -- based on openwrt
  - developed by a reputable non-profit that's been around since the 90s (CZ.NIC)

Cons:

  - a little pricey
  - current model is a few years old, so it's not the fastest option out there
  - the current model doesn't support 802.11ax

To turn off the firewall, you just uncheck a box. I think all the other advanced stuff was opt-in.

"Router" is a bit of a misnomer, because most products are package deals with routing features and access point features built into a single unit, but there is no recognized word for a "Happy Meal" and the equivalent to "hamburger" is used. The word for "fries" is access point.

Yes, I recall doing this in a topology where I had:

internet-router > dedicated switch > access point

Where nodes on the switch where on the same lan as the wireless clients.

As others have mentioned, this should be possible also if you use the built-in ethernet switch (I can't recall if I ever did that..).

Yes it does, and very well, I just deployed three Flints (GL-AX1800) to do exacly this.

Not affiliated, just a happy customer

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