Acess Devian 9 laptop by another devica via wifi

[Tom Browder <tom.browder@gmail.com>]

I travel often with a hefty laptop running Debian 9 and like to do casual programming on it remotely via a terminal app (Termius) on an iPad. In many situations I am able to access the laptop when on a wireless LAN by getting its IP address with "sudo ifconfig" and simply using that address in Termius to ssh in to the laptop.

However, someteimes that does not work until I edit the wireless connection and declare it public. And in still other cases I cannot access the laptop at all.

Is there any reliable way to either (1) always connect via the LAN or (2) make the laptop broadcast its own LAN so I can login to it wirelessly from the iPad?

Thanks.

With warmest regards,

-Tom