OpenWrt Starter FAQ

Ok, so I've successfully flashed OpenWrt on my device. what should I do next?
Set an initial root password, setup WiFi, get familiar with the troubleshooting/rescue options in the user guide, then browse the user guide for further configuration you may be interested in.

How do I access the web admin GUI on a default installation?
Open http://192.168.1.1 or http://openwrt in your favorite web browser

What is the default admin username in OpenWrt?
“root”

What is the initial password for root?
There is no initial password set. Please set one manually after your first login, either by using passwd on the command line or in the LUCI Menu System/Administration http://openwrt/cgi-bin/luci/admin/system/admin

Can I reset the 'root' password, in case I have forgotten it?
Yes, see Resetting a forgotten root password in the Troubleshooting section of the User Guide.

I seem to have messed up the OpenWrt device configuration, my OpenWrt device is no longer accessible. What do I do?
See Failsafe and factory reset in the Troubleshooting section of the User Guide.

How can I enable SSL for the web admin gui?
In an SSH-command line, run opkg update, then install the package with opkg install luci-ssl, then restart the router. Then you can access https://192.168.1.1 or https://openwrt with your preferred web browser.

Is there a command line editor available in SSH?
use vi. It's most important key shortcuts are:

What tools can I use to administer OpenWrt from a Windows computer?
There are a number of tools described in SSH Administration for Newcomers. Some of them are cmder, SmarTTY, putty, and WinSCP.

I would like to customize OpenWrt, but am having difficulties finding the packages that I am interested in.
Remember to first run opkg update if you haven't since last OpenWrt reboot. OpenWrt will only temporary store the retrieved package list in a temp RAM filesystem, losing the list of updates on every reboot.

Why is there a “WAN” and a “WAN6” and a “LAN” interface in OpenWrt, but no “LAN6” ?
Note that both “WAN” and “WAN6” interfaces holds config data related to the upstream interface; WAN is for IPv4 and has “DHCP client”, while WAN6 is for IPv6 and has “DHCPv6 client”. On the other hand “LAN” has config data of the downstream side for both IPv4 and IPv6 associated, so there is no need to have an extra LAN6 interface. Also note that both an interface and a zone called “LAN” exist. Also “WAN” is used both as a name for a zone and as the name for the IPv4 WAN interface. Both the “WAN” and “WAN6” interface belong to the “WAN” zone and furthermore there is no “WAN6” zone.

Why is there both a “Save & Apply” and a “Save” button in LuCi?
You can do several different changes in different tabs, each time clicking “Save” without committing the changes. You can then use “Save & Apply” to commit all of those changes in one transaction.

What is the difference of total available, free and buffered memory shown in LuCi status overview?
Total available = free + buffered.
Buffered = memory that is temporarily in use to handle I/O operations
Free = really free memory