Configure LoRaWAN Gateway WiFi with Smartphone

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for configuring the Wi-Fi settings in your Dragino gateway utilizing the Gateway's Wi-Fi access point, which is activated by default. This process can be effortlessly accomplished using a smartphone.

Summary

If you purchased a Dragino LoRaWAN gateway from our online store, it’ll come pre-configured in plug-and-play format and linked to your T2U account prior to shipping. All you need to do it provide 240V power and an internet connection.

Ethernet is the most reliable internet connection, but it is often more convenient to connect your gateway to a Wi-Fi network to allow for more flexibility.

Telemetry2U ship Dragino gateways with the with the Wi-Fi AP turned on running the default settings. You can easily connect to the gateway using this access point with your smartphone or laptop to configure your Wi-Fi Client settings.

Note:

In most cases, the gateway will connect to the internet with no issues. However, in some cases it could be necessary to open a port on the firewall and whitelist the MAC address of the LoRaWAN gateway. Read more about that here.

Prerequisites

  1. A Telemetry2U account running a Premium Plan with pre-configured hardware.
  2. Access to a Wi-Fi network
  3. A smartphone - used to configure the gateway via the UI

Connecting to the Gateways WiFi AP

Power-up the gateway and give it a few minutes to fully boot. Be sure to enable Wi-Fi on your smartphone.

Connect to LoRaWAN gateway AP 1

1. Check for a new Wi-Fi AP called dragino-xxxxxx. The xxxxxx will represent the last 3-bytes of the gateway DEUI.

Connect to LoRaWAN gateway AP 2

2. Connect to the new network and user the password dragino+dragino. Make sure the connection is successful before proceeding.

Connect to LoRaWAN gateway AP 3

3. Open a web browser and visit http://10.130.1.1. To connect to the gateways UI, use admin as the username and dragino as the password.

Configuring the Gateways WiFi Settings

If the login was successful, you should have landed on the main UI screen where it will display the general connection status. Unless you have the gateway connected via ethernet, the LoRaWAN and WIFI icons will have a red cross.

Click on the classic menu icon in the top right corner of the page and navigate to
Network >> Wi-Fi.

Note:

You may need to zoom all the way out to see the menu icon.

Connect to LoRaWAN gateway AP 3

At the bottom of the new screen, you should see the WIFI WAN Client Settings. Firstly, check the Enable WiFi WAN Client check box and then use the Wi-Fi Survey field to select the Wi-Fi SSID and select the correct Encryption method used by your router. Now enter your unique Wi-Fi password (passphrase).

Before hitting Save and Apply button, make sure to uncheck the Enable WiFi Access Point checkbox. The Wifi Client will not work with the access point enabled and you may not be able to access the gateway via the access point to fix the issue.

Note:

It may also be a good idea to change the default Wi-Fi Access Point passphrase used to access the UI so that other users can’t log in and change any settings. Once again, click the Save and Apply button after making any changes.

Connect to LoRaWAN gateway AP 6

Now use the click on the menu icon in the top right corner again and click on the Home link.

If everything was successful in regard to configuring the WiFi connection, you should now see a green tick next to the WIFI icon indicating that the gateway is connected to the internet via WiFi.

If the gateway has been configured correctly and added to your T2U account, you should also have a green tick next to the LoRaWAN icon indicating that the gateway is talking to T2U's network server. If this is not the case, you may have a configuration issue. You may want to refer to this page for help.

Connect to LoRaWAN gateway AP 7

Confirm gateway is connected to T2U

You may also like to verify the gateway has connected to Telemetry2U using the T2U Platform.

Log into T2U and navigate to Admin >> Gateway Status.

You should be able to see the gateway has a Relative Time of less than a minute ago indicating that the 30-second keep-alive message sent by the gateway is getting through OK.

Check gateway status on T2U
Note:

If you purchased a pre-configured gateway and you are unable to view it in the T2U Platform. Please get in touch so we can sort it out for you.

Connecting to the gateway after it's connected to Wi-Fi

Once the gateway has connected to your local WiFi network successfully (with the access point turned off), you will no longer be able to connect to the gateway via the access point. Instead, you can connect to the gateway on any other device that is also connected to your local WiFi network, like a PC or a smart phone. Before doing so, you will need to determine the IP address allocated to the gateway by your router. There are a couple of ways to do this:

  1. Check what connected devices are detected in your router settings (we can't describe how to do that here, you will need to refer to your router user manual). You may need to engage your IT department.
  2. Download and install Advanced IP Scanner. After running a scan, it will output a report with all the devices connected to your router - both via Ethernet and Wi-Fi. You'll be able to identify the gateways IP address from the MAC address found on the label on the bottom of the gateway. Dragino gateway MAC addresses always start with A8:40:41:xx:xx:xx .
Advanced IP Scanner

Once you have your gateways IP, you'll be able to connect to it via a web browser on any device that is connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Open a web browser and type in the gateways IP address in to the search bar followed by port 8000, e.g. 192.168.1.22:8000.

You can then log into the gateway with the default username (admin) and password (dragino), unless the default login details have been changed.

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