NAME

networking, wifi — quickstart guide to connecting to a network

DESCRIPTION

In the following examples, it is assumed that we are connecting to Ethernet with the first interface found by the ix(4) driver, and Wi-Fi with the first interface found by the iwlwifi(4) driver, though your hardware will vary.

EXAMPLES

Example 1: Connecting to an Ethernet network with DHCP

Ask for a DHCP lease on the first Intel 10Gb Ethernet interface:

# dhclient ix0

Example 2: Connecting to a cellular network with USB tethering

Ask for a DHCP lease on the first USB tethering interface:

# dhclient ue0

Example 3: Connecting to a Wi-Fi network

Identify your Wi-Fi hardware:

% sysctl net.wlan.devices

Create the wlan0 interface with the first Intel Wi-Fi adapter:

# sysrc wlans_iwlwifi0="wlan0"

Set that interface to ask for a DHCP lease with wpa_supplicant(8):

# sysrc ifconfig_wlan0="WPA SYNCDHCP"

Enter the details of the Wi-Fi network:

# cd /etc/
# wpa_passphrase "myssid" "mypassphrase" >> wpa_supplicant.conf

Restart the network interface daemon:

# service netif restart

Example 4: Scanning for Wi-Fi networks

% ifconfig wlan0 scan

Example 5: Airplane mode

# service netif stop

SEE ALSO

bsdconfig(8), dhclient(8), ifconfig(8), wpa_passphrase(8)

The Advanced Networking chapter of the FreeBSD Handbook.

CAVEATS

Shell Special Characters in the SSID or passphrase will need to be escaped for wpa_passphrase(8), commonly using ‘\’, see the manual page for your shell for more details.

Stopping the network interface service also stops internal networking.