Arch Linux

the

Member

Registered: 2016-05-31

Posts: 8

Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?

I have spent several hours searching for information about how to setup an access point with hostapd with "hw_mode=a" to be able to use 5GHz frequencies.

All that I can say for sure is that
1) if you have a Qualcomm Atheros chip which supports 802.11ac and run with one of the following drivers (ath5k, ath9k, ath10k) you can use 5GHz frequencies
2) Intel does not give a... Intel does not provide chips/drivers that allow you to use 5GHz frequencies as access point (everything is fine if you use them as clients)

Getting your hands on devices with Qualcomm Atheros chips seems to be difficult to nearly impossible in Europe.

I found little information about using hostapd with realtek chips/drivers and using 5GHz frequencies. One or two success stories and quite a few bug reports, but most devices you can get in Europe seem to use realtek chips.

So long story short (tl;dr):

Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?
How can you find out before you buy a device?
Has anyone experience with realtek chips with 802.11ac, preferable with pci express mini cards (half sized) or usb devices?

I thought maybe someone here has more experience or information about which chips/drivers/devices work with hostapd with 5GHz frequencies.

ectospasm

Member

Registered: 2015-08-28

Posts: 273

Re: Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?

Here's the official documentation:  if you have a Wifi chipset/card which is supported by the Host AP, madwifi, mac80211-based drivers, then you can use it with hostapd.  I found this link as the sole reference on Gentoo's hostapd page:

https://w1.fi/hostapd/

They have a list of drivers about halfway down the page.

edacval

Member

From: .LT

Registered: 2008-10-23

Posts: 91

Re: Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?

Getting your hands on devices with Qualcomm Atheros chips seems to be difficult to nearly impossible in Europe.

Oh, really? TL-WDN3800 and TL-WDN4800  by TP-LINK can be found in every second online EU shop, both works as AP perfectly.

Has anyone experience with realtek chips with 802.11ac, preferable with pci express mini cards (half sized) or usb devices?

Have. Forget this buggy shit.

Last edited by edacval (2016-06-01 08:56:29)

the

Member

Registered: 2016-05-31

Posts: 8

Re: Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?

Here's the official documentation:  if you have a Wifi chipset/card which is supported by the Host AP, madwifi, mac80211-based drivers, then you can use it with hostapd.  I found this link as the sole reference on Gentoo's hostapd page:

https://w1.fi/hostapd/

They have a list of drivers about halfway down the page.

This does not automatically mean that 802.11ac is also supported in AP mode. See Intel for example. AP only works with 2.4GHz frequencies

Oh, really? TL-WDN3800 and TL-WDN4800  by TP-LINK can be found in every second online EU shop, both works as AP perfectly.

Neither supports 802.11ac

edacval

Member

From: .LT

Registered: 2008-10-23

Posts: 91

Re: Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?

Neither supports 802.11ac

LOL

the

Member

Registered: 2016-05-31

Posts: 8

Re: Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?

Neither supports 802.11ac

LOL

Thank you for your elaborate answer. I'm aware of the fact that a joke is not funny anymore if you have to explain it, but maybe you could share your wisdom with other people.

the

Member

Registered: 2016-05-31

Posts: 8

Re: Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?

As I never got a proper response I decided to risk it and buy an Edimax EW-7822UAC usb 3.0 wifi adapter with 802.11ac as the only positive report, except about Atheros chips, was about this one: http://home.icequake.net/~nemesis/blog/ … ent-page-1

It uses the rtl8812au driver provided here: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rtl8 … -dkms-git/

AP mode with hw_mode=a works without problems in hostapd, if the country code is set (iw reg set US; or whatever country you live in)
The only thing that does not work is letting hostapd scan for a free channel. Setting the channel manually works fine.

Last edited by the (2016-07-27 21:17:34)

jabol240

Member

From: Gdansk, Poland

Registered: 2011-02-18

Posts: 19

Re: Which chips/drivers support 802.11ac (5GHz) in hostapd?

Hi and thanks for this

Here I'm using TP-Link Archer T4U (1200Mb/s a/b/g/n/ac DualBand) - USB 3.0 wifi card - using the same rtl8812au_rtl8821au-dkms-git driver from AUR.

It also works okay in hostapd. No need for country code. Wifi mode ac. Only issue - the channel needs to be set manually.

My /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf goes:

ssid=Abc
wpa_passphrase=qwertyuiop
driver=nl80211
auth_algs=1                    # 1=wpa
wpa=2                                # wpa2 only
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP
hw_mode=a
interface=wlp0s20u2

## channel=0 or channel=acs_survey to pick a channel automatically
## for n pick 1 11
## for ac pick 36 40 44 48
channel=48

ieee80211ac=1                # 802.11ac support
# ieee80211n=1                # 802.11n support