[LEDE-DEV] FS#490 - BT Home Hub 5 Ethernet WAN Port configuration

[Mauro Mozzarelli]

John,


To summarize, with my use case scenarios I am trying to make the point 
that the effort to make the Red Ethernet behave as a WAN does not have 
to be a priority because it is the least useful case on this router.

The priority should be:

1) to make it usable as another Ethernet interface (name it LAN2, EWAN, 
XWAN does not matter) appearing by default in the list of interfaces on 
a fresh install.
2) as every interface, it should be possible to BRIDGE Red Ethernet to 
other interfaces like LAN.

(1) is already achievable, but manually configuring files that will get 
overwritten if not saved (/etc/board.json) and using a 
counter-intuitive, not listed (in luci) device name that confuses end users.
(2) to date my attempts to bridge the interface to another interface 
(LAN) have failed as reported in FS#390.

On 10/02/17 13:57, John Crispin wrote:
>
> On 10/02/2017 14:01, Mauro M. wrote:
>> In response to Mathias:
>>
>>
>> Let's have a look at the use cases for the Red Ethernet Port:
>>
>> 1) Classic case: Internet Home user with xDSL WAN + Wired and Wireless
>> Devices
>>
>> SCENARIO: In this case my WAN is the xDSL port, my router has 4 Ethernet
>> (yellow) ports, but I have 5 devices, so I want to BRIDGE my Red
>> Ethernet to extend the available Yellow Ethernet (LAN) ports
>>
>> STATUS: this does not work today, see FS#390
>>
>>
>> 2) Small Office User with xDSL and Fixed IP Subnet
>>
>> SCENARIO: In this case I have to disable Masquerading for my servers on
>> the subnet to be addressable, also in this use case scenario I have 5 or
>> more wired servers and I want to extend my switch to bridge the Red
>> Ethernet port
>>
>> STATUS: as above this does not work today FS#390
>>
>>
>> 3) Small Office User Intranet: this extends SCENARIO 2
>>
>> SCENARIO: I use a second router, the Red Ethernet (that I name "ewan")
>> is connected to my router at (2) and is assigned a fixed IP on the
>> subnet. The Yellow Ethernet switch is bridged to WiFi as "LAN". The
>> firewall is configured to SNAT LAN to EWAN.
>>
>> STATUS: today this works by editing /etc/board.json to add port 5 to the
>> switch, adding a new VLAN to Switch0 to cover port 5, creating a new
>> network interface EWAN. However it works only if I create a bridge
>> br-ewan and I add eth1.2 to it, it does not work if I configure eth1.2
>> directly to EWAN. I would like eth1.2 to be available in the list of
>> interfaces (now I have to "know" that it exists and I have to configure
>> it manually). Newbies might bang their head trying to use eth0.2 which
>> is created by the additional VLAN, but it does not work.
>>
>>
>> 4) Small Office Multi Wan: this extends SCENARIO 2 and 3
>>
>> SCENARIO: I have 2 xDSL WANs, one is as at (2), the second is an xDSL.
>> The WAN port on my router is  configured as ADSL with
>> pppoa-wan/pppoe-wan. The EWAN is connected to a router with Internet
>> access and is assigned a fixed WAN IP.
>>
>> STATUS: as per SCENARIO 3, the Red Ethernet is configured manually by
>> editing /etc/board.json
>>
>>
>> 5) WiFi repeater: I configure the router just as a WiFi repeater, I need
>> extra wired ports and I want to bridge the Red Ethernet to my LAN
>>
>> STATUS: as per SCENARIO 1 and 2
>>
>>
>> 6) Home or Office user with separate xDSL Modem
>>
>> SCENARIO: I have an xDSL modem and I want to use pppoe over the Red
>> Ethernet
>>
>> STATUS: I have never tried this scenario, but I believe this is what is
>> covered by the default configuration on most routers with Ethernet WAN
>> (I wonder why since I find this the least useful use case) and thus it
>> is supposed to work
>>
>>
>> SCENARIO 3 and 4 describe what are my current use cases
>>
>> In my 2 use cases it does not really matter whether the Red Ethernet is
>> recognized as WAN. In case 3 it is sufficient that it is configurable
>> with an IP, thus, whatever the name we give the interface, I would like
>> it to appear by default on a fresh firmware install. To support CASES 1,
>> 2 and 5, where I want to bridge my Red Ethernet to extend the ports on
>> the switch, I need this to work (FS#390)
>>
>> I hope this helps.
>>
>> Mauro
>>
>>
> tl;dr  can you try to be more precise and reduce this to the statement
> you actually want to make please ?
>
>