non-WiFi access

Peter H
 
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:24 pm

non-WiFi access

Wed Nov 12, 2014 11:35 pm

I have several VoCores and I have sort of bricked one of them. I tried to connect it to my home WiFi network, without success. Unfortunately this left me unable to use the WiFi interface to fix the configuration. Even more unfortunately, I can't connect SSH or HTTP to the Ethernet interface to fix the configuration from there either, although the interface is up and has DHCP-ed itself an IP address. I guess the VoCore's firewall may be blocking the incoming traffic, but I'm not familiar enough with OpenWRT to be sure about that.

So this leaves me with a few questions:

How can I manage my 'broken' VoCore without using the WiFi AP?

If the answer is that I can't, is there any way to do a 'reset to factory defaults' on it or similar, to re-enable the WiFi AP mode after I have accidentally turned it off?

On a VoCore that I can manage via its web interface and SSH, via WiFi, how can I configure it so I can also manage it via the Ethernet interface? This would save me from making the same mistake with any other VoCores.

Really wishing I hadn't sawn off that branch ...

Vonger
 
Posts: 896
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2014 6:00 am

Re: non-WiFi access

Thu Nov 13, 2014 4:04 am

Hi, it is easy :) do not forget in the package I send you the USB2TTL, that is used to fix VoCore without network. Please read vocore.io/wiki for more information.

Peter H
 
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:24 pm

Re: non-WiFi access

Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:24 am

Thank you for the hint. And thank you for the USB-TTL adapter - it has already come in very useful! :)

After a bit of soldering I have established a serial connection (57600N1 in case anyone else is interested) and used that to reset the /etc/config/wireless file to sane values to restore AP mode. The serial connection ensures that I can get into the VoCore no matter how I mess up the wireless configuration.

As an aside, a VoCore with Ethernet connected using the default settings seems like a bit of a security risk - anybody that can see the WiFi signal has direct access into whatever network the Ethernet is connected to. Probably best not to leave the Ethernet connected unless you understand how to secure the connection.

All my attempts to persuade my VoCore to accept incoming SSH or HTTP connections on the Ethernet port have failed, though. If anyone has managed that I'd be interested to learn how. I've also failed to connect the WiFi interface to my home network (PSK2/TKIP/AES), so I'd be interested to find whether anyone has managed that too.

bobpaul
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2014 11:48 pm

Re: non-WiFi access

Wed Nov 19, 2014 6:59 pm

Peter H wrote:All my attempts to persuade my VoCore to accept incoming SSH or HTTP connections on the Ethernet port have failed, though. If anyone has managed that I'd be interested to learn how.


Recently I showed how to do this via the Web interface in Question: How to configure Ethernet on Dock. But since you're connected via console, just edit /etc/config/network and on interface 'lan' change option proto to 'dhcp'. This will result in the ethernet getting an IP from your network, which you can see by either checking your router or using "ifconfig" from the serial console. Now SSH should work.

Note that I'm pretty sure the firewall as configured references the interface "lan", not the interface "eth0.1". This means if you disable the bridge between the ethernet and the wifi, you will likely need to adjust iptables before you can communicate with it again. I'm not sure how to do that yet, so I frequently run "firstboot" as described in the failsafe instructions to reset my vocore to factory default. :oops:

Peter H wrote:I've also failed to connect the WiFi interface to my home network (PSK2/TKIP/AES), so I'd be interested to find whether anyone has managed that too.


Once you have ethernet working, you should then be able to reliably mess with the WiFi configuration from the Web Interface. vonager posted instructions in his reply to Question: How to configure Ethernet on Dock. I'm still trying to figure out how to do it via the WebUI. I've done this with OpenWRT and DD-WRT routers in the past, but it's proving finicky.

Peter H
 
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2014 10:24 pm

Re: non-WiFi access

Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:34 am

After connecting via the serial interface I reinstated the wireless configuration. I spent quite a long time trying to modify the wireless configuration file to reconfigure my VoCore as a WiFi client without success, but I found it relatively easy to do using LuCI. I also moved the Ethernet virtual interface from the WAN zone to the LAN zone so that I can administer it via Ethernet if necessary.

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