1. 'IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1' is the authentication used. In this case it's WPA2, the newer and more secure wireless standard which replaces WPA. This guide should work for WPA or WPA2, but may not work for WPA2 enterprise. For WEP hex keys, see the last example [here](http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=wpa_supplicant.conf&sektion=5&apropos=0&manpath=NetBSD+6.1.5). You'll also need the password for the wireless network. For most home routers, this is found on a sticker on the back of the router. The ESSID (ssid) for the examples below is `testing` and the password (psk) is `testingPassword`.

The password can be configured either as the ASCII representation, in quotes as per the example above, or as a pre-encrypted 32 byte hexadecimal number. You can use the `wpa_passphrase` utility to generate an encrypted PSK. This takes the SSID and the password, and generates the encrypted PSK. With the example from above, you can generate the PSK with `wpa_passphrase "testing" "testingPassword`. The output is as follows.

```

```

Note that the plain text version of the code is present, but commented out. You should delete this line from the final `wpa_suplicant` file for extra security.

The `wpa_password` tool requires a password with between 8 and 63 characters. For more complex passphrases you can extract the content of a text file and use it as input for `wpa_passphrase`, if the password is stored as plain text inside a file somewhere, by calling `wpa_passphrase "testing" < file_where_password_is_stored`. For extra security, you should delete the `file_where_password_is_stored` afterwards, so there is no plain text copy of the original password on the system.

If you are using the `wpa_passphrase` encrypted PSK you can either copy and paste the encrypted PSK into the `wpa_supplicant.confg` file, or redirect the tools output to your configuration file by calling `wpa_passphrase "testing" "testingPassword" >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf`. Note that this requires you to change to `root` (by executing `sudo su`), or you can use `wpa_passphrase "testing" "testingPassword" | sudo tee -a /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf > /dev/null`, which will append the passphrase without having to change to `root`. Both methods provide the necessary administrative privileges to change the file. Lastly, make sure you use `>>`, or use `-a` with `tee`, (both can be used to append text to an existing file) since `>`, or omitting `-a` when using `tee`, will erase all contents and **then** append the output to the specified file. Note that the redirection to `/dev/null` at the end of the second form simply prevents `tee` from **also** outputting to the screen (standard output).

Now save the file by pressing `Ctrl+X`, then `Y`, then finally press `Enter`.

At this point, `wpa-supplicant` will normally notice within a few seconds that a change has occurred, and it will try and connect to the network. If it does not, restart the interface with `sudo wpa_cli reconfigure`.