Fedora: Configure WiFi with DHCP

Product: Fedora 13 - 18, CentOS

Assume the WiFi uses eth1. Use following command to determine the device name. All commands must run as root UNIX user

Installation:
rpm -i wpa_supplicant*rpm
rpm -i wireless-tools*rpm

Step 1: Bring up the network device
ifconfig eth1 up
ifconfig

This should make the device visible using "ifconfig" command

Step 2: Confirm the device name for the WiFi
iwlist scan (pls note that eht1 must be up in order to run iwlist)

Expect: The device name should be eth1 and wifi0, but if there are multiple network card (USB, PCMCIA, or PCI), then the number will be higher, such as eth4, wifi2

Step 3: Configure DHCP
Reference URL: https://www.whoi.edu/CIS/networking/configure/dhcp_linux.html

File: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

Create above text file with following content. This will activate the WiFi on reboot, and any user can control it

DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
USERCTL=yes

Step 4: Test WiFi SSID and Passphase

Assume the SSID is "CIK 102C" and WPA2 passphase is "VoIP Public"

Ensure SSID "CIK 102C" detected with following command
iwlist eth1 scanning

Manually connect to the SSID
iwconfig eth1 essid "CIK 102C" key s:"VoIP Public"

Verify WiFi is connected. The ESSID will has the value "CIK 102C" if password is correct

iwconfig

Step 5: Permanently Configure SSID and Passphase

File: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1

Modify the same file again with following additional configuration
TYPE=Wireless
MODE=Managed
ESSID="CIK 102C"

File: /etc/sysconfig/network-script/keys-eht1

wpa_passphrase "CIK 102C" "VoIP Public"

Step 6: Enable Network Card

ifconfig eth1 up

Step 7: Request IP from DHCP Server

dhclient eth1
ifconfig