Connect to WiFi network using Mac Terminal

Every time I try to find out how to do this, I find out how to do it on a linux, and it doesn't transfer. How do I connect to a WiFi network using Mac Terminal Bash?

JShoe

Posted 2011-05-20T22:43:15.067

Reputation: 1 142

Answers

As of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X v10.6.x) and possibly earlier, you can do:

networksetup -setairportnetwork $INTERFACE $SSID $PASSWORD

Where...

$INTERFACE is the "enX" style identifier for your AirPort card (usually en1, but it's en0 on MacBook Airs and en2 on Mac Pros, and can vary for other reasons as well)
$SSID is your network name, such as "Simon's SSID". Enclose it in quotes if it contains spaces.
$PASSWORD is your WEP, WPA-PSK, or WPA2-PSK password.

If you look at the man page or help/usage statement for networksetup you'll see that it has other AirPort-related subcommand for getting or setting the power state (AirPort card on/off), and for managing the Preferred Networks list and 802.1X profiles (if your network uses 802.1X, such as a WPA Enterprise or WPA2 Enterprise network would).

Spiff

Posted 2011-05-20T22:43:15.067

Reputation: 84 656

Figured it out:

sudo airport -A

JShoe

Posted 2011-05-20T22:43:15.067

Reputation: 1 142

Probably should gave have been s … which is the key next to a on a keyboard. – kaiser – 2016-09-09T16:03:02.387

2there is no "-A" option in airport – Luxspes – 2013-09-13T18:34:03.340

Here is a little guide on using airport in the Command Line

Apparently you can use

$ airport

as a command. I would try

$ airport -help

and see if it brings up some options.

This answer is outdated. Please ignore it

Simon Sheehan

Posted 2011-05-20T22:43:15.067

Reputation: 8 641

My SSID contains spaces, how would I enter it? – JShoe – 2011-05-20T23:03:58.730

Put it into quotations. Like "Simon's SSID". So the command may be something like: airport -x "Simon's SSID" – Simon Sheehan – 2011-05-20T23:06:00.273

make that /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport, on my computer, at least. – Nathan Grigg – 2011-05-21T00:13:56.983

@Simon what would the -x do? @nathang why would it change? How do I find what the correct location on my computer would be? – JShoe – 2011-05-21T03:05:29.973

How in the world did this answer, which has no hope of working, get upvotes? – Spiff – 2011-05-21T03:56:38.740

The guide is from 2007, just saying. – slhck – 2011-05-21T09:53:39.950

-x was just to represent any variable. I had a friend try the command, and he told me that some options came up. Clearly I was mistaken, I apologize. – Simon Sheehan – 2011-05-21T11:43:34.583

Looks like it worked. – Simon Sheehan – 2011-05-22T19:34:17.650