How to: Make a Raspberry Pi Powered Wifi Repeater

1. Either start with a fresh install of Rasbian, or make a backup image of your current install

2. Make a backup of the interfaces file with sudo mv /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces.BAK

2. Open /etc/network/interfaces with a text editor and paste in what is below (assuming you have the same interfaces):

# The loopback network interface
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback

# the internal (wired) network interface
 allow-hotplug eth0
 iface eth0 inet static
  address 192.168.2.1
  network 192.168.2.0
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  broadcast 192.168.2.255
  gateway 192.168.2.1

# the wifi interface communicating with the main router
 allow-hotplug wlan0
 iface wlan0 inet static
  address 192.168.1.98
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  broadcast 192.168.1.255
  gateway 192.168.1.1
  # add the wifi network name and password that you are connecting to
  wpa-ssid "*********"
  wpa-psk "**********"
  # if the wifi refuses to connect, try changing TKIP to AES
  wpa-group TKIP CCMP
  wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK

# the wifi interface acting as an AP for the repeater
 allow-hotplug wlan0
 iface wlan1 inet static
  address 192.168.3.1
  network 192.168.3.0
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  broadcast 192.168.3.255
  gateway 192.168.3.1

pre-up iptables-restore < /etc/network/iptables

3. Reboot the pi with sudo shutdown -r now to let the interface settings take effect

*wonder why you don't have a pi 2*

4. Open a script called resetiptables.sh and fill it with the following:

#!/bin/sh
 IPTABLES="$(which iptables)"
# RESET DEFAULT POLICIES
 $IPTABLES -P INPUT ACCEPT
 $IPTABLES -P FORWARD ACCEPT
 $IPTABLES -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
 $IPTABLES -t nat -P PREROUTING ACCEPT
 $IPTABLES -t nat -P POSTROUTING ACCEPT
 $IPTABLES -t nat -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
 $IPTABLES -t mangle -P PREROUTING ACCEPT
 $IPTABLES -t mangle -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
# FLUSH ALL RULES, ERASE NON-DEFAULT CHAINS
 $IPTABLES -F
 $IPTABLES -X
 $IPTABLES -t nat -F
 $IPTABLES -t nat -X
 $IPTABLES -t mangle -F
 $IPTABLES -t mangle -X

5. chmod 755 resetiptables

6. sudo ./resetiptables. This removes any table rules you currently have.

7. This is where the magic happens. Open a script called setupiptables.sh and fill it with the following:

#!/bin/sh
 IPT=/sbin/iptables
 LOCAL_IFACE=eth0
 INET_IFACE=wlan0
 AP_IFACE=wlan1
 INET_ADDRESS=192.168.1.98
# Flush the tables
 $IPT -F INPUT
 $IPT -F OUTPUT
 $IPT -F FORWARD
$IPT -t nat -P PREROUTING ACCEPT
 $IPT -t nat -P POSTROUTING ACCEPT
 $IPT -t nat -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
# Allow forwarding packets:
 $IPT -A FORWARD -p ALL -i $LOCAL_IFACE -o $INET_IFACE -j ACCEPT
 $IPT -A FORWARD -p ALL -i $AP_IFACE -o $INET_IFACE -j ACCEPT
 $IPT -A FORWARD -i $INET_IFACE -o $LOCAL_IFACE -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
 $IPT -A FORWARD -i $INET_IFACE -o $AP_IFACE -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
# Packet masquerading
 #$IPT -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o $LOCAL_IFACE -j MASQUERADE
 # I'm pretty sure this is unneeded but I added it because I'm mirroring the original script
 #$IPT -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o $AP_IFACE -j MASQUERADE
 $IPT -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o $INET_IFACE -j SNAT --to-source $INET_ADDRESS

8. chmod 755 setupiptables

9. sudo ./setupiptables

10. sudo iptables-save > dump.txt

11. sudo cp dump.txt /etc/network/iptables

12. sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf and uncomment the line net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

13. sudo sysctl --system

14. Open a script called setuproutes and fill it with the following:

#!/bin/sh
#/etc/init.d/setuproutes
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: default routes for wlan0
# Required-Start: $syslog $network
# Required-Stop: $syslog
# Should-Start:
# Should-Stop:
# X-Start-Before:
# X-Stop-After:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# X-Interactive: false
# Short-Description: adjust default routes
# Description: removes default route 192.168.2.1 adds default route 192.168.1.1
### END INIT INFO
sudo route del default gw 192.168.2.1 eth0
sudo route del default gw 192.168.3.1 wlan1
sudo route add default gw 192.168.1.1 wlan0
exit 0

15. chmod 755 setuproutes

16. sudo cp setuproutes /etc/init.d

17. sudo update-rc.d setuproutes defaults

18. sudo shutdown -r now

*crack a beer*

19. sudo nano sudo nano /etc/init.d/wlan-restart and fill it with the following:

#!/bin/sh
#
#

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          wlan-restart
# Required-Start:    $network
# Required-Stop:     $network
# Should-Start:
# Should-Stop:
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Restarts wlan interfaces
# Description:       Restarts wlan interfaces to fix problem with static address in WiFi AP
# X-Start-Before:    hostapd isc-dhcp-server
### END INIT INFO

PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:$PATH

do_start() {
  ifdown wlan0
  ifup wlan0
  ifdown wlan1
  ifup wlan1
}

case "$1" in
  start)
    do_start
    ;;
  restart|reload|force-reload)
    echo "Error: argument '$1' not supported" >&2
    exit 3
    ;;
  stop)
    ;;
  status)
    ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 start|stop" >&2
    exit 3
    ;;
esac
exit 0

20. sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/wlan-restart

21. sudo update-rc.d wlan-restart defaults


22. sudo apt-get update

*take a quick nap*

23. sudo apt-get install isc-dhcp-server

*strum fingers impatiently*

24. sudo mv /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf.orig

25. sudo nano /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf and fill it with the following:

#
# Configuration file for ISC dhcpd for Debian
#
#
ddns-update-style none;
option domain-name "rbn.local";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;
default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;
authoritative;
log-facility local7;
#let the server know about network 192.168.1.0 but offer no service here
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0{
}
#configure service for network 192.168.2.0 (the ethernet port)
subnet 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
 range 192.168.2.10 192.168.2.50;
 option routers 192.168.2.1;
 option ip-forwarding off;
}
#configure service for nework 192.168.3.0 (the wireless AP)
subment 192.168.3.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
 range 192.168.3.10 192.168.3.50;
 option routers 192.168.3.1;
 option ip-forwarding off;
}

26. sudo nano /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server and change INTERFACES="" to INTERFACES="eth0 wlan1"

27. sudo service isc-dhcp-server restart

Almost there! time to start making the new wireless network

28. sudo apt-get install hostapd

Now, this wasn't covered very well in either tutorial, which is why I made this tutorial. In short, we have to compile the lastest hostapd files and use them to replace the ones we downloaded from apt-get.

29. git clone git://w1.fi/srv/git/hostap.git

30. cd hostap/hostapd

31. cp defconfig .config

32. nano .config

33. uncomment this line #CONFIG_DRIVER_NL80211=y

34. uncomment this line #CONFIG_IEEE80211N=y

35. sudo apt-get install libnl-dev

The next command will compile the hostapd files, I admit, there are two dependencies that need to be solved, and I forget what they are off the top of my head :( you can solve them with apt-get though

36. make

*browse reddit because this is going to take forever*

36. sudo mv /usr/sbin/hostapd /usr/sbin/hostapd.ORIG

37. sudo mv hostapd /usr/sbin

38. sudo chmod 755 /usr/sbin/hostapd

Woot! So that updated hostapd to the latest version and installed the nl80211 driver which may come in handy later

39. sudo nano /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf and fill it with the following:

interface=wlan1
#if you get an error, try uncommenting rt1871xdrv and commenting nl80111
#driver=rtl871xdrv
driver=nl80211
# change this to what you want
ssid=Pi_AP
hw_mode=g
channel=6
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
wpa=2
# I'd change your password to something a bit less obvious
wpa_passphrase=Raspberry
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP

40. sudo nano /etc/default/hostapd

41. Find #DAEMON_CONF="" and uncomment it plus change to DAEMON_CONF="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"

42. sudo service hostapd start

43. sudo update-rc.d hostapd enable

44. And finally..... sudo shutdown -r now.

When you reboot, you should be able to connect to the wifi network being broadcast from the pi, and have internet access!!