Introduction

Recently, I bought an Edimax Wifi Dongle and used it on my Raspberry Pi. It selected Edimax because it is 100% compatible with Raspberry Pi, and can works out of the box. Moreover, it is cheap, and it can be used as a WiFi Receiver and an Access Point to share out WiFi. The features of Edimax are as below:

• It supports 150 MBPS speed at an 802.11n wireless data rate, which is the latest wireless standard. It provides the fastest range and widest coverage area.
• The Raspberry Pi Wifi dongle also supports Wifi Multimedia (WMM)  standard, which allows better streaming of real-time data.
• It has a multi-language EZmax setup wizard
• Nano size design helps you to connect it with any USB port without  blocking other USB ports
• Supports Windows 10
• Ideal wifi adapter for Raspberry P

In the following, I will talk about how to set it up as a WiFi receiver and Access Point.

Setup Edimax as WiFi Receiver

Step 1. Connect the Edimax to USB port

Step 2. Edit the /etc/network/interfaces files as below:

# Please note that this file is written to be used with dhcpcd
# For static IP, consult /etc/dhcpcd.conf and ‘man dhcpcd.conf’

# Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet manual
    wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Step 2. Edit the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf files to add the SSID and its passphrase as below:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
        ssid=”SSID Name”
        psk=”SSID Passphrase”
}

Bonus:

If you do not familiar with editor to edit wpa_supplicant.conf file, you can setup SSID via “wpa-cli” command as below:

Setup SSID command:

$ ifup -force wlan0
$ wpa_cli
> scan
> scan_result
> add_network
0
> set_network 0 ssid “SSID Name”
> set_network 0 psk “SSID Passphrase”
> enable_network 0
> save_config
> quit
$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Monitor command:

$ lsusb
$ lsmod
$ ifconfig
$iwconfig

Setup Edimax WiFi as Access Point

Now, we share our network card internet and share the internet via Edimax WiFi dongle with bridge mode as below:

Step 1. Install the following packages.

sudo apt-get install bridge-utils hostapd

Step 2. Download the installed binary version of hostapd with the following commands:

wget https://infotechmanagefactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/hostapd.zip

unzip hostapd.zip

sudo mv /usr/sbin/hostapd /usr/sbin/hostapd.bak

sudo mv hostapd /usr/sbin/hostapd.edimax

sudo ln -sf /usr/sbin/hostapd.edimax /usr/sbin/hostapd

sudo chown root.root /usr/sbin/hostapd

sudo chmod 755 /usr/sbin/hostapd

Step 3. Bridge the Network Connection – to edit interfaces file as below:

$ sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

# interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)

# Please note that this file is written to be used with dhcpcd
# For static IP, consult /etc/dhcpcd.conf and ‘man dhcpcd.conf’

# Include files from /etc/network/interfaces.d:
source-directory /etc/network/interfaces.d

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

allow-hotplug eth0

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

#bridge
auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0 wlan0

Step 4. Configure Hostapd by creating the hostapd.conf file as below:

sudo nano /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

interface=wlan0
driver=rtl871xdrv
bridge=br0
ssid=YourSsidHere
channel=1
wmm_enabled=0
wpa=1
wpa_passphrase=YourPassPhraseHere
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP
auth_algs=1
macaddr_acl=0

Step 5. Test the Hostapd

$ sudo reboot

$ sudo hostapd -dd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf

Now, you should be able to search its SSID via another WiFi device, and test to connect it. Good Luck !

Pls consider to buy Edimax WiFi Adaptor from Amazon as below link: