Originally, hostapd was an optional user space component for Host AP driver. It adds more features to the basic IEEE 802.11 management included in the kernel driver: using external RADIUS authentication server for MAC address based access control, IEEE 802.1X Authenticator and dynamic WEP keying, RADIUS accounting, WPA/WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i/RSN) Authenticator and dynamic TKIP/CCMP keying.

The current version includes support for other drivers, an integrated EAP authenticator (i.e., allow full authentication without requiring an external RADIUS authentication server), and RADIUS authentication server for EAP authentication.

hostapd works with the following drivers:

* mac80211 based drivers with support for master mode [linux] * Host AP driver for Prism2/2.5/3 [linux] * Driver interface for FreeBSD net80211 layer [kfreebsd] * Any wired Ethernet driver for wired IEEE 802.1X authentication.