Connecting to RPi as an Access Point to set up regular wifi

[ayanez17]

In a lot of smart devices, you connect to that device as a wireless Access Point, once connected you can then set up and transfer you wifi credentials to it, which then allows you're smart device to connect to your home wifi.

Is it possible to do this with a Raspberry Pi?

[DougieLawson]

RaspiOS has a function where you can put your wpa_supplicant.conf file in /boot (which appears as E:\ on Windows) and at boot time it will move that to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf then restart WiFi networking.

So you create a file with Notepad++ like

Code: Select all

country=GB
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
        ssid="myNetworkSSIDhere"
        psk="myNetworkSecretPasswordHere"
}

That's a whole bunch easier that trying to do the Chromecast thing, "If I can't find an STA network - I start a AP network to collect credentials".

[ayanez17]

The issue is that if you're creating a consumer product you have to make it so that they can connect it to their own wifi, and if they change wifi credentials you have to have a system in place to allow them to change their credentials.