Raspberry PI Wi-Fi Hotspot Configuration

Notice

This quide is using the IP 192.168.69.2 for the WiFi hotspot, and the IP 10.94.65.230 for LAN.
Please change these IPs to fit your network.

Updating & Installing

Update & Upgrade the PI

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Install DHCPD and HOSTAPD

sudo apt-get install dnsmasq hostapd

Stop the newly added services while thay are configured

sudo systemctl stop dnsmasq   
sudo systemctl stop hostapd
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Configuring DHCPD Client

Configure the static IP addresses for eth0 and wlan0

sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

Add to the end of the file:

# Configure eth0 for LAN
interface eth0
  static ip_address=10.94.65.230/24
  static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1 8.8.8.8
  static routers=10.94.65.254
# Disable wlan0 so HOSTAPD can start
denyinterfaces wlan0

Restart the DHCPCD service to apply the changes

sudo service dhcpcd restart

Configuring DHCPD Server

Configure the range of IPs the server will issue out

sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf

Add to the end of the file:

interface=wlan0
  dhcp-range=192.168.69.2,192.168.69.22,255.255.255.0,24h

Configuring HOSTAPD

Configuring the WiFi hotspot with HOSTAPD

sudo nano /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

Add to the end of the file:

interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
ssid=Patkis-Air
hw_mode=g
channel=7
ieee80211n=1
wmm_enabled=1
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=patkis1234
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP

Next we need to tell HOSTAPD where the configuration file is

sudo nano /etc/default/hostapd

Find the DAEMON_CONF file and change it to this:

DAEMON_CONF="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"

Starting Up

Now we can start the services back up

sudo systemctl start hostapd
sudo systemctl start dnsmasq

IP Routing Configuration

We will make out WiFi requests route to the LAN network

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Uncomment this line:

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Add a masquerade for outbound traffic on eth0:

sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Save the iptables rule:

sudo sh -c "iptables-save > /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat"

Make these rules apply on boot:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Add this right before the exit 0 line:

iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat
ifconfig wlan0 192.168.69.2
service dhcpd restart

Reboot

sudo reboot