Adding Wifi to Local Server

Server Relocation

I found myself having to relocate. This means the current DHCP settings that I had in the router that I could control are going out the window. To break that down I was able to log into my parents router and assign myself a specific IP so that when I SSH into my server I do not have to worry about the IP address changing.

What is SSH?

SSH stands for secure shell or secure socket. Its a cryptographic network protocol that allows two computers to communicate and share data. When SSHing into a server the command syntax will typically follow this structure:

ssh [username]@[IP Address or hostname]

The default port for SSH is normally 22, because this is common knowledge for security reasons its better to change the open port to another number so that it restricts access. If you opt to change the port number there is an argument that you have to include within your command.

ssh -p [port number] [username]@[IP Address or hostname]

Finally, sshing to a port for the first time (or more) will ask you for a key, you can refer to my post rsa$config. If you need to specify a specific key the command will change to:

ssh -p [port number] -i [path/to/key] [username]@IP Address or hostname]

Sever VS Wifi

The servers that I have worked with have always been either - connected via ethernet - cloud based (in which the service provider handles the connection)

With my current living situation I could not connect an RJ45 from the router to my server :( so I had to do it via wifi. I will go through the steps that I took to get there. I asked around my network of folks and no one knew how to connect a server to Wifi.

My first steps from some reading: - determine if my apple mini came with a NIC (network interface card). This would speak to the router in the house and get me connected - if it didn't, purchase a network adapter

To check if my apple mini came with a NIC I ran ip a and this listed out a ton of jibberish on what my server had. I saw that it had an eth0 but nothing starting with a w which is what would indicate something relating to wifi. I saw nonthing that looked close to that. That meant I had to by my adapter.

Pro tip: ensure that the adapter is Linux compatible. I purchased this.

Setting up the Server

Warning: you will need to connect the server to LAN before you can connect to via the adapter. I asked if I could use a port on the router for a few hours. With that I was able to install NetworkManager. I found out later that network manager is older than netplan and I ended up using netplan anyway.

I connected to LAN and then while in root I executed the command that came with the adapter from the vendor.

sh -c 'wget deb.trendtechcn.com/install -O /tmp/install && sh /tmp/install'

From there I went into the /etc/netplan/ folder and then created test.yaml. From there I made the following configurations:

network: 
   vesion: 2
   renderer: NetworkManager
   wifis:
     w1x0ccf896ddf26:
     dhcp4: no
     addresses: []
     gateway4: []
     nameservers:
       addresses: []
       access-points:
         SSID:
          password:

That's a lot, let me break it down. The first three lines are there because they have to be - it sets the stage for netplan to read it.

For wifis the w1x0cc... that was the name of the adapter I had plugged in. I got this ID by running ip a. If you're lost, you can unplug and run the command, then plug the adapter and replug it in. You will see the different item and use that as your ID.

For dhcp4: you can keep it as yes, but because this is a sever I wanted a static IP so that I could always access it because I like to use an alias for ease of use (this is configured in the hosts file)

In the addresses field I put the DHCP static IP followed by the /24. Including the brackets. Gateway was the LAN IP of the router, probably going to be192.168.1.1

For the nameservers I used cloud flare as that is reliable but you can use anything you like - so long as its reliable.

Under access-points I changed the SSID variable to my wifi name. Note: if you have spaces in your wifi name, wrap it with " ` ". Then I entered the WPA2 credentials.

After that I ran netplan generate this would pull up any errors. I had to run this a few times as I had some syntax issues. I then ran netplan apply to have the test.yaml settings apply.

Note: it has to be .yaml not .yml.

After that I had zero idea if it would work. I ran a ping google.com and started seeing packet transfers and I knew I was connected.

I then went into my machine and attempted to SSH in, after changing my /etc/hosts file to the new IP. And I was able to get in.

I used this video for reference. I hope you found this helpful.