How do I connect to a WiFi Network with an unknown encryption algorithm in Android?

Question

I have researched this question on StackOverflow, but all answers specify how to connect to a network with a known encryption algorithm (mostly WEP). In my application, I retrieve a list of available wifi networks, and display them in a ListView (using WifiManager). When the user clicks one of the items in the list, I want to connect to the network.

My current implementation attempts to get the WifiConfiguration data from a ScanResult's capabilities String. For example, these are all actual capability strings retrieved:

[WPA2-PSK-CCMP][ESS]
[WPA2-PSK-CCMP+TKIP][ESS]
[WPA-PSK-CCMP+TKIP][WPA2-PSK-CCMP+TKIP][ESS]

I have assumed, based on some research, that these are bracket-separated capabilities, and the first item for each of these is a - separated String showing:

[Authentication Algorithm - Key Management Algorithm - Pairwise Cipher]

I parse this data, then create a WifiConfiguration Object, then attempt to connect to it, but it always fails (addNetwork returns -1). What am I doing wrong? Here is my code:

@Override
public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> adapter, View parent, int position, long id) {
    ScanResult result = (ScanResult) adapter.getItem(position);
    WifiConfiguration config = new WifiConfiguration();

    String currentNetwork = mWifiManager.getConnectionInfo().getSSID();
    if (currentNetwork != null && currentNetwork.equals(result.SSID))
    {
        Toast.makeText(this, "Already connected", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        return;
    }

    config.BSSID = result.BSSID;
    config.SSID = result.SSID;
    String firstCapabilities = result.capabilities.substring(1, result.capabilities.indexOf("]")-1);
    String[] capabilities = firstCapabilities.split("-");
    String auth = capabilities[0];
    String keyMgmt = capabilities[1];
    String pairwiseCipher = capabilities[2];

    int a = 0;
    if (auth.contains("EAP"))
        a |= WifiConfiguration.AuthAlgorithm.LEAP;
    else if (auth.contains("WPA"))
        a |= WifiConfiguration.AuthAlgorithm.OPEN;
    else if (auth.contains("WEP"))
        a |= WifiConfiguration.AuthAlgorithm.SHARED;
    config.allowedAuthAlgorithms.set(a);

    int k = WifiConfiguration.KeyMgmt.NONE;
    if (keyMgmt.contains("IEEE802.1X"))
        k |= WifiConfiguration.KeyMgmt.IEEE8021X;
    else if (auth.contains("WPA") && keyMgmt.contains("EAP"))
        k |= WifiConfiguration.KeyMgmt.WPA_EAP;
    else if (auth.contains("WPA") && keyMgmt.contains("PSK"))
        k |= WifiConfiguration.KeyMgmt.WPA_PSK;
    config.allowedKeyManagement.set(k);

    int c = WifiConfiguration.PairwiseCipher.NONE;
    if (pairwiseCipher.contains("CCMP"))
        c |= WifiConfiguration.PairwiseCipher.CCMP;
    if (pairwiseCipher.contains("TKIP"))
        c |= WifiConfiguration.PairwiseCipher.TKIP;
    config.allowedPairwiseCiphers.set(c);

    int networkId = mWifiManager.addNetwork(config);
    if (networkId == -1)
    {
        //always hits this line!
        Toast.makeText(this, "Failed to create network configuration", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
    else
    {
        //Never reaches here!
        mWifiManager.disconnect();
        mWifiManager.enableNetwork(networkId, true);
        mWifiManager.reconnect();
    }

}

Transliterate

by any chance did Eric Woodruff hit the spot, or was it something else? – Florance

@Florance it has been too long - I don't remember. I did have to do something similar in another project and found it to be way easier than this example using some newer Android APIs. – Transliterate

thanks for the feedback. I'm working on this now, and recent API doesn't seem to have changed much - very basic documentation and no tutorial at all, as they like to do for things they want the OS UI to handle, not user apps :/ – Florance

Answer 1

For WPA*, if you don't set the preSharedKey to 8 or more characters this will fail with -1. I don't see you setting it at all.

Sanches