Can't connect to WiFi using Pi Zero w and Edimax EW-7811UN dongle

Question

I was following this guide to set up the internal wlan0 as accesspoint and the external wlan1 (Edimax 7811 dongle) to connect to an WiFi as client. I'm using Raspbian Stretch. The wlan0 works perfectly as accesspoint and I'm connecting to the Pi via SSH over it but I don't get wlan1 to connect to my WiFi. Driver for the dongle are installed and working, I checked using this guide. The difference for me is that my WiFi has no password, so my wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf looks like

country=DE
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
     ssid="Hotel_WiFi"
}

Does anyone have an idea why I can't connect?

Answer 1

If "my WiFi has no password" means that it is an open plaintext hostspot then you have to tell it wpa_supplicant. This is done with the line key_mgmt=NONE, so /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf should look like this:

country=DE
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
     ssid="Hotel_WiFi"
     key_mgmt=NONE
}

You may have a look at the end of /usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/examples/wpa_supplicant.conf. There you will find many more examples, maybe to connect to any open hotspot with:

# Wildcard match for SSID (plaintext APs only). This example select any
# open AP regardless of its SSID.
network={
        key_mgmt=NONE
}

You will find open hotspots in hotels but they are mostly protected on the OSI application layer with entering username and password in the internet browser.