Programming a WIFI acces point with DHCP functionality with a ESP8266

I had written some time ago a setup procedure that worked very fine when connecting my ESP8266 Wifi module to any Android device , to a Windows 10 Desk computer and a Windows 11 laptop. This is the setup procedure :

void setup() {
  
  WiFi.persistent(false);       // to save flash memory

  Serial.begin (115200);       // debug logging port monitored through ARDUINO port 0
 
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_AP);

  //Set new hostname
  WiFi.hostname(newHostname.c_str());
  
  Serial.print("Configuring access point...");
  Serial.print("Setting soft-AP configuration ... ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.softAPConfig(local_IP, gateway, subnet) ? "Ready" : "Failed!");
  
  WiFi.setPhyMode(WIFI_PHY_MODE_11G);
  if (WiFi.softAP(ssid,pass,chan))
  {
    IPAddress myIP = WiFi.softAPIP();
    Serial.print("AP IP address: ");
    Serial.println(myIP);
    Serial.printf("MAC address = %s\n", WiFi.softAPmacAddress().c_str()); 
    Serial.println();
    server_UDP.begin();
    Udp.begin(localPort_UDP);
    
    server_TCP.begin(localPort_TCP); 
    server_TCP.setNoDelay(true); 
    INIT_UDP_Ok = false;
    INIT_TCP_Ok = false;
    
    InitNMEA ();  // to transmit NMEA 183 sentences 

    uint8 mode = 0;
    wifi_softap_set_dhcps_offer_option(OFFER_ROUTER, &mode);
    
    wifi_softap_dhcps_start();

      
  }else Serial.println(" Failed to launch the AP mode");

}

Now I am trying to program the same module with another appli and the code does not want to compile : The error message is NO REFERENCE to wifi_softap_set_dhcps_offer_option(OFFER_ROUTER, &mode);

I find the explanation here in the user_interface.h lib header :

bool wifi_softap_dhcps_start(void);
bool wifi_softap_dhcps_stop(void);

// esp8266/Arduino notice:
// **these dhcp functions are no longer provided by the lwip lib**
// only way to include them is to build our NonOS LwipDhcpServer helpers
// (ref. libraries/ESP8266WiFi/src/ESP8266WiFiAP-DhcpServer.cpp)

bool wifi_softap_set_dhcps_lease(struct dhcps_lease *please);
bool wifi_softap_get_dhcps_lease(struct dhcps_lease *please);
uint32 wifi_softap_get_dhcps_lease_time(void);
bool wifi_softap_set_dhcps_lease_time(uint32 minute);
bool wifi_softap_reset_dhcps_lease_time(void);
bool wifi_softap_add_dhcps_lease(uint8 *macaddr);   // add static lease on the list, this will be the next available @

enum dhcp_status wifi_softap_dhcps_status(void);
bool wifi_softap_set_dhcps_offer_option(uint8 level, void* optarg);

But both the ESP8266WiFiAP-DhcpServer.cpp src file and the wifi_softap_set_dhcps_offer_option procedure are nowhere to be found on github or anywhere else.

I tried just to remove the call to wifi_softap_set_dhcps_offer_option but now the connection is impossible to restore and the DHCP works randomly ( I use Wireshark to spy the exchanges).

In your opinion how could I solve the problem ? I asked GPT-4 ( MS Copilot) but it did not help much :-)

Oct 8th :

I have eventually found how to solve the problem by rewriting the setup proc in good order after carefully reading the new sources. Now the Wifi transmission is acceptable :

 
  Serial.begin(UART_BaudRate);         //  reception 
  
  wifi_set_phy_mode (PHY_MODE_11G); // G
 // WiFi.mode(WIFI_AP_STA);         //  Access Point mode
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_AP);
  //Set new hostname
  WiFi.hostname(newHostname.c_str());
  WiFi.softAPConfig(AP_IP, gateway,subnet);   // Acces point config
  
  wifi_softap_dhcps_stop();
  auto& server = WiFi.softAPDhcpServer(); 
  server.setRouter (false); // no router
  if (wifi_softap_dhcps_start()) {Serial.println("DHCP started ");};     

  // softAP Configure with AES encryption
  struct softap_config config;
  wifi_softap_get_config(&config); // Get the current configuration
  config.authmode = AUTH_WPA2_PSK; // Force WPA2 AES 
  if (wifi_softap_set_config(&config)) {Serial.println("AP configured");};

   if  (WiFi.softAP(ssid,pass,chan)) { Serial.println("AP started");};   
  
  NMEA_IN_ready = false;         // NMEA init
  NMEA_IN = "";
 
  Udp.begin(Port_NMEA);           
  server_TCP.begin(Port_NMEA);    
  server_TCP.setNoDelay(true);    
  
  dnsServer.start(DNS_PORT, "*", AP_IP); 
}```


jptrol