Add-on: Create a Wi-Fi access point with Hass.io Access Point

zakarumit · February 4, 2023, 2:05pm

Hello, anyone can share how to setup the plugin when I want to share internet over Wifi from my Intel NUC with HA OS which is connected with its cable to LAN?
No matter what I tried, I cannot see internet on the WiFi. With some settings I lose access to my HA network interface Some fool-proof step-by-step instruction would be welcome.

PetervF · February 5, 2023, 1:41pm

@zakarumit
This works out of the box, by modifying this param: client_internet_access in your setup.
If it doesn’t in your case we need to troubleshoot it your plugin config, config of a client and some network logs.Does the client connect to your NUC, does it receive ip, can you ping from client nuc, can you ping ip on internet can you ping any domain (e.g. google.com). Send trace route logs, etc. the more & the detailed the easier will be to check and advice

zakarumit · February 6, 2023, 5:44pm

I will go ahead and post the same thing as on the github developer page in issues:

Running newest HA OS on dedicated Intel NUC. The computer is connected to local network via its ethernet adapter and running on IP 192.168.0.167. I have installed the addon and would like to create wifi coverage this way in my house (phones etc - internet access). I can connect to the wifi, but I cannot access internet. Here is the log:

s6-rc: info: service s6rc-oneshot-runner: starting
s6-rc: info: service s6rc-oneshot-runner successfully started
s6-rc: info: service fix-attrs: starting
s6-rc: info: service fix-attrs successfully started
s6-rc: info: service legacy-cont-init: starting
s6-rc: info: service legacy-cont-init successfully started
s6-rc: info: service legacy-services: starting
s6-rc: info: service legacy-services successfully started
Starting Hass.io Access Point Addon

Setup interface:

Add to /etc/network/interfaces: iface wlp0s20f3 inet static
Run command: nmcli dev set wlp0s20f3 managed no
Run command: ip link set wlp0s20f3 down
Add to /etc/network/interfaces: address 192.168.99.1
Add to /etc/network/interfaces: netmask 255.255.255.0
Add to /etc/network/interfaces: broadcast 192.168.99.255
Run command: ip link set wlp0s20f3 up

Setup hostapd:

Add to hostapd.conf: ssid=Wifi HA
Add to hostapd.conf: wpa_passphrase=********
Add to hostapd.conf: channel=6
Add to hostapd.conf: ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
Add to hostapd.conf: macaddr_acl=0
Add to hostapd.conf: interface=wlp0s20f3

DHCP not enabled. Skipping dnsmasq

Starting hostapd daemon

rfkill: Cannot open RFKILL control device
wlp0s20f3: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED
wlp0s20f3: AP-ENABLED
wlp0s20f3: STA 7c:03:ab:e9:8c:2f IEEE 802.11: authenticated
wlp0s20f3: STA 7c:03:ab:e9:8c:2f IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 1)
wlp0s20f3: AP-STA-CONNECTED 7c:03:ab:e9:8c:2f
wlp0s20f3: STA 7c:03:ab:e9:8c:2f RADIUS: starting accounting session 2CD3868FAA2AD46C
wlp0s20f3: STA 7c:03:ab:e9:8c:2f WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
wlp0s20f3: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED 7c:03:ab:e9:8c:2f
wlp0s20f3: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED 7c:03:ab:e9:8c:2f

I think I might be having problems understanding what should I enter into the “address” field in configuration. Can you please advice? Thank you very much

EDIT: I have tried entering the address of the Intel NUC HA is running on (192.168.0.167) and also a random free IP from my network (192.168.0.111) - both led to losing access to the HA web interface, so probably wrong ideas…

PetervF · February 7, 2023, 12:26am

Still missing your configuration, please share the Hass.io Access Point yaml file.
Have you configured client_internet_access: 1 ?

I can connect to the wifi, but I cannot access internet.

So the above mentioned parameter shall solve your issue.

I think I might be having problems understanding what should I enter into the “address” field in configuration. Can you please advice?

192.168.99.1
See my post Add-on: Create a Wi-Fi access point with Hass.io Access Point - #30 by PetervF with an example of the config file. You have to change one client_internet_access: to 1.

And by the way creating an access point for a regular home wifi access via this add on is IMHO a bad idea. Any simple access point for a few bugs gives you more security as this add-on. You should rather not enable an access to internet on this add-on. But it is of course up to you!

zakarumit · February 7, 2023, 4:43pm

Thank you very much for responding. Yes, the mentioned parameter was the first thing I changed, it did not work. Here is the config right now:

ssid: Wifi HA
wpa_passphrase: ********
channel: “6”
address: 192.168.99.1
netmask: 255.255.255.0
broadcast: 192.168.99.255
interface: wlp0s20f3
hide_ssid: “0”
dhcp: “0”
dhcp_start_addr: 192.168.99.10
dhcp_end_addr: 192.168.99.20
allow_mac_addresses: []
deny_mac_addresses: []
debug: 0
hostapd_config_override: []
client_internet_access: 1
client_dns_override: []
dnsmasq_config_override: []
Any ideas?

PetervF · February 8, 2023, 11:13pm

I’ve just tried the config in my case and it does not work either.
Some weeks ago I moved my HA from RPI4 to intel PC some weeks ago. The plugin works out of the box, I just changed the name of the wlan interface. Never checked again if the internet connection works.
I will look into details once I find time for this Internet is available on the plugin docker, so the problem is in a routing from client over the docker.

zakarumit · February 10, 2023, 5:15pm

Oh, thank you very much for confirming. I almost believed I am completely useless in typing simple config Would be nice if you could make it work.

Giovanni-Sganga · February 16, 2023, 4:35pm

HI! @mattlongman

I’m having problems installing and starting this add-on, causing my Raspberry Pi 3B+ to completely freeze. Forcing me to force a restart. (If hass.io’s “start on power on” option is on, the only way to exit is to format completely and start over)

I’ve tried 8-9 times, all with completely clean installs and with just the text editor and terminal.
Every time:

I start the add-on
I also see the access point from my devices (even if I can’t get an IP, both with DHCP active and not)
The Home Assistant page completely loses connection and there is no way to restore it even after 1 hour of waiting (And “ping homeassistant.local” always “request timed out”)

From the terminal I tried to do ifconfig, but I don’t get any wlan0.
But if I go to Setting > Network > wlan0 > Wi-Fi > Search Access Point, it works fine and finds all available networks.

In “Configuration > address” I put the IP address reserved for my Raspberry. I believe this was meant in the github under “Config > Option > address (required): The address of your hass.io WiFi card/network”. If not, it could be one of the causes of the Raspberry disconnecting from my local network.

The problem is not attributable to the modem. Some time ago on my Raspberry with Raspian, thanks to RaspAP I had an Access Point (With and without DHCP) without any problem (which also uses the same protocols as this add-on, dnsmasq, dhcpcd, hostapd, etc…).

Could anyone help me?

pierrehenry · February 27, 2023, 9:27pm

In the end, the AP works with the internal wifi, and I can access HA with the external wifi. There is no bridge. But that doesn’t matter.
HA reads and writes to devices through both Wifi networks and I can read HA throught the external wifi…not a bridge but I see the state of the devices hooked to the other network.

fredclement91 · April 1, 2023, 7:43am

Hello !
Sorry if my question looks over stupid, but I am very new to Hass.
I could add the repo and can see the component, but …
I which file (where) do you set all these parameters ?

Thanks a lot,

Fred

PetervF · April 11, 2023, 12:37pm

If you managed to install this add-on, go to “Settings” on the left panel, then find “Hass.io Access Point” on the list of install add-ons, click it and here you go

mattlongman · April 14, 2023, 5:15pm

Hi @zakarumit - looking at your config, you have DHCP off. This might be deliberate but just wanted to confirm that you’re manually setting the IP on the connected device if not using DHCP. If you’re manually setting IP, you’ll also need to manually set DNS servers. Something like:

    "client_dns_override": ['1.1.1.1', '8.8.8.8']

If you didn’t mean to have DHCP off, try enabling it.

ernesttk · July 4, 2023, 7:43pm

Thanks Matt for your plugin. It seems to do the trick! I’ll be testing some more, if only because I have some 30 iop devices, each of which will need an IP adres. Hopefully my little box can handle the load.
I do have one error during startup which does not seem to prevent the AP from working, but maybe the error was seen by somebody else:
rfkill: Cannot open RFKILL control device
I do know what the rfkill dev is supposed to do, I was just wondering if this would become a problem later. Anybody ?

hypnotoadskin · August 6, 2023, 12:01pm

Hi Matt! Thank you so much for the plugin…this may be a dumb-dumb question, but is there a way to get the devices connected to Hassio communicate with the parent router? Basically, all my smart wifi devices don’t work with my cable router. Up until now, I had this big, ugly secondary router in ap mode broadcasting a separate 2.4 ghz network for these devices that I want to get rid of. I found your add-on, installed it. All the 2.4 ghz devices connect to the hassio wifi, but the home assistant itself doesn’t see them. What can I do to make them visible to the Home Assistant? Thank you again for such a cool app!

stav242 · September 6, 2023, 8:57pm

Hi, I have this installed on my hass.io Rpi4 broadcasting a local ap in my campervan. I then have a separate rpi3 setup with kiosk browser connecting over the ap WiFi to display the ha pages. It works well.

I would like to be able to setup a second WiFi connection , using a USB WiFi dongle on the rpi4, to bridge to my home network so I can do backups,updates etc.

Is there a way to run another instance of the addon to setup a second. Ap connection ?

lucaardito · September 7, 2023, 3:02pm

Hello everyone,

I have a Raspberry Pi 4 running Home Assistant OS with the following details:

Home Assistant: 2023.9.0
Supervisor: 2023.08.3
Operating System: 10.5
Frontend: 20230906.1 (latest)

I installed the plugin and configured it with the following settings:

ssid: HA
wpa_passphrase: *******
channel: "2"
address: 192.168.99.1
netmask: 255.255.255.0
broadcast: 192.168.99.254
interface: wlan0
internet_interface: eth0
allow_internet: true
dhcp_enable: true
dhcp_start: 192.168.99.100
dhcp_end: 192.168.99.200
dhcp_dns: 8.8.8.8
dhcp_subnet: 255.255.255.0
dhcp_router: 192.168.99.1
hide_ssid: false

With this configuration, I can connect a device, acquire an IP address via DHCP, and establish an internet connection for a few seconds. After that, the device can only ping 192.168.99.1, effectively remaining within the local network. Interestingly, from the HA terminal, I can ping the devices connected to the AP, but these devices can’t ping anything outside their local network. This leads me to suspect the issue is related to routing, although I can’t pinpoint the exact problem.

Here are some logs for reference:

s6-rc: info: service s6rc-oneshot-runner: starting
s6-rc: info: service s6rc-oneshot-runner successfully started
s6-rc: info: service fix-attrs: starting
s6-rc: info: service fix-attrs successfully started
s6-rc: info: service legacy-cont-init: starting
s6-rc: info: service legacy-cont-init successfully started
s6-rc: info: service legacy-services: starting
s6-rc: info: service legacy-services successfully started
Starting...
Set nmcli managed no
/run.sh: line 75: nmcli: command not found
Network interface set to wlan0
Deleting iptables
MASQUERADE  all opt -- in * out eth0  0.0.0.0/0  -> 0.0.0.0/0  
ACCEPT  all opt -- in eth0 out wlan0  0.0.0.0/0  -> 0.0.0.0/0   state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT  all opt -- in wlan0 out eth0  0.0.0.0/0  -> 0.0.0.0/0  
Configuring iptables for NAT
MASQUERADE  all opt -- in * out eth0  0.0.0.0/0  -> 0.0.0.0/0  
ACCEPT  all opt -- in eth0 out wlan0  0.0.0.0/0  -> 0.0.0.0/0   state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT  all opt -- in wlan0 out eth0  0.0.0.0/0  -> 0.0.0.0/0  
Setup hostapd ...
Setup interface ...
Resseting interfaces
ifdown: interface wlan0 not configured
Setup udhcpd ...
Starting DHCP server...
udhcpd: started, v1.36.1
udhcpd: can't open '/var/lib/udhcpd/udhcpd.leases': No such file or directory
Starting HostAP daemon ...
Interface stats:
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr E4:5F:01:E8:9B:B2  
          inet addr:192.168.99.1  Bcast:192.168.99.254  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:12072 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1100 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:1964094 (1.8 MiB)  TX bytes:620921 (606.3 KiB)
wlan0: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED
wlan0: AP-ENABLED 
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:88:57 IEEE 802.11: associated
wlan0: AP-STA-CONNECTED xx:xx:xx:xx:88:57
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:88:57 RADIUS: starting accounting session BAA60F09228B776D
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:88:57 WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
wlan0: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED xx:xx:xx:xx:88:57
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:71:47 IEEE 802.11: disassociated
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:71:47 IEEE 802.11: disassociated
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:71:47 IEEE 802.11: disassociated
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:71:47 IEEE 802.11: disassociated
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:a9:cb IEEE 802.11: associated
wlan0: AP-STA-CONNECTED 96:96:b4:ce:a9:cb
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:a9:cb RADIUS: starting accounting session 2A1A9B579D7D1B5E
wlan0: STA xx:xx:xx:xx:a9:cb WPA: pairwise key handshake completed (RSN)
wlan0: EAPOL-4WAY-HS-COMPLETED 96:96:b4:ce:a9:cb
udhcpd: sending OFFER to 192.168.99.192
udhcpd: sending OFFER to 192.168.99.192
udhcpd: sending OFFER to 192.168.99.106
udhcpd: sending ACK to 192.168.99.192
udhcpd: sending OFFER to 192.168.99.106
udhcpd: sending ACK to 192.168.99.192
udhcpd: sending ACK to 192.168.99.106

Do you have any ideas for solving this issue?

Megacayman8x · February 17, 2024, 9:27pm

thanks for the plugin / Addon but now i confirm the settings from the Plugin, i write the ip to gave at start from 199 and i confirme it but now i had the problem, i can found my HA.

Now i like to know, it´s right that i can use the cable rj45 LAN betwen the wlan from pi like a hotspot ? What i Had to write in ?

is the SSID of the Pi WLAN that is created for my Localtuya integrated  brightness sensor since the integration is on my main instance.

```
The WLAN key of the Pi WLAN.
```

 is the address of the Pi, right? In my case, http://192.168.0.4:8123

3-1 My subnet mask.

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 0 because DHCP is off, as my Fritzbox already provides the DHCP.

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 The IP of my Pi.
```

The last address assigned by the DHCP of the Fritzbox.

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Can anyone help me what i does wrong ? I don´t like to buy a little Accespoint for this, i think a Rebpsrry Pi Homeassistant Pi can do this Job together, to opened a wlan hotspot analog to the cable connection where the pi got the internetdata.

JordanM · May 23, 2024, 8:39pm

Hi everyone

I hope I can use this Addon to solve a little networking problem I have. My router has no mesh functionality and here in France it’s not possible to use a different one than the one provided by the internet provider. Or if, only with bad compromises.
Does the hotspot created by this Addon offer mesh functionality, so that I can connect e.g. a TP-Link OneMesh device in order to extend the network?
This would allow to have a stable connection all over the place while staying in one network even when connected to a different device.
Right now I can only create different access points with each hosting its own network, thus I’m not able to access my Home Assistant when not connected to the router’s network directly.

So, to break the question down; is mesh possible with this access point by standard and if not, is it even technically possible that this might become a feature one day?

I look forward to your replies

ttmetro · October 12, 2024, 12:23am

shouldn’t this be dhcp: true?

Mr_Fox · November 19, 2024, 4:21pm

Hi All, Thank you for this module.
Tonline2 where did you run this command?
I have a Raspberry Pi 5 running HA OS on a SSD
My RP is connected to my box (Freebox POP) via Ethernet and HA.AP use wlan0
I can connect with no problem to the WiFi and access to Internet (may remove the option later) but I cannot log into the Hass interface, so I cannot integrate to any devices
Here is my config

ssid: HA
wpa_passphrase: password
channel: 6
address: 192.168.99.1
netmask: 255.255.255.0
broadcast: 192.168.99.255
interface: wlan0
hide_ssid: false
dhcp: true
dhcp_start_addr: 192.168.99.10
dhcp_end_addr: 192.168.99.200
allow_mac_addresses: []
deny_mac_addresses: []
debug: 0
hostapd_config_override: []
client_internet_access: true
client_dns_override:
  - 1.1.1.1
dnsmasq_config_override: []

Is anyone have any clue how to connect to the interface with any of my devices?

Update: don’t know why but the problem solved by itself