Configure interface:
Use iwconfig to configure wireless network interface. First, see if the interface is available, with:
This tool is not likely to be present on your system : it is part of the
package, which you should install. This will print the wireless interface e.g., wlan0. In the examples below wlan0 is used replace wlan0 with the interface reported by iwconfig above.
You can scan for the Access Point using the command
You may have to set the network name before it can scan & find your Access Point. If the scan does not find your AP, replace ESSID with *your* ESSID network name, then try issuing the command
Code:
iwconfig wlan0 essid ESSID
before the using the command
The wireless configuration to be used should match what your Access Point AP uses. First, find out if you can see your access point (AP) with
If this lists your AP, you can continue. Otherwise, you may have one of two problems: Your AP doesn't broadcast SSID see the FAQ for more information or the radio of the card is off again, see the FAQ for details. If you see the AP in scan above, set the operating mode of the interface according to your setup. In most cases, it is Managed
Code:
iwconfig wlan0 mode Managed
If you use encryption WEP, set the key:
Code:
iwconfig wlan0 key restricted TheWEPKeyInHex
You can use 10 hex digits for 40-bit encryption or 26 hex digits for 128-bit encryption. You may need to use open security mode instead of restricted depending on the setup of your AP. If you want to write the key in ASCII use s: e.g. iwconfig wlan0 key restricted s
assword. Set the network name
Code:
iwconfig wlan0 essid ESSID
Replace ESSID with the network name used by your AP.
At this point, check to make sure that ESSID is set in output of iwconfig wlan0. If you see the ESSID as you set, you can proceed to next step. If you see ESSID: off/any, then your card is not associated to AP. Check if WEP encryption is set exactly as used by AP and the AP broadcasts ESSID. See FAQ for more details. Until ESSID is set in output of iwconfig wlan0, you may not use wlan0 as network interface.
Now, setup the network parameters for the interface wlan0. This varies from distribution to distribution. Refer to your distribution's documents on how to do this. Once this is done, you can use network tools to bring up the network e.g.,
or
or