OpenWrt

Enable Wi-Fi by Default on OpenWrt

7 minutes to read

On routers with an Ethernet port, OpenWrt has Wi-Fi disabled on the first boot “for security reasons.”1 To enable Wi-Fi, users need to first connect a device to the router via Ethernet, so they can access the router in a wired manner and change its configuration to set up Wi-Fi. This is more inconvenient than most routers’ stock firmware. These routers come with a unique default SSID and password printed on a sticker affixed to the router, and for the initial setup, users can connect to the router wirelessly using these credentials; Ethernet is not required. OpenWrt, however, cannot easily make use of default Wi-Fi credentials. Constant initial Wi-Fi password in the default configuration (which would be common for every OpenWrt device on the first boot) is certainly a security risk; randomized passwords are more secure, but there is no means to inform users of the random password before the users have connected to the router, unlike what router manufacturers can do with the sticker. Therefore, disabling Wi-Fi by default on OpenWrt does improve security. …

Create an External-Facing IPv6 Subnet on OpenWrt

20 minutes to read

Some home Internet users have a need to expose some devices on their home network to the Internet and meanwhile block external access to other devices. For example, some users may wish to allow external access to their home server and prevent their smartphones and workstations from being accessible from the Internet. To achieve this goal, these users can create a subnet exposed to the Internet on their router and put the external-facing devices into this subnet; the other devices can thus be kept on the default local area network (LAN) subnet, protected behind a firewall that blocks external access. The external-facing subnet is commonly referred to as a demilitarized zone (DMZ). …