LEDE/OpenWRT — Setting Up Client Isolation

Client Isolation is a security feature that prevents wireless clients on that network from interacting with each other, which can be enabled on networks in AP mode.

To enable it, follow these simple steps.

SSH to your LEDE/OpenWRT device

If you are using Windows then start PuTTY and click Session on the left side, select SSH from the options, and then enter in the IP Address of your LEDE/OpenWRT box into the Host Name field.

Once you’ve done this just click on Open to start up the SSH connection.

PuTTY

If you are connecting via terminal, then just SSH to your LEDE/OpenWRT device using the following command, where 192.168.1.1 is your LEDE/OpenWRT device’s IP address.

ssh root@192.168.1.1

Configuration

First we need to access the wireless config file to make changes. So run the following command:

vi /etc/config/wireless

Once this is open, take a look for the SSID of your network that you want to apply the client isolation to.

config 'wifi-iface'
        option 'device'     'wl0'
        option 'network'    'lan'
        option 'mode'       'ap'
        option 'ssid'       'SolitaryWiFi'
        option 'encryption' 'psk2'
        option 'key'        'p3r50n415p4c3'

Above, we have found the interface for the SSID ‘SolitaryWiFi’.

Once you have found the one you want to edit, we need to add/edit in the following:

option 'isolate'   '1'

Once you’ve made your change, you should be left with something similar to the below:

config 'wifi-iface'
        option 'device'     'wl0'
        option 'network'    'lan'
        option 'mode'       'ap'
        option 'ssid'       'SolitaryWiFi'
        option 'encryption' 'psk2'
        option 'key'        'p3r50n415p4c3'
        option 'isolate'   '1'

When you are happy you will need to reboot your device by running this command:

reboot

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