Configure WiFi Connections
This section explains how to establish a WiFi connection. It covers creating and modifying connections as well as directly connecting.
Establish a Wireless Connection
This section will show how to establish a wifi connection to the wireless network. Note that directly connecting will implicitly create a connection (that can be seen with “nmcli c”). The naming of such will follow “SSID N” pattern, where N is a number.
First, determine the name of the WiFi interface:
$ nmcli d DEVICE TYPE STATE CONNECTION . wlan0 wifi disconnected -- Make sure the WiFi radio is on (which is its default state):
Then, list the available WiFi networks:
$ nmcli d wifi list * SSID MODE CHAN RATE SIGNAL BARS SECURITY . my_wifi Infra 5 54 Mbit/s 89 ▂▄▆█ WPA2 As an example, to connect to the access point ‘my_wifi’, you would use the following command:
$ nmcli d wifi connect my_wifi password
is the password for the connection which needs to have 8-63 characters or 64 hexadecimal characters to specify a full 256-bit key.
Connect to a Hidden Network
A hidden network is a normal wireless network that simply does not broadcast it’s SSID unless solicited. This means that its name cannot be searched and must be known from some other source.
Issue the following command to create a connection associated with a hidden network :
$ nmcli c add type wifi con-name ifname wlan0 ssid $ nmcli c modify wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk wifi-sec.psk
Now you can establish a connection by typing:
is an arbitrary name given to the connection and is the password to the network. It needs to have between 8-63 characters or 64 hexadecimal characters in order to specify a full 256-bit key.
Further Information
You will find further information and more detailed examples on following pages:
Connect to a wireless network
If you have a wireless-enabled computer, you can connect to a wireless network that is within range to get access to the internet, view shared files on the network, and so on.
- Open the system menu from the right side of the top bar.
- Select Wi-Fi . The Wi-Fi section of the menu will expand.
- Click the name of the network you want. If the name of the network is not shown, scroll down the list. If you still do not see the network, you may be out of range, or the network might be hidden .
- If the network is protected by a password ( encryption key ), enter the password when prompted and click Connect . If you do not know the key, it may be written on the underside of the wireless router or base station, or in its instruction manual, or you may have to ask the person who administers the wireless network.
- The network icon will change appearance as the computer attempts to connect to the network.
- If the connection is successful, the icon will change to a dot with several curved bars above it ( ). More bars indicate a stronger connection to the network. Fewer bars mean the connection is weaker and might not be very reliable.
If the connection is not successful, you may be asked for your password again or it might just tell you that the connection has been disconnected. There are a number of things that could have caused this to happen. You could have entered the wrong password, the wireless signal could be too weak, or your computer’s wireless card might have a problem, for example. See Wireless network troubleshooter for more help.
A stronger connection to a wireless network does not necessarily mean that you have a faster internet connection, or that you will have faster download speeds. The wireless connection connects your computer to the device which provides the internet connection (like a router or modem), but the two connections are actually different, and so will run at different speeds.