Setting up Wireless Hotspot on Ubuntu 14.04 (With Video demo)

ap-hotspot is an open source program that allows users to create hotspot on their Ubuntu Machines

ap-hotspot has a dependency called hostapd. hostapd is used to create wireless networks

However the new version of hostapd in Ubuntu 14.04 default repo is buggy.

Hence we will first remove it and then install a previous version which is stable.

Once installed we will place a hold on it so that it doesn’t automatically upgrade itself

To uninstall hostapd:

sudo apt-get remove hostapd

To install non buggy version of hostapd:

32-bit:

cd /tmp
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/w/wpa/hostapd_1.0-3ubuntu2.1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i hostapd*.deb
sudo apt-mark hold hostapd

64-bit:

cd /tmp
wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/w/wpa/hostapd_1.0-3ubuntu2.1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i hostapd*.deb
sudo apt-mark hold hostapd

The last line “sudo apt-mark hold hostapd” will place a hold so that hostapd program doesn’t upgrade itself.

Now we need to install ap-hotspot, for that save this file on your desktop:
https://launchpad.net/~nilarimogard/+archive/ubuntu/webupd8/+files/ap-hotspot_0.3.1-1%7Ewebupd8%7E0_all.deb

Once done, run the file by just double clicking on it and let it install itself using Ubuntu Software Center (You can also install it via terminal if you are familiar of how to do so).

Once installed, run:

sudo ap-hotspot configure

-> Select correct WAN port on which you have working internet connection (in my case ppp0)
-> Select correct wireless LAN port on which you want to setup the hotspot (in my case wlan0)
-> Enter desired hotspot name and password

that’s it..

to start it, run:

sudo ap-hotspot start

and to stop the hotspot, run:

sudo ap-hotspot stop

Video Demo below: