How to get a headless Apache server to join a wireless network

Could you use a WPS pushbutton?

That's a worthy suggestion. I never heard of that before. It's definitely worth looking into. Thanks.

An idea I had that involves some additional cost is using BLE to advertise the device. A phone app could pick up the advertisement and relay the network name and network password back to the device. I like it all except for the extra HW needed. I wish WiFi had such a mechanism. Another 2.4 GHz radio seems wasteful and I wonder about interference between co-located radios.

John

Put a (text) configuration file on a USB stick. If the stick is present, and contains "setup.cfg" (or whatever) in some directory, use those parameters at boot. That might well be your phone with a USB cable (although then the directory becomes an interesting question), and you could generate the configuration file with an app.

That would provided a very open-ended setup system.

And if the stick were present, you could dump diagnostic data to it if the device couldn't start.

Timely, that! Try:

upon reset the AHS (Apache Headless Server) will create his own network (wi th default SSID and password). The user will connect to the AHS network, connect to the web server configu ration page, fill the fields (real network name, password, use of a DHCP se rver, avahi/zeroconf name, etc). Press Enter. AHS will restart with new con figuration and hopefully connect to real network. If errors happens, press reset button for 10 seconds (or automatically rest art the AHS with reset conf) and start again.

Bye Jack

One problem with WPS is that anyone even halfway security conscious has disabled it in their router.

George

It would probably help to have a tri-colour LED for this:

Blue: in setup mode, or password didn't work and device reverted to setup mode Red: password worked previously but the network is currently down Green: password accepted and the connection is working

On factory reset, you stay in blue state until you achieve a successful connection. Then the device flips out of configuration mode and goes either red or green. It never goes into blue mode until somebody does the factory reset process again.

This way prevents the device from reverting to configuration mode every time the wifi is down. Or, for more fun, every time an attacker threw out enough noise to force the wifi offline, at which point the device would broadcast its default network with the default password.

Theo

You mean the wifi module will initially act as a hotspot to do that? I guess they are all capable of that, why not really. Should work fine.

I have seen many wifi modules lately and _still_ none which will accept IP traffic without enforcing its tcp layer on its host. Anyone any luck with that? They all must have a layer even below IP, looking pretty much like Ethernet - that would be best of course. But none I have seen document (or perhaps even do not expose to the interface) these layers.

Dimiter

====================================================== Dimiter Popoff, TGI

ch

Here are a few:

-- =

(Remove the obvious prefix to reply privately.) Gemaakt met Opera's e-mailprogramma:

Thanks, but I saw no documentation of the interface to the host at all.

Dimiter

Thanks everyone for the helpful comments. I have a few good ideas to research.

I recently acquired a Nest cam and I like the method it uses to bond to the user. What happens "under the covers" is guesswork but the process is pretty simple. The user plugs it into USB and is presented with a readonly USB mass storage device which contains an installation program. The program takes the user to a web site where the bonding process is completed with web based wizard managed from Nest. That's the point at which the user selects a network and enters the password. Other application specific setup follows. Once the bonding is completed the camera works from WiFi only.

JJS

Den tirsdag den 3. oktober 2017 kl. 22.39.12 UTC+2 skrev John Speth:

what I've seen people do with ESP8266 wifi modules is that if it isn't connected to a network it will switch to AP mode and serve a webpage with a list of available networks to choose from and store for the the next boot

ept

uck

port/wifi-modules

At the bottom of each module tab there is a 'Vendor link' with =

documentation and reference designs.

-- =

(Remove the obvious prefix to reply privately.) Gemaakt met Opera's e-mailprogramma:

Of course I followed these links. No module which would do IP (or below) packets documented, nothing different from what I have seen over the past 5-10 years.

But this brings me to another thought. Since so many make wifi modules just to sell their tcp stack the lower level can't be that hard to do, has here anybody been dealing with the raw radio interface of these things?

Dimiter

====================================================== Dimiter Popoff, TGI

iate

ty

e

Sound like a reasonable setup. OTOH, i recently got a WiFi ON/OFF switch t hat is not.

I rented the switch from a company in China. Since it is useless without t heir server, i don't really own the hardware. I have to download their app and connect to their server. Press a button on the box and syncing the IP of the box and my app. Then enter my WiFi code on their server.

BIG RED SECURITY RISK:

1. They got my email address, even though it's for junk mail only account.
2. They got my WiFI code and my IP address.
3. They got a box behind my firewall with 1 and 2.

Just using it for testing and disable it soon.