hostapd and wpa_supplicant for AP

[Jouni Malinen]

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 12:15:48PM +0800, Huijun Gan wrote:
> Up to now, from the point of my view, the main difference between
> hostapd and wpa_supplicant when play AP role, is that hostapd support
> 802.1X authenticator, while wpa_supplicant could only support PSK mode
> as authenticator. Do I miss something on the difference? We'll decide
> to select which one to control our AP based on your information.

The main difference here is indeed in wpa_supplicant AP mode supporting
only a subset of configuration parameters. It is mainly meant for "soft
AP" style configurations with either open network or WPA/WPA2-Personal
configuration with WPS.

> Besides, after 0.8.x version the wpa_supplicant could play the role of
> AP, so kindly to ask if there is some plan to combine hostapd and
> wpa_suppliant into one excutable binary?

Yes, this is the most likely direction for hostapd/wpa_supplicant. I
would like to see a single build configuration that can be used to
select whatever functionality you need for both AP and station side and
then get a single binary that provides the selected functionality.
 
-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA