Wi-Fi: joining a wireless network

The idea

A wireless network is a radio one device announces and others join. Watch a laptop find accessPoint, join it, and get an address like any wired card; later a second one, hallwayAp, shares its name.

Steps

1. A network on the air

   An access point announces a network from a radio, over and over, so any device in range can find it. The laptop has joined nothing yet. Scan the air and read what it hears.

   laptop:~# iw dev wlan0 scan

2. Joining a network

   To join, the laptop needs the network's name and its passphrase. Fill the passphrase into the config, let the laptop associate, then ask who it is connected to — and get an address, like any wired card.

   laptop:~# iw dev wlan0 link
   laptop:~# udhcpc -i wlan0 -n -q