Running a Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi Bridge
by SuitableBat9 in Circuits > Raspberry Pi
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Running a Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi Bridge
A Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi bridge is one of the best ways of providing internet access to a device that only supports an Ethernet connection.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to setup a Wi-Fi bridge using network manager on your Raspberry Pi. Network Manager is a useful tool that makes managing connections a straightforward process.
You will need to keep in mind that you will not see speeds as good as what you would with a direct connection to your router. As there is some overhead with the connection having to run through the Raspberry Pi.
This bridge allows you to easily share your Wi-Fi connection with any connected ethernet device. Thanks to Network Manager, this whole process is made relatively easy.
Supplies
Remember to do this tutorial you will need either a Wi-Fi dongle or a Raspberry Pi 3 with the inbuilt Wi-Fi module.
Wi-Fi ( Amazon | SunFounder )
Preparing Your Raspberry Pi
Before setting your Raspberry Pi to act as a Wi-Fi bridge, we will want to ensure that the operating system is up-to-date.
You can update the package list and upgrade any out-of-date packages by running the following commands.
Finding Your Ethernet Device Name
Once you have a Wi-Fi connection set up on your Raspberry Pi, we will need to get the name of your ethernet adapter.
Typically, the Ethernet device is called “eth0” but this isn’t always the case. Luckily, we can double-check by using the “ifconfig” command.
You will get a list of devices like we have shown below using this command. Look for your ethernet connection, then continue. In our example, this Ethernet device has the name “eth0” as expected.
Creating the Wi-Fi to Ethernet Bridge on Your Raspberry Pi
Once you know the name of your Raspberry Pi’s ethernet device you can continue with setting up a Wi-Fi bridge. Thanks to use using the Network Manager, creating the Wi-Fi bridge is as simple as using the following command within the terminal.
- <INTERFACE>: You must replace this with the device name for your ethernet connection. Typically, this will be “eth0“.
Once you have created the new connection, you must turn it on by using the following command in the terminal.
After enabling this bridge, your Raspberry Pi’s Wi-Fi will immediately begin to be shared through the ethernet connection. If you have a device connected, you should now have access to the internet. The device will also have a local IP address handed to it by the Pi.
You can check that the Wi-Fi bridge is active from your Pi by using the following command.
This command will show you a list of connections on your Pi. You should see a connection labeled “wifibridge” and that it is using the “eth0” device.