The desktop
Networking
Wi-Fi
Click the Wi-Fi icon on the bar, or open Setup › Wi-Fi in the menu. The popup lists the networks in range. Choose one, type its password, and it is remembered and joined again whenever it is in range.
alpymist-wifi status # where Wi-Fi is
alpymist-wifi scan # look for networks and list them
alpymist-wifi off # the radio off; on, or toggle
alpymist set wifi.enabled false
Wi-Fi is iwd. Its own tools are there for what the popup does not do:
iwctl on the command line, and impala, a terminal interface.
Wired
A wired connection is used as soon as the cable is in. The bar shows it, with its address when the pointer rests on it.
The SSH server
The SSH server is off, and not even installed, until you turn it on:
alpymist set ssh.server on
or Settings › SSH, or Toggle › SSH server in the menu. It lets the accounts on this computer log in to it from another one over the network, so it asks for an administrator's password. Turning it off stops it again.
Connecting from this computer needs nothing turned on: ssh is installed.
See Security for how key passphrases are asked for and
forgotten.
Firmware for network cards
Some Wi-Fi and network cards need firmware files that are not installed by
default. A service watches for a driver asking for one and installs the
package that has it, so a card that did not work at first boot may work after
the next one with a network connection. doas alpymist firmware check does
that once, now.
Broadcom's older Wi-Fi cards, in every Mac from before 2012 and many other
laptops of those years, need firmware that nobody is allowed to package.
doas alpymist firmware broadcom fetches it from where Broadcom's own driver
is published. A machine with no other way onto a network has it carried
over on a stick, which the install stick itself can be; see
Troubleshooting.
The keyboard's Wi-Fi and airplane-mode keys switch the radio off and on, as the switch in the Wi-Fi popup does.