I have a raspberry pi, and I would like to know if there is a distro that turns the raspberry pi into a WiFi router? The key feature I am looking for is flexibility, the router will be in an RV that is moved from place to place, at different location I will want to reprogram the router to operate in different modes.

For now, at it's main location, I want the router to act as WiFi to WiFi router using two USB WiFi adapters. At the secondary location I would like to connect a cable modem to the Pi's built-in Ethernet and use it similar to a normal WiFi router. When the router is moved to new locations I may wish to operate in modes that I have yet to consider.

If there are no distros specifically made for that purpose, is there software that I can add to an embedded Linux distro that will add a web/curses based interface for easy Linux-based router configuration.

It depends on the wifi chip (which I don't know in the different Pi models) whether managed mode is available. That said, most distros can act as a router, because they contain the requisite software or have it in repository.

Just looking at your requirements, it strikes me that you could probably configure all 3 interfaces (eth0, wlan0, & wlan1)and set routes for them. In location one, there'd be no cable in the eth0, but the wifi would both be working. Best to set this up from startup. In the other, the cable would go in for eth0, and a wifi nic would be idle. A simple script could automate changeover to location 2.

There are many howtos on configuring the Pi as a WiFi router but I'm not aware of any specific distribution or configuration interface. One caveat is the USB and ethernet ports share the same bus so as you consider different modes (maybe NAS, media server etc) be aware that the Pi may only work well doing only one thing at a time.

If you are only considering router modes then there are typicaly 6 types.
http://www.speedguide.net/faq/what-d...y-routerap-297

The Pi 3 is the only model with built in WiFi. But business_kid is correct that the adapter has to be capable of managed i.e AP mode.

I guess I was a bit vague in what I was talking about. Up until 2011, I used the DD-WRT software to controle my router. DD-WRT had an easy to use HTML user interface for adjusting the routing. I was wondering if there is a project that would bring that sort of interface into a role-your-own Linux base router.


I guess the terminology would be than in the main location, I want the Pi to act as an ap mode bridge, because the Pi will have it's own essid, encryption key and DHCP server independent from that of the ap router that the Pi connects to.


Thanks for your reminder about the USB adapter being capable of AP Mode. Thankfully the adapters I own are rt2800usb and they have that capability.


In the RV, I will spend the majority of time in rural and in/near small towns, so I do not expect I will have the fastest Internet available. I have grown accustom to WiFi-b speeds and will be happy to achieve those speeds even with a WiFi-n router. I have a wired LAN inside the RV to transfer files between my computers.

Excuse the silly question, but what are it's applications ?

If you are asking what can I do with a Pi then it is whatever your mind can envision. Robotics, home automation, media server etc, games, Amateur Radio, as a PC and so on...

https://www.raspberrypi.org/

It looks like there is a similar project called OpenWrt that supports Raspberry Pi. I will address my questions to there forum.

Thanks for the post back. I had looked at that a while back, and it seemed they didn't support the pi3. I have a spare one I might look at configuring.

I have an older model 1 B+ version that is supported. I'm not sure if the model 3 is supported, but sense the Pi uses SD cards, I think it would be a safe to try the software for model 2. If it did not work I would think there was little risk "bricking" your router.

If flexibility is the feature that you consider most important (more than ease of use), I think you can get a Pi1 or Pi2 way cheaper than any "advanced" router. (most sub $50 routers, have very limited features).

Haven't tried out the pi as a router yet. I"ll post my results here Is a learn more.

I have (er, had) a pi3 as a router-firewall using Arch and iptables. Goes in and out the single wifi interface - not the recommended way, but what I needed/decided to do on the LAN side of my ADSL router.
Have recently gone to our national (so-called) fibre based network, so I got a new router from the ISP. I pulled the pi out as there was so many reports of problems (nation-wide). Seems to have settled down (I had to get a router replacement), so might look at openWRT if/when I get bored. Gotta be a bit careful not to break Internet access, or I'll be in real strife (at home), and the ISP has no real idea.

Was actually just looking at this today, and apparently Alpine Linux ( https://alpinelinux.org/ and https://alpinelinux.org/about/ ) does support the Raspberry Pi as a WiFi Wireless Access Point. Specific instructions for this are at https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Ra...point_-AP_Mode and the general Alpine Linux documentation Wiki is at https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Main_Page

Yes, I fully realize this is going out much too late, but perhaps someone else will see this and take advantage of this late suggestion?