3.2 Configuring a Hostapd Server

Perform the following steps to configure the hostapd server:

  1. Download hostapd from https://w1.fi/releases/hostapd-2.6.tar.gz and copy it to an Ubuntu machine.
  2. Create a .config file enabling hostapd as a RADIUS server. See Appendix B - Hostapd Example .config File for an example configuration file.
  3. Untar the file and navigate to the hostapd-2.6/hostapd directory in the terminal window.
  4. Build the binaries using the make command.
  5. Enter the make install command to copy the hostapd binary to the /user/local/bin/ path.
  6. Generate the certificates (see Generating Certificates using openssl).
  7. Add the following to configure or create AP details in the file hostapd.radius_clients (the password must be the same as the shared key password in point 4).
    # RADIUS client configuration for the RADIUS server
0.0.0.0/0      123456789
  8. Create an eap user file (see Appendix C - Configuring EAP User File).
  9. Create a hostapd.conf file, using the above eap user file as shown below.
    # Run hostapd as a RADIUS server
radius_server_clients=hostapd.radius_clients
radius_server_auth_port=1812

eap_server=1
# For EAP user file see section 5.3
eap_user_file=hostapd.eap_user

# TLS parameters (shared by EAP-PEAP, EAP-TTLS, EAP-FAST)
ca_cert=cas.cert
# Server certificate and private key from separate files
server_cert=server.crt
private_key=server.key
  10. Run hostapd using the sudo ./hostapd -dkt -i eno1 hostapd.conf command.