Starting All This Stuff Automatically Your users probably don't want to enter all these commands every time they want to connect to your network. So, if you're feeling benevolent, you can set everything up to start at boot. On Debian, Ubuntu, and the vast herds of other Debian-based distributions, edit /etc/network/interfaces:
auto eth1 iface eth1 inet dhcp up wpa_supplicant -i ath0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -BDwext down killall wpa_supplicant
-B forks the wpa_supplicant into the background, and -w tells it to do nothing unless the interface is up.
On Fedora and Red Hat, et al, configure your wireless card in the usual manner in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcg-eth1, or whatever file belongs to the wireless interface, using the real interface name and MAC address:
These are simple setups that don't manage multiple locations or do any fancy hotplug management, but they work fine for single locations. We'll cover roaming, multiple profiles, and hotplug interfaces in future installments.
