WPA Wireless Installation

Please note that due to the widely varying nature of Linux distributions, we cannot fully support wireless under Linux. The directions offered here are provided on an AS-IS basis. These directions are based on NetworkManager version 0.7 under GNOME as supplied with Fedora 9. Other distribution and NetworkManager versions may differ slightly. The old manual wpa_supplicant directions are also available.

Requirements

NOTE - Your wireless card needs to be registered through WPI Network Registration (http://netreg.wpi.edu/) prior to working on the WPI Wireless Network.

Setup of WPI Wireless Network

The following procedure is demonstrated in this video screencast which you may wish to view.

  1. Make sure your computer's clock is set to the correct date and time.
  2. Find your Linux system's wireless MAC address.
  3. Make sure your Linux system's wireless MAC address is registered through WPI Network Registration.
  4. Wait 30 minutes for your registration to become active.
  5. Using a Mac or PC that is already on the Internet, browse to the WPI Wireless Networking Certificate Files secure download page.
  6. Log in using your CCC account.
  7. Download the Wireless User and Network Operations CA files from the Linux section and make a note of the Wireless User Certificate Password at the top of the page which is needed to unlock the certificate file.
  8. Make a folder in your home directory and put the two .pem files there. These files must remain in this location and be readable by your user account.

  9. Pull down the NetworkManager applet menu and select WPI-Wireless from the list.

  10. In the Wireless Network Secrets Required dialog that appears, fill out the values as follows:
    • Wireless Security: WPA & WPA2 Enterprise
    • Authentication: TLS
    • Identity: Wireless User 08-09
    • Anonymous Identity (if present): Wireless User 08-09
    • User Certificate: select the location where you copied Wireless-User.pem
    • CA Certificate: select the location where you copied netops-ca.pem
    • Private Key: select the location where you copied Wireless-User.pem
    • Private Key Password: type the password for the certificate from the secure download page.
    • Click Connect.
    • Please note that some versions of Network Manager have a bug, where it falsely complains that the private key portion of the certificate is not encrypted. If you are hit by this bug, you may work around it by using the pkcs12 format file instead, downloadable from the Macintosh OS X section of the wireless certificate download page.
  11. NetworkManager stores the certificate password in your user's keyring, which is usually locked by your Linux user account password. You may see this dialog box requesting you to grant NetworkManager access to your keyring for the first time. If it appears, click Always Allow.

  12. You may also see this dialog box requesting you to unlock your keyring when attempting to connect to the WPI-Wireless network. Some Linux distributions may use pam_gnome_keyring or similar functionality to automatically unlock your keyring when you log in or unlock your screensaver, making this separate step unnecessary. If this appears, enter your keyring password (usually the same as your Linux account login password).

  13. It may take up to 30 seconds to connect. You should see a Connection Established window pop up.