Bringing Wi-Fi Access Point Feature on your embedded board running GNU/Linux

Before reading through this article, to build and install GNU/Linux on embedded board, read through this link.

To bring WiFi client feature on your embedded board, read through this link.
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Follow these simple steps below to bring your board as AP.

1. Install necessary tools
   
   Install hostapd and dnsmasq necessary for an Access Point.

   # apt-get install hostapd dnsmasq --no-install-recommends

2. Configure network interface
   
   Add or modify /etc/network/interface to contain the following.

   # cat /etc/network/interface
   auto lo wlan0
   iface lo inet loopback
   allow-hotplug eth0
   iface eth0 inet dhcp
   
   iface wlan0 inet static
   address 192.168.1.1
   network 192.168.1.0
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   allow-hotplug wlan0

   The above file says how our system get connected through eth0, wlan0 and lo. Check man page of interfaces for more details.
3. Configure hostapd
   

   # cat /etc/default/hostapd
   DAEMON_CONF="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"
   DAEMON_OPTS="-dd"

   # cat /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
   interface=wlan0
   driver=nl80211
   ssid=zilogic
   channel=1

4. Configure dnsmasq with Client IP range
   

   # cat /etc/dnsmasq.conf
   
   interface=wlan0
   dhcp-range=192.168.1.10,192.168.1.100,12h
   dhcp-option=3,192.168.1.1

5. Start hostapd and dnsmasq services.
   

   # service hostapd start
   # service dnsmasq start

Note: Now, you can try Raspberry Pi 3 that comes with WiFi and Bluetooth on-board for IoT applications.

More Reading

1. What is the significance of firmware-atheros package?
   
2. What is the significance of wireless-tools utility?
   
3. What is iw and iwconfig? How do they differ?
   
4. What is wpa_supplicant? How to connect to an encrypted connection?
   
5. What is Wireless Extensions(WE)?
   
6. What are nl80211 and cfg80211 and how do they differ from WE?
   
7. What is Bridging in network connections?