Set up a wifi hotspot

Note that you may not need this. Most recent Linux desktop distros have a simple one-click option for creating a hotspot in the Network Settings applet. As long as your internet connection is not using the Wifi, you can create a hotspot simply by clicking this button, and it will then create a new Wifi connection using the host name as the SSID and a random password. Also, nearly all SBCs (single-board computers) that aren't Raspberry Pis can run the Armbian Linux distro which includes it's own hotspot configuration in the armbian-config tool.

Sometimes it can be very useful to use a computer with wifi capability as an access point, for example using a Raspberry Pi or Banana Pi to create a local access-point or shared file-server, or if when only one computer can connect to the net for example if it were via a USB cellular connection, or if there were only a single cable connection and no hub available. This procedure allows the connected computer to use its wifi card to work as an access point that other systems can then connect to as usual. This procedure is designed for Debian based systems, but should work for any GNU/Linux system that has a reasonably modern wifi card in it.

Simply follow the installation and configuration instructions for the create_ap script which makes the process a breeze! big thanks to OBLiQUE, the author :-)

See also

• WiFi
• Using hostapd to create a virtual wifi access point
• Using hostapd with dnsmasq
• Setting up networking over Bluetooth
• Setting up a virtual wlan network in Linux