Create a WiFi hotspot on Debian 8

[JulianM]

Hello together!

I tried something to create a WiFi hotspot with officially WiFi/bluetooth module by pine64 via ethernet and this is my solution.
Feel free to discuss about this topic

Note: The WiFi hotspot is using the internet connection via ethernet. I wasn't able to bridge the internet connection from wlan0 to wlan1!
Note 2: I haven't installed NetworkManager on my system. NetworkManager can be responsible for problems with these instructions.



Install hostapd (create a hotspot), dnsmasq (dhcp server) and iptables-persistent (firewall settings)

Code:

apt-get install hostapd dnsmasq iptables-persistent

Change the config of hostapd
/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

Code:

interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
ssid=MyPrivateHotspot
hw_mode=g
channel=6
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
wpa=3
wpa_passphrase=MyVeryStrongPassword
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP

Change the config of dnsmasq
/etc/dnsmasq.conf

Code:

no-resolv
interface=wlan0
dhcp-range=10.0.0.3,10.0.0.20,12h
server=8.8.8.8
server=8.8.4.4

Restart dnsmasq to apply the new config

Code:

/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart

Activate forwarding of IPv4
/etc/sysctl.conf

Code:

Just uncomment the following line:
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Apply it without reboot with the following command:

Code:

sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Setup the network configuration
/etc/network/interfaces

Code:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
        pre-up iptables-restore < /etc/network/iptables.rules

iface wlan1 inet manual

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
        address 10.0.0.1
        broadcast 10.0.0.255
        netmask 255.255.255.0

And restart the network:

Code:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

Apply iptables rules

Code:

iptables -A FORWARD -o eth0 -i wlan0 -s 10.0.0.1/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE 

Save the iptables rules

Code:

iptables-save > /etc/network/iptables.rules

Create the WiFi hotspot

Code:

hostapd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

You're done!


Best regards
Julian