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Every time I try to find out how to do this, I find out how to do it on a linux, and it doesn't transfer. How do I connect to a WiFi network using Mac Terminal Bash?

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3 Answers

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As of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X v10.6.x) and possibly earlier, you can do:

networksetup -setairportnetwork $INTERFACE $SSID $PASSWORD

Where...

  • $INTERFACE is the "enX" style identifier for your AirPort card (usually en1, but it's en0 on MacBook Airs and en2 on Mac Pros, and can vary for other reasons as well)
  • $SSID is your network name, such as "Simon's SSID". Enclose it in quotes if it contains spaces.
  • $PASSWORD is your WEP, WPA-PSK, or WPA2-PSK password.

If you look at the man page or help/usage statement for networksetup you'll see that it has other AirPort-related subcommand for getting or setting the power state (AirPort card on/off), and for managing the Preferred Networks list and 802.1X profiles (if your network uses 802.1X, such as a WPA Enterprise or WPA2 Enterprise network would).

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up vote 2 down vote accepted

Figured it out:

sudo airport -A

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up vote 1 down vote

Here is a little guide on using airport in the Command Line

Apparently you can use 

$ airport

as a command. I would try 

$ airport -help

and see if it brings up some options.

This answer is outdated. Please ignore it

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My SSID contains spaces, how would I enter it? – JShoe May 20 '11 at 23:03
Put it into quotations. Like "Simon's SSID". So the command may be something like: airport -x "Simon's SSID" – Simon Sheehan May 20 '11 at 23:06
make that /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resourc‌​es/airport, on my computer, at least. – nathang May 21 '11 at 0:13
@Simon what would the -x do? @nathang why would it change? How do I find what the correct location on my computer would be? – JShoe May 21 '11 at 3:05
How in the world did this answer, which has no hope of working, get upvotes? – Spiff May 21 '11 at 3:56
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