Wondering how to establish a gateway topology with wireless WAN instead of conventional LAN cable connecting to WAN port? DD-WRT is able to do it easily! This section has my log entry for configuring such wireless WAN topology known as "client mode". The official documentation is available at: https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Mode_Wireless
WARNING: This should serve as a data pointer, not a guide. You must and always refer to the main documentations for latest information to avoid bricking your device.
Depending on router model, you may not want to occupy the wireless interface. Hence, use a LAN cable to connect into the DD-WRT enabled router.
The topology is as follows:
Internet
| -- via cell/fiber (e.g. 3G/4G/5G/fiber)
↓
Wifi device (e.g. mobile phone)
| -- hotspot via 5G band
↓
DD-WRT Router Wifi WAN
||
DD-WRT Router LAN+WLAN with DHCP Server
| | | -- via cable / Wifi via 2.5G band
↓ ↓ ↓
d1 d2 ...
Firstly, we need to establish configuration interface with the router. This section assumes you had setup your router's admin username and password already.
Depending on router model, you may not want to occupy the wireless interface. Hence, use a LAN cable to connect into the DD-WRT enabled router. Make sure you login with the correct username and password.
The first thing to do is to setup the wireless settings correctly. Hence, head over to "Wireless" > "Wireless Security".
The first thing to do is to setup the wireless settings correctly. If you have dual-band wireless (2.5G and 5G) while your internet source wireless can support 5G band, use the 5G band for establishing WAN network interface. Otherwise, if the router only has one band, you can only use that for WAN connection while having all the devices connecting the router by cable-only.
To do that, the selected band (in this log, I used 5G) must have exact wifi name and wifi password with the wireless source. That means it must be exactly characters by characters, settings by settings. Hence, refers to your source.
Once done, press "SAVE" first and proceed to next step.
FYI - Using Mobile Wifi Hotspot As Source
For wifi hotspot from your mobile, while inside the hotspot configurations, you need to select "show advanced settings" or similar and set it first before configuring the router. Things like:
Now place the wifi settings based on your wireless WAN specifications. Head over to "Wireless" > "Basic Setup"
If you do not have any idea, leave it as mixed or full spectrum (basically providing flexibility.
Now we want to configure the router for local routing. Head over to "Setup" > "Basic Setup".
Here, we got a lot of settings to deal with:
We need to set 1 very important setup in this section. Head over "Setup" > "Advanced Routing".
As the title implies, set the "Operational Mode" to "Gateway". Once done, press "save", then "apply settings". Let it restart automatically.
After returning from restart, if your source access point (AP) is available, the router should connect to it automatically. If you're on mobile wifi hotspot, you can see there is 1 device connecting to it.
Now that your internet source is available, you may proceed with the rest of the configurations.
That's all about setting up wireless WAN (client mode) on DD-WRT enabled network router.