Pi Zero W as access point, how to?

You don't need it to be an access point in order to do that as long as the clients and Pi are on the same network or at least not firewalled apart. Some access points isolate their clients so that they can't reach each other but this can usually be turned off.

On Mon, 16 Aug 2021 17:38:08 +0200, Wolfgang Mahringer declaimed the following:

To where?

If you just mean to SSH/SFTP from that laptop TO the R-PI, you don't need an access point (typically "access point" implies 1) that the AP provides IP addresses via DHCP, 2) acts as a gateway to the Internet (via a CAT-5/6 cable connection).

I connect to a Pi-Star (Amateur Radio "hotspot" based on R-Pi) using SSH over WiFi all the time. It is NOT an AP (the only time it comes up as an access point is when it cannot connect to a network router -- and then it is only an AP to let one configure the router access; after a reboot is a normal LAN client, accessed like any other node on the LAN).

Surely any box that can see the Pi Zero can also see the wifi point it is connecting to?

Which makes what you *appear* to want, quaint at best, and at worst pointless?

The OS should not make a difference, but the hardware might.

Apparently all the other posters can't fathom a situation where there is no router and the other devices must connect directly to the Pi.

Sorry, I don't have a solution for you because I never tried to use a Pi as an AP.

I'm one of them. What is the difference? I presume it's fixed addresses instead of DHCP, but what else? That can't be all, can it?

Danke Axel

Somewhere where there is no router. Idk, maybe the back of the garden? There doesn't have to be a follow up network connection from the Zero, it can be the endpoint. Perhaps it is just there to collect data from a few wireless devices.

Wtf, people.

Sure we can, but the OP already said it was working as a client so there's an AP around.

IF THERE IS NO ROUTER, WHAT IS THE PI CONNECTING TO? Or is it absolutely standalone ?

Precisely

That was the only way it made sense to me, yes.

You all assumed he was too dumb too realise that he didn't need another AP if he already had a router; I assumed he wasn't and that the situation would be different.

But whatever, none of us came up with a helpful response yet to make the AP mode work. Router or not, it's an interesting problem by itself especially since, reportedly, it seems to have stopped working with the old howtos. Maybe it's another achievement of systemd.

I did a access point on a Raspberry B+ Using dnsmasq 'simpler'? dns and dhcpd and hostapd. Very simple procedure. I suppose it the same for any raspberry. You can of cause install bind9 for your dns and isc-dhcdp for dhcp Regard

Hi folks,

Thanks for the answers. Many of you seem to not know that the Pi Zero W has no ethernet ports, so that is no option here.

I am absolutely aware what the differences of a Wifi client and an AP are. The Imager only has the option of setting up a Wifi to have the Pi login to a router. And that works nicely, just to verify the hardware works.

But my Pi zero should work standalone, only sometimes (hours between) somebody will connect to the Pi, so the client and the Pi are a private network. There is /no/ router involved. To be able to install packets or update the Pi's OS, I plan to use network bridging (Pi uses the connected laptop to share its internet connection).

Of course I can use the serial port to get access to the Pi, but that requires opening of the case and also poses the risk of ESD.

Cheers, Wolfgang

Hi alister,

Am 17.08.2021 um 00:20 schrieb alister:

I googled around a lot, but missed that one somehow. I'll give it a try and report.

Thanks a lot, Wolfgang

Wolfgang Mahringer wrote on 17-08-2021 at 10:05:

There are also things like this, worked well on a Zero for me when needed:

OK so just to be clear the aim is to have a stand alone Pi Zero W reachable over WiFi for incoming ssh and ftp connections with nothing else reachable over that WiFi link. Further this arrangement is out of reach of any AP and there are multiple clients for the Pi so the Pi needs to be an AP.

For that purpose the guide that Alister pointed you at should do fine, hostapd and dnsmasq are the primary ingredients. You can just ignore the bits about routing out via the ethernet (from enabling IP forwarding onwards) because you're not doing that.

There are many steps one of which may have been omitted like port forwarding