Re: laptop wireless setup, wpa_supplicant.conf, driver ipw not supported? CLI only
On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 06:22:00PM BST, Brian wrote:
> > You don't, for simple setup that is indeed enough.
> > If you have several wireless networks you can keep your interfaces file
> > tidy and organised, not to mention that roaming mode won't work without
> > wpa_supplicant.conf file.
>
> Yes, I'd agree with that; it gives a very flexible and powerful
> configuration, especially if wpagui is also used. However, if one has
> been stumbling along there is something to be said for walking before
> running.
Keeping things in one place is a good practice IMHO.
Security is another - /etc/network/interfaces is world readable by
default. Better keep settings like passphrase or PSK in one, root
readable file.
> > I also recommend actual PSK rather than passphrase.
>
> I'm unsure of the advantage this brings as an ASCII passphrase is
> converted to a 64 hex string internally anyway. A disadvantage is passing
> an incomprehensible PSK on to someone to allow a connection to a network.
Main advantage - you're not keeping your passphrase in clear text on your
filesystem.
PSK is precomputed from a passphrase for a specific SSID and passphrase
cannot be quantified from it.
There's no disadvantage as you can still use the passphrase, there's no
need to pass the long PSK.
Regards,
--
Raf
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