Using Beaglebone Black as a standalone wifi server/Access Point

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1

Hi,

I want to use my Beaglebone Black as a standalone (not connected to internet) wireless server, to which multiple clients can connect and request a service.
I googled it out, and found that for this a usb wifi adapter, having the capability to run in a Master mode is required.
I googled for such usb devices but could not get a concrete answer.

Pls anyone help me on the same and suggest which usb wifi device can serve my purpose !

Thanks in advance!!

2

Hi,

I want to use my Beaglebone Black as a standalone (not connected to internet) wireless server, to which multiple clients can connect and request a service.
I googled it out, and found that for this a usb wifi adapter, having the capability to run in a Master mode is required.
I googled for such usb devices but could not get a concrete answer.

Search for "WIFI Direct”

Regards,
John

3

Hi,

Thanks John for the reply,
as per your advice I searched about Wif Direct and came to know that it is actually
somewhat Ad-hoc wireless operation. I want to use Linux based laptops as client to the Beaglebone black (acting as a wifi server running latest Ubuntu image).
With respect to above scenario I have two questions:
1> Does wifi radio that is available in Laptop by default (running on Linux) can be configured to Ad-Hoc mode
2> Does the wifi-adapters listed here can be configured as Ad-hoc on Beaglebone black.

I am a beginner so pls excuse if any unrelated question appears!

Regards,
Ashish

4

Hi,

Thanks John for the reply,
as per your advice I searched about Wif Direct and came to know that it is actually
somewhat Ad-hoc wireless operation. I want to use Linux based laptops as client to the Beaglebone black (acting as a wifi server running latest Ubuntu image).

Wi-Fi Direct is a software layer over Ad-hoc by adding a Software Access Point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Direct

With respect to above scenario I have two questions:
1> Does wifi radio that is available in Laptop by default (running on Linux) can be configured to Ad-Hoc mode
2> Does the wifi-adapters listed here can be configured as Ad-hoc on Beaglebone black.

http://boardzoo.com/index.php/catalog/product/view/id/146/category/8#.U5dZ7pRdWe0

5

I am also interested in this. I just ordered a Beagleboard Black, also a TPE-N150USB adapter from thinkpenguin.com which is listed as supporting Master Mode with hostapd. But I don’t know if that will work with the Beagleboard.
It’s not clear if any of the adapters listed on the Beagleboard page support master mode; I suspect not.

6

That adapter is a "AR9271", Atheros usually just works and supports host mode.

Regards,

7

if this thing can be useful to you, I have just set up an ad-hoc wifi network between BBB and macbook.
I use a tp-link tl-WN722N (that mounts the AR9271 atheros chip).
With this wifi-interface is only necessary to install atheros driver and configure the wifi net. nothing more.
Here my configuration lines to /etc/network/interfaces

`

WIFI ad-hoc

auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.2.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
wireless-channel 2
wireless-essid name_of_the_ad_hoc_net
wireless-key s:password
wireless-mode ad-hoc

`

be careful with your password. It is better if it does not contain strange characters like &% $ # that they might not be interpreted correctly

8

Thanks! for the reply …

I will try tp-link tl-WN722N for my setup.