Connecting esieabot to the network

Connecting to the esieabot Wi-Fi hotspot

Warning

Be careful, when you connect to your esieabot’s Wi-Fi hotspot for the first time, you will lose your internet connection. Make sure to open the page open a terminal on your esieabot in a new tab of your browser, as you will need it later.

When powered on, your esieabot hosts a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can connect to it to manage your esieabot wirelessly. First, you need to find the name of your esieabot. It is located in the “hotspot.txt” file that you copied earlier. Then, connect your computer to this Wi-Fi network as you would connect to any network. The password is also in the “hotspot.txt” file.

Warning

Be careful, on Windows, you will be asked by default to connect using a PIN code and not a key. Make sure to choose the key mode. Similarly, you will be notified that your computer is not connected to the internet; this is normal.

You should now be connected to your esieabot.

Note

If you have an esieabot 2023 or newer, which has a screen, you can see the name of the Wi-Fi hotspot at the top of the screen. To display the password, you can hold down the button on the add-on board for a few seconds. This will display the password for 30 seconds.

Connecting the esieabot to the ESIEA Wi-Fi network

To connect to the ESIEA Wi-Fi network, there is an automatic configuration script. To run it, you must first open a terminal on your esieabot. Then, run the following command:

sudo /esieabot/available/official/connect-to-groupe-esiea.sh EMAIL

You need to replace “EMAIL” with your ESIEA email. Then, press Enter when prompted to validate it. Finally, enter your ESIEA password and press Enter again.

If your esieabot has a screen, then check that the network connection information is displayed. Otherwise, to check that the connection was successful, type the command “nmcli”. You should see two network connections in green, one “hotspot” which is your Wi-Fi hotspot and “Groupe-esiea”. If not, wait a few seconds for the connection to be established. If it does not connect, check your password and re-enter the connection command if necessary.

Note

If you have successfully connected your esieabot to the internet, your computer connected to the hotspot should have internet access. Indeed, your esieabot acts as a relay via the hotspot.

In the result of the “nmcli” command, you should see the IP address of your esieabot on the ESIEA Wi-Fi. It starts with 10.8.x.x in Paris or 192.168.x.x in Laval. If you experience any instability (very slow commands or frequent disconnections), you should then connect to your esieabot using the displayed IP address and reconnect your computer to the Groupe-esiea network. This will route the connections through the ESIEA Wi-Fi network instead of the esieabot hotspot.

Note

Instabilities can be normal if everyone turns on their esieabot in the same room due to Wi-Fi frequency range conflicts, no worries.

Connecting the esieabot to your personal Wi-Fi network

If you want to work at home or via your mobile hotspot, for example, you will also need to connect to the internet. To do this, you can type the command sudo nmtui which will open a small connection assistant. You can go to the “Activate connection” menu and choose your personal Wi-Fi network. Just like for the Groupe-esiea network, if the connection was successful, you should see your network appear in the result of the “nmcli” command or on the esieabot screen if it has one.