N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

Hello all,
I would like to know if it is possible to make the N900 a WiFi / WiFi HotSpot.
I read a lot of posts about this feature request but none from what I read offers a reliable / doable solution for this (I might skipped unintentinally some posts so please, if you find relevant information on this, feel free to contribute, and link to those posts if you feel to do so). I felt the need of specifying this because I don't want to write Yet Another Post About This as there are quite a few about it. Now my problem:

I'll divide this post on several parts for the ease of reading:

1) Motivation:
- PROS: Sometimes, I need to connect all my gadgets (smartphone, tablet etc) to the Internet. I wish to do that through the N900 WiFi connection, because I don't want every time to setup each of my gagets individually for every new WiFi connection I find with: SSID, username, passwords etc.
Instead, I setup only one WiFi connection on each of the gadgets, that would be N900, and on N900 I setup only one current WiFi, and voila! I will allways have on my gadgets the N900 connection which allows all my gadgets to get internet through N900.
-CONS: A lot of power drained from the N900 (that's still doable with an Y cable and a charger). I don't mind about power drain, If it holds for a few hours while I finish the urgent need to Internet Connection, that's fine.

2) Requirements:
- What do I need in order to do this? Which packages, which kernel, what hardware: what cables, which USB stick (and drivers) should I purchase to be supported by power user 51 kernel (as that is the kernel I'm in right now).

3) Implementation:
- What exactly has to be done to achieve this, and then, how can it be narrowed down to a script or even a standalone app for others to use at ease.

4) Mentions:
- I'll update this post along with the new info that comes in, to reflect all that needs to be done to achieve a N900 WiFi / WiFi HotSpot.

5) Useful related posts:
- Qt Mobile Hotspot
- N900 USB router

Thanks in advance to contributors.

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

You only need to install MobileHotSpot (NOT QTMobileHotspot).

http://maemo.org/packages/view/mobilehotspot/

Obviously you only provide ad-hoc WLAN, but that's OK at least for most computers and iPad (I once saved a colleague's iPad with this). Android is known for not supporting (properly/always?) ad-hoc, but I have absolutely zero experience with Android.

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

I use Mobile hotspot all the time but only my laptop will connect. My nexus s and raspberry pi won't but all will connect through the nexus s as a hotspot. I don't know enough to offer an explanation for this.

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

king Ralphred,

Thats because those devices unable to connect don't support connecting to Ad-Hoc WiFi networks out of the box. The nexus S OTOH shares a hotspot via infrastructure mode not Ad-Hoc hence its visible to all devices. For the nexus S to connect to the N900's hotspot there is a tweak on xda that enables Ad-Hoc connectivity. For the Pi I'm not too sure as unfortunately I haven't got my hands on one yet...

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

There is a commercial option that I use that allows both ad-hoc and AP hosting: JoikuSpot, You should be able to still purchase it from the vendor directly (~$12), as they have their own repository.

It sometimes takes a whack to get it working (eg manually loading the joikuspot_bouncer module), depending on the kernel you install. But overall, I've found it to be quite reliable and trouble free. The dozen or so times I've used it, it's been click and connect.

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

Are you sure?
I always had trouble to get MobileHotSpot up and running.
With QT MHS it was much eeasier (the one or two times I needed it).

Mee too! ;)
And you are right about Android not supporting ad-hoc (tested with Symbian device).

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

I've never tried QTMHS but MHS has always -- although I've only used it 4 or 5 times -- worked as expected (it requires kernel-power, but I guess QTMHS does as well).

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

I would also recommand QT Mobile Hotspot, it is the only solution i found which is working fine on my N900.
I was never able to make the normal Mobile Hostpot to run.

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

Thanks reinob and all others. My problem so far is to get a WiFi USB stick to be recognized by N900 when I connect it through microUSB port. I've tried with a Hercules WiFi but unsuccesfull so far, it's not recognized by H-E-N. Should I try another software?

Any reccomendations on which type/model should I purchase in order to have the drivers included?

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

Que?

What are you trying to say? You want to get a USB WiFi stick to work with Maemo? I would not believe this is supported, even by power kernel. But this is out of my knowledge. Someone else ???

And if so, for what reason?

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

The only reason I can think of is that by using an external WLAN card he might be able to set-up the hotspot in Infrastructure mode (i.e. not ad-hoc).

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

Yeah.
After re-reading OP
it is obvious ;) Sorry.

Nevertheless I still doubt a WiFi USB stick will be supported, but may be totally wrong.
Second thing I think of is package iptable or 'simple' routing/natting?

Sounds challenging! Have fun ...

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

I turned a BeagleBoard into a wifi access point in the past. I needed a Usb stick that had drivers supported by hostapd. http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Documentation/hostapd

I found some old 3com USB sticks on ebay that used the prism driver. You would likely need to compile hostapd and use that.
http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/p54

I have not used H-E-N but I would try hostapd if I were you. What does dmesg say when you insert your usb stick?

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

Hi. I am very interested in this possibility.

I have a notebook here that is serving as a proxy in combination with a Wifi router. The notebook has Internet access from a primary router and is connected to a secondary Wifi router via Ethernet. The secondary Wifi router then serves several other devices over Wifi, with proxy benefits.

I am not very happy with this, I've been thinking about getting an old computer and turn it into the proxy, so the notebook is relieved. All I need is iptables and Privoxy, so the computer can be very basic and cheap.

But then I remembered my old Nokia N900 is sitting in a drawer, not being used... And it runs Linux... I wonder if it is possible to put it in place of the notebook to be the proxy. Maybe it is possible. I just need it to get Wifi signal from the primary router and share it with the secondary Wifi router through... Ethernet.

Now there comes the problem. The N900 doesn't have any Ethernet port. I thought that maybe I could use an Ethernet/USB adapter, which may possibly work or not, but even if it does, my biggest concern is that I would need the USB port for two things: the Ethernet adapter and powering the N900! I don't want it to run on battery, I want it to be always plugged to the mains.

So what do you think? Any solution to this conundrum?

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

Well, I just got an USB/Ethernet adaptor and it didn't work. The N900 doesn't even acknowledge its existence with lsusb or ifconfig. I guess it isn't possible. Bummer.

Re: N900 into WiFi / WiFi HotSpot
 

Why the n900 only theaters in ad hoc mode??
Reason:)