Turning a PC into a Wireless Access Point pt II

So, I've got my design, setting up an Access Point should be easy - after all, I can remember when Linux was one of the few operating systems that supported wireless networking (back when you had to build your own hardware).

Actually it is not easy.  Firstly, finding the right documentation is a nightmare.

There's an awfully large quantity of out of date stuff leading to a lot of dead ends.

The steps (for Ubuntu server 10.04 on a box with 1 wireless card and 1 ethernet connection) should be:

1. make sure your wireless card works
2. install bridging (thanks ubuntulinuxhelp.com)
   

   sudo apt-get install bridge-utils

   enable the bridge by entering its details into the interfaces file - since there are two network interfaces in my computer and only one had been enabled up to this point, I simply moved the card's IP address details into the bridge section.
   

   sudo cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.ORIG sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces

   
# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0

#This is the Wireless section.
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wireless-mode master
wireless-essid MyNewSID

#This is the Bridge section.
auto br0
iface br0 inet static
address 192.168.1.251
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.253
bridge-ports eth0 wlan0

   
   I'd recommend checking that the computer still boots properly at this stage - I messed up the networking by inadvertently getting the address wrong on my first attempt.
3. install hostapd
   

   sudo apt-get install hostapd

   changes to /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf (thanks Denilson) - all other entries left as default.
   
driver=nl80211
ssid=MyNewSID
country_code=GB (thanks cisco)
hw_mode=g
channel=3
max_num_sta=3

macaddr_acl=1
accept_mac_file=/etc/hostapd/hostapd.accept
wep_default_key=0
wep_key0=00000000ED57ERR0C500000000

   
   Then add the MAC addresses for the Games Adaptor and the Dreambox to /etc/hostapd/hostapd.accept in the format xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
   
   The final piece in the jigsaw is getting hostapd to run as a daemon automatically on startup - edit the config file /etc/default/hostapd and uncomment RUN_DAEMON="YES" (thanks BadOpCode)
4. restart networking and hostapd (or just reboot):
   

   sudo /etc/init.d/network-interface restart sudo /etc/init.d/hostapd start

So why doesn't it work ?
All looks fine from my laptop:

sudo iwlist scan lo        Interface doesn't support scanning. eth0      Interface doesn't support scanning. eth1      Scan completed :           Cell 04 - Address: 00:1B:11:06:AB:52                     ESSID:"MyNewSID"                     Protocol:IEEE 802.11bg                     Mode:Master                     Frequency:2.422 GHz (Channel 3)                     Encryption key:on                     Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s                               9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s                               48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s                     Quality=61/100  Signal level=-64 dBm                     Extra: Last beacon: 188ms ago

And the details on the server look fine too:

sudo ifconfig br0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1b:11:06:ab:52           inet addr:192.168.1.251  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0           inet6 addr: fe80::21b:11ff:fe06:ab52/64 Scope:Link           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1           RX packets:6537 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:3635 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0           RX bytes:4028355 (4.0 MB)  TX bytes:522361 (522.3 KB) eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:50:8b:c6:ff:47           inet6 addr: fe80::250:8bff:fec6:ff47/64 Scope:Link           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1           RX packets:6614 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:3635 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000           RX bytes:4137117 (4.1 MB)  TX bytes:522361 (522.3 KB) lo        Link encap:Local Loopback           inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0           inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host           UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1           RX packets:154 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:154 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0           collisions:0 txqueuelen:0           RX bytes:32425 (32.4 KB)  TX bytes:32425 (32.4 KB) mon.wlan0 Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-1B-11-06-AB-52-30-30-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1b:11:06:ab:52           inet6 addr: fe80::21b:11ff:fe06:ab52/64 Scope:Link           UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1           RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0           TX packets:498 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000           RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:145552 (145.5 KB)

sudo iwconfig lo        no wireless extensions. eth0      no wireless extensions. wlan0     IEEE 802.11bg  Mode:Master  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Tx-Power=12 dBm           Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B           Power Management:off          br0       no wireless extensions. mon.wlan0  IEEE 802.11bg  Mode:Monitor  Frequency:2.422 GHz  Tx-Power=12 dBm           Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=2346 B           Power Management:off

I've tried removing all protection, but still nothing will connect.

Let's see what is going on:

sudo brctl show bridge name bridge id          STP enabled   interfaces br0         8000.001b1106ab52     no         eth0                                              wlan0

...so the bridge definitely exists.

What can the bridge see?

sudo brctl showmacs br0 port no     mac addr          is local?     ageing timer   1     00:0d:4b:30:6e:94     no            30.28   1     00:16:67:00:4a:d4     no             9.71   1     00:16:6f:b2:41:d4     no             0.04   2     00:1b:11:06:ab:52     yes            0.00   1     00:50:8b:c6:ff:47     yes            0.00   1     98:8b:5d:9d:c4:f8     no            45.70

...the bridge is only seeing stuff on the wired side (port 1).

TBC...