I have included all the steps to configure wlan interface, enable NAT, start DHCP server and hostapd in the BASH script below.Ĭopy the content below to the file initSoftAP. Ignore this step if all you want to do is setup an internal wifi network and clients don’t need access to any external network. Refer to for more information or how to achieve the same using nftables. I just use few lines of iptables to achieve this. This final steps involves enabling NAT to share internet (or any network) in one network interface with the clients connected through hostapd. Start dnsmasq and your clients should be able to connect to the wireless hotspot: # disables dnsmasq reading any other files like /etc/nf for nameservers # Uncomment and modify the following lines if you don't want to forward dns from the host's /etc/nf # Specify starting_range,end_range,lease_time

The default /etc/nf explains all its configuration options pretty well, so I will jump straight to what a simple /etc/nf should look like Install dhcp server from your distro’s repo. Setting up a dhcp server is quite straightforward for dnsmasq. Now that hostapd is running fine, you need to setup a DHCP server to run along with hostapd in order to assign ip address to the devices connecting to the access point. So, here is my complete /etc/hostapd/nf with WPA authentication. #sets wpa passphrase required by the clients to authenticate themselves on the network #wpa option sets which wpa implementation to use #Sets WPA and WPA2 authentication (remove this section if you don't need encryption)# #2 - both open system authentication and shared key authentication #setting ignore_broadcast_ssid to 1 will disable the broadcasting of ssid #macaddr_acl sets options for mac address filtering. #sets the mode of wifi, depends upon the devices you will be using. #sets the ssid of the virtual wifi access point #driver to use, nl80211 works in most cases Here is a brief overview of some of its options: Once hostapd is working fine, its time to configure hostapd with more options. You won’t be able to connect to it at this point. Use a wifi device to check if the access point is being detected. This is the minimal configuration setting which will let you test if hostapd is working. The /etc/hostapd/nf is the main configuration which you need to deal with in order to set up a SoftAP. NOTE: Before proceeding, make sure your network manager (for example NetworkManager or netctl-auto) is not managing your wireless interface. $ sudo apt-get update & sudo apt-get install hostapd You want that bold AP (which stands for access point) to show up if you want to use hostapd with your wireless card. $ iw list | grep 'Supported interface modes' -A 8 To check what modes your card supports, type the following in your terminal: Most modern wireless cards should work with hostapd.

A dhcp server to assign ip addresses to clients.If you want to share your internet connection or some other network, it should be on an interface other than the wifi interface your hostapd is bind to.But the method is also applicable for other Linux distros and supported hardware. I have used my Thinkpad E570 with ath10k_pci wifi driver under Arch Linux.

In rest of this post, we will create a software access point in Linux using hostapd and share your internet to the devices through it. Hostapd allows you to create software wifi access points with decent amount of configuration options. “hostapd is a user space daemon for access point and authentication servers. UPDATE (2): Since this post still gets lots of hits despite being 6 years old, I have made some revisions to make it compatible with modern times. Please do point out corrections and changes. Saves a lot of time.NOTE: Although this guide should work in most cases, it is not flawless and may require minor modifications to make the process work for your use case. It has all the same stuff Id normally install on ubuntu. I will try the PEAP configuration tomorrow at school. Heh, used those same instructions I used to get on my wpa wifi at home. which happens to be a standard.Ĭan you please be as much detailed as possible and tell us what settings you were given? which in turn is nothing else but a sub-set of WPA and WPA2. This 'EAP-MSCHAPv2' stuff is just another name for PEAP. maybe they have this stuff on a web page or on a checklist of some sorts? So could you please check what the settings for Windows are? e.g. Andrew1029 wrote:I'm afraid my school's help desk has not been much help at all, as they only support windows xp, vista and apple computers.

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