Using a Raspberry Pi as a Home Router

Faizudeen Kajogbola — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 14:59:32 +0000

This article walks you through how to use your Raspberry Pi (RPi) as a home router.

The central problem being solved is:

How to use a RPi’s wireless interface as a Wi‑Fi access point that is connected to the Internet via the RPi’s Ethernet port.

The solution relies heavily on NetworkManager’s shared connection mode.

Assumptions

Your RPi:

Is running Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian Bookworm (or later)
Has a working Internet connection via its Ethernet port
Manages network connections using NetworkManager

Steps

1. Verify that `eth0` is correctly configured

Run:

sudo nmcli device

Confirm that device eth0 is in the connected state.

2. Create a Wi‑Fi access point on the RPi’s wireless interface

# Create Wi‑Fi connection
# Of course you need to replace `wlan0`
#   with your interface name
sudo nmcli connection add type wifi \
  ifname wlan0 \
  con-name ap0 \
  ssid "<ACCESS-POINT-NAME>" \
  autoconnect yes

# Set access point mode
sudo nmcli connection modify ap0 \
  802-11-wireless.mode ap

# Use 2.4 GHz band
sudo nmcli connection modify ap0 \
  802-11-wireless.band bg

# Set WPA2/WPA3 pre‑shared key
sudo nmcli connection modify ap0 \
  wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk \
  wifi-sec.psk "<PASSWORD-GOES-HERE>"

3. Enable NetworkManager’s “shared” mode

NetworkManager’s shared mode:

Starts a DHCP server on the interface
Enables IP forwarding
Enables IP masquerading (NAT)

# Enable shared mode
sudo nmcli connection modify ap0 \
  ipv4.method shared

# Specify IPv4 subnet
sudo nmcli connection modify ap0 \
  ipv4.addresses 172.18.0.1/24

# Disable IPv6 (optional)
sudo nmcli connection modify ap0 \
  ipv6.method ignore

4. Start the access point

sudo nmcli connection up ap0

5. Validate the setup

# Check Wi‑Fi access point gateway IP
ip -4 addr show wlan0

# Check routes
# Expect:
# - 172.18.0.0/24 via wlan0
# - default route via eth0
ip -4 route

6. Connect a client and verify Internet access

# Connected devices at the Wi‑Fi (L2) layer
sudo iw dev wlan0 station dump

# Connected devices at the IP (L3) layer
ip neigh show dev wlan0

DEV Community: Faizudeen Kajogbola

Using a Raspberry Pi as a Home Router

Assumptions

Steps

1. Verify that `eth0` is correctly configured

2. Create a Wi‑Fi access point on the RPi’s wireless interface

3. Enable NetworkManager’s “shared” mode

4. Start the access point

5. Validate the setup

6. Connect a client and verify Internet access

References

DEV Community: Faizudeen Kajogbola

Using a Raspberry Pi as a Home Router

Assumptions

Steps

1. Verify that eth0 is correctly configured

2. Create a Wi‑Fi access point on the RPi’s wireless interface

3. Enable NetworkManager’s “shared” mode

4. Start the access point

5. Validate the setup

6. Connect a client and verify Internet access

References

1. Verify that `eth0` is correctly configured