How can I reset network (Airport) connections from the command line?

Question

I have this MacBook Pro that has intermittent problems connecting to my WiFi network. Sometimes it helps to disable/re-enable Airport and sometimes I have to restart the computer to get my network running again.

Has anyone else experienced this? Are there any commands I can run that would do the same as I do when I restart the computer (short of actually restarting it, obviously) - or at least a command that restarts the Airport service?

Answer 1

Next time, try this from the command line:

sudo ifconfig en1 down
sudo ifconfig en1 up

This should bring your wireless interface down and then bring it back up.

Answer 2

networksetup -setairportpower en1 off
networksetup -setairportpower en1 on

These are the commands I use to control Airport without the menubar icon. The advantage is that they don't require su/sudo privileges.

Answer 3

d=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | egrep 'AirPort|Wi-Fi' -A1 | grep -o en.)
[[ "$(networksetup -getairportpower $d)" == *On ]] && val=off || val=on
networksetup -setairportpower $d $val

The device name is en0 on MacBook Airs. The port name was changed from AirPort to Wi-Fi in 10.7.