Edimax 8192cu wifi dongle can't connect to hidden network

Question

I've tried many ways to connect to a Hidden WiFi network from a raspberry pi but none of them seem to work. My raspberry pi is able to detect that there is a network but it cannot map it to it. I ran the following command:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo iwlist wlan1 scan essid "MYSSID"
wlan1     Scan completed :
      Cell 01 - Address: //redacted//
                ESSID:"Not my wifi"
                Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                Mode:Master
                Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                Encryption key:on
                Bit Rates:65 Mb/s
                Extra:wpa_ie=//redacted//
                IE: WPA Version 1
                    Group Cipher : TKIP
                    Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                    Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                Quality=58/100  Signal level=100/100
      Cell 02 - Address: //redacted//
                ESSID:"Some other wifi"
                Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                Mode:Master
                Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                Encryption key:on
                Bit Rates:65 Mb/s
                Extra:wpa_ie=//redacted//
                IE: WPA Version 1
                    Group Cipher : TKIP
                    Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP
                    Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                Quality=54/100  Signal level=23/100
      Cell 03 - Address: //redacted//
                ESSID:""
                Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                Mode:Master
                Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                Encryption key:on
                Bit Rates:130 Mb/s
                Extra:rsn_ie=//redacted//
                IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                    Group Cipher : CCMP
                    Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                    Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                Quality=100/100  Signal level=42/100

Any insight of how I could connect to it would be greatly appreciated.

Edit:

my /etc/network/interfaces

auto wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
    address 10.10.10.2
    netmask 255.255.255.0
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan1
allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet manual
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

iface wlan1 inet dhcp
up iptables-restore < /etc/iptables.ipv4.nat

my /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

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


network={
        ssid="MYSSID"
        scan_ssid=1
        mode=0
        proto=WPA2
        pairwise=TKIP
        group=TKIP
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        psk="password"
}

I tried both ways to connect to the network, I added the contents of the file.

Another thing I noticed while testing with other Hidden networks is that, if I run the essid scan on them, if the hidden network is picked up only then is the Pi able to establish a connection.

Answer 1

Your /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf looks OK and includes the scan_ssid=1 which should have it scan hidden networks, but you never call it.

Include the following in your /etc/network/interfaces

allow-hotplug wlan1
iface wlan1 inet manual
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

This is pretty much the normal setting of this file.

I do not know the detail of the parameters you have in your /etc/network/interfaces, but they do not seem the same as those in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

It is better practice to include security detail in /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf as only root can view it.

Answer 2

Did you get it working?

These instructions did it for me.