RT-N66U DNS/DHCP in AP Mode

[gijor33]

Hi Guys,

My first post.

I've been searching and can't for the life of me figure it out. Perhaps my search strings are not correct

In AP mode, you lose some functionality by default, such as DHCP/DNS

I tried the command

 admin@ASNet-WIFI:/tmp/home/root# service restart_dnsmasq

Done.
admin@ASNet-WIFI:/tmp/home/root#

The output shows Done very quickly with no other messages
But when I look for the service, the output is

admin@ASNet-WIFI:/tmp/home/root# ps | grep dns*
  432 admin     1420 S    grep dns*

When I put the router in Router Mode and check the services dnsmasq is running fine.

admin@ASNet-WIFI:/tmp/home/root# ps | grep dns*
  298 nobody    1184 S    dnsmasq --log-async
  432 admin     1420 S    grep dns*

How do I restart the dnsmasq service in AP mode? I want to use the router as a DHCP/DNS server and also run Entware for adblocking, web proxy downloading etc. I don't need the WAN port or internet connection function because I have a Fortigate firewall already handling that so I wanted to disable all those features to reduce processing load on the R66U to do everything else.

Thanks
Andy

 

[gijor33]

After having read a bit more, I'm guessing you can't enable DHCP/DNS in AP Mode.

If someone could confirm that, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks
Andy

 

[joegreat]

How do I restart the dnsmasq service in AP mode? I want to use the router as a DHCP/DNS server and also run Entware for adblocking, web proxy downloading etc. I don't need the WAN port or internet connection function because I have a Fortigate firewall already handling that so I wanted to disable all those features to reduce processing load on the R66U to do everything else.

Hi,

My understanding of the AP mode is that there is no DNS resolution on the AP device.
It just forwards the requests to another device - at least in my config (see below) it's that way...

With kind regards
Joe

 

[gijor33]

On the config page, it says " In this mode, the firewall, IP sharing, and NAT functions are disabled by default" so to me that means it's available, but just disabled. So I was hoping I could enabled it in AP mode.

Thanks for the reply

 

[jlake]

Also, it is my understanding that when in AP mode, the WAN port becomes a LAN port. You don't have a WAN port in AP mode. All 5 ports are LAN ports. It becomes a switch. Which is why you can't get correct time, etc..

When I have used my RT-N66U in AP mode, I connected the ethernet cable coming from the primary router to the RT-N66U's WAN port.

 

[gijor33]

Should still be able to enable the services. Getting time just needs an NTP server and gateway configured.

 

[gijor33]

Also, it is my understanding that when in AP mode, the WAN port becomes a LAN port. You don't have a WAN port in AP mode. All 5 ports are LAN ports. It becomes a switch. Which is why you can't get correct time, etc..

When I have used my RT-N66U in AP mode, I connected the ethernet cable coming from the primary router to the RT-N66U's WAN port.

NTP Time works in AP mode but dnsmasq does not work. However, in Router mode, NTP doesn't work but dnsmasq does! Probably because the WAN interface is not plugged in for my topology (should be AP mode but dnsmasq doesn't run). I can put ntpclient -h 130.102.2.123 -s into the services-start, but that's not ideal as it won't update unless the router reboots. I will look into it further tomorrow and see if I can get dnsmasq running in AP mode. Might have to do my own custom dnsmasq.conf file and manually start it in the services-start script as per rayik's setup here http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12553