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.
Warning
The internal hotspot of your esieabot will automatically turn off when it is connected to the internet (see below). If it loses the internet connection, it will turn back on automatically to allow you to reconnect to your esieabot. This may take up to 30 seconds to refresh.
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 one of the following commands:
# If you're in Laval
sudo /esieabot/available/official/connect-to-groupe-esiea.sh EMAIL
# If you're in Paris/Ivry
sudo /esieabot/available/official/connect-to-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 details are displayed correctly. Otherwise, to verify that the connection worked, type the command “nmcli”. You should see a network connection in green labeled “Groupe-esiea” or “ESIEA”. If not, wait a few seconds for the connection to establish. If it still does not, check your password and re-enter the connection command if needed.
Note
If you managed to connect your esieabot to the internet, the internal hotspot of your esieabot will automatically turn off.
On your screen or in the output 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 10.105.x.x in Laval. You must then connect to your esieabot using the displayed IP address and reconnect your computer to the ESIEA network. This will route connections through the ESIEA Wi-Fi network instead of through your esieabot’s hotspot.
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. The internal hotspot will also turn off automatically.
Note
If you can’t see your network in the list, check if it’s using the 2.4Ghz frequency. If it’s not, you won’t be able to connect to it.
Note
To refresh the list of available networks, you can run the command sudo nmcli dev wifi rescan.