Field Router¶

Portable GL.iNet router setup for school / lab work.

Role¶

The field router is the preferred network layer when working at TMU. It joins the university Wi-Fi as a WPA2-Enterprise client, then provides a private lab LAN for the Mac, robot-adjacent devices, and tooling.

This replaces the older pattern where the Mac was the main internet-sharing router.

flowchart TD
    TMU["TMU Wi-Fi<br/>WPA2-Enterprise / PEAP / MSCHAPv2"] --> GL["GL.iNet GL-MT3000<br/>eph107<br/>LAN 192.168.8.0/24"]
    GL --> MAC["zmac<br/>Wi-Fi 192.168.8.109"]
    GL --> UBUNTU["jeffxi-ubuntu<br/>Home Assistant<br/>192.168.8.241"]
    GL --> POWER["iDevices Switch 00101614<br/>main robot power switch<br/>192.168.8.115"]
    GL --> DEV["robot tools / tablets / dev devices<br/>DHCP 192.168.8.x"]
    GL --> TS["Tailscale<br/>100.84.198.19"]
    GL --> WF["WebFinder manifest<br/>https://eph107.tailee9084.ts.net:9321"]

Current Router State¶

Do not commit the TMU account password or router admin password to this repo.

Lab LAN Services¶

The Ubuntu host should keep Ethernet as the primary route and Wi-Fi as backup:

eno1 Ethernet: DHCP reservation 192.168.8.241/24, route metric 100
wlxa8b58e476aec Wi-Fi: DHCP reservation 192.168.8.242/24, route metric 600

Home Assistant runs as Docker container homeassistant with host networking and restart=unless-stopped. It is paired to the iDevices switch through HomeKit Controller.

Wi-Fi Layout¶

The 5 GHz uplink was selected because TMU was visible around -48 dBm during setup. Use 2.4 GHz uplink only if 5 GHz becomes unstable in a different room.

Current persisted UCI state:

wireless.default_radio0.disabled=0   # 2.4 GHz AP on
wireless.default_radio1.disabled=1   # 5 GHz AP off
wireless.tmu_sta.disabled=0          # TMU station/uplink on

Runtime check:

ssh root@192.168.8.1
iw dev
ls /var/run/hostapd
ifstatus wwan

Expected:

wlan0: AP, SSID GL-MT3000-8b4, channel 11 / 2.4 GHz
phy1-sta0: managed/client, SSID TMU, 5 GHz
/var/run/hostapd/wlan0 exists
/var/run/hostapd/wlan1 does not exist
wwan up with a 10.16.x.x address and default route

TMU WPA2-Enterprise Settings¶

The router uses the same settings as TMU's Linux instructions:

OpenWrt packages required:

opkg list-installed | grep -E 'wpad|ca-cert'

Expected:

wpad-openssl
ca-bundle
ca-certificates

Sanitized config check:

ssh eph107
uci show wireless.tmu_sta | sed "s/password=.*/password='<hidden>'/"
ifstatus wwan
ip route

Healthy state:

wwan up
phy1-sta0 has a 10.16.x.x/20 address
default via 10.16.x.1 dev phy1-sta0 metric 20

Mac Client Setup¶

The Mac should join the GL.iNet 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi or use USB Ethernet to the router LAN when the router is the field gateway. The GL.iNet 5 GHz private AP is disabled so 5 GHz can stay dedicated to TMU uplink.

networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 GL-MT3000-8b4 '<router-wifi-password>'
route -n get default

Expected default route:

gateway: 192.168.8.1
interface: en0

Quick verification:

ping -c 2 192.168.8.1
curl -I https://example.com
ssh eph107

If a USB Ethernet adapter is plugged into the router LAN, the currently observed service is USB 10/100/1000 LAN 2 on en18. It should receive a 192.168.8.x DHCP lease from the router. After a reboot, re-enable/renew it if macOS leaves it disabled:

networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled 'USB 10/100/1000 LAN 2' on
networksetup -setdhcp 'USB 10/100/1000 LAN 2'
ifconfig en18
ping -c 2 192.168.8.1

Do not confuse this with the iPad USB-NCM interface (en23), which can appear as a live Ethernet-like link but only gets a 169.254.x.x address.

If a USB Ethernet adapter was previously plugged into the router LAN and is not needed, disable that macOS network service or move it below Wi-Fi so the Mac does not fight itself:

networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled 'USB 10/100/1000 LAN 2' off

Tailscale¶

The router is a normal tailnet node:

ssh eph107
tailscale status --self
tailscale ip -4

Expected:

100.84.198.19

SSH is intentionally key-only:

ssh eph107

Local SSH config maps eph107 to:

Host eph107
    HostName eph107
    User root
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gl_mt3000_ed25519
    IdentitiesOnly yes

WebFinder¶

WebFinder runs on the router so tailnet clients can discover the router UI.

ssh eph107
web-finder status --debug
tailscale serve status

Current served endpoints:

The :8443 endpoint may appear as Index of /; it is a generic internal web server listing and is not useful for normal operations.

Recovery¶

If the router loses TMU uplink:

ssh root@192.168.8.1
uci get wireless.tmu_sta.disabled
uci set wireless.tmu_sta.disabled='0'
uci set wireless.default_radio1.disabled='1'
uci commit wireless
wifi reload
ifup wwan
logread | grep -Ei 'phy1-sta0|TMU|EAP|MSCHAP|wwan|wpa' | tail -120

If Tailscale is offline but LAN works:

ssh root@192.168.8.1
/etc/init.d/tailscale restart
tailscale status

If LAN SSH does not work:

• confirm the router is powered on
• connect to the GL.iNet Wi-Fi SSID
• if using Ethernet, plug into the GL.iNet LAN port, not WAN
• check that the Mac has a 192.168.8.x address