In today's digital age, WiFi connectivity is an essential part of our lives. If you have areas in your home or office with insufficient WiFi coverage, you can utilize a Raspberry Pi to extend the range of your network. This article will guide you through the process of setting up a Raspberry Pi as a WiFi repeater.

Requirements

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Raspberry Pi (model 3B or newer) with Raspbian or another compatible operating system
• Power adapter for Raspberry Pi
• MicroSD card with the operating system installed
• WiFi dongle (if your Raspberry Pi doesn't have built-in WiFi)
• Access to your internet router
• Ethernet cable (for initial setup)

Step 1: Basic Setup of Raspberry Pi

Start by connecting the Raspberry Pi to a monitor, keyboard, and power source. If you're using a Raspberry Pi without built-in WiFi, plug in the WiFi dongle to a USB port. Install the Raspbian operating system using the Raspberry Pi Imager and boot up the Raspberry Pi.

Step 2: Installing and Configuring hostapd and dnsmasq

Open the terminal and run the following commands to update your system and install necessary packages:

 

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install hostapd dnsmasq

After installation, stop the hostapd and dnsmasq services as you'll be configuring them:

sudo systemctl stop hostapd
sudo systemctl stop dnsmasq

Step 3: Setting Up a Static IP Address

Edit the /etc/dhcpcd.conf file and add the following configuration at the end:

 

interface wlan0
    static ip_address=192.168.220.1/24
    nohook wpa_supplicant

This will set a static IP address for the WiFi interface wlan0 of the Raspberry Pi.

Step 4: Configuring hostapd to Create a WiFi Network

Create a new configuration file for hostapd:

sudo nano /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

and insert the following configuration, adjusting ssid and wpa_passphrase according to your preferences:

interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
ssid=MojeWiFi
hw_mode=g
channel=7
wmm_enabled=0
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=MojeHeslo
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP

Modify the /etc/default/hostapd file to add the path to your configuration file:

DAEMON_CONF="/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf"

Step 5: Configuring dnsmasq as a DHCP Server

Edit the /etc/dnsmasq.conf file and add the following lines to configure the DHCP range:

interface=wlan0
dhcp-range=192.168.220.2,192.168.220.20,255.255.255.0,24h

Step 6: Enabling Internet Routing

Edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and uncomment the following line:

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Then, run the following commands to set up NAT using iptables:

sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
sudo sh -c "iptables-save > /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat"

Add the following line to the /etc/rc.local file before exit 0 to ensure the NAT rule is restored on every boot:

iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat

Step 7: Restart and Testing

Restart the Raspberry Pi:

sudo reboot

After rebooting, the Raspberry Pi should be broadcasting a WiFi network according to your configuration. Connect to this network from another device and verify that you have internet access.

By following these steps, you have successfully set up a Raspberry Pi as a WiFi repeater. Your Raspberry Pi is now extending the range of your home or office network.