How to turn your Ubuntu laptop into a WiFi AP

I have found myself, wanting to access WiFi connection from my phone and the Only available connection was ethernet. Which led to finding ways I can make my laptop behave like a WiFi AP.

First things first, install the dependencies.

Pre-requsites:

Your NIC (wlan0) needs to be able to support AP/ Infrastructure mode.
- Install iw

    $ sudo apt install iw
    $ iw list

You should look for “Supported interface modes” section, where it should be a entry called AP like below

    Supported interface modes:
             * IBSS
             * managed
             * AP
             * AP/VLAN
             * monitor
             * mesh point

If your driver doesn’t shows this AP, It doesn’t mean it can’t create wireless hotspot.

Install git
```
  $ sudo apt install git
```
Install dnsmasq
```
  $ sudo apt install dnsmasq
```
Install Hostapd Hostapd is the standard linux daemon that will be used to create your access-point
```
  $ sudo apt install hostapd
```
Install DHCP server
```
  $ sudo apt-get install dhcp3-server
```
Install IProute
```
  $ sudo apt install iproute2
```

Installation

    git clone https://github.com/oblique/create_ap
    cd create_ap
    sudo make install

Creating a WiFi AP

To create an AP run the following code, Assuming that your WiFi NIC name is wlan0 and Ethernet is eth0.

$ sudo create_ap wlan0 eth0 MyAccessPoint

You should now start seeing something like this on your terminal, ie you can now surf the interweb from your mobile device.

    Config dir: /tmp/create_ap.wlan0.conf.E9PIWP0I
    PID: 18086
    Network Manager found, set wlan0 as unmanaged device... DONE
    Sharing Internet using method: nat
    hostapd command-line interface: hostapd_cli -p /tmp/create_ap.wlan0.conf.E9PIWP0I/hostapd_ctrl
    Configuration file: /tmp/create_ap.wlan0.conf.E9PIWP0I/hostapd.conf
    Failed to create interface mon.wlan0: -23 (Too many open files in system)
    Try to remove and re-create mon.wlan0
    Failed to update rate sets in kernel module
    Using interface wlan0 with hwaddr d8:fc:93:17:b8:a8 and ssid 'MyAccessPoint'