Connecting to WPA2-Encrypted Networks#

This tutorial is for those, who like to know exactly what’s going on. It shows how to connect to a WPA2-encrpted network manually and how to automate just enough of it to make it suitable for daily use while remaining geeky. Enjoy!

Hardcore Manual Way#

First, some assumptions:

  1. Your network interface is called wlan0.

  2. You have wpa_supplicant installed.

  3. You have a WPA2-protected WLAN at your disposal

There are three steps to get connected to your WLAN:

  1. Get some data about your WLAN

  2. Connect with wpa_supplicant

  3. Get an IP-address and set your nameserver and default gateway

Listing Available WLANs#

Simply type:

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

You’ll see something like this:

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 00:AB:CD:EF:01:23
                    Channel:7
                    Frequency:2.442 GHz (Channel 7)
                    Quality=52/70  Signal level=-58 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"my_wlan"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                              24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000003c295135189
                    Extra: Last beacon: 56ms ago
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: 32040C121860
                    IE: Unknown: DD06001018020004
          Cell 02 - Address: 00:01:23:45:67:89
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=56/70  Signal level=-54 dBm
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"another_wlan"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000000c0d6bbe45e
                    Extra: Last beacon: 4100ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: DD0900037F0101001FFF7F
                    IE: WPA Version 1
                        Group Cipher : TKIP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DD1A00037F030100000000095BE87A1802095BE87A1864002C011F08

We’re interested in cell0 here. The following fields are noteworthy:

  1. Address: 00:AB:CD:EF:01:23

  2. ESSID:"my_wlan"

  3. IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1

The address is the hardware address of your router, the essid is the name you gave your WLAN and the third field shows you that my_wlan is indeed encrypted with WPA2.

Connecting with wpa_supplicant#

I prefer to write a config file to hold my networks, but it’s also possible to provide options to wpa_supplicant - see man wpa_supplicant. Here’s a simple config file (~/my_wlan.conf):

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
# my network (this is a comment)
network={
    ssid="my_wlan"
    priority=5
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    group=CCMP TKIP
    psk="secret"
}

Connecting is easy now:

iface=wlan0
driver=wext  # works for most chipsets
config=~/my_wlan.conf

wpa_supplicant -i$iface -D$driver -c$config

You are now connected to your WLAN. Note that wpa_supplicant remains in the forground - don’t close your terminal.

Getting IP Address, Gateway and Nameserver#

If you have DHCP activated on your router, simply run:

iface=wlan0

sudo dhclient $iface

If not, then run:

iface=wlan0
my_ip=192.168.0.123
netmask=255.255.255.0
gateway=192.168.0.254

sudo ifconfig $iface $my_ip netmask $netmask up
sudo route add default gw $gateway

Disconnecting#

Assuming you used DHCP:

iface=wlan0
sudo dhclient -r $iface
sudo killall wpa_supplicant  # or simply close the running instance

Using Debian’s ifup/down#

This is the way I do it. In the end, my wlan starts automatically and I can control it with sudo ifup wlan0 and sudo ifdown wlan0. To do this, We will

  1. create a config file for wpa_supplicant,

  2. edit /etc/network/interfaces and

  3. try it out.

First, see my config above or read man wpa_supplicant.conf.

/etc/network/interfaces:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/home/me/my_wlans.conf
    post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

Try it:

sudo ifup wlan0
sudo ifdown wlan0

You should see the output from dhclient.

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