Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[tempestuous]

A Linux computer can be used as wifi access point ("hotspot") using the hostapd application, now attached.
At Feb 2013 I have compiled hostapd under Slacko 5.4. This package might work with other Puppy versions and their modern kernels, but it's likely to fail with older Puppy versions (such as Lucid 5.1/5.2.x) since older kernels don't have "nl80211" wifi support.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Install these two dotpets -
www.smokey01.com/tempestuous/hostapd-2.0.pet
www.smokey01.com/tempestuous/bridge-utils-1.5.pet

First have a think about:
- what you want your Access Point to be known as - this is the SSID.
- whether you want WPA or WPA2 encryption, or no encryption.
- if encryption, what passphrase. Then you should convert your chosen ASCII passphrase into its true 64 digit hex value, using this command -

[tempestuous]

Router/server/network considerations

Once configured as explained in the first post, your Puppy computer is now a wifi access point, but it's not a router.
You need to be aware that the network configuration is reliant upon the external modem or router that's connected to the ethernet port of the Puppy computer.
The modem/router will, for example, typically assign Puppy's "br0" interface an IP address of 192.168.0.2.
Then when a wifi client connects to Puppy, it's effectively looking through Puppy to the modem/router, which will most likely assign it an IP address of 192.168.0.3.

Now if you want Puppy to act as a server, that's OK, the client can access Puppy at 192.168.0.2, but Puppy is a network peer, not a network server. Puppy is dependent upon the external router for its IP address, and the various services that you run on Puppy will need to be configured for this IP address ... and the IP address can obviously change.

If you want to run server applications on your Puppy wifi access point, it would be optimal if Puppy was configured as a full network server, and the good news is that this is certainly possible. In this scenario, Puppy takes an external IP address from the modem on its ethernet interface as before, but Puppy also has its own LAN, with a different range of IP addresses, starting, for example, from 10.0.0.1.
Now Puppy's internal IP address is fixed, and the wifi clients can always access Puppy at the same address.

The bad news is that I don't know how to set this up.
I know that some of our forum regulars are experts in networking, and they would need to weigh in with the right information.

[Atle]

This is just great... Love to make this work...

I have a Atheros AR5BXB63 listed as AR242x/AR542x that uses ath5k driver.

Did not succeed with the non PAE Slacko that has a slightly older kernel then the PAE version, so the one with a more new kernel is downloaded now.

Found some useful information about Hostapd that might be useful in order to understand Hostapd

My aim is to have a working laptop with hostapd hooked to the webserver and then install Joomla 3.0. A out of the box solution:-) Offered as a download for other happy puppy campers...

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Update I

With the Slacko PAE version and a never kernel it WORKED...
Yet I must still figure out why the hostapd does not give out a IP adress.
That... I think... I will find out soon...
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Update II

I uninstalled the Bridge pet and all of a sudden the signal came good as it was reported as a low signal. I guess i am not going to bridge and does not need that. I google a little around to see if others have made similar, a webserver that you connect to with hostapd, but have not found any good information. But... the good news is that its not supposed to be finished today, but soon it needs to work..

Might also be the android phone i use for testing the connection...
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