Performing a Wireless Scan and Connecting to Available Wireless Networks

You can scan for and connect to available wireless networks by using the nwamadm command.

Use the nwamadm scan-wifi link-name command to scan a wireless link to obtain a list of available wireless networks.

Use the nwamadm select-wifi link-name command to select and connect to a wireless network from the scan results on the link that is specified as link-name. The select-wifi link-name command prompts you for a WiFi selection, a key, and a key slot, if required.

You can also trigger a subsequent scan of the network to search for available wireless networks by using the nwamadm scan-wifi link-name command. Note that a subsequent might not trigger a scan event, if the new scan results are identical to the existing scan results. The nwamd daemon performs the scan, regardless of whether the data has changed since the last scan.

In the following example, the nwamcfg list command is used to display any wireless NCUs in the Automatic NCP. The nwamadm scan-wifi command is then used to perform a scan of the wireless link, wpi0. Finally, the nwamadm select-wifi command is used to display a list of wireless networks from which to select. The list that is displayed is based on the results of the scan that was previously performed on wpi0

$ nwamcfg list ncp Automatic
NCUs:
phys    bge0
ip      bge0
phys    bge1
ip      bge1
phys         wpi0
$ nwamadm scan-wifi wpi0
$ nwamadm select-wifi wpi0

1: ESSID sunwifi BSSID 0:b:e:85:26:c0
2: ESSID sunwifi BSSID 0:b:e:49:2f:80
3: ESSID sunwifi BSSID 0:b:e:9f:b5:80
4: ESSID testing BSSID 0:40:96:29:e9:d8
5: ESSID sunwifi BSSID 0:b:e:49:62:c0
6: Other

Choose WLAN to connect to [1-6]: 1
$

In this example, the wireless network that is represented by the number 1 was selected.

If the WLAN requires a key, you are prompted to enter the key and key slot, if WEP is specified. For example:

Enter WLAN key for ESSIDE home: mywlankey
Enter key slot [1-4]: 1