Introduction

Since the fall of 2008, there have been two options for connecting to the Virginia Tech network by wireless card. One network, called VT-Wireless, operates by means of WPA2 Enterprise and is secured with EAP/TLS. The other network, called VT_WLAN, is an unsecured, captive portal wireless network. While connections to VT-Wireless are secure by default, and require no user authentication once set up, the setup has a number of steps. In contrast, setup for VT_WLAN network is negligible, but you will be required to manually authenticate each time you connect (although this can be scripted).

	VT-Wireless	VT_WLAN
Secure (Encrypted) Connection	yes	no
Setup	involved	trivial
Authentication	automatic	manual

VT-Wireless

The VT-Wireless network is secured by WPA with EAP/TLS encryption. This encryption mechanism is put in place through a certificate authentication mechanism.

Obtaining the VT-Wireless Certificate

Regardless of what program you use to make your connection, you will need to obtain your p12 certificate and password from CNS. Complete the form and download the p12 certificate file. Save the certificate password permanently and copy it for immediate use. You will need it in setting up your connection to VT-Wireless.

Choosing a Network Manager

NetworkManager is installed by default on Ubuntu and Fedora. As of fall 2009, it does not support the PKCS#12 format certificates that CNS provide out of the box, however. Converting the certificate requires some work, but the steps are outlined below. If you don't rely on NetworkManager for other kinds of connections like mobile broadband or VPN, or are having problems with NetworkManager, use Wicd instead. If you don't want or need a graphical interface, a WPA Supplicant configuration is also described below.

Connecting by NetworkManager

The setup for NetworkManager depends on your version of the software. Please follow the instructions appropriate to your version below. In GNOME, you can right-click the NetworkManager applet icon in the panel and select "About" to find the version of NetworkManager.

Ubuntu users: Version 0.6 ships with 8.04 Hardy Heron, 0.7 ships with 8.10 Intrepid Ibex and 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, and 0.8 ships with Karmic Koala.

NetworkManager 0.7 and 0.8

Converting the certificate to PEM certificates and keys

[NOTE: The following steps are only necessary to use NetworkManager 0.7 and 0.8. NetworkManager 0.6 has a [#NetworkManager_0.6 more straightforward setup]] You will need to convert the PKCS#12 (.p12) certificate into PEM formats. We will assume your downloaded p12 file is called netcert-1.p12 and that its password is netcertpasswd. Open a terminal and cd to the directory that contains your .p12 file. Then issue the following commands:

openssl pkcs12 -in netcert-1.p12 -out vt_client_cert.pem -clcerts -nokeys
openssl pkcs12 -in netcert-1.p12 -out vt_private_key.pem -nocerts

In each step, you will be prompted for the password (netcertpasswd) that you were issued along with your .p12 certificate. Right click and paste it in or press ctrl+shift+v if you're using Gnome Terminal Additionally, in the final step where you generate your private key, you will be asked to enter a password. Enter the same password that came with your p12 key.

Sources

WPA2 EAP/TLS Linux client setup

Make sure you have the CA Certificate

Next, you will need to make sure you have the Thawte certificate authority certificate. In Ubuntu, you should be able to find this certificate at /etc/ssl/certs/Thawte_Premium_Server_CA.pem. If you can't find the certificate on your system, you can copy the text below and paste it into a new file of the same name.

Left-click the NetworkManager applet and select the VT-Wireless network.

You will see a prompt to configure the connection. First, from the Authentication drop-down menu, select TLS.

Next, fill in the rest of the options:

Field	Value
SSID	VT-Wireless
Wireless Security	WPA & WPA2 Enterprise
Authentication	TLS
Identity	Your VT PID
User Certificate	/path/to/vt_client_cert.pem
CA Certificate	/etc/ssl/certs/Thawte_Premium_Server_CA.pem
Private Key	/path/to/vt_private_key.pem
Private Key Password	netcertpasswd

Click "Connect" and you should connect to the VT-Wireless network.

NetworkManager 0.6

Left-click the NetworkManager applet and select VT-Wireless. You will be prompted to enter information about the connection. Here are the entries you should use:

Field	Value
SSID	VT-Wireless
Wireless Security	WPA2 Enterprise
EAP Method	TLS
Key Type	Automatic (Default)
Phase2 Type	None (Default)
Identity	Your VT PID
Password	empty
Client Certificate File	(None)
CA Certificate File	(None)
Private Key File	netcert-1.p12 (the certificate downloaded from VT NetCert)
Private Key Password	netcertpasswd

Connecting with Wicd

The following instructions were written for Wicd 1.6.2.2 on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. If other versions or distributions have significantly different steps, please add those instructions or make a note of the need for them on VTLUUG Wiki:Wanted.

Wicd is an alternative to NetworkManager. It has proven to be more reliable than NetworkManager for a number of users. Unlike NetworkManager, to use Wicd, you do not need to convert the PKCS#12 certificate that CNS provides to a set of PEM certificates. If you need VPN or mobile broadband functionality, don't use Wicd, though. It doesn't have those features. Follow the instructions for converting the certificate and using NetworkManager instead.

To install Wicd on Debian-based systems, run sudo apt-get install wicd. Installing it will uninstall NetworkManager.

Open Wicd, either by left clicking the tray icon or by selecting Applications->Internet->Wicd Network Manager. Allow Wicd to scan the wireless networks then check the "Automatically connect to this network" checkbox by the topmost VT-Wireless entry. (You do not need to check the boxes for every VT-Wireless entry. The screenshot below was made from a working configuration that automatically checked all of them.)

Click the "Properties" button of the topmost VT-Wireless entry and enter the following information:

Check the "Use these settings for all networks sharing this essid" box.
Leave the "Use Encryption" box checked.
Select EAP-TLS from the encryption type dropdown menu.
Enter your PID into the "Identity" box.
Enter the path to your private key into the "Private Key" box, i.e. /home/user/netcert/netcert-1.p12.
Paste the certificate password into the "Private Key Password" box.

Click "OK" and your computer should be all setup to use VT-Wireless.

Connecting by WPA Supplicant

WPA Supplicant is the preferred method of connection to WPA-secured wireless networks without a graphical interface. It supports PKCS#12 certificates.

Editing wpa_supplicant.conf

Add the following to your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file (if no file exists, create it):

network={
    ssid="VT-Wireless"
    key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
    eap=TLS
    identity="PID"
    private_key="/PATH/TO/NETCERT.p12"
    private_key_passwd="PASSWORD"
}

Replace PID with your actual PID (without any trailing @vt.edu), /PATH/TO/NETCERT.p12 with the actual path to your certificate (you can store it in /etc/netcert) and PASSWORD with the certificate password given to you when you downloaded the certificate. Note the certificate used here should be the original PKCS#12 file you downloaded. Reformatting the certificate is only necessary for NetworkManager.

Running WPA Supplicant

Ubuntu

In Ubuntu, make sure to shut down NetworkManager with:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop

Next, issue the following command:

$ sudo wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -D wext -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Confirm that you are associated with VT-Wireless

$ sudo iwconfig INTERFACE

where INTERFACE is your wireless card's device interface. Usually this is wlan0 but depending on udev and perhaps other system features, it might appear as ath0, eth1 or something else. Run sudo ifconfig -a to see all your interfaces listed. If you have properly connected, you should see Access Point: followed by a MAC address (e.g., 00:0F:23:EA:4A:01). If instead you see Access Point: not associated, try the command again. If it still fails after a couple of seconds, bring down the interface and bring it back up:

$ sudo ifconfig INTERFACE down
$ sudo ifconfig INTERFACE up

and re-issue the wpa_supplicant command. Next, obtain an IP address. In Ubuntu, this is done with

$ sudo dhclient INTERFACE

If all goes well, you'll obtain an IP address. Otherwise, you'll receive a timeout for your DHCP request.

Gentoo

If you're already using wpa_supplicant, just restart your interface after editing wpa_supplicant.conf:

# /etc/init.d/wlan0 restart

This should connect you. If you're not using wpa_supplicant, you'll need to migrate from Wireless Tools to it in order to use WPA. Refer to the Gentoo documentation for a step-by-step guide to setting up WPA Supplicant.

Network Information Sources

Virginia Tech Wifi (OLD)

Contents

Introduction

VT-Wireless

Obtaining the VT-Wireless Certificate

Choosing a Network Manager

Connecting by NetworkManager

NetworkManager 0.7 and 0.8

Converting the certificate to PEM certificates and keys

Make sure you have the CA Certificate

NetworkManager 0.6

Connecting with Wicd

Connecting by WPA Supplicant

Editing wpa_supplicant.conf

Running WPA Supplicant

Ubuntu

Gentoo

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