How to make a wifi device to connect to a internet enabled Router and also acting itself as a hotspot?

Question

I am trying to create a wireless network+ hotspot in raspberry pi 2(RPi) using Edimax EW-7811Un wifi dongle. The RPi should be able to broadcast its IP-address so that clients can connect and it should also get connected to a router.

Tried 2 ways so far,

1. I have created a hotspot in RPi and the clients was able to connect to it but the I dont know whether I can connect to the Router without closing the hotspot.

2. I was able to connect to router but the clients cant connect to Rpi directly since RPi is not in AP mode.

On typing iw command, my wifi dongle supports the following modes,

IBSS Managed AP Monitor P2P - GO P2P - Client

Is there any way to make RPi both as an Access-point as well as connected to router(Managed mode).?

Answer 1

Generally, you can't. If you do want it, you will need the right hardware for the job. Specifically, you'll want an adapter that supports virtual interfaces.

Unfortunately, your adapter does not support that feature. I know some Atheros adapters do. My TP-Link WN-722N supports that.

After you acquire the hardware, simply sprinkle some iw command sorcery to create a client and an AP interface, add some routing/NAT rules (i.e. iptables/route) and you'll be good to go.