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I am very new to Raspberry Pi and I am trying to make small device based on it (Raspberry Pi 3). In order to work properly this device need to be connected to the Internet, for example, over wi-fi.

The problem is that i want user to be able to configure internet connection for this device from his smartphone. What is most suitable way for doing this? I thought Bluetooth is the one of the possible options.

moonvader
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  • How do you plan to connect the smartphone to the RPi before it has a configured connection? – Dmitry Grigoryev Nov 11 '16 at 08:51
  • Unfortunately you are asking the Pi to do something that cannot be done on any other computer. I know of no system where the user does not have to configure their network connections. I am not saying this is impossible, but you are unlikely to find any ready made solution. – Milliways Nov 11 '16 at 08:54
  • Possible duplicate of [Switch between AP and client mode](http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/44184/switch-between-ap-and-client-mode) – goobering Nov 11 '16 at 09:16
  • @DmitryGrigoryev you may be familiar with some bluetooth devices. Where all you need to do is to connect to them from smartphone and change settings in mobile app created for this device. I know that it is not the best example possible but Apple Watch are connected to iPhone over bluetooth and they have setup procedure. – moonvader Nov 11 '16 at 09:32

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One way would be to pre-configure the RPi to connect to AP called e.g. AndroidAP with no password (or a known password), then instruct the user to activate such AP on their smartphone. This requires the smartphone to support connection sharing (which most modern devices do) and is not that great security-wise, but it's an option. Here's how to do it.

Bluetooth is also an option: it's possible to make the RPi discoverable and accept pairing requests without a PIN. Here's an example of such setup.

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Dmitry Grigoryev
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  • The main question for me - should bluetooth variant be working for iOS devices? – moonvader Nov 11 '16 at 09:40
  • Why wouldn't it? I don't own any iOS devices, but I expect those to support popular BT profiles, like terminal or network connection. – Dmitry Grigoryev Nov 11 '16 at 09:42
  • Because I can't find any working solution across many topics in forums where many people ask about connection from iOS device to RPi. For example this https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=164807 or this http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/38508/bluetooth-connection-with-iphone – moonvader Nov 11 '16 at 09:59
  • Uhm, the first link you have provided ends with "Thanks for the help Doglas, its working now". – Dmitry Grigoryev Nov 11 '16 at 10:00
  • It definitely ends with it! But only because topic starter faced problems with connection to iOS device and switched topic to A2DP profile (which is audio profile). – moonvader Nov 11 '16 at 10:04
  • Well, which profile do you want to use? – Dmitry Grigoryev Nov 11 '16 at 10:10
  • I would like to use any profile that made me able to find RPi in bluetooth devices list on iPhone, connect to it and communicate with it to configure device. – moonvader Nov 11 '16 at 11:02