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Introduction

Hotspotd is a small daemon to create a wifi hotspot on linux. It depends on hostapd for AP provisioning and dnsmasq to assign IP addresses to devices.

Hotspotd works by creating a virtual NAT (Network address transation) table between your connected device and the internet using linux iptables.

Installation

To install hotspotd, just follow these steps:

wget https://github.com/prahladyeri/hotspotd/raw/master/dist/hotspotd-latest.tar.gz
tar xvf hotspotd-latest.tar.gz
cd hotspotd-latest/
sudo python setup.py install

To uninstall hotspotd, just say:

sudo python setup.py uninstall

Dependencies

dnsmasq (typically pre-installed on most linux distributions)
hostapd for AP provisioning

To install hostapd on ubuntu:

apt-get install hostapd

Or on RHEL based distros:

yum install hostapd

Usage

To start hotspot:

sudo hotspotd start

To stop hotspot:

sudo hotspotd stop

The first time you run hotspotd, it will ask you for configuration values for SSID, password, etc. Alternatively, you may also run:

sudo hotspotd configure

Troubleshooting

Make sure all dependencies (hostapd, dnsmasq and python 2.7) are installed.
hotspotd creates the NAT by manipulating iptables rules. So if you have any other firewall software that manipulates the iptables rules (such as the firewalld on fedora), make sure you disable that.
To create a hotspot, your wifi must support AP mode. To find that out, use this process:
- Find your kernel driver module in use by issuing the below command:
  
  lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i network
  
  (example module: ath9k)
- Now, use the below command to find out your wifi capabilities (replace ath9k by your kernel driver):
  
  modinfo ath9k | grep depend
- If the above output includes “mac80211” then it means your wifi card will support the AP mode.

Testing status

This package has been tested on Qualcomm Atheros adapter on the following distros:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

In theory, it should work with all other distros too (on machines having wifi adapters supported by hostapd), but you will have to try that out and tell me!

Notes

Replace sudo with su or su -c if you manage superuser access in that manner.
PyPI home page could be found at https://pypi.python.org/pypi/hotspotd.
I need someone to test this daemon across various linux distros. If you are interested in testing of open-source apps, please contact me.

Donation

Please consider donating if this tool has helped you in any way. You can also hire me through upwork or fiverr to get professional support and customization.