How to set up a wireless adapter

For this tutorial i will be using a RT5370 Wireless Adapter to connect to my network. Firstly, power down your Pi and then insert your USB adapter. Secondly, power your Pi and ssh into it. If you want to check your USB is being read correctly or you want to know the model of your adapter, simply type in lsusb. You should get an output with something like this;

Now you know that your adapter is being recognised you can now go on to getting your network adapter set up. There are many ways of doing this, like using the wpa_suppicant file. This method is easier, works for most networks and requires only editing one file. To enter your network information you need to edit the interface file, so run;

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

you should then get a file that looks like this;

You need to then edit the file so it looks something like this;

Tip: The ” ” for your networks name and password is essential.

To save the file you need to press CTRL + o, then to exit the editor CTRL + x. Then to test that you have correctly set up wifi run the code sudo ifup --force wlan0 up. This will force the network adapter to get an ip from your networks DHCP server. If this runs without any errors, type in the command ifconfig. You should then see an ip address assigned to eth0 which is the ip address that you connected to the pi, and also an ip assigned to the wlan0;

Thank you for reading if you have any comments, see any mistakes or if you have any specific tutorial you would like me to cover please comment below.