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If I try to set up a hotspot in GNOME, I get the following message:

If you have a connection to the Internet other than wireless, you can use it to share your internet connection with others.

Switching on the wireless hotspot will disconnect you from <network name>.

It is not possible to access the internet through your wireless while the hotspot is active.

What are the technical reasons why I can't set up an Hotspot and be connected to the Internet at the same time?

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it is very possible to use hotspot and browse the internet with the same wifi card at the same time (simultaneously).i have been using it for sometime now.ideapad 100s 141br with card intel dualband 3160,ubuntu.

the most simplest way i found was to use an app called create_ap in github. it works perfectly.

first you need these installed; util-linux, bash, procps or procps-ng, hostapd, iproute2, iw, iwconfig,haveged, dnsmasq, iptables.

install them with:

sudo apt install hostapd iproute2 iw haveged dnsmasq iptables procps bash util-linux

. if they are already installed the terminal would inform you, if not it downloads them automatically.

install the app from terminal:

git clone https://github.com/oblique/create_ap
cd create_ap
sudo make install

after it has installed successfully, i created hotspot first before connecting to internet. You can create a hotspot with :

sudo create_ap wlp2s0 wlp2s0 MyAccessPoint

an open AP , where wlp2s0 is my physical wireless card, MyAccessPoint is my hotspot name. The first wlp2s0 is where you want to supply with internet, and the second wlp2s0 is the card connected to the internet (in this case it is the same card). The command would be running it the terminal so tuck it into the launcher. You can stop the hotspot from terminal with ctrl+c

there is a readme in the installation dir home/create_ap check to out to find out the various hotspots you can create or simply type create_ap in terminal for help.

regards.

source https://github.com/oblique/create_ap

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  • This just worked almost copy+pasting from above, except for the adapter name on a CentOS 7 Lenovo laptop, that I wanted to use as range extender for a poor Wifi signal that was hard to lock on my iPad. (And as said the laptop can still use the wifi for normal internet navigation, there is no cabled network here where I am).
    – David Ramirez
    Commented Jun 1, 2017 at 5:20
  • I tried this, working like a charm. Thank you for sharing.
    – user268265
    Commented Dec 31, 2017 at 16:13
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  1. Uses the same antenna.
  2. Currently most software doesn't allow to be in client and AP mode at the same time.
  3. Wireless is a half-duplex protocol, except for some really new bleeding edge stuff. The radio can only transmit or receive at one time, it cannot do both at the same time.

Going with point 3, if any software was developed to allow both client and AP mode simultaneously the radio would first need to communicate like a client and then pass the data along as an AP. The latency would be undesirable, and the most likely cause that no one has made software to run both client and AP mode at the same time.

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    However if you had a second radio (WIFI card) you could do this no problem.
    – Tim
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 17:37
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    On that note, you can get a USB wifi adapter for less than $10. So go for it.
    – bahamat
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 17:52
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    But, when in hotspot mode, I can accept more than one incoming connection at the same time. What makes incoming connections different from outgoing connections? Also "the radio can only transmit or receive": I cannot understand that. From a very high-level view, I can download and upload a file at the same time.
    – user16538
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 18:18
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    From liveqos.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/…: A wired Ethernet network is full duplex, meaning a device can send and receive, or upload and download, simultaneously. WiFi is half duplex, so if a client is sending data to the AP, the AP can not also send data to the same or any other client at the same time. For two-way communication, which includes most applications people typically use over the Internet, such as video or voice chat, this essentially halves your throughput when compared to a full duplex technology, such as a wired Ethernet connection.
    – Tim
    Commented Jul 25, 2013 at 18:26
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    @bahamat "less than $10" $9.99. All right, all right...
    – wchargin
    Commented Aug 29, 2013 at 5:17

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