# Can one do manually what wpa_supplicant does ?

## dany74q

Hello all ,

I am working with WPA2 as the security choice for my router , and I would really like to establish a connection between the wlan card and the router manually ,

in other words - set up with ifconfig , route and resolv.conf .

In that process - I also need the card to connect via wpa_supplicant , can I eliminate that ? Is there any method of manually doing what wpa_supplicant does ?

A work through the net file maybe ?

Thanks ,

Danny ,

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## Veldrin

Going though the Wireless Section of the Handbook, basically says, that you have 2 options. using wpa-supplicant or wireless-tools. from what I get, wireless-tools can only handle WEP encryption, which I would strongly discourage nowadays - WEP can be broke in very little time.

wpa-supplicant on the other hand allows you to connect to wpa/wpa2 protected access points.

To answer you inital question, no you cannot handle the wireless stuff though net, it is handled with wpa-supplicant or wireless-tools. 

On an sidenote: why do you want to get rid of wpa-supplicant? If it is because it pulls in Xorg, then adjust your useflags to omit qt4.

V.

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## new_item

 *dany74q wrote:*   

> Hello all ,
> 
> I would really like to establish a connection between the wlan card and the router manually, in other words - set up with ifconfig , route and resolv.conf .
> 
> 

 

Do you want to set up manually interface (wlan0)? wpa_supplicant have nothing to do with it. It just gives you a link between wireless card and router. Set up ip and routing like for a wire interface.

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## Gusar

wpa_supplicant *is* the manual way. As opposed to using wicd or networkmanager or something like that. Ifconfig, route and resolv.conf have nothing to do with setting up a wireless connection. They handle IPs and routing and name resolution. But the wireless link, that's the domain of wpa_supplicant (or, like Veldrin says, wireless-tools, which are actually deprecated in favor of iw, and both of these only do WEP).

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## dany74q

Thanks for the replies ! 

I am aware that WPA_Supplicant is the manual way as opposed to some tools which handle all automatically ,

but I would like to go a bit further .

@new_item   I would like to make that link between the card and the router myself , instead of letting WPA_supplicant handle this link .

I really want to use the least amount of tools , I can skip the use of DHCPCD and configure the route table and resolv file myself , 

but can I also skip the use of WPA_Supplicant , or wireless-tools , or be it any other tool that links between the card and the router ?

`tis not for getting rid entirely of a tool that does that , but for better understanding of what is behind it .

Thanks !

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## Kobboi

wpa_supplicant does not just simply do things and exit. It does continuous key management (i.e. change wireless encryption keys) in the background. It is an integral part of implementing the WPA protocol

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## new_item

 *dany74q wrote:*   

> Thanks for the replies ! 
> 
> `tis not for getting rid entirely of a tool that does that , but for better understanding of what is behind it .
> 
> 

 

http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.11i-2004.pdf - this document should give some answers for questions you have. 

It's complicated stuff. For fully understand the idea behind this standard you will have to read lots of RFC's.

You inspired me to take closer look on this. But my question is "what variant of protection is secure enough" rather than "is there any other low-level tool"  :Wink: 

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## dany74q

Thank you friends , I`ll read some RFC`s and standards for a better understanding of the mechanisms that are behind it .

Also , I`ll download the WPA_Supplicant source and check what it is all about .

Thanks again ,

Danny .

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