introduction tp-link mr3020 openwrt

hello guys... this is my second blog... i will introduce you with the item i brought yesterday. It was an portable wireless mini router access point type tp-link TL-MR3020. this thing can connect multiple device like smartphone, android, blackberry, ipod, ipad, tablets, laptop and all other thing which have Wi-Fi enabled device (etc: a pc with usb wireless plug in it) and share the internet connection. And if you haven't know  tp-link TL-MR3020 does support wireless n router mode.

There are 3 main mode that can we used in this device.

• 3g router mode
• WISP client router mode
• Access point mode

As for 3g router mode it's mainly used for sharing mobile internet connection to area on your place (shared via Wi-Fi).we need a 3g usb modem with any kind of operator that support internet connection like WCDMA /  HSDPA to make this work.  It  can be used with any gsm / cdma operator.  

for WISP client router mode, the devices is being used for catch and forwarding internet connection from another access point connection. Also it can be used for dialling pppoe connection then shared it via wifi.

and last the access point mode. it's used for bridge an ethernet cable and wi fi connection so it become connected. (we can share internet connection from cable to wifi so everyone in the area can connected via wifi).

the size is also very small that we can carry it anyhere on our pocket.



as for myself, why i buy this router...? it's because i want to tweak this access point portable and changed its firmware to openwrt / linux. for a 30$ access point can compete with devices like mikrotik/cisco wireless 70$++ because its sooooooo~~ many  feature when the firmware changed into openwrt


the tweak possibilities is unlimited because it depends on the developper of the linux firmware itself . as it can be act as an

• firewall
• qos limit streaming downloading so we can keep the latency to play games online
• port forwarding  (if we want to make a server in our private lan so it can be accessed from outside )
• real time monitoring bandwidth, input output, throughput lan
• act as a vpn client / server

transmission torrent on tplink tl-mr3020

now i will share my experience on installing transmission torrent on tplink tl-mr 3020. oyeah, before that, transmission torrent is a free linux torrent client that can be used to download file, music, program, and other.

 we can think torrent as a method to sharing file among all client pc to pc. Usually we get the torrent file from website like isohunt, demonoid, thepiratesbay, etc. The server only save the tracker (information of where each client save the file). Then from the client they will upload and download (share to other client pc) the fragment of the file until it's finished (become 1 complete file). We called the downloader "leecher" and the uploader "seeder". When a person finish downloading file, they become a seeder. They will upload the file continously.  That's how torrent works.


Now lets install the transmission torrent on our beloved device :)

wireless n router

are you familiar with wireless a and b and g and n?


actually all of that mode use 802.11 standart networking which categorized based 
on its transfer capability and frequency it used.



the different between wireless n router, and other a/b/g is

• 802.11a transmits frequency at range 5,15Giga hertz - 5,875  Giga hertz can transfer up to 54megabits/s

• 802.11b  transmits frequency at range 2.4Giga hertz  -2,497  Giga hertz        can transfer up to 11megabits/s

openwrt ftp server

this time i will show you how to install ftp server on our tp link mr3020 device.

pretty easy....      oh yeah, before you read this post you also need to read this post first.

now go to our console... login via putty.



type :
opkg install http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/packages/vsftpd_3.0.0-1_ar71xx.ipk


you can see the example on image below.

failsafe recovery / reset

failsafe recovery is a method to reset the configuration that the tp link mr3020 has. it's pretty easy. Here's the step:

• turn off the device
• turn on while press & hold  the wps button for about 5-10 sec

that's it. now you can access the router with it's default ip (192.168.1.1) with telnet. Don't forget to change the ip of your pc to 192.168.1.(2-254) :)

install luci

luci is a web based configuration. a gui (graphical user interface via web browser) that we can use to configure our setting. It will make us easier to configure setting

before read this post... you must past this step first.

now login first to our console via putty...

• opkg update
• opkg install luci
• opkg install luci-ssl

after that to run luci web browser can be done with /etc/init.d/uhttpd start

extroots

the extroots is a mechanism to transfer our instalation to external device like flashdrive / hardisk external. it's very important, because basicly the mr3020 doesnt have enough space in memory to install thing such luci (web interface). after flashing the kernel we should access the mr3020 via telnet / putty. Be sure to understand the basic of linux command line before you do this.

this is my 16gb sandisk cruzher. i have formatted it to ext2 with mini tool partition wizard home edition.
I format the flashdisk to 8gb fat32

first thing to-do after flashing openwrt

first thing to do after flashing openwrt is making our device connected to internet. because after connected to internet, we could update our software, install software from repository, etc.

first change the ip address of our lan adapter to any of the range 192.168.1.2-255. then test our connection to the device by ping it from command prompt. start > cmd > ping 192.168.1.1

after the test success.