hostap without hostap

[Jouni Malinen]

On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 11:25:59AM +0100, capacity77 at tin.it wrote:

> it's some months I'm trying to study hostap and all its functionalities
> and now I've come to the idea that I have to start looking at the code.
> A friend of mine claims that hostap is just a union of some API from wireless-tools
>  and that maybe, due to a better documentation, it's easier to look at these
> tools rather than the hostap itself.

There seems to be some confusion on what is meant with "hostap" and
"API" here. Host AP driver is a Linux driver for Intersil Prism2/2.5/3
cards. API is normally used as a term to describe a programmatic
interface for something. Based on your questions, I would assume you are
not really after API description, but something more generic about Host
AP driver and/or hostapd.

> Does anybody think he is right? Is it true that for example i can make a
> Prism card work in master mode also with iwconfig wlan0 mode Master? 

I would not say that "hostap" (if that refers to the driver) is "union
of some API from wireless-tools". I don't understand what that would
even mean..

Yes, you can use Host AP driver in master mode as an AP without any
additional tools (e.g., hostapd), assuming you do not need security
features like WPA or IEEE 802.1X. hostapd can be used to add support for
these features.

You would probably get better answers by describing what you want to do
with some more details instead of asking for things like "explain
hostapd API" or "does anyone know <insert some term here>" without any
more information.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA