Linux: Share Wireless Connection Through the same Wireless Interface [duplicate]

Solution 1:

Hostapd allows management of a wireless card in AP mode, but then its normal usage requires forwarding the connection to a different IF, which is what the Arch Linux article is all about. Instead, the question was whether an AP could be set up with a single IF, acting simultaneously in AP mode (the virtual IF managed by hostapd) and in station mode (i.e., as a client to an existing access point). All cards I know prevent use of the card in station mode, if there is a virtual IF in AP mode. Which is why I am interested in an answer to the very same question.

A guy here claims to have accomplished this with a Ralink RT2790 driven by rt2800pci, which however is not found on usb devices. This site claims instead to have accomplished this with wifi onboard cards driven by ath5k/ath9k. Since ath9_htc is the usb counterpart of the onboard ath9k driver, it may be conjectured that all devices driven by this module support this configuration. The list of these devices can be found on Linux Wireless.

Once again, I am not sure, I am going to try out this solution myself.