Setting up the WiFi Part I – Supported Adapters

This entry is for configuring the Asus USB-N10 USB Wireless-N USB Adapter. If you have any other WiFi adapter please refer to Chapter 4 Network Configuration of the Raspberry Pi User Guide book or perform Google Searches for your adapter.

NOTE: There is a WiFi Config tool included with Raspbian “wheezy” distribution however I have not had much luck with it. I t did work one time for me and that was it. You may give it a try but I recommend using the steps below as they have worked 100% of the time for me.

You will need to perform these steps from the command line. If you have the desktop loaded, open a terminal window by double clicking on the the LXTerminal shortcut on the desktop.

1. At the command line, type the following command and press enter to view available wireless networks.
   sudo iwlist scan | less
2. On the wlan interface, you will see the SSIDs listed on the lines starting with ESSID:. Verify that the network you wish to connect to is listed.
   
3. Press Ctrl+z to return to the command line
4. Edit the network configuration file by typing the following command and press enter.
   sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
5. You should see the following content in the interfaces file.
   

   auto loiface lo inet loopback iface eth0 inet dhcpallow-hotplug wlan0 iface wlan0 inet manual wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf iface default inet dhcp

    

6. Replace the bottom block with the following.
   

   auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wpa-conf /etc/wpa.conf

    

7. The resulting file should have the following contents.
   

   auto loiface lo inet loopback iface eth0 inet dhcpauto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wpa-conf /etc/wpa.conf

    

8. Save the file and exit
   • Press Ctrl+o
   • Press Enter
   • Press Ctrl+x
9. Now edit the wpa.conf file by typing the following command and pressing enter.
   sudo nano /etc/wpa.conf
10. Enter the following for the contents of your file based on the type of security used by your WiFi network.
    NOTE: Do not type the word [Tab]. It indicates that you need to include a tab.

    No Encryption	network={ [Tab] ssid=”Your_SSID” [Tab] key_mgmt=NONE }
    WEP Encryption	network={ [Tab] ssid=”Your_SSID” [Tab] key_mgmt=NONE [Tab] wep_key0=”Your_WEP_Key” }
    WPA/WPA2 Encryption	network={ [Tab] ssid=”Your_SSID” [Tab] key_mgmt=WPA-PSK [Tab] psk=”Your_WPA_Key” }

     

11. Save the file and exit
    • Press Ctrl+o
    • Press Enter
    • Press Ctrl+x
12. Connect to the wireless network by typing the following command and pressing enter.
    sudo ifup wlan0
13. If you see the message “ifup: interface wlan0 already configured,” type the following command and repeat the previous step again.
    sudo ifdown wlan0
14. If you are successful, you will see several lines starting with DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 … with the last line stating that the adapter is bound to an IP address on your network
    .
    
15. If you are successful at this point, you may close the terminal window and open a web browser to verify that you are connected to the internet.