Linux WIFI

If you are using a mainstream “beginner” distro like Ubuntu for example, Wifi should just work and you should just be able to point and click just like MacOS or Windows.

If you are running something more “advanced” like Arch or something, then you are going to need to set it up manually ( still not too bad ). WPA supplicant will probably be your best bet. See the link to our guide below.

Also take a look at our WPA Supplicant Guide

Software	WEXT	nl80211	WEP	WPA/WPA2
wireless_tools1	Yes	No	Yes	No
iw	No	Yes	Yes	No
wpa_supplicant	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
iwd	No	Yes	No	Yes

The above table is basically taken from the Arch Wiki. Generally, if you are reading this you probably want to be able to setup Wifi manually from the command line ( and you are probably a new Arch user ). If this is the case you probably want to go with wpa_supplicant. This is pretty easy to use and will probably meet all of your needs. It onlyl really lacks WEP support which you shouldn’t be using anyway. If you need to connect to an old WEP AP for some reasy ( maybe someone else set it up and it is out of your hands ) then you could use iw. It doesn’t hurt to have both tools just in case. I like the idea of being able to connect to any type of network that I need to.

If you don’t want to mess around with the command line and you want something that just works you are in luck. Most mainstream distros ( like Ubuntu for example ) will give you a really simple point and click tool that will allow you to setup Wifi very easily. On these distros, setting up Wifi is about as easy as it is on MacOS or Windows.

References:

• Arch Wpa_supplicant
• Arch Wireless