Command line application for managing wireless and 3G connections

ferite · 03-11-2015, 05:41 PM

Hi.

I am in the need of managing Wireless and 3G connections only by using commands on my Ubuntu minimal system, so I would like to know if is there some application or utility that already does that.

Specifically I need:

Regarding wireless connections:

1. Submit a command that outputs available connections or SSIDs.
2. Upon a given SIDD name, security type, encryption type and password, submit a "Connect" command that tries to establish a connection, and give a feedback of the operation result.
3. Submit a command that outputs the current status of the active wireless connection, if any.

Regarding 3G connections:

1. Given a dial number, APN, username and password, submit a "Connect" command that tries to establish a connection and give the feedback of the operation result.
2. Submit a command that outputs the current status of the active 3G connection, if any.

Of course, the start point for the two cases is that there is a properly configured wireless adapter and 3G modem, with an active SIM card.

The solution I'm searching for, is for my minimal Ubuntu 14.04. So I got no graphic interface, and all things have to be installed with apt-get.

Thanks for reading and your valuable help.

mjolnir · 03-12-2015, 02:40 PM

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/...1/nmcli.1.html
nmcli is the app I use:

Code:

carl@Wizard:~$ sudo nmcli con up id 'Verizon connection'

Code:

carl@Wizard:~$ nmcli conn
NAME                      UUID                                   TYPE              TIMESTAMP-REAL                    
Wired connection 1        26f980f1-1dbd-462b-a2cd-e56d8e794550   802-3-ethernet    Thu 12 Mar 2015 12:09:02 PM CDT   
Verizon MiFi2200 18FE     e450a094-27f4-4e5e-b68d-fe1ac3767b91   802-11-wireless   Wed 18 Feb 2015 09:13:09 AM CST   
Bushart                   84d76e2d-2a1d-438f-8aab-5a0491ca914a   802-11-wireless   never                             
AndroidAP                 6412dbd3-b15c-49ab-81b2-edd56810048a   802-11-wireless   Thu 20 Nov 2014 09:44:22 AM CST   
Greg's Phone              11295388-b262-4e70-b0f6-7fc08c23596d   802-11-wireless   never                             
Bushart Trucking          23781d57-cb74-4812-9cb9-6297f5633866   802-11-wireless   Tue 10 Mar 2015 07:27:59 AM CDT   
Jackson house             12cbd8de-b922-48b6-94de-2ae190befd79   802-11-wireless   never                             
Verizon connection        04c59da6-6729-4856-90ab-b9f87bcb7a06   cdma              Thu 12 Mar 2015 02:31:36 PM CDT   
BushartTrucking           09cc13ae-18ed-43a5-8b50-969a8a68d3d7   802-11-wireless   never

...will tell you what connections are available.

ferrari · 03-12-2015, 02:45 PM

Network Manager provides CLI tools for servers without graphical environments. In particular, 'nmcli' can be used to control connections

List connections

Code:

nmcli c

Check status of active connection(s) eg

Code:

nmcli c status

NAME UUID DEVICES DEFAULT VPN MASTER-PATH
HOME bd1a6207-2ee7-4b2f-b0f8-6d266c47a748 wlan0 yes no --
For more info, do

Code:

nmcli c status id HOME

Start my 3G connection

Code:

nmcli c up id "3G_TNZ"

Stop it with

Code:

nmcli c down id "3G_TNZ"

New connections can also be defined using

Code:

nmcli con edit....

For more info

Code:

man nmcli

There is also cnetworkmanager (a CLI client for NetworkManager) available if you prefer.