Deliberate X-Post for reasons that will become apparent.
Back in February 2019 in uk.telecom.broadband I began a thread entitled 'Routers' asking for advice about what routers would match a given list
of criteria, the result of which was that it was suggested to me, by
Andy Burns I think, that I should flash OpenWRT onto a BT Home Hub 5a.
This I did, and have been using it satisfactorily since with a mobile
dongle plugged into the USB port, so, if you're reading this, thanks
again Andy.
For reference in what follows, I'm using a contract Three SIM.
Before explaining the current problem, and/or as a general introductory
note, there appear to be two most common types of these mobile dongles,
the first a serial type that is controlled as if it were an
old-fashioned modem, and the other which creates a self-contained
subnet, which Huawei call 'HiLink'. I think there are other types as
well, but these are the two I've encountered most often.
The first dongle I tried was a Huawei E3372s (s = serial type). It
worked pretty well for a while, but then the connection became flaky and
when I tried unplugging it from the USB extension lead it was almost too
hot to touch.
So next I tried a ZTE MF823, which is a 'HiLink' type, and that has
lasted much better, until a few days ago when a lightning strike in the
area caused a mains spike, and it's been dead flaky since, particularly during hot weather. At first I thought it was the router that was
affected, but I have a spare ready to swap in, and the dongle didn't
work with that either, nor when it was directly plugged into a PC, so,
while the router may have been affected somewhat, the dongle is
definitely on the way out.
I have also a BT 4G Assure dongle, which a rebadged Huawei E3372h (h = 'HiLink' type). I appear to have managed to unlock it, and have had it working in a PC, where I was also able to access its control page at 192.168.8.1, but I can't get it to work with the BTHH5a.
For the ZTE, the relevant part of /etc/config/network reads ...
config interface 'WAN_USB'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'usb0'
... and this 'just works'. However, it doesn't work with the HuaWei,
where, according to instructions found online, the relevant part of the
file should read ...
config interface 'WAN_USB'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'eth1'
... and certainly this seems to get closer to working than the previous setting for the ZTE, in that the 'Interfaces' page of the router shows
some activity on the connection, but I can't access the control page of
the dongle at 192.168.8.1. Curiously, it's the same whether or not I
have a SIM in the dongle!
So my first question is: Can anyone help me get the BT-Badged Huawei
E3372h working?
The next question has been brought about by the above problems.
Anticipating a situation where the ZTE goes down completely, and perhaps
some time into the future the Huawei as well, I'll need a viable
back-up. Previously I achieved this by putting my Samsung SM-T719
tablet into mobile hotspot mode, then using a reflashed Cisco WRT320N as
a client-bridge to it, and connecting one of its LAN ports to the WAN
port of the BTHH5a. This worked very well, allowing me a backup path requiring no changes other than a minimal reconfiguration of the router,
but the Cisco has now died, so the only backup I can think of now is to connect the tablet directly to the BTHH5a via a USB cable, but my recollection of trying this before is of getting absolutely nowhere.
So my other question is: Can anyone tell me how to connect to the
internet from a Linux machine, which is what the BTHH5a effectively is,
via a Samsung mobile?
the relevant part of the file should read ...
config interface 'WAN_USB'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'eth1'
.... and certainly this seems to get closer to working than the previous setting for the ZTE, in that the 'Interfaces' page of the router shows
some activity on the connection, but I can't access the control page of
the dongle at 192.168.8.1. Curiously, it's the same whether or not I
have a SIM in the dongle!
So my first question is: Can anyone help me get the BT-Badged Huawei
E3372h working?
The next question has been brought about by the above problems.
Anticipating a situation where the ZTE goes down completely, and perhaps
some time into the future the Huawei as well, I'll need a viable
back-up. Previously I achieved this by putting my Samsung SM-T719
tablet into mobile hotspot mode, then using a reflashed Cisco WRT320N as
a client-bridge to it, and connecting one of its LAN ports to the WAN
port of the BTHH5a. This worked very well, allowing me a backup path requiring no changes other than a minimal reconfiguration of the router,
but the Cisco has now died, so the only backup I can think of now is to connect the tablet directly to the BTHH5a via a USB cable, but my recollection of trying this before is of getting absolutely nowhere.
So my other question is: Can anyone tell me how to connect to the
internet from a Linux machine, which is what the BTHH5a effectively is,
via a Samsung mobile?
there appear to be two most common types of these mobile dongles,
the first a serial type that is controlled as if it were an
old-fashioned modem, and the other which creates a self-contained
subnet, which Huawei call 'HiLink'.
Deliberate X-Post for reasons that will become apparent.
Back in February 2019 in uk.telecom.broadband I began a thread entitled 'Routers' asking for advice about what routers would match a given list
of criteria, the result of which was that it was suggested to me, by
Andy Burns I think, that I should flash OpenWRT onto a BT Home Hub 5a.
This I did, and have been using it satisfactorily since with a mobile
dongle plugged into the USB port, so, if you're reading this, thanks
again Andy.
I have also a BT 4G Assure dongle, which a rebadged Huawei E3372h (h = 'HiLink' type). I appear to have managed to unlock it, and have had it working in a PC, where I was also able to access its control page at 192.168.8.1, but I can't get it to work with the BTHH5a.
So my first question is: Can anyone help me get the BT-Badged Huawei
E3372h working?
The next question has been brought about by the above problems.
Anticipating a situation where the ZTE goes down completely, and perhaps
some time into the future the Huawei as well, I'll need a viable
back-up. Previously I achieved this by putting my Samsung SM-T719
tablet into mobile hotspot mode, then using a reflashed Cisco WRT320N as
a client-bridge to it, and connecting one of its LAN ports to the WAN
port of the BTHH5a. This worked very well, allowing me a backup path requiring no changes other than a minimal reconfiguration of the router,
but the Cisco has now died, so the only backup I can think of now is to connect the tablet directly to the BTHH5a via a USB cable, but my recollection of trying this before is of getting absolutely nowhere.
So my other question is: Can anyone tell me how to connect to the
internet from a Linux machine, which is what the BTHH5a effectively is,
via a Samsung mobile?
Instead of randomly fiddling with the router config, I'd first see if you
can get a link up on the device.
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
Deliberate X-Post for reasons that will become apparent.
Back in February 2019 in uk.telecom.broadband I began a thread entitled
'Routers' asking for advice about what routers would match a given list
of criteria, the result of which was that it was suggested to me, by
Andy Burns I think, that I should flash OpenWRT onto a BT Home Hub 5a.
This I did, and have been using it satisfactorily since with a mobile
dongle plugged into the USB port, so, if you're reading this, thanks
again Andy.
OK, I've got one (actually two) of those...
I have also a BT 4G Assure dongle, which a rebadged Huawei E3372h (h =
'HiLink' type). I appear to have managed to unlock it, and have had it
working in a PC, where I was also able to access its control page at
192.168.8.1, but I can't get it to work with the BTHH5a.
I also have one of those. But the consensus at the time (about 4 years ago) was that it was impossible to unlock, ie to use on a network that wasn't BT.
So my first question is: Can anyone help me get the BT-Badged Huawei
E3372h working?
Instead of randomly fiddling with the router config, I'd first see if you
can get a link up on the device. For this you'll need to know how to use
the 'ip' command (successor to 'ifconfig'): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iproute2
ip link show
(see if the networking device appears when it's plugged in)
ip addr show
(see if an IP address is associated with it)
udhcpc eth99
(see if it will acquire an IP address via DHCP)
ip route show
(see if it picked up a route to anywhere)
ping 8.8.8.8
(ping an internet address)
The advantage of this route is you can see what's going on, whereas with the GUI it's just random trial and error with no feedback. You do however need to know a little about how Linux networking works.
Unless you can find someone who has already got it to work and written up
the exact instructions what to do, which is possible I suppose.
As you are dependent on 4G broadband why not buy a 4G WiFi router
designed for the job?
On 26/06/2023 11:14, Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
Deliberate X-Post for reasons that will become apparent.
Back in February 2019 in uk.telecom.broadband I began a thread entitled
'Routers' asking for advice about what routers would match a given list
of criteria, the result of which was that it was suggested to me, by
Andy Burns I think, that I should flash OpenWRT onto a BT Home Hub 5a.
This I did, and have been using it satisfactorily since with a mobile
dongle plugged into the USB port, so, if you're reading this, thanks
again Andy.
OK, I've got one (actually two) of those...
I have also a BT 4G Assure dongle, which a rebadged Huawei E3372h (h =
'HiLink' type). I appear to have managed to unlock it, and have had it >>> working in a PC, where I was also able to access its control page at
192.168.8.1, but I can't get it to work with the BTHH5a.
I also have one of those. But the consensus at the time (about 4
years ago)
was that it was impossible to unlock, ie to use on a network that
wasn't BT.
Changes in UK law a year or two back mean that they have to allow unlocking. I rang BT and they gave me an unlock code.
So my first question is: Can anyone help me get the BT-Badged Huawei
E3372h working?
Instead of randomly fiddling with the router config, I'd first see if you
can get a link up on the device. For this you'll need to know how to use >> the 'ip' command (successor to 'ifconfig'):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iproute2
ip link show
(see if the networking device appears when it's plugged in)
ip addr show
(see if an IP address is associated with it)
udhcpc eth99
(see if it will acquire an IP address via DHCP)
ip route show
(see if it picked up a route to anywhere)
ping 8.8.8.8
(ping an internet address)
The advantage of this route is you can see what's going on, whereas
with the
GUI it's just random trial and error with no feedback. You do however
need
to know a little about how Linux networking works.
Thanks, I'll have a go at this next time the ZTE breaks down, which it
may well do this afternoon during the hottest part of the day.
Unless you can find someone who has already got it to work and written up
the exact instructions what to do, which is possible I suppose.
I have found some instructions as below but they didn't work for me ...
https://protyposis.net/blog/using-the-huawei-e3372-hi-link-lte-dongle-with-openwrt/
https://gist.github.com/bjoern-r/1345e8a17f4acf41006330e688af1441
... so, I guess one of two things is happening:
:-( I have a number of other modules installed from using the router with other devices, and one of these, most probably the one that works
with an E3372s, is interfering with the E3372h.
:-( There a different generations of the E3372h and only some of them work.
If the your suggestions above don't yield an answer, I'll try and
include some tail from dmesg as I unplug and plug back in the dongle.
[Snip as last problem now solved. It was observing the messages that occurred from dmesg output as I unplugged and plugged back in the phone
and enabled and disabled USB tethering on it that made me realise that
it was an RNDIS device.]
On 26/06/2023 13:16, MikeS wrote:
As you are dependent on 4G broadband why not buy a 4G WiFi router
designed for the job?
In the original thread, I outlined a list of requirements ...
* Is for the UK market and available here
* Supports A/VDSL, Data SIM (perhaps via USB), & cable WAN
* Has WiFi to n or ac standard
* Has at least three or four Gigabit LAN ports
* When in LAN DHCP mode, properly supports local DNS
* Is affordable, say ~< £150 new, half that used.
... and given that many, perhaps most, commercial routers, even from reputable firms such as DrayTek, don't do local DNS properly, or at the
time didn't have Gigabit LAN ports, etc
On 26/06/2023 13:58, Java Jive wrote:
On 26/06/2023 13:16, MikeS wrote:
As you are dependent on 4G broadband why not buy a 4G WiFi router
designed for the job?
In the original thread, I outlined a list of requirements ...
* Is for the UK market and available here
* Supports A/VDSL, Data SIM (perhaps via USB), & cable WAN
* Has WiFi to n or ac standard
* Has at least three or four Gigabit LAN ports
* When in LAN DHCP mode, properly supports local DNS
* Is affordable, say ~< £150 new, half that used.
... and given that many, perhaps most, commercial routers, even from
reputable firms such as DrayTek, don't do local DNS properly, or at
the time didn't have Gigabit LAN ports, etc
Plenty now have 4 LAN ports,
many do support A/VDSL & cable WAN (with 4G
Data SIM for backup) but you don't have a landline or cable service so
those "issues" are gone anyway, in the
event of "don't do local
DNS properly" you can always use something like DNSMasq on your server
(or even with a dedicated raspberry pi).
On 26/06/2023 17:32, MikeS wrote:
On 26/06/2023 13:58, Java Jive wrote:
On 26/06/2023 13:16, MikeS wrote:
As you are dependent on 4G broadband why not buy a 4G WiFi router
designed for the job?
In the original thread, I outlined a list of requirements ...
* Is for the UK market and available here
* Supports A/VDSL, Data SIM (perhaps via USB), & cable WAN >>> * Has WiFi to n or ac standard
* Has at least three or four Gigabit LAN ports
* When in LAN DHCP mode, properly supports local DNS
* Is affordable, say ~< £150 new, half that used.
... and given that many, perhaps most, commercial routers, even from
reputable firms such as DrayTek, don't do local DNS properly, or at
the time didn't have Gigabit LAN ports, etc
Plenty now have 4 LAN ports,
Yes, most of them have 4 LAN ports, but that is not the full criteria. Supposedly, gigabit has been with us since 1998, yet even 20 years later
it was still common to find routers with only fast ethernet ports, or
with only one of them gigabit.
many do support A/VDSL & cable WAN (with 4G
Data SIM for backup) but you don't have a landline or cable service so
those "issues" are gone anyway, in the
... actually, likely, ...
event of "don't do local
DNS properly" you can always use something like DNSMasq on your server
(or even with a dedicated raspberry pi).
I don't want to have to setup and configure another box to do something
that the router should be doing for itself, it makes more sense to do
what I did, just create a router that works properly.
AIUI, according to the DNS specs, when given a machine name to find, a
DNS service should look for the name first in its local database, and if
it can't find it there, relay it upstream to the WAN server. However, scandalously IMO, very few routers seem to implement this properly,
usually they offer a choice to act as a relay, in which case there is no local DNS, or act as a server, in which case there is no WAN DNS.
AFAICR *all* the commercial and ISP-provided routers that I've ever had,
and certainly until a year or two back, and very possibly still, even expensive routers such as DrayTek Vigor *still* have this trouble.
Sure, I understand that with DV there are work-arounds involving
entering the names of local machines into some table in the DV system in
some way, but it shouldn't be necessary to do this if the DNS service is
set up properly in the first place.
The reason for this widespread mode of failure is easy enough to
understand. Where the routers are used *ONLY* with Windows PCs, by
default Windows NetBIOS over TCP/IP runs a Computer Browser service
which makes the first PC to power-up on the network the 'Master
Browser', which others powering-up later can query for machine names.
Thus NetBIOS completely masks the failure of most routers to perform DNS properly. The fault only becomes apparent when there are Linux machines
on the network communicating via NFS rather than SAMBA. The widespread failure of routers to implement DNS properly shows that they are only
ever being tested with Windows machines on a network. Perhaps the
recent explosion of non-Windows machines such as mobile phones will
cause this finally to be sorted out, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and install
it, and configure it,
Is this a real problem though? mDNS seems to solve the problem on my home network.
On 26/06/2023 21:18, Java Jive wrote:
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it,
That might be a more convincing argument if you had not previously
described in graphic detail your efforts to botch together a BT hub
solution using custom firmware and OpenWRT plus assorted overheating USB dongles.
On 26/06/2023 22:12, MikeS wrote:
On 26/06/2023 21:18, Java Jive wrote:
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it,
Snipped content restored: to do what the router should be doing for itself?
The point still stands.
That might be a more convincing argument if you had not previously
described in graphic detail your efforts to botch together a BT hub
solution using custom firmware and OpenWRT plus assorted overheating USB
dongles.
Despite the relatively short life-span of the dongles that I've tried so
far, the result is still significantlyh better than any other router
that I've owned previously, including a DrayTek Vigor.
On 26/06/2023 21:18, Java Jive wrote:
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it,
That might be a more convincing argument if you had not previously
described in graphic detail your efforts to botch together a BT hub
solution using custom firmware and OpenWRT plus assorted overheating USB dongles.
On 26/06/2023 18:56, Tweed wrote:
Is this a real problem though? mDNS seems to solve the problem on my home
network.
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and install
it, and configure it, to do what the router should be doing for itself?
The very *existence* of third party services like mDNS proves what I was saying, that the lack of proper local DNS support by most routers is a problem. The correct way to solve that problem is to fix the routers,
not introduce a source of other potential problems:
Java Jive wrote:
On 26/06/2023 18:56, Tweed wrote:
Is this a real problem though? mDNS seems to solve the problem on my
home
network.
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it, to do what the router should be doing
for itself? The very *existence* of third party services like mDNS
proves what I was saying, that the lack of proper local DNS support by
most routers is a problem. The correct way to solve that problem is
to fix the routers, not introduce a source of other potential problems:
But presumably router manufacturers do not see a demand for proper local
DNS support which is why it doesn't generally exist.
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view? I can see that
it might be "nice to have" but I would not consider spending anything
extra to get it. Having said that, the cost to a router manufacturer
such as Draytek must be trivial given the number of other esoteric
features they do include. Or is there some difficult-to-resolve
conflict here that hasn't occurred to me?
On 2023-06-27 09:01, Graham J wrote:
Java Jive wrote:
On 26/06/2023 18:56, Tweed wrote:
Is this a real problem though? mDNS seems to solve the problem on my
home
network.
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it, to do what the router should be doing
for itself? The very *existence* of third party services like mDNS
proves what I was saying, that the lack of proper local DNS support by
most routers is a problem. The correct way to solve that problem is
to fix the routers, not introduce a source of other potential problems:
But presumably router manufacturers do not see a demand for proper local
DNS support which is why it doesn't generally exist.
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view? I can see that
it might be "nice to have" but I would not consider spending anything
extra to get it. Having said that, the cost to a router manufacturer
such as Draytek must be trivial given the number of other esoteric
features they do include. Or is there some difficult-to-resolve
conflict here that hasn't occurred to me?
What should the DNS do?
Detect automatically the name of computers, and solve them?
Let me see. If I ask my router web page for a map of my LAN, I see it
guesses correctly the name of only one machine, a Linux laptop freshly installed.
cer@Telcontar:~> host 192.168.2.17 192.168.1.1
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
cer@Telcontar:~> host Laicolasse 192.168.1.1
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
cer@Telcontar:~>
Well, no resolving at all at the router, there is no DNS server. AFAIK
what my router does is tell computers via dhcp to use the ISP DNS server instead. No local DNS. Cheaper. A DNS server needs RAM, and RAM is
expensive (!).
The other possibility I can see is manually giving names to the machines
the router see, in a table in the router. Possibly tied to fixed
assignation of LAN IPs. I have never seen that in a home router; I would
use dnsmasq for that, and kill the dhcp server in the router.
Different thing. How to get the name of the machines automatically
known? mDNS? how?
If the router knows the name of that single laptop, I should be able to configure something on other computers. Maybe open mDNS port. Maybe
making sure that services avahi-daemon and avahi-dnsconfd are running.
Dunno. I know that the command "host" doesn't find that laptop.
# Changed by /local/bin/nsswitch_changes Mon 02 Jan 12:54 2023
# hosts: mdns4_minimal files nis dns mdns4 myhostname
hosts: files dns myhostname
On Tue, 27 Jun 2023 11:05:47 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2023-06-27 09:01, Graham J wrote:
Java Jive wrote:
On 26/06/2023 18:56, Tweed wrote:But presumably router manufacturers do not see a demand for proper local >>> DNS support which is why it doesn't generally exist.
Is this a real problem though? mDNS seems to solve the problem on my >>>>> home
network.
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it, to do what the router should be doing
for itself? The very *existence* of third party services like mDNS
proves what I was saying, that the lack of proper local DNS support by >>>> most routers is a problem. The correct way to solve that problem is
to fix the routers, not introduce a source of other potential problems: >>>
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view? I can see that
it might be "nice to have" but I would not consider spending anything
extra to get it. Having said that, the cost to a router manufacturer
such as Draytek must be trivial given the number of other esoteric
features they do include. Or is there some difficult-to-resolve
conflict here that hasn't occurred to me?
What should the DNS do?
Detect automatically the name of computers, and solve them?
Let me see. If I ask my router web page for a map of my LAN, I see it
guesses correctly the name of only one machine, a Linux laptop freshly
installed.
cer@Telcontar:~> host 192.168.2.17 192.168.1.1
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
cer@Telcontar:~> host Laicolasse 192.168.1.1
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
cer@Telcontar:~>
Well, no resolving at all at the router, there is no DNS server. AFAIK
what my router does is tell computers via dhcp to use the ISP DNS server
instead. No local DNS. Cheaper. A DNS server needs RAM, and RAM is
expensive (!).
The other possibility I can see is manually giving names to the machines
the router see, in a table in the router. Possibly tied to fixed
assignation of LAN IPs. I have never seen that in a home router; I would
use dnsmasq for that, and kill the dhcp server in the router.
Different thing. How to get the name of the machines automatically
known? mDNS? how?
If the router knows the name of that single laptop, I should be able to
configure something on other computers. Maybe open mDNS port. Maybe
making sure that services avahi-daemon and avahi-dnsconfd are running.
Dunno. I know that the command "host" doesn't find that laptop.
What works for me is install bind, configure named to know all my nodes ip address and names, set all nodes to have a common /etd/hosts, and change /etc/nsswitch.conf
$ diff /var/local/vorig/etc/nsswitch.conf_vorig /etc/nsswitch.conf
64c64,66
< hosts: mdns4_minimal files nis dns mdns4 myhostname
---
# Changed by /local/bin/nsswitch_changes Mon 02 Jan 12:54 2023
# hosts: mdns4_minimal files nis dns mdns4 myhostname
hosts: files dns myhostname
then change router dns resolver to use my named resolver.
$ cat /etc/release
Mageia release 9 (Cauldron) for x86_64
But presumably router manufacturers do not see a demand for proper
local DNS support which is why it doesn't generally exist.
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view?
On 27/06/2023 11:53, Bit Twister wrote:
On Tue, 27 Jun 2023 11:05:47 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:This alleged DNS issue is a mystery to me as I have never noticed it.
On 2023-06-27 09:01, Graham J wrote:
Java Jive wrote:
On 26/06/2023 18:56, Tweed wrote:But presumably router manufacturers do not see a demand for proper local >>>> DNS support which is why it doesn't generally exist.
Is this a real problem though? mDNS seems to solve the problem on my >>>>>> home
network.
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it, to do what the router should be doing
for itself? The very *existence* of third party services like mDNS
proves what I was saying, that the lack of proper local DNS support by >>>>> most routers is a problem. The correct way to solve that problem is >>>>> to fix the routers, not introduce a source of other potential problems: >>>>
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view? I can see that >>>> it might be "nice to have" but I would not consider spending anything
extra to get it. Having said that, the cost to a router manufacturer >>>> such as Draytek must be trivial given the number of other esoteric
features they do include. Or is there some difficult-to-resolve
conflict here that hasn't occurred to me?
What should the DNS do?
Detect automatically the name of computers, and solve them?
Let me see. If I ask my router web page for a map of my LAN, I see it
guesses correctly the name of only one machine, a Linux laptop freshly
installed.
cer@Telcontar:~> host 192.168.2.17 192.168.1.1
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
cer@Telcontar:~> host Laicolasse 192.168.1.1
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
cer@Telcontar:~>
Well, no resolving at all at the router, there is no DNS server. AFAIK
what my router does is tell computers via dhcp to use the ISP DNS server >>> instead. No local DNS. Cheaper. A DNS server needs RAM, and RAM is
expensive (!).
The other possibility I can see is manually giving names to the machines >>> the router see, in a table in the router. Possibly tied to fixed
assignation of LAN IPs. I have never seen that in a home router; I would >>> use dnsmasq for that, and kill the dhcp server in the router.
Different thing. How to get the name of the machines automatically
known? mDNS? how?
If the router knows the name of that single laptop, I should be able to
configure something on other computers. Maybe open mDNS port. Maybe
making sure that services avahi-daemon and avahi-dnsconfd are running.
Dunno. I know that the command "host" doesn't find that laptop.
What works for me is install bind, configure named to know all my nodes ip >> address and names, set all nodes to have a common /etd/hosts, and change
/etc/nsswitch.conf
$ diff /var/local/vorig/etc/nsswitch.conf_vorig /etc/nsswitch.conf
64c64,66
< hosts: mdns4_minimal files nis dns mdns4 myhostname
---
# Changed by /local/bin/nsswitch_changes Mon 02 Jan 12:54 2023
# hosts: mdns4_minimal files nis dns mdns4 myhostname
hosts: files dns myhostname
then change router dns resolver to use my named resolver.
$ cat /etc/release
Mageia release 9 (Cauldron) for x86_64
I am using a bog standard BT HomeHub6 with various devices connected. A
quick check of the web UI shows all with correct name, IP and MAC. All
names are obtained from the devices some of which were default, others I edited (on each device).
Java Jive wrote:
On 26/06/2023 18:56, Tweed wrote:
Is this a real problem though? mDNS seems to solve the problem on my
home
network.
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it, to do what the router should be doing
for itself? The very *existence* of third party services like mDNS
proves what I was saying, that the lack of proper local DNS support by
most routers is a problem. The correct way to solve that problem is
to fix the routers, not introduce a source of other potential problems:
But presumably router manufacturers do not see a demand for proper local
DNS support which is why it doesn't generally exist.
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view?
Just because you haven't experienced this problem doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Linux may only be 3% of the global market PC share, but
that still means a hell of a lot of people across the world are getting unnecessary problems because router manufacturers seem only to test
their kit with Windows PCs.
This alleged DNS issue is a mystery to me as I have never noticed it.
I am using a bog standard BT HomeHub6 with various devices connected. A
quick check of the web UI shows all with correct name, IP and MAC. All
names are obtained from the devices some of which were default, others I edited (on each device).
On 27/06/2023 08:01, Graham J wrote:
Java Jive wrote:
On 26/06/2023 18:56, Tweed wrote:
Is this a real problem though? mDNS seems to solve the problem on my
home
network.
But why should you have to resort to a third party service, and
install it, and configure it, to do what the router should be doing
for itself? The very *existence* of third party services like mDNS
proves what I was saying, that the lack of proper local DNS support by
most routers is a problem. The correct way to solve that problem is
to fix the routers, not introduce a source of other potential problems:
But presumably router manufacturers do not see a demand for proper local DNS support which is why it doesn't generally exist.
Because their products are aimed mostly at two markets, businesses that
have their own DNS servers, homes that use mostly or only Windows
machines, and in neither of those two situations, for the reasons
already given, is the lack of proper local DNS so much of a problem.
It's only a minority, but possibly a significant one nevertheless, who
need local DNS for Linux machines that notice the problem.
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view?
Well, a brief search of my sent folder over the last few years found the following threads here and elsewhere which weren't started by me, and
these were just the ones I noticed and bothered to reply to ...
Are there any VDSL routers out there that do proper DHCP/DNS with names?
Routers with USB3 port and SMB2 or (better) SMB3 - are there any?
... so it's not just me that has noticed the problem. Remembering that
these posts are being copied to a Linux group, are you going to claim
that Linux users are an unimportant minority :-)
But the real point is that, as proven by open builds such as OpenWRT and DD-WRT, it would be trivially simple for routers to implement this
properly, it just needs the will to do it, and I for one am exasperated
by the perennial failures to do it.
Am 27.06.23 um 17:17 schrieb Java Jive:
Just because you haven't experienced this problem doesn't mean that it
doesn't exist. Linux may only be 3% of the global market PC share, but
that still means a hell of a lot of people across the world are getting
unnecessary problems because router manufacturers seem only to test
their kit with Windows PCs.
Sorry. This is nonsense. If all stick to the internationally agreed and binding standards no one has any issues. I never had one on Linux, Mac
or Windows or mobile devices.
Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
Because their products are aimed mostly at two markets, businesses that
have their own DNS servers, homes that use mostly or only Windows
machines, and in neither of those two situations, for the reasons
already given, is the lack of proper local DNS so much of a problem.
It's only a minority, but possibly a significant one nevertheless, who
need local DNS for Linux machines that notice the problem.
I have used Linux only for a little while (Unix/UNIX for decades) and haven't used it for a long time, so I should probably mind my own
business :-), but can't/don't Linux systems use DHCP out of the box? (I
can't remember having any trouble when I still had/used my little Linux 'netbook'.)
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view?
Well, a brief search of my sent folder over the last few years found the
following threads here and elsewhere which weren't started by me, and
these were just the ones I noticed and bothered to reply to ...
Are there any VDSL routers out there that do proper DHCP/DNS with names?
As to the 'with names' part, my ISPs cable modem/router (Cisco
EPC3928AD) shows 'Host Name' just fine without any doing on my part. And
to answer your earlier question about names for other (than Linux) non-Windows devices, it reports the 'Host Name' of my (Samsung Galaxy
A51) Android smartphone just fine.
Routers with USB3 port and SMB2 or (better) SMB3 - are there any?
My modem/router has a USB port for an external disk-drive ('NAS'). I assume it's USB3 and at least SMB2, but don't know for sure.
IIRC, you use the USB port for a USB mobile-modem 'dongle'. I don't
think my modem/router's USB port can accomodate that.
... so it's not just me that has noticed the problem. Remembering that
these posts are being copied to a Linux group, are you going to claim
that Linux users are an unimportant minority :-)
Linux users are an unimportant minority! :-)
Linux users are an unimportant minority! :-)
On 27/06/2023 16:31, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Linux users are an unimportant minority! :-)
We are all of us Linux users. Whatever the badge on the phone/tv/router.
On 27/06/2023 16:31, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
Because their products are aimed mostly at two markets, businesses that
have their own DNS servers, homes that use mostly or only Windows
machines, and in neither of those two situations, for the reasons
already given, is the lack of proper local DNS so much of a problem.
It's only a minority, but possibly a significant one nevertheless, who
need local DNS for Linux machines that notice the problem.
I have used Linux only for a little while (Unix/UNIX for decades) and haven't used it for a long time, so I should probably mind my own
business :-), but can't/don't Linux systems use DHCP out of the box? (I can't remember having any trouble when I still had/used my little Linux 'netbook'.)
They, the client PCs, do both DHCP and DNS - you seem to be confusing
the two - clients out of the box, the problem is not on the clients
but on most routers that implement DHCP services correctly but DNS
services only partially, so incorrectly.
Have you ever found anybody else who shares your view?
Well, a brief search of my sent folder over the last few years found the >> following threads here and elsewhere which weren't started by me, and
these were just the ones I noticed and bothered to reply to ...
Are there any VDSL routers out there that do proper DHCP/DNS with names?
As to the 'with names' part, my ISPs cable modem/router (Cisco EPC3928AD) shows 'Host Name' just fine without any doing on my part. And
to answer your earlier question about names for other (than Linux) non-Windows devices, it reports the 'Host Name' of my (Samsung Galaxy
A51) Android smartphone just fine.
I was asked if I was the only person encountering this problem, and to
show in reply that I wasn't listed this thread as one where the DNS
problem was raised again a year or so back.
Routers with USB3 port and SMB2 or (better) SMB3 - are there any?
My modem/router has a USB port for an external disk-drive ('NAS'). I assume it's USB3 and at least SMB2, but don't know for sure.
Again, this was the subject of a thread in which the DNS problem was
raised a year or so back, so is not relevant now.
IIRC, you use the USB port for a USB mobile-modem 'dongle'. I don't think my modem/router's USB port can accomodate that.
That's correct, landlines around here are nearly or completely useless.
... so it's not just me that has noticed the problem. Remembering that
these posts are being copied to a Linux group, are you going to claim
that Linux users are an unimportant minority :-)
Linux users are an unimportant minority! :-)
I'll leave lynching to the members of alt.os.linux.
Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
They, the client PCs, do both DHCP and DNS - you seem to be confusing
the two - clients out of the box, the problem is not on the clients
but on most routers that implement DHCP services correctly but DNS
services only partially, so incorrectly.
Confused!? Moi!? :-)
But you're right, sloppy reading on my part. As to DNS, also the DNS
part gives no problems because my smartphone (see below), i.e. a
non-Windows Linux-like device, has no lookup problems using the DNS
settings as auto-configured in the router part of my modem/router (see below). When I use the web-UI of the router-part, I see which DNS
servers are configured/used (the router can handle 3, my ISP uses 2).
On 27/06/2023 16:42, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
Am 27.06.23 um 17:17 schrieb Java Jive:
Just because you haven't experienced this problem doesn't mean that it
doesn't exist. Linux may only be 3% of the global market PC share, but >>> that still means a hell of a lot of people across the world are getting
unnecessary problems because router manufacturers seem only to test
their kit with Windows PCs.
Sorry. This is nonsense. If all stick to the internationally agreed and
binding standards no one has any issues. I never had one on Linux, Mac
or Windows or mobile devices.
AFAIAA, I stick to all the internationally agreed and binding standards,
and I have problems, so if your is correct, someone else is *NOT*
sticking to those standards, which is exactly my complaint.
On 2023-06-27 17:45, Java Jive wrote:
On 27/06/2023 16:42, Joerg Lorenz wrote:
Sorry. This is nonsense. If all stick to the internationally agreed and
binding standards no one has any issues. I never had one on Linux, Mac
or Windows or mobile devices.
AFAIAA, I stick to all the internationally agreed and binding
standards, and I have problems, so if your
is correct, someone else is
*NOT* sticking to those standards, which is exactly my complaint.
When I have to mount an nfs share on Linux, I have to:
- Either assign a fixed address to the "server" computer in its
network configuration, or in the dhcp assign table of the router.
- Optionally add an entry for the server computer in host table or in
_my_ local dns server.
- import nfs share, either using the name I created in the previous
step, or using the IP numbers.
I have never relied on the router to give me the name of any computer,
no matter what operating system.
On 27/06/2023 19:01, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
They, the client PCs, do both DHCP and DNS - you seem to be confusing
the two - clients out of the box, the problem is not on the clients
but on most routers that implement DHCP services correctly but DNS
services only partially, so incorrectly.
Confused!? Moi!? :-)
But you're right, sloppy reading on my part. As to DNS, also the DNS part gives no problems because my smartphone (see below), i.e. a non-Windows Linux-like device, has no lookup problems using the DNS settings as auto-configured in the router part of my modem/router (see below). When I use the web-UI of the router-part, I see which DNS
servers are configured/used (the router can handle 3, my ISP uses 2).
So you're using your ISP's DNS servers to handle your local DNS, but ...
On 27/06/2023 12:58, MikeS wrote:
This alleged DNS issue is a mystery to me as I have never noticed it.
I am using a bog standard BT HomeHub6 with various devices connected.
A quick check of the web UI shows all with correct name, IP and MAC.
All names are obtained from the devices some of which were default,
others I edited (on each device).
Do you use a Linux PC with NFS networking? That's a rhetorical question because the answer is obviously not, otherwise you'd certainly notice
the problem and have had to have solved it in some way, usually by
editing the 'hosts' file.
Just because you haven't experienced this problem doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Linux may only be 3% of the global market PC share, but
that still means a hell of a lot of people across the world are getting unnecessary problems because router manufacturers seem only to test
their kit with Windows PCs.
Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
So you're using your ISP's DNS servers to handle your local DNS, but ...
No, I'm using my ISP's DNS servers to handle *remote* lookups, i.e. google.com. But I think we've now come to the point that I don't know
what your DNS needs are, because I have a setup (two Windows systems, a (Synology) NAS (i.e. Windows Network Shares) and Android phones), which
does not have the problems/needs which you have. So my comments are no
longer helpful (if they ever were :-)), Sorry.
(AFAICT,) EOD.
On 27/06/2023 16:17, Java Jive wrote:
On 27/06/2023 12:58, MikeS wrote:
This alleged DNS issue is a mystery to me as I have never noticed it.
I am using a bog standard BT HomeHub6 with various devices connected.
A quick check of the web UI shows all with correct name, IP and MAC.
All names are obtained from the devices some of which were default,
others I edited (on each device).
Do you use a Linux PC with NFS networking? That's a rhetorical
question because the answer is obviously not, otherwise you'd
certainly notice the problem and have had to have solved it in some
way, usually by editing the 'hosts' file.
Just because you haven't experienced this problem doesn't mean that it
doesn't exist. Linux may only be 3% of the global market PC share,
but that still means a hell of a lot of people across the world are
getting unnecessary problems because router manufacturers seem only to
test their kit with Windows PCs.
Which goes right back to my earlier comment.
Flashing a HH5a, installing and configuring OpenWRT, and trying to find dongles which work with it is vastly more trouble than using a 4G router
and, if necessary, configuring a few addresses in a hosts file.
Or
installing a DNS server locally if you have a large Linux network.
Or reflashing a router so that it works properly, and saves the
electricity consumption of another box.
On 27/06/2023 21:56, Java Jive wrote:
Or reflashing a router so that it works properly, and saves the
electricity consumption of another box.
I was under the impression that you started this thread because you
cannot rely on your home brew solution working properly. ✌️
This alleged DNS issue is a mystery to me as I have never noticed it.
I am using a bog standard BT HomeHub6 with various devices connected. A
quick check of the web UI shows all with correct name, IP and MAC. All
names are obtained from the devices some of which were default, others I >edited (on each device).
On 27 Jun 2023 12:58:31 +0100 MikeS wrote:
This alleged DNS issue is a mystery to me as I have never noticed it.
I am using a bog standard BT HomeHub6 with various devices connected. A
quick check of the web UI shows all with correct name, IP and MAC. All
names are obtained from the devices some of which were default, others I
edited (on each device).
I also have a BT HH; I don't know what version: it's 2 years old. (And I
just noticed the f/w updated yesterday and it now has 'Hybrid Connect -
not configured'.)
When I got the HH I discovered - by accident - it could 'resolve' local device names. For example, on this Android tablet I can access the
webserver on my RPi with
http://pi:8080/ --- 'pi' being the network name I gave it.
I don't think my earlier routers (Netgear, Plusnet) could do that, but I'm not certain.
I don't know if it's necessary for this 'router resolution' but despite
the pi having a fixed ip4 address the HH says it's dhcp. To achieve that I temporarily extended the dhcp range down to include it, then specified 'always use this address'.
Which goes right back to my earlier comment.
Flashing a HH5a, installing and configuring OpenWRT, and trying to find dongles which work with it is vastly more trouble than using a 4G router
and, if necessary, configuring a few addresses in a hosts file. Or
installing a DNS server locally if you have a large Linux network.
MikeS wrote:
Which goes right back to my earlier comment.
Flashing a HH5a, installing and configuring OpenWRT, and trying to find dongles which work with it is vastly more trouble than using a 4G router and, if necessary, configuring a few addresses in a hosts file. Or installing a DNS server locally if you have a large Linux network.
There is a certain satisfaction from going the openWRT way, one box that handles many functions, exactly as you want them, the only ongoing
weakness was that it didn't support the hardware flow offloading, so
heavy wifi throughput would clobber the CPU.
a Fritzbox 7530, whose VDSL is now
supported in the 23.05-rc1 release of OpenWRT.
rather than
the HH5a's 500MHz single core MIPS
OpenWRT doesn't support the VOIP or DECT features through.
On 2023-06-28 09:25, Dave Royal wrote:
When I got the HH I discovered - by accident - it could 'resolve' local
device names. For example, on this Android tablet I can access the
webserver on my RPi with
http://pi:8080/ --- 'pi' being the network name I gave it.
But this can be a trick of the router or a trick of your computer or tablet.
On 28 Jun 2023 10:50:02 +0200 Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2023-06-28 09:25, Dave Royal wrote:
When I got the HH I discovered - by accident - it could 'resolve' local
device names. For example, on this Android tablet I can access the
webserver on my RPi with
http://pi:8080/ --- 'pi' being the network name I gave it.
But this can be a trick of the router or a trick of your computer or tablet.
It's not the Android tablet. It works on all computers in the house.
Before I discovered this I used to put the RPi in resolv.conf on my Linux boxes, now I don't. On an unrooted Android tablet, like this one, or an
iPad I'd have to use the IP address.
But it's possible that I could have done this with previous routers; I
never tried.
On 26/06/2023 11:14, Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
Deliberate X-Post for reasons that will become apparent.
Back in February 2019 in uk.telecom.broadband I began a thread entitled
'Routers' asking for advice about what routers would match a given list
of criteria, the result of which was that it was suggested to me, by
Andy Burns I think, that I should flash OpenWRT onto a BT Home Hub 5a.
This I did, and have been using it satisfactorily since with a mobile
dongle plugged into the USB port, so, if you're reading this, thanks
again Andy.
I have also a BT 4G Assure dongle, which a rebadged Huawei E3372h (h =
'HiLink' type). I appear to have managed to unlock it, and have had it >>> working in a PC, where I was also able to access its control page at
192.168.8.1, but I can't get it to work with the BTHH5a.
So my first question is: Can anyone help me get the BT-Badged Huawei
E3372h working?
Instead of ... [Theo's advice moved to later in this post]
Thanks, I'll have a go at this next time the ZTE breaks down, which it
may well do this afternoon during the hottest part of the day.
Unless you can find someone who has already got it to work and written up
the exact instructions what to do, which is possible I suppose.
I have found some instructions as below but they didn't work for me ...
https://protyposis.net/blog/using-the-huawei-e3372-hi-link-lte-dongle-with-openwrt/
https://gist.github.com/bjoern-r/1345e8a17f4acf41006330e688af1441
.... so, I guess one of two things is happening:
:-( I have a number of other modules installed from using the router with other devices, and one of these, most probably the one that works
with an E3372s, is interfering with the E3372h.
:-( There are different generations of the E3372h and only some of them work.
Instead of randomly fiddling with the router config, I'd first see if you
can get a link up on the device. For this you'll need to know how to use
the 'ip' command (successor to 'ifconfig'):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iproute2
If your suggestions above don't yield an answer, I'll try and
include some tail from dmesg as I unplug and plug back in the dongle.
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
root@OpenWrt:~# udhcpc eth1
udhcpc: started, v1.28.3
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover [Ctrl-C pressed after some delay]
That suggests it's not responding to DHCP.
root@OpenWrt:~# udhcpc eth1
udhcpc: started, v1.28.3
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover [Ctrl-C pressed after some delay]
Noticing the messages about dwc2, I wondered if that was all that was
needed to make the dongle work, so I tried uninstalling the cdc modules, leaving just the dwc2 module, but actually that made things worse, I
didn't even get the physical device eth1
Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
root@OpenWrt:~# udhcpc eth1
udhcpc: started, v1.28.3
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover [Ctrl-C pressed after some delay]
That suggests it's not responding to DHCP.
These "NIC-on-a-stick" models fake it, the DHCP server that they appear
to talk to is internal to the stick, not on the far side of the 4G radio
In uk.telecom.broadband Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
root@OpenWrt:~# udhcpc eth1
udhcpc: started, v1.28.3
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover [Ctrl-C pressed after some delay]
That suggests it's not responding to DHCP.
These "NIC-on-a-stick" models fake it, the DHCP server that they appear
to talk to is internal to the stick, not on the far side of the 4G radio
Indeed, so a lack of DHCP means there's something wrong with the stick or
its config, rather than anything to do with the network. In particular you need DHCP working to get to the settings web page for the mobile network.
On 2023-07-02 18:36, Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
root@OpenWrt:~# udhcpc eth1
udhcpc: started, v1.28.3
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover [Ctrl-C pressed after some delay]
That suggests it's not responding to DHCP.
These "NIC-on-a-stick" models fake it, the DHCP server that they appear
to talk to is internal to the stick, not on the far side of the 4G radio
Indeed, so a lack of DHCP means there's something wrong with the stick or its config, rather than anything to do with the network. In particular you need DHCP working to get to the settings web page for the mobile network.
Or, you could manually setup that internal "fake" lan assigning IP
addresses manually, same as when you configure a computer to access a
new gadget with network interface before connecting it for real.
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
root@OpenWrt:~# udhcpc eth1
udhcpc: started, v1.28.3
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover
udhcpc: sending discover [Ctrl-C pressed after some delay]
That suggests it's not responding to DHCP.
It seems that it's possible to disable DHCP on the stick. Does it get an address if you plug it into a PC? If not, maybe you need to work out how to enable it.
It sounds like the ethernet device is coming up, so I don't think you need any shenanigans with usb_modeswitch, which is used for some sticks which first pretend to be DVD devices with the Windows software on them.
If you have a Linux PC, I'd see if you can get it to work from there, as
that will give confidence that everything is in order. I think on some of them there's a web interface where you set the APN, and it would make sense if that can be set up from a PC.
After various searches long into the night finding nothing that fixed
it, in desperation I wondered whether an updated image would help, so I flashed OpenWRT 18.0.6 r7808-ef686b7292 which has been fixed for an
OpenWRT problem specific to certain routers (not the same as my problem
that has been the subject of this thread) ...
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/18-06-4-speed-fix-for-bt-homehub-5a/23643
https://bit.ly/2xypJqv
... and now I get the dongle admin page come up at 192.168.8.1, so I'm reasonably certain that when I put the SIM in the dongle it should work.
Too late for that now, though, a job for tomorrow maybe.
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
After various searches long into the night finding nothing that fixed
it, in desperation I wondered whether an updated image would help, so I
flashed OpenWRT 18.0.6 r7808-ef686b7292 which has been fixed for an
OpenWRT problem specific to certain routers (not the same as my problem
that has been the subject of this thread) ...
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/18-06-4-speed-fix-for-bt-homehub-5a/23643
https://bit.ly/2xypJqv
... and now I get the dongle admin page come up at 192.168.8.1, so I'm
reasonably certain that when I put the SIM in the dongle it should work.
Too late for that now, though, a job for tomorrow maybe.
Oh, that's really old.
Were you on something even older?
The current stable release is 22.03 and there's an 23.05-rc2 available.
I'm using 22.03 reliably on a HH5a with no problems (although not using USB though). 23.05-rc1 has also been working fine for me on a Fritzbox 7530.
Download links from here:
https://openwrt.org/
I tried the current 22 and got a message that the file was in the wrong format.
Currently I'm trying to create a single configuration that will work
with any of my dongles and my mobile. I think I'm nearly there, but my original dongle, a Huawei E3372s, worked at first and then did not. The
only significant thing that I did in between the successful and the unsuccessful attempt was to try altering the IP6 connections. Something about doing this altered the way the E3372s came up, connecting the
interface thereafter produced an OpenWRT constructed virtual IP4
interface, which at first I couldn't assign to a firewall zone - the vinterface only appeared when the dongle was connected and then it
wasn't editable. I got round this by hacking /etc/config/firewall and rebooting, but even though the vinterface was now in the correct
firewall zone, I still couldn't connect to the internet. So I've just
gone back to factory defaults and started again.
I'm not very well up on IP6, so expect a question about that soon!
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
I tried the current 22 and got a message that the file was in the wrong
format.
There is typically a 'first install' kernel.bin, and a sysupgrade.bin for upgrading a router that already has OpenWRT:
https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/?version=22.03.5&target=lantiq%2Fxrx200&id=bt_homehub-v5a
On 03/07/2023 17:46, Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
I tried the current 22 and got a message that the file was in the wrong
format.
There is typically a 'first install' kernel.bin, and a sysupgrade.bin for upgrading a router that already has OpenWRT:
https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/?version=22.03.5&target=lantiq%2Fxrx200&id=bt_homehub-v5a
Thanks, I've just tried that, but unfortunately now I can't get the
admin interface to load. I can only ssh into it. Struggling to roll it back.
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
On 03/07/2023 17:46, Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
I tried the current 22 and got a message that the file was in the wrong >>>> format.
There is typically a 'first install' kernel.bin, and a sysupgrade.bin for >>> upgrading a router that already has OpenWRT:
https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/?version=22.03.5&target=lantiq%2Fxrx200&id=bt_homehub-v5a
Thanks, I've just tried that, but unfortunately now I can't get the
admin interface to load. I can only ssh into it. Struggling to roll it
back.
It may be the Luci GUI isn't installed, as on some low memory images. You may need to install it by hand: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/luci/luci.essentials
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/lantiq/xrx200/kmods/4.14.99-1-e1364da2397b9f1b7fd3b92933663f5d/Packages.gzLooks as though you may have installed a daily snapshot version, not a
*** Failed to download the package list from http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/lantiq/xrx200/kmods/4.14.99-1-e1364da2397b9f1b7fd3b92933663f5d/Packages.gz
Java Jive wrote:
DownloadingLooks as though you may have installed a daily snapshot version, not a release version?
http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/lantiq/xrx200/kmods/4.14.99-1-e1364da2397b9f1b7fd3b92933663f5d/Packages.gz
*** Failed to download the package list from
http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/lantiq/xrx200/kmods/4.14.99-1-e1364da2397b9f1b7fd3b92933663f5d/Packages.gz
IME the corresponding snapshot packages are only available for 24 hours, after which you need to install a new snapshot and get the packages
while they're "hot"
On 04/07/2023 17:19, Andy Burns wrote:
Java Jive wrote:
DownloadingLooks as though you may have installed a daily snapshot version, not a release version?
http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/lantiq/xrx200/kmods/4.14.99-1-e1364da2397b9f1b7fd3b92933663f5d/Packages.gz
*** Failed to download the package list from
http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/lantiq/xrx200/kmods/4.14.99-1-e1364da2397b9f1b7fd3b92933663f5d/Packages.gz
IME the corresponding snapshot packages are only available for 24 hours, after which you need to install a new snapshot and get the packages
while they're "hot"
Possibly, I followed Theo's link, but I may have clicked the wrong
download. I managed to get my USB-Serial lead working again, and now
have rolled it back to the same 18.06.4 version and configuration that
worked with the others.
Deliberate X-Post for reasons that will become apparent.
[Big snip]
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'eth1'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372s'
option proto 'ncm'
option pdptype 'IP'
option apn '3internet'
option ipv6 'auto'
option device '/dev/ttyUSB0'
option delay '20'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_USB'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'usb0'
option auto '0'
... where the WAN_Huawei_E3372h section covers also a BT Assure 4G
unlocked dongle and the generic WAN_USB section covers the Alcatel and
ZTE dongles, and a Samsung mobile phone in USB Tethering mode.
The above all works fine in IP4, but I'm concerned that I have removed
the original WAN6 section. Following the pattern of that, I could
define a WAN6 section for each of the above, as per the following
example ...
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option ifname 'eth1'
option proto 'dhcp'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h_6'
option ifname '@WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option proto 'dhcpv6'
... and similarly for the others, but this seems somewhat clumsy because
to swap dongles, I'd have to stop two connections and start two others, instead of just the one as at present, and further I have no idea if it
will work - ATM the BT Assure 4G dongle is in use and is working well downloading Wimbledon, so I'm not inclined to fiddle about testing just
now ...
How can I test whether IP6 is being supported properly?
Noting the lan_dev and wan_dev devices, is there a way, for example by defining different devices rather than different interfaces for the
different dongles, that I can switch the system over to a different
dongle by just a single configuration change instead of the present two
or potentially four with IP6?
Note, I have searched about devices in /etc/config/network, but didn't
find much useful info.
OneMarcFifty has a video on using IPv6 in his OpenWRT playlist. I haven't watched it, but it may be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJPXz8eA3b8
- although bear in mind this is mostly focused on ethernet which is more
straightforward and has fewer quirks generated by whatever dongle you have.
Each local network takes up 2^64 addresses, so if your ISP gives you
a /56 bit prefix meaning you have 2^8 networks each containing 2^64
addresses (128-64-8=56).
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'eth1'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372s'
option proto 'ncm'
option pdptype 'IP'
option apn '3internet'
option ipv6 'auto'
option device '/dev/ttyUSB0'
option delay '20'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_USB'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'usb0'
option auto '0'
... where the WAN_Huawei_E3372h section covers also a BT Assure 4G
unlocked dongle and the generic WAN_USB section covers the Alcatel and
ZTE dongles, and a Samsung mobile phone in USB Tethering mode.
OK, so one group of dongles are pretend-ethernet cards and another pretend-dialup modems.
The above all works fine in IP4, but I'm concerned that I have removed
the original WAN6 section. Following the pattern of that, I could
define a WAN6 section for each of the above, as per the following
example ...
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option ifname 'eth1'
option proto 'dhcp'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h_6'
option ifname '@WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option proto 'dhcpv6'
... and similarly for the others, but this seems somewhat clumsy because
to swap dongles, I'd have to stop two connections and start two others,
instead of just the one as at present, and further I have no idea if it
will work - ATM the BT Assure 4G dongle is in use and is working well
downloading Wimbledon, so I'm not inclined to fiddle about testing just
now ...
I think the reason for the above is IPv4 and IPv6 have different ways of getting addresses. For IPv4 over ethernet it's DHCP, but for IPv4 over dialup modems it's PPP. For IPv6 over ethernet it could be SLAAC
(stateless autoconfiguration) or DHCPv6. For IPv6 over modem I think it's also PPP (not sure if SLAAC is also an option here).
So you would need multiple interface blocks defined depending on what each protocol needs, and I think you'd need four interface blocks.
But what I'd do is keep everything set up, and just pick routing based on which interface is up. ie if only one dongle is plugged in, only one configuration block is going to be active. I think if only one is plugged in, without any special config you'll get a default route and that's where packets will go. If both are plugged in, one default route will win - although fancier routing config is possible.
I think if you just configure both interfaces as appropriate and see if they work if one or other dongle is plugged in.
I think you may need to put all your WAN_* interfaces in the WAN firewall zone, so they're all treated as 'outside' your network. The defaults are mostly there - on my Firewall setup I have in the 'wan' zone:
wan wan6 EthWAN EthWAN6
('wan' is the DSL interface in my settings, 'EthWAN' is the red ethernet port)
So I'd just create _6 versions of your interfaces and add them to this
zone.
How can I test whether IP6 is being supported properly?
$ host example.com
example.com has address 93.184.216.34
example.com has IPv6 address 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946
example.com mail is handled by 0 .
$ ping6 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946
[should answer]
and then try an IPv6 test website:
https://ipv6test.google.com/
http://testmyipv6.com/
and plenty of others if you google for them
Noting the lan_dev and wan_dev devices, is there a way, for example by
defining different devices rather than different interfaces for the
different dongles, that I can switch the system over to a different
dongle by just a single configuration change instead of the present two
or potentially four with IP6?
You should be able to just run the two devices completely in parallel, without any config changes. At worst you'd need to adjust the default route if both were plugged in together.
Note, I have searched about devices in /etc/config/network, but didn't
find much useful info.
OneMarcFifty has a video on using IPv6 in his OpenWRT playlist. I haven't watched it, but it may be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJPXz8eA3b8
- although bear in mind this is mostly focused on ethernet which is more
straightforward and has fewer quirks generated by whatever dongle you have.
On the 'Wifi, networking...' playlist he also has some introductory videos
on IPv6 concepts which may be useful for understand what's happening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oItwDXraK1M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlG_nrCOmJc
Theo wrote:
Each local network takes up 2^64 addresses, so if your ISP gives you
a /56 bit prefix meaning you have 2^8 networks each containing 2^64 addresses (128-64-8=56).
I've never understood why ISPs are *SO* profligate with IPv6 addrs, yes
I understand 128bits is very big, and billions of IP addrs per grain of
sand yada-yada, but 640KB was big once, and 4GB was big once ...
Actually there are some other things you might want to use as local
addresses that don't clash with the MAC namespace (eg randomly changing IPs for privacy purposes) so you need a few more than 48 bits.
Theo wrote:
Each local network takes up 2^64 addresses, so if your ISP gives you
a /56 bit prefix meaning you have 2^8 networks each containing 2^64
addresses (128-64-8=56).
I've never understood why ISPs are *SO* profligate with IPv6 addrs, yes
I understand 128bits is very big, and billions of IP addrs per grain of
sand yada-yada, but 640KB was big once, and 4GB was big once ...
If private addresses are propagated onto the WAN, that places the onus
on every single device, even cheap security cameras etc, having its
own secure firewall, rather than the router being the thing with the firewall, behind which there are devices that don't have and and don't
need their own firewalls.
NY <me@privacy.net> writes:
If private addresses are propagated onto the WAN, that places the onus
on every single device, even cheap security cameras etc, having its
own secure firewall, rather than the router being the thing with the
firewall, behind which there are devices that don't have and and don't
need their own firewalls.
There's no reason you can't have routable IPs on your internal network
and still implement a firewall at the border.
It's what I do at home: every device on my LAN gets a routable IPv6
address, but my router (a Linux box) has a firewall configured to block incoming connections.
My ISP is betatesting IPv6, and I volunteered, so I got IPv6. To my
surprise, all IPv6 hosts inside my lan became accessible from Internet. Despite the (ISP suplied) router saying that the firewall was active and blocking all incoming connections on IPv6, it was not happening.
I told them, they did not answer, but days later the incoming connection
to IPv6 stopped connecting. They had silently done something. However,
they messed with the "virtual server" IPv4 config, so that the incoming external connections that I had allowed stopped working as well. I have
to periodically enable them back.
So beware, routers may fail to work properly on IPv6.
Carlos E.R. wrote:
[snip]
My ISP is betatesting IPv6, and I volunteered, so I got IPv6. To my
surprise, all IPv6 hosts inside my lan became accessible from
Internet. Despite the (ISP suplied) router saying that the firewall
was active and blocking all incoming connections on IPv6, it was not
happening.
I told them, they did not answer, but days later the incoming
connection to IPv6 stopped connecting. They had silently done
something. However, they messed with the "virtual server" IPv4 config,
so that the incoming external connections that I had allowed stopped
working as well. I have to periodically enable them back.
So beware, routers may fail to work properly on IPv6.
I suspect lots of cheap routers have a very primitive firewall, and effectively they only block incoming connections by virtue of NAT.
Many thanks for your continuing help, Theo ...
On 08/07/2023 22:45, Theo wrote:
In uk.telecom.broadband Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'eth1'
[snip]
The above all works fine in IP4, but I'm concerned that I have removed
the original WAN6 section. Following the pattern of that, I could
define a WAN6 section for each of the above, as per the following
example ...
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option ifname 'eth1'
option proto 'dhcp'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h_6'
option ifname '@WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option proto 'dhcpv6'
... and similarly for the others, but this seems somewhat clumsy because >>> to swap dongles, I'd have to stop two connections and start two others,
instead of just the one as at present, and further I have no idea if it
will work - ATM the BT Assure 4G dongle is in use and is working well >>> downloading Wimbledon, so I'm not inclined to fiddle about testing just
now ...
[snip]
But what I'd do is keep everything set up, and just pick routing based on
which interface is up. ie if only one dongle is plugged in, only one
configuration block is going to be active. I think if only one is
plugged in, without any special config you'll get a default route and that's >> where packets will go. If both are plugged in, one default route will win -
although fancier routing config is possible.
I think if you just configure both interfaces as appropriate and see
if they work if one or other dongle is plugged in.
I think you may need to put all your WAN_* interfaces in the WAN firewall
zone, so they're all treated as 'outside' your network. The defaults are >> mostly there - on my Firewall setup I have in the 'wan' zone:
How can I test whether IP6 is being supported properly?
$ host example.com
example.com has address 93.184.216.34
example.com has IPv6 address 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946
example.com mail is handled by 0 .
$ ping6 2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946
[should answer]
Today I turned off and disconnected from the mains all my electronic kit
to protect it while some thunderstorms passed, so on bringing it back up
I've just had a go at this. The relevant sections from the config files
now read:
/etc/config/network:
config interface 'WAN_DSL'
option proto 'pppoa'
option encaps 'vc'
option atmdev '0'
option vci '38'
option vpi '0'
option macaddr '<MAC Address>'
option ipv6 'auto'
option metric '2'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_DSL_6'
option ifname '@WAN_DSL'
option proto 'dhcpv6'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_Ethernet'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'eth0.2'
option hostname 'MacFH-HH5a-T3'
option macaddr '<MAC Address>'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_Ethernet_6'
option ifname '@WAN_Ethernet'
option proto 'dhcpv6'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'eth1'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372h_6'
option ifname '@WAN_Huawei_E3372h'
option proto 'dhcpv6'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372s'
option proto 'ncm'
option pdptype 'IP'
option apn '3internet'
option ipv6 'auto'
option device '/dev/ttyUSB0'
option delay '20'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_Huawei_E3372s_6'
option ifname '@WAN_Huawei_E3372s'
option proto 'dhcpv6'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_USB'
option proto 'dhcp'
option ifname 'usb0'
option auto '0'
config interface 'WAN_USB_6'
option ifname '@WAN_USB'
option proto 'dhcpv6'
option auto '0'
/etc/config/network:
config zone
option name 'wan'
option input 'REJECT'
option output 'ACCEPT'
option forward 'REJECT'
option masq '1'
option mtu_fix '1'
option network 'WAN_DSL WAN_DSL_6 WAN_Ethernet WAN_Ethernet_6 WAN_Huawei_E3372h WAN_Huawei_E3372h_6 WAN_Huawei_E3372s
WAN_Huawei_E3372s_6 WAN_USB WAN_USB_6'
[no line wrap in original]
In the admin pages each IP6 interfaces come up as an alias of its corresponding IP4 interface, as one might expect. If the corresponding
IP4 is not connected, but the IP6 is, then there is a message saying
'Device not present', which again makes sense.
Concerning behaviour, the first thing of note is that unfortunately I
have to have the '_6' devices that aren't being used
stopped/disconnected, otherwise nothing works, not even IP4.
So currently I have just the WAN_Huawei_E3372h & WAN_Huawei_E3372h_6 interfaces connected, but the results are as the same as before ...
I think we're missing a lot of details:
1. Does the mobile network support IPv6?
2. How are addresses handed out?
3. What address ranges do they allocate you?
4. Does the stick support IPv6?
5. How does the stick convey those addresses to the host?
6. Is the network addressing different from the address for the router
On 10/07/2023 17:58, Theo wrote:
I think we're missing a lot of details:
Fair point, I was in a bit of a hurry earlier ...
1. Does the mobile network support IPv6?
Can't find a definitive pronouncement, but I'm beginning to suspect not,
at least not here out in the sticks, for example this report dates from
2020 ...
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/three-ipv6-rollout.36873/
"We’ve started to migrate traffic onto our new core network. These customers are currently using our new core network intermittently
resulting in some browsing occurring on IPv6. This will gradually
increase as we migrate more traffic"
... and when I was first on Three here in early 2021 I could barely get
4G, connections usually defaulted to 3G. However, for some while now
they have been and are nearly always 4G, and one might have thought that upgrading to 4G might be the obvious time to upgrade to IP6 as well.
However, against that supposition, in support of 'No IP6':
:-( The mobile phone is Android 7.0, several versions later than the beginning of IP6 support, but it doesn't have an IP6 address listed
alongside its IP4 address.
:-( I don't know if the dongle supports IP6 or not, but in its web interface it too has no IP6 address listed with its IP4 address.
:-( Ditto in the interfaces section of the router, the IP4 connection shows an IP4 address, but the IP6 connection shows no IP6 address.
So I guess that's it, unless I can find a test SIM from another network
that supports IP6 in this area.
2. How are addresses handed out?
3. What address ranges do they allocate you?
4. Does the stick support IPv6?
5. How does the stick convey those addresses to the host?
6. Is the network addressing different from the address for the router
On 10/07/2023 17:58, Theo wrote:
However, against that supposition, in support of 'No IP6':
:-( The mobile phone is Android 7.0, several versions later than the beginning of IP6 support, but it doesn't have an IP6 address listed
alongside its IP4 address.
:-( I don't know if the dongle supports IP6 or not, but in its web interface it too has no IP6 address listed with its IP4 address.
:-( Ditto in the interfaces section of the router, the IP4 connection shows an IP4 address, but the IP6 connection shows no IP6 address.
So I guess that's it, unless I can find a test SIM from another network
that supports IP6 in this area.
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 297 |
| Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
| Uptime: | 01:04:11 |
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