Wi-Fi Configuration

Essential Commands

List network interfaces

List wireless interfaces

Bring up wireless interface

Scan for wireless networks

• Recommend piping output to less to search for SSID in the output

Connect to wi-fi SSID (WEP-only). For other auth methods, see WPA Password Authentication via wpa_supplicant below.

Check wireless status

Disconnect from wi-fi

WPA Password Authentication

Start WPA Supplicant - may need to kill other instances if already running

Interactive mode

Run the following commands

• scan - start scan
• scan_results - dump scan results
• add_network - get number result, this is the network # used
• set_network <#> ssid "<ssid>" - set network ssid, quotes required
• set_network <#> psk "<passwd>" - set network password, quotes required
• enable_network <#> - look for <3>CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED in the message results
• save_config - saves config to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
• this may store the password in plaintext, use wpa_passphrase if an encrypted password is needed
• quit - exits wpa_cli

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Filesystem

/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

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Related Links

• WPA Supplicant
• WPA Passphrase - Encryption
• iw management
• ip Command Cheat Sheet