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Network Testing and Emulation Solutions

Use FireFox with a virtual station to Browse a DUT

Goal: Use FireFox with a virtual station to Browse a DUT

Access points used as a DUT in a wireless-mesh scenario might not have an ethernet port available to be able to access their management screen. Rather, they require a station to associate to the DUT to access the management console. LANforge virtual stations operate in the context of a VRF (virtual routing) device that protects them from the default routing table of the system. This makes using a browser over a station unintuitive; special commands are required to do this. Requires LANforge 5.3.9 or later.
 

  1. Associate a station to your DUT

    1. Create a station as necessary or use the wlan0 device
      1. if you know the SSID credentials, enter those.
      2. If you need to discover the SSID, enter anything into the SSID box, like asdf so you can start a scan. screenshot

      For more information see Create stations

    2. Scan for your DUT SSID. screenshot
    3. Configure your station to use the DUT SSID credentials and DHCP.

  2. Use the vrf_exec.bash script to start Firefox

    The vrf_exec.bash script changes the networking context for the browser so it can use your station.
    1. Open a terminal
    2. Become root: sudo -s
    3. Go to the LANforge directory: cd /home/lanforge
    4. Start firefox: ./vrf_exec.bash wlan0 firefox http://10.0.0.1/

  3. Possible difficulties

    If you have just rebooted your LANforge system and are jumping to step 2 without starting the LANforge GUI, you might have difficulty getting Firefox to display. By starting the GUI, it runs the xhost + command and relaxes some basic X11 security settings to let other users display windows on the desktop.
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