Howto turn your old Vodafone ADSL router HG556a into a wifi extender

Dermot McDonnell

You may have an unused ADSL router, the Huawei Echolife HG556a, lying around. They were widely distributed by Vodafone, and possible other ISPs, in Ireland. I sometimes see them in charity shops. They look like this:



You can turn your HG556a into a decent wifi extender with little effort by flashing an appropriate OpenWRT firmware and adding your own network information.

As the HG556a come in 3 flavours, you need to determine which one you have. Consult the label on the rear of the device and note the first 5 digits of the Serial Number (SN)



Serial Numbers that begin 30462, 30562, 30605, 30608 are HG55VDFA VER.C - TYPE A. It has a good quality Atheros AR9223 wifi radio. Download the HG556a-TypeA firmware.

Serial Numbers that begin 30634, 30692, 30693, 31110, 31300 are HG55VDFA VER.C - TYPE B. It also has a good quality Atheros AR9223 wifi radio. The model in the photo above is one of these. Download the HG556a-TypeB firmware.

Serial Numbers that begin 30695, 30694, 31301, 31507, 30555, 31525, 31935, 31901, 31902 are HG56BZRB VER.A - TYPE C. - The Ralink RT3062F wifi radio it contains is reportedly inferior to the Atheros AR9223 wifi radio in the other models. I have never seen one of these, therefore I cannot test my firmware build for it. If you have one and are willing to risk bricking it, please PM me and I will provide a firmware for you to try.


Flashing the OpenWRT Firmware.

Firstly, you must manually configure your PC ethernet port IP address to these parameters:



You PC IP address must be 192.168.1.100 and the Default Route (or Gateway) must be 192.168.1.1. I do not know how to do this on Windoze as I do not have that OS. Someone might be kind enough to post to this thread explaining how to do that.

Open your browser and clear cached web content, failure to clear it often causes difficulties.

Hold down the Restart button on your HG556a as you power it up. Keep the Restart button pressed for 10 seconds and release it. The power light, only, should remain lit. Connect an ethernet cable to any LAN port on your HG556a, connect the other end to your PC.

Enter 192.168.1.1 in your browser address bar. You should see something like this:


Browse to the saved OpenWRT firmware, select it and click Update Software. The firmware flash should complete and the router should restart within 5 minutes. DO NOT POWER OFF or reset the HG556a during this period, you will most likely destroy it if you do.

While the HG556a is restarting, change your PC Ethernet port to get its IP address automatically. When the HG556a has restarted, it will assign an IP to your PC. You can then telnet to it.

$ telnet 192.168.1.1
Trying 192.168.1.1...
Connected to 192.168.1.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
 === IMPORTANT ============================
  Use 'passwd' to set your login password
  this will disable telnet and enable SSH
 ------------------------------------------


BusyBox v1.23.2 (2015-04-19 11:33:12 IST) built-in shell (ash)

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 -----------------------------------------------------
 CHAOS CALMER (Bleeding Edge, r45587)
 -----------------------------------------------------
  * 1 1/2 oz Gin            Shake with a glassful
  * 1/4 oz Triple Sec       of broken ice and pour
  * 3/4 oz Lime Juice       unstrained into a goblet.
  * 1 1/2 oz Orange Juice
  * 1 tsp. Grenadine Syrup
 -----------------------------------------------------
root@DMcD:/#

Finally, you must configure the files

/etc/config/network
/etc/config/wireless

to suit your situation. You can do that on the HG556a if you are familiar with the Linux editors sed or vi which are installed. However, it is likely to be far easier for you to do the edit on your PC and copy the files to the HG556a when they ready.

/etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option channel 'auto'
        option hwmode '11ng'
        option path 'pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0'
        option txpower '19'
        option country 'IE'

config wifi-iface
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'ExtenderWifi'      #Give the extender AP a name
        option key 'your_password'    #and password
        option encryption 'psk2'         #options: none, wep, psk, psk2 - match your wifi source settings

config wifi-iface
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'wwan'
        option mode 'sta'
        option ssid 'MasterWifi'     #Your wifi source AP ssid [I][U]exactly[/U][/I]
        option encryption 'psk2'    #options: none, wep, psk, psk2 - match your wifi source settings
        option key 'master_wifi_password'  #Your wifi source AP password [I][U]exactly[/U][/I]

/etc/config/network

config interface 'loopback'
        option ifname 'lo'
        option proto 'static'
        option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
        option netmask '255.0.0.0'

config globals 'globals'
        option ula_prefix 'fd7a:55f3:a484::/48'

config interface 'lan'
        option ifname 'eth0'
        option type 'bridge'
        option proto 'static'
        option ipaddr '192.168.1.1'  #Should be different to your Master Wifi subnet
        option netmask '255.255.255.0'
        option ip6assign '60'

config interface 'wwan'
        option proto 'dhcp'

Save the network and wireless files to a memory stick. Put the memory stick in the HG556a then telnet to 192.168.1.1 and issue the following commands

cp /mnt/usb/wireless /etc/config
cp /mnt/usb/network /etc/config
sync
reboot

That's it. Your ExtenderAP will only appear if it succeeds in connecting to the MasterAP.

roast

Great, concise guide. I have a Type B model of this router and it's been banging away on OpenWRT for the last couple of years with no issues.
Stock fw is rubbish, but the hardware isn't the worst... at least, Type B isn't.

mass_debater

You should give a disclaimer about repeating wireless, it halves the throughput of your wireless. It's always better to use Ethernet or homeplugs and add an access point on another channel

Dermot McDonnell

mass_debater wrote: »

You should give a disclaimer about repeating wireless, it halves the throughput of your wireless. It's always better to use Ethernet or homeplugs and add an access point on another channel

All technologies have their pros and cons. It isnt always better to use ethernet or home plugs, you may not have the resources or access in the case of ethernet. You can always get a better solution if you have enough money.

This thread is about turning a piece of junk into something useful for little effort.

I originally made them for friends in rural areas with mobile internet and crap reception because you can turn cheaply into one of these



As it has a 3.18.11 linux kernel and has the latest broadband and wifi radio support, you can greatly improve mobile broadband reception cheaply. The photo shows two usb broadband radios, the one on the top left has a low gain external antennae and the one on the right has an external high gain antennae for those hard to reach places. As the power requirent is 12v DC, you can run it off a car battery anywhere you like.

hatrouf

thinx for this tuto ;
plz i need ssh and telnet access port ; 22 and 23 ports not working ; conexion refused

Niemoj

Hi, I get as far as "/etc/config/network" but it says permission denied, I've Telnet working on Windows 10 and I've previously flashed routers and never had this problem so I'm unsure as to what to do.

Any help?

Dermot McDonnell

hatrouf wrote: »

thinx for this tuto ;
plz i need ssh and telnet access port ; 22 and 23 ports not working ; conexion refused

I made a new firmware for the HG55VDFA VER.C - TYPE B. This one has dropbox which provides ssh access. telnet access is removed in OpenWRT once you password the root account. ssh is then enabled. I should have included it in the earlier firmware, my apologies. I have tested this firmware but cannot test the TYPE A or TYPE C, if anyone needs these, please let me know.

Dermot McDonnell

Niemoj wrote: »

Hi, I get as far as "/etc/config/network" but it says permission denied, I've Telnet working on Windows 10 and I've previously flashed routers and never had this problem so I'm unsure as to what to do.

Any help?

Odd, you should be able to edit every file in /etc/config. I can. What editor are you using? You can create the files you need on your PC, copy to a usb drive, insert the usb in the HG556a, mount it as /mnt/usb1_1 (or whatever) and copy the files to /etc/config.

MBSnr

Dermot McDonnell wrote: »

I made a new firmware for the HG55VDFA VER.C - TYPE B. This one has dropbox which provides ssh access. telnet access is removed in OpenWRT once you password the root account. ssh is then enabled. I should have included it in the earlier firmware, my apologies. I have tested this firmware but cannot test the TYPE A or TYPE C, if anyone needs these, please let me know.

Hi
Thanks for your work on this.

I need the Type A firmware with dropbear SSH...
Can you not just update the links in the original post so they have it for everyone?

EDIT: Just found that Type A doesn't enable the Wifi. I re-flashed with the Vodafone image and wifi works. Re-flash with openwrt and wifi doesn't. Any ideas?

Cheers

Niemoj

Dermot McDonnell wrote: »

Odd, you should be able to edit every file in /etc/config. I can. What editor are you using? You can create the files you need on your PC, copy to a usb drive, insert the usb in the HG556a, mount it as /mnt/usb1_1 (or whatever) and copy the files to /etc/config.

I'm using Telnet on the terminal built into Windows 10.

What exactly are the steps for using a USB drive?

Thanks.

MBSnr

Niemoj wrote: »

I'm using Telnet on the terminal built into Windows 10.

What exactly are the steps for using a USB drive?

Thanks.

I managed to use vi to edit the files ok directly on the device. vi takes some getting used to.....

type all without quotes

"vi /etc/config/network"

scroll down to the place you want to edit
press "a" - this puts it in append mode - edit mode
make your edits (move about with arrow keys (this works in this version of vi))
press "escape"
press the colon key ":"
you will see : at bottom left hand corner
press "w" then enter to write changes
press the colon key ":" again
press "q" then enter - to quit

type
"cat /etc/config/network"
to check changes are correct - same as type in DOS/CMD window

Do same for
"vi /etc/config/wireless"

Dermot McDonnell

MBSnr wrote: »

Hi
Thanks for your work on this.

I need the Type A firmware with dropbear SSH...
Can you not just update the links in the original post so they have it for everyone?

EDIT: Just found that Type A doesn't enable the Wifi. I re-flashed with the Vodafone image and wifi works. Re-flash with openwrt and wifi doesn't. Any ideas?

Cheers

Here is a Type A Firmware made this morning, r45907.
Here is a Type B Firmware made this morning, r45907.

Flashing the wrong firmware will cause wifi to fail as the radios are different.

MBSnr

Dermot McDonnell wrote: »

Here is a Type A Firmware made this morning, r45907.
Here is a Type B Firmware made this morning, r45907.

Flashing the wrong firmware will cause wifi to fail as the radios are different.

Using the correct one. My s/n starts 30605 - so it's Type A. Just flashed that image above and in the GUI I get "Wireless is disabled or not associated". Also the wireless LED is not lit. Drop the Vodafone firmware back on and wifi works - so the HW is good....

MBSnr

^^^
OK you aren't going to believe me but......... for a the hell of it I put on Type B firmware.

The Wireless LED lit up and it works!

Seriously thou - the serial number is 3060510090xxxxx.... Type A according to Openwrt, but it never worked with Type A.

Trust me to have the one that doesn't conform..........Anyhow happy days!

Niemoj

MBSnr wrote: »

I managed to use vi to edit the files ok directly on the device. vi takes some getting used to.....

type all without quotes

"vi /etc/config/network"

scroll down to the place you want to edit
press "a" - this puts it in append mode - edit mode
make your edits (move about with arrow keys (this works in this version of vi))
press "escape"
press the colon key ":"
you will see : at bottom left hand corner
press "w" then enter to write changes
press the colon key ":" again
press "q" then enter - to quit

type
"cat /etc/config/network"
to check changes are correct - same as type in DOS/CMD window

Do same for
"vi /etc/config/wireless"

I downloaded that vi application but I haven't a clue how to work it.

I've tried almost everything I can think of using Telnet on Windows 8.1 and 10 and each time I get permission denied.

I might have bricked it now I'm not sure but is there anyone that can give me step by step advice on this?

I love the idea of repurposing something that was previously in the drawer into something useful! :pac:

MBSnr

Ok one for Dermot as I can't quite get the device to do what I want.
1. It allocates DHCP IPs which I don't want. I want it to pass the DHCP requests to the main wifi router to have that do DHCP.
2. I cannot get to any IP address that is connected to the master wifi/subnet.

The device is 192.168.1.200 with mask 255.255.255.0

So I tried the below. But it still didn't resolve.

I disabled this in /etc/config/dhcp

config 'dhcp' 'lan'
        ...
        [B]option 'ignore'     '1' [/B]

Also the device was running a firewall which I figured was stopping me getting to the other subnet IPs. As I don't need a firewall on the extender, as the master wifi provides that, I disabled the firewall.

/etc/init.d/firewall stop
/etc/init.d/firewall disable

Lastly I added the IP of my router (wifi) as the default gateway.

in /etc/config/network

config 'interface' 'lan'
	...
	...
	option 'gateway' '192.168.1.254'  

Which I thought would fix it.
I still can't get a DHCP IP from the extender and if I statically assign one, I can manage the device but cannot get to any other 192.168.1.x IP connected to the master router.

Kinda at the point where I'm wondering is there any point going further! I have a wireless TP Link device which works fine but broadcasts the same SSID name. The trouble with that is Android holds onto a cr@py wireless signal and won't switch to a stronger SSID if it sees it as the same name. Using the HG556 with a new SSID name, would have been better at forcing the phone to switch to a stronger AP.

degsie

Can the hg556a be configured as an access point rather than a WiFi extender?

nitros7

Hi Dermot
Is there much to change in the config to enable it to act as a 3g router for meteor using a Dongle
using the r45907 firmware?

snaps

Sorry for digging up an old thread, but I've a few questions. Ive installed the backport 12.09 firmware. Everything shows up on interface, wifi in networks etc.

I can seem to connect to a wifi network, but it doesnt seem to bridge it either by wireless or ethernet.
Is there a step by step how to extend either my wifi network or an ethernet connection?
Ive got other old routers upgraded to open wrt and the setup was much simpler (Linksys wr54gs) and everything works fine, but i just cant get ontop of this old vodafone router.

ianx

MBSnr
Did you ever get the DHCP forwarding working on the Voda router running OpenWRT?