Interact (not connect) to an Access Point [closed]

Question

I have a small linux device (Tessel 2) which currently is running a node.js webserver. I can hook it up to the internet through Wi-Fi, and hit it like a normal webserver with it's IP on the network.

This works great for my home, but at work, my work machine is often on a different network then the devices we bring (we have a bring-your-own-device network for those).

There are instructions to turn the device into an access point, which doesn't allow it to connect to Wi-Fi, but that's okay since it doesn't really need to hit the internet itself.

I'm wondering then, is there a way for me to interact with the device, like a webserver, without having to switch away from my work network? If I can see the device on my wireless routers list, I figure I can do other things to the device, but I am not wise in the way of networking.

Answer 1

...is there a way for me to interact with the device ... without having to switch away from my work network?

No.

Wireless devices do not work the way wired networks do when it comes to connection options.

A wireless device can either be and endpoint, or an access point, but not both. Additionally, a wireless adapter can only be connected to a single SSID at a time.

Regardless of what wireless mode your Tessel 2 is running in, your work computer would have to join the same network it's on in order to talk to it, which means it would have to disconnect from your work network.

The only way you could connect to both at the same time would be to have two physical connections on your work computer -- either by using the wired ethernet port (if there is one), or by using a second USB wireless adapter.

Answer 2

No, because it is not possible to connect to two different WiFi networks (BSS) using only one interface. You would need another WiFi interface on your work machine to do that, but I suspect it wouldn't be authorized.