Recommend a wifi dongle for access point setup

[publicENEMY]

I want to setup my xbian so that i can access media files in my xbian setup from in my car.

Can i set xbian as access point?
What is the recommended wifi dongle for this task? I tried dwa-123 v2 and tl-w725n v2 without success.

Thanks.

[mk01]

this is very tricky. for AP to work, wifi needs own hw support for this special mode. in the past there was no reason to put AP functionality into wifi client dongles.

for this purpose this client-to-client mode was introduced, but still, without the AP support, this is limited to connection between two clients only.

[RobertJB66]

I'm working on the same.

I have a DWA-121 that holds the RTL8188CUS chipset and should be possible of doing this.

As we are on the subject some more information.

I was using openelec before but switched to xbian as this has more linux tools like apd-get and sudo.
I have checked the web and found a number of installation guides. so fare unsuccessful installing them in conjunction with xbian.

I'm also not sure what would be the right name for the network.
Is it a Adhock network, is it a Hotspot, is it a Access point?

This one does work for me http://spin.atomicobject.com/2013/04/22/raspberry-pi-wireless-communication/
This works without the xbian running. When I run xbian as well and set the wlan0 in the setup the wlan0 cannot be closed. I can select the wifi it is sending, but the wlan0 of xbian doesn't allow it to connect. This is a Adhock network and would probably work for me just right.

This are two other installation guides but I was not successful in getting them to run.

Hotspot: http://raspberry-at-home.com/hotspot-wifi-access-point/
Wifi Access Point: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=31227

What I like to do is connect IOS devices to this system in the Car.
The kids can then watch on their Iphone, Ipad their own movies. It works via my home Wlan.

I hope that one can help me with solving this problem.

[publicENEMY]

(7th Jun, 2013 05:20 PM)RobertJB66 Wrote:  What I like to do is connect IOS devices to this system in the Car.
The kids can then watch on their Iphone, Ipad their own movies.

This is exactly what im trying to do.

i have 2 devices that i think is capable of doing so, but unfortunately, unsuccessful so far.

1. raspberry pi with xbian
2. tplink mr3020 with piratebox(customized openwrt)

for raspberry pi, i have 2 wifi dongles that doesnt work.
1. dlink dwa 123 v2
2. tplink wn725n v2 (ap support)

both are listed as working for raspberry pi, but unfortunately only v1. v2 doesnt work for raspberry pi.

thanks.

[RobertJB66]

(7th Jun, 2013 07:15 PM)publicENEMY Wrote:  

(7th Jun, 2013 05:20 PM)RobertJB66 Wrote:  What I like to do is connect IOS devices to this system in the Car.
The kids can then watch on their Iphone, Ipad their own movies.

This is exactly what im trying to do.

i have 2 devices that i think is capable of doing so, but unfortunately, unsuccessful so far.

1. raspberry pi with xbian
2. tplink mr3020 with piratebox(customized openwrt)

for raspberry pi, i have 2 wifi dongles that doesnt work.
1. dlink dwa 123 v2
2. tplink wn725n v2 (ap support)

both are listed as working for raspberry pi, but unfortunately only v1. v2 doesnt work for raspberry pi.

thanks.

Do your dongles work in the Pi as Wifi with xbian?
Mine DWA -121 does function as wifi for xbian it is the hotspot / access point part that is the problem.

[publicENEMY]

(7th Jun, 2013 08:02 PM)RobertJB66 Wrote:  

(7th Jun, 2013 07:15 PM)publicENEMY Wrote:  

(7th Jun, 2013 05:20 PM)RobertJB66 Wrote:  What I like to do is connect IOS devices to this system in the Car.
The kids can then watch on their Iphone, Ipad their own movies.

This is exactly what im trying to do.

i have 2 devices that i think is capable of doing so, but unfortunately, unsuccessful so far.

1. raspberry pi with xbian
2. tplink mr3020 with piratebox(customized openwrt)

for raspberry pi, i have 2 wifi dongles that doesnt work.
1. dlink dwa 123 v2
2. tplink wn725n v2 (ap support)

both are listed as working for raspberry pi, but unfortunately only v1. v2 doesnt work for raspberry pi.

thanks.

Do your dongles work in the Pi as Wifi with xbian?
Mine DWA -121 does function as wifi for xbian it is the hotspot / access point part that is the problem.

unfortunately, none of the dongles works with xbian.

says here dwa-121 uses RTL8188CUS (which v1 of wn725n uses and afaik supported by xbian). i take it that you already see that page but still unsuccessfull. right?

thanks.

[RobertJB66]

(7th Jun, 2013 09:14 PM)publicENEMY Wrote:  

(7th Jun, 2013 08:02 PM)RobertJB66 Wrote:  

(7th Jun, 2013 07:15 PM)publicENEMY Wrote:  

(7th Jun, 2013 05:20 PM)RobertJB66 Wrote:  What I like to do is connect IOS devices to this system in the Car.
The kids can then watch on their Iphone, Ipad their own movies.

This is exactly what im trying to do.

i have 2 devices that i think is capable of doing so, but unfortunately, unsuccessful so far.

1. raspberry pi with xbian
2. tplink mr3020 with piratebox(customized openwrt)

for raspberry pi, i have 2 wifi dongles that doesnt work.
1. dlink dwa 123 v2
2. tplink wn725n v2 (ap support)

both are listed as working for raspberry pi, but unfortunately only v1. v2 doesnt work for raspberry pi.

thanks.

Do your dongles work in the Pi as Wifi with xbian?
Mine DWA -121 does function as wifi for xbian it is the hotspot / access point part that is the problem.

unfortunately, none of the dongles works with xbian.

says here dwa-121 uses RTL8188CUS (which v1 of wn725n uses and afaik supported by xbian). i take it that you already see that page but still unsuccessfull. right?

thanks.

When I unplug the LAN cable and set the lan0 to wlan0 in xbian the Pi and xbian run wifi with the DWA-121.

When I setup the Ad-hoc network I can select the Ad-hoc network but only the Wlan0 will not close and open again probably due it is used.

[mk01]

in adhoc network, only two devices can speak to each other.

in adhoc network, those two devices can't connect to other networks (for example AP).

[publicENEMY]

(9th Jun, 2013 08:55 AM)mk01 Wrote:  in adhoc network, only two devices can speak to each other.

in adhoc network, those two devices can't connect to other networks (for example AP).

thanks for the clarification.

[Wrechid]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and just switched from another XBMC distro to Xbian...
I'm really interested in trying to get this access point feature to work on Xbian as I had this method working on the other distro
http://raspberry-at-home.com/hotspot-wifi-access-point/...
As mentioned above this method didn't work, I tried it as the complete setup script did seem to fully set everything up, but it seems that since Xbian already has control of my wifi dongle it clashed and wouldn't boot back up... Is there a way to remove or disable the wifi feature from Xbian...?
Any help is greatly appreciated... Thanx...

[mk01]

Oops! That Page Can’t Be Found.
It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try one of the links below or a search?

---

ach got the full link from previous posts… will check what's going on.

---

@Wrechid

there is nothing wrong with the howto (no conflict with xbian). So if you have supported HW (dongle whose RT/RF can work as AP) it should be working.

BUT!

if your XBian at car will be as long term placement and you are fine with the fact that only one WIFI device will connect to your car's XBian at the time, Ad-Hoc config is very easy.

edit /etc/network/interfaces on cars XBian :
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
wireless-channel 1
wireless-essid MYCARXBIAN
wireless-mode ad-hoc

install any kind of dhcp server providing IPs 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.200

then just connect iphone. you get this working in 5 minutes. just tested it. is the same way as iPhone's internet connection sharing is working .

[Wrechid]

Thanks for the reply mk01... Sorry about the faulty link, I copied it from the 3rd post in this thread...
Yea, the dongle I'm using is the edimax, it works fine to connect to other devices like routers or APs... It worked fine using raspbmc and that how-to from that link, but xbian don't seem to like that method...
Using the ad-hoc method, if I set my phone to a static ip would I still need a dhcp server...? I'm only wanting a way to control xbmc so only 1 device at a time, wouldn't be a problem...
Thanx again...

[mk01]

of course you can set your phone to static, then you skip dhcp server configuration. if you have iphone it's ok as IOS has dhcp/static settings per network. but this is not case with others so one would need be changing this constantly.

btw: did you cross check also firmwares for the dongle between RBMC and XBIAN. It can't be anywhere else as in FW or MODULE or HOSTAPD version.

[Wrechid]

I have an android phone in which is able to set specific settings for each network also...
As for cross checking this wifi dongle, no I didn't... :/ I assumed that since it worked with one distribution, well maybe I shouldn't assume... Lol...
But knowing that it's not a problem with the how-to, it's the device sets me in a new direction...
Thanx again for your devotion in trying to help, support here is much better...

[Wrechid]

(14th Nov, 2013 09:56 PM)mk01 Wrote:  edit /etc/network/interfaces on cars XBian :
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
wireless-channel 1
wireless-essid MYCARXBIAN
wireless-mode ad-hoc

ok mk01,

i have been trying this method for a few hours now... no luck... from a fresh install of XBian, am i suppose to install hostapd, or anything else first...? i've tried tinkering around with the /etc/network/interfaces file and not sure if i'm suppose to add these lines or edit the current lines already in there... when i cross check the dongle with XBian capability i get to many contradictions of whether it will work or not... i know it works to connect to my router, and i know it has AP feature... Also when i was starring at your lines above, is "wireless-essid MYCARXBIAN" suppose to have a "e" in the "ssid" part...? i tried it with and without, didn't work either way, lol...