My OpenWRT home router setup

This is a very quick tutorial on how I setup my TP Link Archer C7 v2 using OpenWRT. The document is mostly for myself to remember how to do it, but feel free to add your comments and improvements 😃

See Also: For installation/upgrade instructions see this

Requirements

• I don't want my private devices to be in the same network as my internet router
• WiFi should support 5GHz to improve the network speed then using my NAS over WiFi
• I want SSH access to my router and log in using an SSH key
• It should have a custom hostname set
• Use latest WiFi Encryption

My Network

I do have two network zones at home.

Network zone 1 is the network provided by the main internet router. This one provides access to the internet and is not used otherwise.

name: internet router OpenWRT zone name: wan IPv4 range: 192.168.2.0/24

Network zone 2 is my private LAN/WiFi there all devices are living in.

name: private LAN OpenWRT zone name: lan IPv4 range: 192.168.1.0/24

Howto

The following section describes how I configure my OpenWRT router (the one for network zone 2).

Administrative stuff

Visit the web UI using the following URL: https://192.168.1.1

• change router password in System->Administration
• change hostname in System->System (my hostname is corvus)

Network

LAN

• Connect cable from main internet router to uplink port
• By using the uplink port named WAN inside OpenWRT, the two networks (lan and wan) will be separated automatically.
  • Under Network->Firewall you will see that zone lan is able to talk to wan (required for internet) but not vice versa

WiFi

• Go to Network->Wireless and edit both SSID: OpenWrt | Mode: Master entries (one is 2,4 GHz and the other is 5 GHz)
  • Go to Genereal Setup tab
    • Set ESSID
  • Go to Wireless Security tab
    • Set Encryption to WPA3-SAE (strong security)
    • Set WiFi Key
    • Enable 802.11r Fast Transition and set Mobility Domain to 0001
• Enable both devices
• Press Save & Apply

WiFi should work now.

Access

• Go to System->Administration

• Go to tab SSH Keys

• Create an SSH Key (e.g. using ssh-keygen -f key)

• Paste content of key.pub

• Configure your SSH config in ~/.ssh/config

Host corvus
  Hostname corvus
  IdentityFile <path to key file>
  IdentitiesOnly yes
  User root

• Test ssh access with ssh corvus

Links

• OpenWRT Quick Start Guide: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-quick-start/start