wifihaven → Set up your router → Turn on Wi-Fi

Turn on Wi-Fi

This step is the same on every OpenWrt router — whichever model you flashed, do this once after the first boot, before you unplug the laptop.

Wi-Fi is off after flashing — that’s expected, not a bad flash. Vanilla OpenWrt ships with both radios disabled and no wireless network on any router that has Ethernet ports, so right after flashing you’ll only have wired connectivity. You turn Wi-Fi on yourself — here’s how.

Via LuCI (browser)

  1. Browse to http://192.168.1.1 and open Network → Wireless.
  2. For each radio (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), click Enable, then Edit.
  3. Set the ESSID (your network name), and under Wireless Security choose WPA2-PSK (or WPA2/WPA3 mixed) and set a password.
  4. Set the country under the radio’s device configuration, then Save & Apply.

Or over SSH

SSH in (ssh root@192.168.1.1) and run — this sets the country, enables both radios, and creates a WPA2/WPA3 network on each: 

uci set wireless.radio0.country='US'   # your country code
uci set wireless.radio1.country='US'
uci set wireless.radio0.disabled='0'   # radios are disabled by default
uci set wireless.radio1.disabled='0'
uci set wireless.default_radio0.ssid='YourNetwork'
uci set wireless.default_radio1.ssid='YourNetwork'
uci set wireless.default_radio0.encryption='sae-mixed'   # WPA2/WPA3; use 'psk2' for WPA2 only
uci set wireless.default_radio1.encryption='sae-mixed'
uci set wireless.default_radio0.key='your-wifi-password'
uci set wireless.default_radio1.key='your-wifi-password'
uci commit wireless
wifi reload

The wifi-device sections are radio0 / radio1; the per-radio network sections are default_radio0 / default_radio1. Confirm your SSID is now visible from a phone — wifi status shows each radio up.