Projects

Setting up Wi-Fi via the Graphical Interface This process is probably the most effective method of connecting to your Wi-Fi and also the quickest. First of all, before we get started, please make sure you are running the latest Raspberry Pi operating system; if you're not sure, then you can head to the Downloads section on the Raspberry Pi website. Follow these steps:

1. In the Desktop environment locate the network icon in the top right hand side and click on the icon to see the list of available Wi-Fi networks to connect to (Figure 1).

2. Select your Wi-Fi SSID in the drop down list (Figure 2).

3. You will be prompted to enter your Wi-Fi password into the text box, so go ahead and do so (Figure 3).

4. Finally, click ok and you will be connected to your Wi-Fi. You should now see your signal strength displayed in the upper task bar on the right (Figure 4).

5. You should now be connected to your Wi-Fi successfully; test your connection by opening up the web browser.

SETTING WIFI UP VIA THE COMMAND LINE

This method is suitable if you don't have access to the graphical user interface normally used to set up WiFi on the Raspberry Pi. It's especially suitable for use with a serial console cable if you don't have access to a screen or wired Ethernet network. Note also that no additional software is required; everything you need is already included on the Raspberry Pi.

GETTING WIFI NETWORK DETAILS

To scan for WiFi networks, use the command sudo iwlist wlan0 scan. This will list all available WiFi networks, along with other useful information. Look out for:

ESSID:“testing” is the name of the WiFi network.
IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1 is the authentication used; in this case it's WPA2, the newer and more secure wireless standard which replaces WPA. This guide should work for WPA or WPA2, but may not work for WPA2 enterprise; for WEP hex keys, see the last example here. You'll also need the password for the wireless network. For most home routers, this is found on a sticker on the back of the router. The ESSID (ssid) for the network in this case is testing and the password (psk) is testingPassword.
If security is a concern, entering a password as plain text is not recommended. You can use wpa_passphrase to create a unique token and enter it instead. As arguments, the command requires the ESSID and the password. With the example from above, calling the command will be wpa_passphrase “testing” “testingPassword which will output a ready-to-use wpa-compliant network profile:

network={
  ssid="testing"
  #psk="testingPassword"
  psk=131e1e221f6e06e3911a2d11ff2fac9182665c004de85300f9cac208a6a80531
}

As you can see, the password testingPassword is still visible as a comment, namely #psk=“testingPassword”. When pasting the produced profile in your configuration file, make sure to remove this line (otherwise the whole procedure of generating the secret token would be pointless). The tool requires a password with at between eight and 63 characters. You can also extract the content of a text file and use it as input of wpa_passphrase if the password is stored as plain text inside a file somewhere by calling wpa_passphrase “testing” « file_where_password_is_stored.

ADDING THE NETWORK DETAILS TO THE RASPBERRY PI

Open the wpa-supplicant configuration file in nano:

sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Go to the bottom of the file and add the following:

network={
    ssid="The_ESSID_from_earlier"
    psk="Your_wifi_password"
}

In the case of the example network, we would enter:

network={
    ssid="testing"
    psk="testingPassword"
}

If you are using wpa_passphrase you can redirect its output to your configuration file by calling wpa_passphrase “testing” “testingPassword” » /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. Note that this requires you to change to root (by executing sudo su) or find another way to redirect the output since the file we write to can be altered only by a user with administrative privileges. Last but not least make sure you use »(which is used to append text to an existing file) since > will erase all contents and then append the output to the specified file.

Now save the file by pressing Ctrl+X then Y, then finally press Enter.

At this point, wpa-supplicant will normally notice a change has occurred within a few seconds, and it will try and connect to the network. If it does not, restart the interface with sudo wpa_cli reconfigure.

You can verify if it has successfully connected using ifconfig wlan0. If the inet addr field has an address beside it, the Pi has connected to the network. If not, check your password and ESSID are correct.

UNSECURED NETWORKS

If the network you are connecting to does not use a password, the wpa_supplicant entry for the network will need to include the correct key_mgmt entry. e.g.

network={
    ssid="testing"
    key_mgmt=NONE
}

HIDDEN NETWORKS

If you are using a hidden network, an extra option in the wpa_supplicant file, scan_ssid, may help connection.

network={
    ssid="yourHiddenSSID"
    scan_ssid=1
    psk="Your_wifi_password"
}

You can verify if it has successfully connected using ifconfig wlan0. If the inet addr field has an address beside it, the Pi has connected to the network. If not, check your password and ESSID are correct.

ADDING MULTIPLE WIRELESS NETWORK CONFIGURATIONS

On recent versions of Raspbian, it is possible to set up multiple configurations for wireless networking. For example, you could set up one for home and one for school.

For example

network={
    ssid="SchoolNetworkSSID"
    psk="passwordSchool"
    id_str="school"
}
 
network={
    ssid="HomeNetworkSSID"
    psk="passwordHome"
    id_str="home"
}

If you have two networks in range, you can add the priority option to chose between them. The network in range, with the highest priority, will be the one that is connected.

network={
    ssid="HomeOneSSID"
    psk="passwordOne"
    priority=1
    id_str="homeOne"
}
 
network={
    ssid="HomeTwoSSID"
    psk="passwordTwo"
    priority=2
    id_str="homeTwo"
}