Could those idle WiFi modules in my ProxMox nodes serve as Access Points?

[pepsov]

Here is the scenario:

I run my ProxMox cluster on a bunch of DELL OptiPlex Micro's, which come with WiFi PCIe cards, and even antennae. Those WiFi cards are currently useless to me (the cluster nodes are connected via Ethernet).

My thinking was this: If I could somehow turn those WiFi modules into Access Points, then distribute the Ethernet-connected ProxMox nodes around the house, I could potentially increase my WiFi coverage, specifically in places like garage and basement, without the need for installing actual APs.

I played a bit with hostapd and got to turn the WiFi on in one of the nodes - as a test - adding it to the vmbr0 on the node, but then ran into the problem that clients (phone, laptop) connecting to this AP could not get their IP address/config from my main router/DHCP-server, so they could never connect to the Internet through this AP. I guess it's not that simple after all...

Before I turn to more complicated solutions, like passing through the PCIe devices to VMs running DD-WRT or OpenWRT, I wanted to check if someone in the community did not come up with a nice lean answer to this one question.

 

[Pifouney]

enabling an wifi AP isn't hard to do.
But, you need to enable on one DHCP server, if you want to automaticaly have an IP.
Because, the easyest way isn't to bridge the wifi AP to your ethernet connexion, you want to enable a firewall fonctionnality => keyword MASQUERADE

Then, your AP wanna work. Without theses steps, you've just created an isolated wifi running only with manual adressing.

 

[pepsov]

enabling an wifi AP isn't hard to do.
But, you need to enable on one DHCP server, if you want to automaticaly have an IP.
Because, the easyest way isn't to bridge the wifi AP to your ethernet connexion, you want to enable a firewall fonctionnality => keyword MASQUERADE

Then, your AP wanna work. Without theses steps, you've just created an isolated wifi running only with manual adressing.

Thank you for the feedback, Pifouney!
If you have done something similar - can you share your procedures?

Also - can you elaborate on why bridging the WiFi card to the Ethernet connection of the node (basically, adding the wlan0 interface to the vmbr0 bridge) is NOT the easiest way? Given that I already have a DHCP server in my home network (the main WiFi router which brings me the internet connection from my ISP has it enabled and configurable). Someone on this forum (@intrax) once mentioned using proxyarp for this purpose, but it wasn't clear how exactly.

 

[Pifouney]

Thank you for the feedback, Pifouney!
If you have done something similar - can you share your procedures?

Also - can you elaborate on why bridging the WiFi card to the Ethernet connection of the node (basically, adding the wlan0 interface to the vmbr0 bridge) is NOT the easiest way? Given that I already have a DHCP server in my home network (the main WiFi router which brings me the internet connection from my ISP has it enabled and configurable). Someone on this forum (@intrax) once mentioned using proxyarp for this purpose, but it wasn't clear how exactly.

i've done that a lonnnnng time ago, i just remember that was simple like that But no more configuration archive of that

 

[Pifouney]

Thank you for the feedback, Pifouney!
If you have done something similar - can you share your procedures?

Also - can you elaborate on why bridging the WiFi card to the Ethernet connection of the node (basically, adding the wlan0 interface to the vmbr0 bridge) is NOT the easiest way? Given that I already have a DHCP server in my home network (the main WiFi router which brings me the internet connection from my ISP has it enabled and configurable). Someone on this forum (@intrax) once mentioned using proxyarp for this purpose, but it wasn't clear how exactly.

if you wanna bridge, you gonna make many cli configuration in your network file, that i've never played with ^^