Question

In Android 1.5 (also on 1.6)

How to add an Access Point from code?

Given Access point that supports WPA2.
Here is my code snippet.

WifiManager wifi = (WifiManager) getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
WifiConfiguration wc = new WifiConfiguration();
// This is must be quoted according to the documentation 
// http://developer.android.com/reference/android/net/wifi/WifiConfiguration.html#SSID
wc.SSID = "\"SSIDName\"";
wc.preSharedKey  = "password";
wc.hiddenSSID = true;
wc.status = WifiConfiguration.Status.ENABLED;        
wc.allowedGroupCiphers.set(WifiConfiguration.GroupCipher.TKIP);
wc.allowedGroupCiphers.set(WifiConfiguration.GroupCipher.CCMP);
wc.allowedKeyManagement.set(WifiConfiguration.KeyMgmt.WPA_PSK);
wc.allowedPairwiseCiphers.set(WifiConfiguration.PairwiseCipher.TKIP);
wc.allowedPairwiseCiphers.set(WifiConfiguration.PairwiseCipher.CCMP);
wc.allowedProtocols.set(WifiConfiguration.Protocol.RSN);
int res = wifi.addNetwork(wc);
Log.d("WifiPreference", "add Network returned " + res );
boolean b = wifi.enableNetwork(res, true);        
Log.d("WifiPreference", "enableNetwork returned " + b );

This code fails as in LogCat appear

01-26 16:44:13.550: ERROR/wpa_supplicant(2032): Line 0: Invalid PSK ‘password’.

I am sure that this is the password and that all of the rest of the parameters are right.
What do I do I miss?

Answer 1

The reason for the my sorrow is here in this Documentation issue

While documentation here states

“Pre-shared key for use with WPA-PSK.
When the value of this key is read, the actual key is not returned, just a
“*” if the key has a value, or the null string otherwise.”

It is correct, but very important what it does not say is that expected here ether 64 byte hash result of the linux
command

wpa_passphrase <ssid> [passphrase] 

or Access Point’s password IN DOUBLE QUOTES!

So in case that Access Point’s PSK is “example” it has to be passed in java
like this

WifiConfiguration myWiFiConfig = new WifiConfiguration();
...
myWiFiConfig.preSharedKey = "\"example\"";
...

OR

myWiFiConfig.preSharedKey = "0a0b0f62170ecc5bcf721b6ff170b8b560101b5d56b00a26abec217e0bb4aa1f";

For all the rest of you that will stumble on this the right way is:

Copy&Paste it as is and save your self half a day of pain we already spent on it (Special Thanks to Reflog)

WifiManager wifi = (WifiManager) getSystemService(Context.WIFI_SERVICE);
WifiConfiguration wc = new WifiConfiguration();
wc.SSID = "\"SSIDName\"";
wc.preSharedKey  = "\"password\"";
wc.hiddenSSID = true;
wc.status = WifiConfiguration.Status.ENABLED;        
wc.allowedGroupCiphers.set(WifiConfiguration.GroupCipher.TKIP);
wc.allowedGroupCiphers.set(WifiConfiguration.GroupCipher.CCMP);
wc.allowedKeyManagement.set(WifiConfiguration.KeyMgmt.WPA_PSK);
wc.allowedPairwiseCiphers.set(WifiConfiguration.PairwiseCipher.TKIP);
wc.allowedPairwiseCiphers.set(WifiConfiguration.PairwiseCipher.CCMP);
wc.allowedProtocols.set(WifiConfiguration.Protocol.RSN);
int res = wifi.addNetwork(wc);
Log.d("WifiPreference", "add Network returned " + res );
boolean b = wifi.enableNetwork(res, true);        
Log.d("WifiPreference", "enableNetwork returned " + b );