Raspberry Pi Multiple SSID's

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi, I'm working on creating a project for teenagers to create and set up their own router using Raspberry Pi 3B and OpenWRT.

All the routers that I have worked on allow for you to create multiple SSID's under the same radio.

I have an ASUS and Gl.iNet router. I can click "Scan" to connect to my smartphone hot spot.
I can create "Add" and create a new (multiple if I want) SSID AP.

However, with the Raspberry Pi, I can only have one. I can connect to my hotspot or I can create one AP. that's it. If I create two something weird happens. If I create two AP. One on N and the other on AC. When you update the field it automatically changes the other SSID's that you create to that new setting. Ex. If you set a radio to N 2.4 the other SSID you created on AC 5.2 changes automatically to N 2.4.

I searched the forum and found an old post from two years ago with someone writing that they don't think multiple SSID's are possible on the Raspberry. Is this true?
If so...can anyone recommends a USB wifi dongle that does allow for multiple SSID's on the Raspberry?

Thank you for your time and help with this problem!

P.s. I also tried on the Raspberry 4 and same problem.

2

If your decide has only one radio, the the AP must be in the same band and channel than the STA.

1 Like
3

There's definitely only one radio. It works on one band or the other but not both at the same time. I'm not sure how LuCI handles that, since it was written with the assumption of a true dual-band router.

If you look in /etc/config/wireless you'll see there's only one wifi-device defined. Changing the hwmode from 11g to 11a changes the band. In STA mode the driver will scan both bands looking for the AP regardless of how hwmode is set.

As for multiple functions on the same channel, I have a Pi 4B and see it can simultaneously run one AP and/or one STA but not two APs. I suspect the Pi 3B is similar. Run iw list and look at the valid interface combinations.

4

Yes, that definitely makes sense that the Rasp has one radio then only one band can be used.

I tried on Rasp 3 & 4 and can't figure out why it won't allow for multiple AP's even if their on the same radio band.