Multiple SSID on OpenWRT with bandwidth limit

If you're a network junkie and not been living under the rocks, you must have heard of OpenWRT. It's a Linux distribution for embedded devices (routers) and gives you power to do things usually impossible or difficult with inbuilt router firmware. Wireless Freedom indeed.

This was my scenario: I had to create two wireless APs for my office, one for the guests (no password but bandwidth limited) and another for non-guest users (password protected but no limit on bandwidth). That way the visitors will have free wireless internet, but with limited bandwidth. The office staffs will have to connect to a password protected wifi for unrestricted bandwidth.

The requirements for the APs are,

Free Wifi for visitors
- SSID: FreeWifi
- Password: none
- Bandwidth limit: 256Kbps uplink, 128Kbps downlink

Office Wifi for staffs
- SSID: OfficeAP
- Password: 1234567890
- Encryption: WPA2
- Bandwidth limit: none

Here's how I did it on OpenWRT. Connect to OpenWRT shell.

1. First create two wireless APs with above configuration. Add the following lines to /etc/config/wireless (Remove any existing 'wifi-iface' configurations)

# Free Wifi
config 'wifi-iface'
        option 'device' 'wifi0'
        option 'ssid' 'FreeWifi'
        option 'mode' 'ap'
        option 'network' 'lan'

# Office Wifi
config 'wifi-iface'
        option 'device' 'wifi0'
        option 'ssid' 'OfficeAP'
        option 'mode' 'ap'
        option 'network' 'lan'
        option 'encryption' 'psk2'
        option 'key' '1234567890'

As simple as that! Now to enable the wifi, go to shell and

# wifi down; wifi up

2. Now to limit bandwidth, we'll be using wondershaper. To install:

# opkg update
# opkg install wshaper

3. Now find which interface is the FreeWifi assigned to

# iwconfig

On mine, it was on ath0

4. Modify /etc/config/wshaper and start wondershaper

config 'wshaper' 'settings'
    option 'network' 'ath0'
    option 'downlink' '256'
    option 'uplink' '128'

Now, start wondershaper.

# /etc/init.d/wshaper start

5. By default, wshaper isnt enabled at startup. so,

# ln -s /etc/init.d/wshaper /etc/rc.d/S99wshaper