Filed under: UNIX / BSD, Snow Leopard

Use networksetup to change AirPort networks from the command line

by TJ Luoma (RSS feed) on May 6th 2010 at 11:00AM

The other night I needed to change Wi-Fi networks on a computer that I was connected to via ssh. Just about every page that I found via Google led me to try the exact same thing (type "airport -A") with one minor problem: it didn't work.

Let's back up a little bit. You may know that there is a commandline tool called "airport" which is buried fairly deeply in the filesystem:

System » Library » PrivateFrameworks » Apple80211.framework » Versions » Current » Resources » airport

Not the usual place to find a commandline utility. Translation? "This is here for Apple to use, but it's not something you ought to rely on." But of course that's not going to stop us.

Read on for more...

Something for the super user