HostAP is one of the most popular IEEE 802.11

IEEE 802.11

IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards for implementing wireless local area network computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHz frequency bands. They are created and maintained by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee . The base version of the standard IEEE 802.11-2007 has had subsequent...

 device driver

Device driver

In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....

s for Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

. It works with cards using the Conexant

Conexant

Conexant Systems, Inc. is an American semiconductor company, formerly the semiconductor division of Rockwell International. Currently it's privately owned by Golden Gate Capital, an equity firm headquartered in San Francisco.-History:...

 (formerly Intersil

Intersil

Intersil Corporation is an American company that specializes in the design, development and manufacturing of high-performance analog semiconductors for four high-growth markets — Communications, Computing, High End Consumer and Industrial.-Company history:...

) Prism

PRISM (chipset)

PRISM wireless networking solutions are a family of Conexant chipsets used for Wireless LANs, and were formerly produced by Intersil Corporation.- Legacy 802.11b products :...

 2/2.5/3 chipset and support Host AP mode, which allows a WLAN

Wireless LAN

A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...

 card to perform all the functions of a wireless access point

Wireless access point

In computer networking, a wireless access point is a device that allows wireless devices to connect to a wired network using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or related standards...

.

The driver code was written by Jouni Malinen, hired by Atheros

Atheros

Qualcomm Atheros is a developer of semiconductors for network communications, particularly wireless chipsets. Founded under the name Atheros in 1998 by experts in signal processing from Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley and the private industry, it became a public company...

 in 2008, and was included into the main kernel tree in Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 2.6.14

See also

• Hostapd
  Hostapd
  hostapd is a user space daemon. There are three: Jouni Malinen's hostapd, OpenBSD's hostapd and Devicescape's hostapd.- Jouni Malinen's hostapd :Jouni Malinen's hostapd is a user space daemon for access point and authentication servers...
  
  
• wpa supplicant
  Wpa supplicant
  wpa_supplicant is a free software implementation of an IEEE 802.11i supplicant for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD and Microsoft Windows. In addition to being a full-featured WPA2 supplicant, it also implements WPA and older wireless LAN security protocols...
  
  
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG AP Driver for Linux, an open source 802.11 b/g access point driver for the ipw2200 and ipw2915