Ubuntu – How to connect to a wireless network that has a two word name with a space

10.10networkingwireless

Ok, I have searched for some time in earnest for an answer to this question. I have a Beagleboard which has Ubuntu 10.10 Minimal install for Arm running on it.

With the default install, minimal tools, no GUI, I am unable to connect to my wireless network. The name of my network is "MYNAME NETWORK". Using a text editor to edit /etc/network/interfaces I can not seem to connect at all.

As an experiment, I connected to a friends network, which has a one word name "dystek",and was able to connect with Zero issues, and update and install a full GUI for ubuntu Arm.

The problem is that I don't want a full blown gui on the beagleboard, just a minimal install of ubuntu with CLI is all I need or want.

Is there anyway to connect to my wireless network via editing the /etc/network/interfaces file. Surely there is… I just don't know how.

Right now my interfaces file looks like this:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.1.200
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
wireless-essid BARRETT NETWORK
wireless-key 46456xxxxxxxx

Any help would be appreciated.

Best Answer

From here:

Add the name (ssid) for the network you want to create/join. Use single quotes if there is a space in the name.

So you could try:

wireless-essid 'BARRETT NETWORK'

Another alternative is to specify the MAC address of the router/gateway, instead of the name. This is called the bssid. 

wireless-bssid FFFFFFFFFFFF

You would replace the essid line with a bssid line containing the MAC address of the router (it should be printed on the bottom of it, or can be found with sudo iwlist scanning under 'Address').

Edit: From James' comments below, try replacing the wireless-essid and wireless-key lines with the following, as you are using WPA. Your passphrase also needs to be in hex. There are online tools for converting your passphrase to hex.

wpa-ssid 'BARRETT NETWORK'
wpa-psk 46456xxxxxxxx
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