Is there any progress on returning the functionality of Vera 3 as a switch, to enable it to act as a wifi access point?
Thanks!
I haven’t tried this in a while, but I don’t remember seeing anything in the release notes indicating that they had gotten switch mode working.
As far as it acting as WiFi access point, I would have though this OK anyway assuming you used the WAN port?!
I have the Vera3 connected to a dlink router via the WAN port, but am allowing the dlink to be the DHCP server.
when I enable WiFi on Vera, i can’t get any devices to connect through Vera’s WiFi.
I tried setting it up as a DHCP server also, with a different restricted range of IP addresses, but it still didn’t work.
[quote=“strangely, post:2, topic:172110”]I haven’t tried this in a while, but I don’t remember seeing anything in the release notes indicating that they had gotten switch mode working.
As far as it acting as WiFi access point, I would have though this OK anyway assuming you used the WAN port?![/quote]
Have you set it up as “manually configure” and with the Firewall off?
I’ll try it on mine later to see if I have any joy!
It works on mine but provides different IP’s, outside the addressing on my network so it causes issues when trying to hit my TV (hardwired to Linksys router) and iPAD wireless to the Vera 3. They don’t see each other. So I have since turned off the wifi and just use the hard wired ports for things that don’t matter what IP they have.
Sure would be nice to have a switch type function like Vera 2 did.
Yes, my Vera is configured this way, but no luck…
[quote=“strangely, post:4, topic:172110”]Have you set it up as “manually configure” and with the Firewall off?
I’ll try it on mine later to see if I have any joy![/quote]
I wonder if it would work if you tried to configure your devices with static addresses? Might be worth a shot with at least one of them as a test if the firewall is also off!
I have all my devices configured with static ip addresses, but unfortunately, still no luck.
The firewall is definitely off.
I did a bit of searching on the OpenWrt site for updates to the ramips vlan implementation. There have been quite a few patches but without knowing what switch is inside the Vera3 I can’t tell if they are relevant.
Unfortunately the Vera 3 units don’t support the switch mode, and any attempts to make it work in this mode can make the unit behave strangely which can make you loose access to it.
Might be an AR8236.
Yes we know it normally bricks it, many of us have tried 
but what is MCV doing about trying to get it to work?
Suggest you think about making some heavy disclaimers then about the fact it doesn’t work! Especially given the likely influx of people possibly upgrading from a V1 to a V3!
Might be an AR8236.[/quote]
If it is, then there’s support in Openwrt trunk since 28993. “All” it would take is for someone to recompile a Vera3 Openwrt image with this changelist or later, and give it a go. The fact that MCV hasn’t told us about the results of this (to me) obvious experiment indicates that it’s not high on their priority list, or they’re worried about users breaking their firmware with a flash update, or they’ve tried it and failed. It’d be nice if we got some more technical direction from MCV.
OpenWRT doesn’t support the switch mode implementation that we’ve used with Vera1 and Vera2 which were using the Broadcom SOC, and neither the current Ralink wireless driver.
Broadcom made certain non standard customization to their proprietary drives which aren’t found in the Ralink ones that we’re using right now.
Having this option added to Vera3 will cause most probably more problems than having an extra 5 port switch near your Vera3 unit.
Still? There’ve been a lot of patches to the Ralink SOC code in OpenWrt, including some quite recently. Surely Ralink has provided tons of NDA’d datasheets that’d let you add support for the switch. Even contribute the support back to Openwrt.
Having this option added to Vera3 will cause most probably more problems than having an extra 5 port switch near your Vera3 unit.
It’s easy to rationalize that conclusion, but do your users agree with you? Personally it looks like the RT3xxx series was not the best choice for the Vera3 platform. Fine for Vera Lite, though.
Edit: fix RA3xxx → RT3xxx
How did you get to that conclusion?
Do you know any other SOC with more performance and support in OpenWRT that the one we’re using?
Did you know that in the Broadcom AP mode implementation, from your network you couldn’t connect to any devices that where connected in the lan ports of the broadcom switch if those
devices didn’t made any packages exchanges through the wifi broadcom interface?
Also do you know that this implementation works only on the 2.4 kernel?
Beside this, have you successfully compiled the latest OpenWRT trunk, write it on your Vera unit, configured switch mode, test it thoroughly and confirmed that it’s working fine?
Or you’ve found documentations/posts about something like this on their wiki/forum for the current OpenWRT trunk and ralink 3xxx target?
Show me some concrete facts about this and I’ll start looking into it, else I can’t brake the current network configuration for an unstable switch mode.
It is quite clear they do not agree with the previous statement got several reasons;
- This thread was initiated to address that logic and whether or not MCV had made any progress to rectify it.
- Other threads in which this question has arisen.
- The suggestion that MCV should make a very clear disclaimer that this capability does not exist with the Vera3.
[quote=“cj, post:16, topic:172110”]Or you’ve found documentations/posts about something like this on their wiki/forum for the current OpenWRT trunk and ralink 3xxx target?
Show me some concrete facts about this and I’ll start looking into it, else I can’t brake the current network configuration for an unstable switch mode.[/quote]
i find the last post to be argumentative rather then constructive by nature. Open the link and read the information that was provided.
I do not think anyone is asking you to break the current network configuration and/or trying waste you time. But rather investigate the information that had been provided and if suitable go through the phases of dev and test. You should nit expect this to be done by a customer regardless of their knowledge and skills.
If it is decided that it is not justified to take this action and accept that the Vera 3 will not have this reviewed add the limitation in the product specification as it may sway the decision on whether or not they get a Vera 3 or maybe due to this, a Vera light is more suited to their needs.
If some one was investigating buying a Vera 3 read this thread it may completely drive them off the Vera due them not understanding what this all means and therefore the disclaimer and precise explanation is currently a very good suggestion.
I’m trying to understand the implications of this thread since I currently have a Vera 2 but have a Vera 3 on order from MCV. The original post leads me to believe the Vera 3 cannot act as an access point. Is that true? Vera 3 as a switch implies using the two hardwired Ethernet ports to connect two devices; as an access point the Vera 3 is really a bridge, not a switch. I use my Vera 2 as an access point for my IP cameras. Are you telling me this doesn’t work in Vera 3? :o
If so, why is there even a Vera 3? What use is it over a Vera Lite? ???
I hope I’m misinterpreting this thread.
It’s late here but I promise to make some diagrams when I have the time, showing what will definitely work on Vera{1,2,3}, and what works only on Vera{1,2}. In the mean time here is some ASCII art…
If your setup is:
Internet <—> Your own router <–(wire)–> [WAN Port of] Vera <–(wireless)–> Wireless LAN
then you are (as far as I know; I don’t have one) fine with Vera3. As you say, this is a bridge scenario, not a switch scenario, and it’s not what the topic of this thread is about. This thread is meant to be only about the extra wired Ethernet ports on Vera3, not Wi-Fi. what I’ve been talking about. (Edit: went back to start of topic and noticed that there was some talk of Wi-Fi there.)
Edit: so I’m reading that this kind of bridging isn’t available, which is unexpected. Bridging Wi-Fi with one Ethernet port should work fine with OpenWrt; I’ve got it working on an Atheros router running 10.03.something, and I had it going on a Broadcom router too (though that wasn’t stress-tested and has since been decommissioned). Bridging these interfaces uses Kernel-mode bridging (via brctl) and doesn’t need special support for the on-board Ethernet switch hardware, so unless the Ralink SoC is very different, it should work too. My money is on the MiOS layer not wanting to write the correct /etc/config/network file contents.
Hi Futzle,
Thanks for the clarification. That’s what I had thought, until I read this thread and the original post talked about “switching” between WiFi and one of the hardwired Ethernet ports. That’s not switching, that’s bridging, and if it couldn’t do that I could not understand why even have the Vera 3 rather than the Vera Lite. As I mentioned I use the Vera 2 as an access point to keep the IP camera traffic off my main wireless router. I’m understanding from you that I can still do this with my (now shipped, should be here in a day or two) new Vera 3.