Show more useful information in the "Associated Stations" table

[mauermann]

It would be nice if the "Associated Stations" table would show more useful information. e.g. with dual band radios getting more common it would be interesting to see the radio a station is associated. Also, instead of remembering MAC addresses, I think it's better to see its hostname or IP address.

Attached screenshot shows my proposed changes with columns for hostname and radio added. Unfortunately because of table width I had to drop the Noise column. However, this is less important for me.

I'm sure it needs some work and discussion, so it's probably too early to submit a pull request... ;-)

[mauermann]

Here is my diff for the screenshot above. It's currently only for status/overview, but should be possible for network/wireless, too.

--- view/admin_status/index.htm.bak 2015-11-05 09:52:41.000000000 +0100
+++ view/admin_status/index.htm 2015-11-05 13:35:07.000000000 +0100
@@ -403,6 +403,18 @@

                        for (var bssid in net.assoclist)
                        {
+                           var macaddr = bssid.toLowerCase();
+                           var host = '?';
+                           <% if has_dhcp then %>
+                           for (var lidx = 0; lidx < info.leases.length; lidx++)
+                           {
+                               if (info.leases[lidx].macaddr == macaddr) {
+                                   host = info.leases[lidx].hostname ? info.leases[lidx].hostname : info.leases[lidx].ipaddr;
+                                   break;
+                               }
+                           }
+                           <% end %>
+                           
                            assoclist.push({
                                bssid:    bssid,
                                signal:   net.assoclist[bssid].signal,
@@ -414,7 +426,9 @@
                                tx_mcs:   net.assoclist[bssid].tx_mcs,
                                tx_40mhz: net.assoclist[bssid].tx_40mhz,
                                link:     net.link,
-                               name:     net.name
+                               name:     net.name,
+                               device:   dev.device,
+                               host:     host
                            });
                        }
                    }
@@ -464,23 +478,24 @@
                    );

                    tr.insertCell(-1).innerHTML = assoclist[i].bssid;
+                   tr.insertCell(-1).innerHTML = assoclist[i].host.length > 18 ? assoclist[i].host.substring(0,15)+"..." : assoclist[i].host;

                    tr.insertCell(-1).innerHTML = String.format(
                        '<a href="%s">%s</a>',
                            assoclist[i].link,
                            '%h'.format(assoclist[i].name).nobr()
                    );
+                   tr.insertCell(-1).innerHTML = assoclist[i].device;

                    tr.insertCell(-1).innerHTML = String.format('%d <%:dBm%>', assoclist[i].signal).nobr();
-                   tr.insertCell(-1).innerHTML = String.format('%d <%:dBm%>', assoclist[i].noise).nobr();

                    tr.insertCell(-1).innerHTML = (assoclist[i].rx_mcs > -1)
-                       ? String.format('%.1f <%:Mbit/s%>, MCS %d, %d<%:MHz%>', assoclist[i].rx_rate / 1000, assoclist[i].rx_mcs, assoclist[i].rx_40mhz ? 40 : 20).nobr()
+                       ? String.format('%.1f <%:Mbit/s%>, MCS %d, %d<%:MHz%>', assoclist[i].rx_rate / 1000, assoclist[i].rx_mcs, assoclist[i].rx_40mhz ? 40 : 20)
                        : String.format('%.1f <%:Mbit/s%>', assoclist[i].rx_rate / 1000).nobr()
                    ;

                    tr.insertCell(-1).innerHTML = (assoclist[i].tx_mcs > -1)
-                       ? String.format('%.1f <%:Mbit/s%>, MCS %d, %d<%:MHz%>', assoclist[i].tx_rate / 1000, assoclist[i].tx_mcs, assoclist[i].tx_40mhz ? 40 : 20).nobr()
+                       ? String.format('%.1f <%:Mbit/s%>, MCS %d, %d<%:MHz%>', assoclist[i].tx_rate / 1000, assoclist[i].tx_mcs, assoclist[i].tx_40mhz ? 40 : 20)
                        : String.format('%.1f <%:Mbit/s%>', assoclist[i].tx_rate / 1000).nobr()
                    ;
                }
@@ -676,14 +691,15 @@
        <tr class="cbi-section-table-titles">
            <th class="cbi-section-table-cell">&#160;</th>
            <th class="cbi-section-table-cell"><%:MAC-Address%></th>
+           <th class="cbi-section-table-cell"><%:Host%></th>
            <th class="cbi-section-table-cell"><%:Network%></th>
+           <th class="cbi-section-table-cell"><%:Radio%></th>
            <th class="cbi-section-table-cell"><%:Signal%></th>
-           <th class="cbi-section-table-cell"><%:Noise%></th>
            <th class="cbi-section-table-cell"><%:RX Rate%></th>
            <th class="cbi-section-table-cell"><%:TX Rate%></th>
        </tr>
        <tr class="cbi-section-table-row">
-           <td colspan="7"><em><br /><%:Collecting data...%></em></td>
+           <td colspan="8"><em><br /><%:Collecting data...%></em></td>
        </tr>
    </table>
 </fieldset>

[jow-]

Instead of truncating the hostname we could put it into a container with max-width, white-space: nowrap, overflow: hidden and text-overflow: ellipsis.

Dropping noise column would be fine with me, its not available in many drivers anyway.

[booo]

Please keep the noise column.

[thess]

I like this but, it would be more useful if this addition could show all associated station's IP and not just the ones using DHCP. A lot my wireless devices have static IP.

[jow-]

@booo: Why keep it? It serves no useful purpose and you can still find the value by hovering over the signal indicator icon.

[jow-]

@thess: should be doable by mixing in ARP and NDP cache dumps as well.

[booo]

@jow- In my day to day activity I compare the signal quite often to the noise. If I have to hover/click each time to see the noise level the interface is far from user friendly.

Maybe someone can post a screenshot or link to the proposed implementation. Maybe the noise level is already a prominent part of the gui and I can't see it in the current screenshot.

[jow-]

Since the noise floor is global to the entire radio device and not specific to stations or networks it maybe makes sense to display it somewhere in the header. At least it is redundant to repeat it in each row.

[booo]

I agree that the information is redundant in each row.

[echza]

how can we enable mauermann's patch without rebuilding the kernel?

[FreifunkUFO]

it would be nice to have the "expected throughput" in the table..

[FreifunkUFO]

if there is 80 MHz wifi bandwidth the table is still showing "20 MHz" :-(

[valentt]

@FreifunkUFO I'm seeing 20Mhz when client is resting but when I started download LUCI correctly showed that client switched to 40Mhz channel width.

[valentt]

@FreifunkUFO How would you propose to know what is "expected throughput" ?!? Is there some forumula for calculating "expected throughput" ?

[hnyman]

@FreifunkUFO @valentt The >40 MHz channel width display is problematic. Apparently there is currently no easy way to pass the 80/160 width info.

Based on https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/20840 I raised that issue as https://github.com/openwrt/luci/issues/533 , and @jow- answered that fixing that requires patching libiwinfo etc., not just Luci.

[valentt]

As I openned a https://github.com/openwrt/luci/issues/540 as duplicate ticket, I'll repeat it here, but it is almost identical from OP text:

LUCI 'Associated Stations' list is missing some crucial info, especially for dual band radios.

Currently 'Associated Stations' list is now showing on which radio is client connected, which is really important info to show.

Also showing IP address from ARP or DHCP for each station would be really important info, as should hostname also.

Network column could/should be replaced by Radio name, or should incorporate radio name.

It is common to name both 2.4 and 5.8 network with same SSID if it is on same router, and here LUCI is not usable becaues it doesn't show on which radio which client is connected to.

[valentt]

Is it possible to arrange info in two rows? I did a quick mock-up to show this idea.

[valentt]

Also Gargoyle firmware has some station list done quite nicely so we can borrow ideas from them also.

[valentt]

Also there are quite a few online admin dashboard templates that we can look for, find good examples and take some elements from them that make sense for LUCI and OpenWrt. First example: http://rubix305.sketchpixy.com/app/dashboard

[FreifunkUFO]

hnyman: ok valentt: maybe we should use different background colors for these rows, depending on what interface they are? (your problem is only appearing when using same wifi-bssids for different wifi-radios)

about other dashboards: have a look for that brandnew freifunk-gluon status-page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwCwd--Y5R4

Unfortunately that seems to be programmed exclusively for gluon-openwrt (only with centralized "gluon" vpn servers, only with ipv6, you have to use batman-adv and gluon-announce-daemon other needs) its only used for getting wifi ad-hoc-statistics but could also be used for Accesspoint-Mode.

[psyborg55]

not only OP dropped noise column but SSID column too. both columns should stay while there is still enough space left to add phy/radio column. hostname you can see under DHCP leases and expected throughput is not useful as it's incorrect ->https://github.com/openwrt/mt76/issues/17

[jow-]

The expected throughput is incorrect with the mt76 driver but works fine on all others.

[jow-]

Disregard the comment above, I thought you meant the phy rate with expected throughput.

[raz123]

Wouldn't the best option be to allow one to customize which columns to display?

[bit2016]

+1 I think this is an important feature missing. I filter the MACs and its hard to keep track of devices only displaying their MACs

[jow-]

I already reworked the assoc list display in 2588364, it looks like this currently:

[psyborg55]

so how to build latest trunk without this change?

[jow-]

Sigh, whats wrong about this change now?

[psyborg55]

it looks ugly with openwrt.org theme

[juanriccio]

Recent versions of LuCI do show the hostname and IP address of associated stations, too (nice!), but only when the router is the dhcp provider for that address. I have several routers in AP mode - only the main router has a dhcp server running, so I don't get to see the hostname or IP address.

Could it be possible to query the default (LAN) DNS/DHCP server for the hostname? I guess the IP address could be gathered from local arp tables. If it's too heavy computationally, name lookup could be made optional. I, for one, would welcome that information. It enables me to see at a glance which wireless devices are hooked up to which of the several working routers/APs.

[LipkeGu]

@juanriccio you can walkaround this via WINS (samba) slave routers shlould use your main router as WINS Master,

[bit2016]

I think it looks great!

But we should be able to manually assign names to the IPs/clients.

That was my first idea.

On Jun 9, 2016 18:36, "Guido L." notifications@github.com wrote:

@juanriccio https://github.com/juanriccio you can walkaround this via WINS (samba) slave routers shlould use your main router as WINS Master,

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/openwrt/luci/issues/540#issuecomment-225073341, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe/AQJZ5MzwAM3HZbQXgcjsg6wXu--Gz2LKks5qKL-ygaJpZM4GckJd .

[juanriccio]

@LipkeGu thanks for the suggestion! I set up the main router as a WINS master as detailed for example here: https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/cifs.server - and I think the setup was successful.

However, I have no idea how to setup the slave routers: they have no Samba service compiled in. That's to keep the image small, I think Samba wouldn't fit. They aren't DHCP clients, either, since they have static IP addresses. How can I set them up to use the master router as a WINS server? Is there any small package that could help? Thank you again.

[braian87b]

I think that is better to keep aside the macaddress to "name" translation, data can be retrieved from ethers (dnsmasq dhcp file) from other dns, from wins, or even a custom csv, etc, not neccesary needs to be tied to computer hostname or local dns name... could be a friendly name or device user too.

[juanriccio]

Well it would all be fine, as long as I can spot at a glance which wireless devices are connected to that AP. The MAC address alone is not enough for me; I need some symbolic name, or at least an IP address. However, as I said, IP addresses are only shown when the AP is acting as a DHCP server, which in my network just doesn't happen: I have only the main router serving DHCP and DNS. All the APs are just acting as "dumb" APs.

I've had no success with WINS, either, but maybe I'm doing something wrong.

[FreifunkUFO]

@juanriccio thats not possible by design (tcp/ip) the AP has to have some IP interaction with the client to know his IP (but thats not needed for "normal" AP behaviour). it would be possible for an AP without DHCP, f.i. when your AP is in the same IP-Subnet and f.i. ping your client (or whole subnet :-o ) in my screenshot the AP is also not the DHCP server (wlan0-2) but somehow AP knows the ipv6 adress of that client..

@jow- would be very nice to have "expected throughput" on the table, even when not working on mt76, would be nice for all others.

@jow- at least the RX/TX rate might be nice when formatting left (not centered!)

[FreifunkUFO]

@juanriccio when doing wifi-mesh there was also that problem.. so 9 years ago an extra plugin was written for the routingprotocol olsr, f.i. see https://github.com/servalproject/olsr/blob/master/lib/arprefresh/README_ARPREFRESH

its enabled on my host but in line 2 on the screenshot that doesnt work. but that might be a problem of that plugin or with my meshsetup..

[juanriccio]

@FreifunkUFO Thanks for the insight about IP interaction. However, some of my APs do show the IPv6 addresses of associated stations, even if I've gone to great lengths to ensure IPv6 is disabled. Mh, mysteries.

My point is: I do keep names for all station, and the main router has all the naming info I need. The info is available via its DNS/DHCP server, which in turns gets it from /etc/ethers, /etc/hosts and the other usual sources. MACaddr/IPaddr matching can be done via arp and grep on the main router.

I've read the page of the arprefresh plugin that you pointed me to, but as you say it stopped working, and I don't even use olsr, so it's too far out for me. Is there a simple way - a script or something - that can fetch the MACaddr/IPaddr matching info back to the APs?

[braian87b]

@juanriccio in order to disable ipv6 assignation on dnsmasq this should be enought:

uci del dhcp.lan.dhcpv6
uci del dhcp.lan.ra
uci commit dhcp; sync
/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart

or disable it using luci here:

[braian87b]

/tmp/dhcp.leases has all dhcp (static or dynamic) leases, comes from default: dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].leasefile='/tmp/dhcp.leases'

/tmp/etc/dnsmasq.conf read as dhcp-host=00:11:22:33:44:57,192.168.1.100,pchostname for static hosts using uci add dhcp host or using luci, lease served or not.

/etc/ethers for static hosts (this is the same as dhcp-host but just from an external file, lease served or not, just when default dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].readethers='1' is '1', could be populated using echo "00:11:22:33:44:57 192.168.1.100" >> /etc/ethers this has mac to IP or mac to host, in /etc/hosts you could have IP <- hostname, when default dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].dynamicdhcp='1' is set to '0' then only host leases in ethers file will be served by dhcp (according to documentation), but actually it serves hosts leases from /tmp/etc/dnsmasq.conf with dhcp-host too.

I have populated the hosts using uci commands manually, this way it acts I have added using luci.

If I need to, I will read the information from /tmp/dhcp.leases as described here: http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/09/03/dhcp-static-ip-dnsmasq.html

[juanriccio]

@braian87b wrote:

in my system: /tmp/dhcp.leases [...] /tmp/etc/dnsmasq.conf

Thanks, braian87b! I know where they are, and I can parse them with scripts. My issue is that they are on the main router (MR). Unfortunately, the luci table we are talking about is on the AP.

I know how to deal with this on the processing side (MR), but it's not enough, because I need to:

1. Have the AP query MR for that info (IPaddr, name) and display it.
2. Make MR listen for such requests or provide data whenever it changes, with reasonable granularity.
3. Extract the info from several system files.

I suppose:

• [ ] 1. Asking for and displaying the info is probably a job for luci/lua (I've got no clue how to do this).
• [ ] 2. Are there any services I can piggyback on?
• [ ] 3. Actually write the awk/sed/whatever to extract the relevant info, assuming you are given a MAC address.

I can deal with Task [ ]3.

Any pointers? @FreifunkUFO @jow-

[juanriccio]

As for the side mystery,

@braian87b depicted:

I'd done this already, that's why it's annoying! :rage::rage:

[braian87b]

@juanriccio Sorry, I didn't read correctly what you described, I interpreted something else... I actually managed to get info on AP from MR.

[braian87b]

It is not too pretty but it actually works:

Run this only once on Main Router (to enable rpc calling from dumb AP's):

opkg update
opkg install luci-mod-rpc # brings luci-lib-json
opkg install rpcd-mod-file # brings zlib libopenssl libcurl

/etc/init.d/uhttpd restart
/etc/init.d/rcpd restart
# if not works, then reboot:
ubus list | grep file # check, now should list `file`

# assing permissions (beware this will add full permissions to rcpd access, you should set as you need
cat<<'EOF' > /usr/share/rpcd/acl.d/superuser.json
{
   "superuser": {
      "description": "Super user access role",
      "read": {
         "ubus": {
           "*": [ "*" ]
         },
         "uci": [ "*" ]
      },
      "write": {
         "ubus": {
          "*": [ "*" ]
         },
         "uci": [ "*" ]
      }
   }
}
EOF

Run this on some AP and point IP_HOST_MR and PASSWORD vars to your main Router

    # run this only once:
opkg update
opkg install curl

    # copy and paste this to test
rm /tmp/test_output.txt
IP_HOST_MR=192.168.1.1
PASSWORD=toor
. /usr/share/libubox/jshn.sh
JSON=$(curl -s -d '{ "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "call", "params": [ "00000000000000000000000000000000", "session", "login", { "username": "root", "password": "'$PASSWORD'"  } ] }' http://$IP_HOST_MR/ubus)
json_load "$JSON"
json_select result
json_select 2
json_get_var SESION_ID ubus_rpc_session
JSON=$(curl -s -d '{ "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "call", "params": [ "'$SESION_ID'", "file", "read", { "path": "/tmp/dhcp.leases" } ] }' http://$IP_HOST_MR/ubus)
json_load "$JSON"
json_select result
json_select 2
json_get_var FILE_DATA data
echo "$FILE_DATA" > /tmp/test_output.txt
cat /tmp/test_output.txt

/tmp/test_output.txt contents (comes from mainrouter):

1473089217 ec:08:6b:xx:xx:xx 192.168.1.34 WR842N 01:ec:08:6b:xx:xx:xx
1473088458 84:d6:d0:xx:xx:xx 192.168.1.35 KindleFire *

Sorry again for misunderstanding...

[braian87b]

There is a simple way, just using arp and a simple reverse DNS query, but I don't know if will work for you... arp -a should always retrieve all the active hosts on the current AP

Run this on some AP and point IP_HOST_MR var to your main Router, and MAC_TO_QUERY to a valid macaddress connected in your AP

root@OpenWrt:~# arp -a
IP address       HW type     Flags       HW address            Mask     Device
192.168.1.34     0x1         0x2         ec:08:6b:xx:xx:xx     *        br-lan
192.168.1.35     0x1         0x2         84:d6:d0:xx:xx:xx     *        br-lan

root@OpenWrt:~# arp -a | grep 84:d6:d0:xx:xx:xx
192.168.1.35     0x1         0x2         84:d6:d0:xx:xx:xx     *        br-lan

root@OpenWrt:~# nslookup 192.168.1.35  192.168.1.1
Server:    192.168.1.1
Address 1: 192.168.1.1 mainrouter
Name:      192.168.1.35
Address 1: 192.168.1.35 KindleFire.lan

# keeping this in mind, we can do:
MAC_TO_QUERY=84:d6:d0:xx:xx:xx
IP_HOST_MR=192.168.1.1
IP_QUERY=$(arp -a | grep $MAC_TO_QUERY | cut -d' ' -f1)
HOSTNAME_QUERY=$(nslookup `arp -a | grep $MAC_TO_QUERY | cut -d' ' -f1` $IP_HOST_MR | tail -n 1 | grep -o '[^ ]*$' | cut -d' ' -f 1)
root@OpenWrt:~# echo $IP_QUERY
192.168.1.35
root@OpenWrt:~# echo $HOSTNAME_QUERY
KindleFire.lan

[braian87b]

I have the CC 15.05.1 version of OpenWrt, I don't know how to install a newer version of luci without break anything (please if any of you know, tell me), but I have tested the DHCP Leases table, if I replace the /tmp/dhcp.leases and obviusly it takes the data from there, maybe the Associated Stations table do the same.

[juanriccio]

@braian87b Great replies, thanks!

There is a simple way, just using arp and a simple reverse DNS query, but I don't know if will work for you... arp -a should always retrieve all the active hosts on the current AP

On my AP systems, the arp command doesn't report the IP address of associated stations, since as @FreifunkUFO pointed up above, there's no IP interaction at all: everything happens at Layer 2 and below. Only the MR knows about IP addresses and symbolic names.

I've cooked up a couple of scripts to be run on the MR via the default ash shell. Both take a single parameter - the MAC address of an associated station - and return respectively the IP address and the hostname.

mac2ip:

#!/bin/ash
# mac2ip - return the IP address of an associated station given its MAC address

mac2ipaddr()
{
    grep -i $1 /var/dhcp.leases \
    | head -1 \
    | cut -d' ' -f3
}

if [ "$#" -eq 1 ]; then
    mac2ipaddr $1
fi

mac2host:

#!/bin/ash
# mac2host - return the hostname of an associated station given its MAC address

mac2hostname()
{
    grep -i $1 /var/dhcp.leases \
    | head -1 \
    | cut -d' ' -f4
}

if [ "$#" -eq 1 ]; then
    mac2hostname $1
fi

However, my actual experience of JSON/rpc mechanics is null. Assuming you have such scripts available and functional on the MR, how would you go about calling them from the AP?

I have the CC 15.05.1 version of OpenWrt, I don't know how to install a newer version of luci without break anything (please if any of you know, tell me), but I have tested the DHCP Leases table, if I replace the /tmp/dhcp.leases and obviusly it takes the data from there, maybe the Associated Stations table do the same.

I don't understand - do you mean trouble with patching the rpc/JSON statements into the AP's luci page again after updating the firmware? I guess it shouldn't take much to any knowledgeable guy to fix the luci/lua code. Maybe someone will pick up from there...? On the other hand, packaging the stuff... uh I see... :sweat:

[juanriccio]

@braian87b wrote:

It is not too pretty but it actually works:

Run this on some AP and point IP_HOST_MR and PASSWORD vars to your main Router

opkg update opkg install luci-mod-rpc # brings luci-lib-json opkg install rpcd-mod-file # brings zlib libopenssl libcurl opkg install curl

How about the main router? I installed the same packages on the MR, but this code fails on the AP.

  # assing permissions (beware this will add full permissions to rcpd access, you should set as you need
  cat<<'EOF' > /usr/share/rpcd/acl.d/superuser.json
  {
     "superuser": {
        "description": "Super user access role",
        "read": {
           "ubus": {
             "*": [ "*" ]
           },
           "uci": [ "*" ]
        },
        "write": {
           "ubus": {
            "*": [ "*" ]
           },
           "uci": [ "*" ]
        }
     }
  }
  EOF

  rm /tmp/test_output.txt
  IP_HOST_MR=192.168.1.1
  PASSWORD=toor
  . /usr/share/libubox/jshn.sh
  JSON=$(curl -s -d '{ "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "call", "params": [ "00000000000000000000000000000000", "session", "login", { "username": "root", "password": "'$PASSWORD'"  } ] }' http://$IP_HOST_MR/ubus)
  json_load "$JSON"
  json_select result
  json_select 2
  json_get_var SESION_ID ubus_rpc_session
  JSON=$(curl -s -d '{ "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "call", "params": [ "'$SESION_ID'", "file", "read", { "path": "/tmp/dhcp.leases" } ] }' http://$IP_HOST_MR/ubus)
  json_load "$JSON"
  json_select result
  json_select 2
  json_get_var FILE_DATA data
  echo "$FILE_DATA" > /tmp/test_output.txt
  rm /usr/share/rpcd/acl.d/superuser.json

Here's what I get:

# ./getleases.sh
WARNING: Variable 'result' does not exist or is not an array/object
WARNING: Variable '2' does not exist or is not an array/object

# wc /tmp/test_output.txt
        1         0         1 /tmp/test_output.txt
#

[braian87b]

@juanriccio Sorry, yesterday was about 1:30am I didn't express myself well, please read again the edited post: https://github.com/openwrt/luci/issues/540#issuecomment-244657293 I think I was more clear this time.

I mean that I have the ChaosCalmer 15.05.1 version of OpenWrt from https://downloads.openwrt.org/chaos_calmer/15.05.1/ar71xx/generic/ , I don't know how to install a newer version of luci to test the new Associated Stations table and see if it works or not. I don't know noting about luci actually, I use more terminal than luci... but I want to be able to test it too but I don't know how.

Are this new features present on https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/ ?

[juanriccio]

@braian87b

read again the edited post

now I see: it's the other way round! Now I see. I could have figured it out myself. Thanks for straightening it up; I'm going to play with it tomorrow.

I use more terminal than luci... but I want to be able to test it too but I don't know how. Are this new features present on https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/ ?

I think so, at least if you pick a version with luci. Otherwise, you can install luci via opkg - as you did for, say, curl - and start it by issuing something like

opkg update && opkg install luci
/etc/init.d/uhttpd start