Arch Linux

kibblech

Member

Registered: 2018-09-08

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] IBSS Ad-hoc Network Issue

I have 2 machines.. I'm trying to set up an ad-hoc network between them.

I am trying to follow along in the wiki here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ad-hoc_networking

So far, I have been able to create an ad-hoc network on one machine. When I run

iw dev interface info

on the host it shows up just fine.

Additionlly, running

iw dev interface scan

on the client shows my ssid. However, on the client I am unable to actually connect to the network.

When I run

iw dev interface connect ssid freq

I get this message:

 command failed: Operation not supported (-95)

I made sure to stop netctl before trying this. Does anyone have a good resource on configuring an ad-hoc network in arch?

For the record, I did ensure that my card does in fact support ibss:

	Supported interface modes:
		 * IBSS
		 * managed
		 * AP
		 * AP/VLAN
		 * monitor
		 * mesh point

Last edited by kibblech (2018-09-21 03:43:03)

kibblech

Member

Registered: 2018-09-08

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] IBSS Ad-hoc Network Issue

For what it's worth, I seem to have fixed that issue by following the advice in this post:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=174221

Specifically, add these two lines to the netctl profile that is auto generated by wifi-menu

AdHoc=yes
WPADriver=wext

A little more background--
I have a media server that I was looking to share locally (and wirelessly) in scenarios where I may or may not have a router or wifi
So, the fist goal was to share files through ssh / ftp

Then, after that was working the second goal was to funnel the internet from host --> client. I have a ralink network adapter for the host in addition to its internal card. I am connected to the internet through the ralink adapter and the adhoc through the internal card. In my notes, I call the ralink adapter eth1 and the internal card eth0

At any rate.. here are the notes that I wrote for myself on how to do this:

#---------------------------------
# server 1st:
#---------------------------------

    iw eth0 set type ibss
    ip link set eth0 up

    iw eth0 ibss join testnet 2412
    ip addr add dev eth0 192.168.100.1/24

    #---------------------------------
    # testnet should now appear on other devices as a network
    #---------------------------------

    #---------------------------------
    # i'm really not sure this is necessary.. 
    # i was just using static ip's so probs not
    #---------------------------------
    cat /etc/dhcpd.conf
    >>> option domain-name "supernet.example";
    >>> option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;

    >>> default-lease-time 600;
    >>> max-lease-time 7200;

    >>> authoritative;
    >>> log-facility local7;

    >>> subnet 192.168.100.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    >>> range 192.168.100.10 192.168.100.20;
    >>> option routers 192.168.100.1;
    >>> }

    #---------------------------------

    systemctl start dhcpd4

    #---------------------------------


    
#---------------------------------
# now client:
#---------------------------------

    # this will fail, keep the profile
    sudo wifi-menu

    # edit the profile to make it like this
    cat /etc/netctl/testnet
    >>> Description='Automatically generated profile by wifi-menu'
    >>> Interface=eth0
    >>> Connection=wireless
    >>> Security=none
    >>> ESSID=testnet
    >>> IP=static
    >>> Address=('192.168.100.2/24')
    >>> Gateway=('192.168.100.1')
    >>> DNS=('192.168.100.1')
    >>> AdHoc=yes
    >>> WPADriver=wext


#---------------------------------
# now test from client side:
#---------------------------------
ping 192.168.100.1
ssh !$

#---------------------------------
# server side one more time to forward things 
# this assumes that you have eth1 connected to the internet 
# and eth0 connected to adhoc
#---------------------------------
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -A FORWARD -m conntrack --ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT

Last edited by kibblech (2018-09-21 03:41:07)