Connecting CTT SensorStation to University wifi that requires both username and password

Stations Receivers
1

We recently installed a Motus station with a CTT SensorStation at the U of Alberta campus and want to connect the SensorStation to the University Wifi. However, U of A requires both a username and password to connect to the network, but the software on the rasperypi seems to only accept a network name and password, not a username. Does anyone know how to update the software on the Raspberry Pi so that a username can be added to the wifi credentials?

2

You may be referring to a “captive portal” where the network requires you to log in via a browser to be authenticated. I don’t think the SensorStation or SensorGnome support this natively, but there may be workarounds. @user80 and @TvE may be able to elaborate on the details.

3

I don’t think the network necessarily needs to be authenticated via a browser (e.g. like you often have to do with free wifi at airports and hotels). I just need to be able to provide 3 values to the wifi credentials: network name, username, and password. For most home wifi networks, you just need a network name and password, but for corporate wifi networks, you often need a username as well.

4

Do you know what the authentication method in use in your network is called? (Sorry, I lost touch with enterprise wifi auth…)

In general, you’ll find the wifi client authentication in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf (I also see it on my SSv3 but I don’t know whether it uses it or overrides it somehow). You can find info on that file if you search for wpa_supplicant, it’s a standard linux thing. You should be able to edit it and restart the wifi (systemctl restart wpa_supplicant …?). If you need help, LMK.

For reference, this is what it looks like when I configure for my WPA2/PSK network:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=us

network={
        ssid="iot-net"
        psk=02585a8fb000000000000000766abe50d1000000000af31dcd255
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
5

Hi Thorston. Thanks for your response. I finally found the info I need for the wpa_supplicant.conf file in order to connect to the U of Alberta network. U of A IT provided the following:

network={ ssid=“UWS” key_mgmt=WPA-EAP eap=PEAP identity=“your_CCID username” password=“your_CCID password” phase2=“auth=MSCHAPV2” id_str=“University_of_Alberta” }

My question is, how do I edit the supplicant file using command line in Windows Powershell? The SensorStation instructions explain how to modify the wifi credentials via ‘sudo raspi-config’, but this leads to a menu that only allows you to update SSID and passphrase.

Do you know the syntax to manually edit the wpa_supplicant.config file from the commad line?

6

my recommendation would be to ssh into the SS and use the nano editor to edit the file (sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf).

1 Like
7

Great, that works to update the wpa_supplicant.conf file! Just to confirm, after I’ve updated the file, do I need to restart the wifi using systemctl restart wpa_supplicant as you mention above? For now I’m just experimenting with the SensorStation at home, but I’ll be installing it a University tomorrow. Thanks!

1 Like
8

Yes, you have to restart the wifi, it does not watch the file.