network — network configuration

This module provides network drivers and routing configuration. To use this module, a MicroPython variant/build with network capabilities must be installed. Network drivers for specific hardware are available within this module and are used to configure hardware network interface(s). Network services provided by configured interfaces are then available for use via the usocket module.

For example:

# connect/ show IP config a specific network interface
# see below for examples of specific drivers
import network
import utime
nic = network.Driver(...)
if not nic.isconnected():
    nic.connect()
    print("Waiting for connection...")
    while not nic.isconnected():
        utime.sleep(1)
print(nic.ifconfig())

# now use usocket as usual
import usocket as socket
addr = socket.getaddrinfo('micropython.org', 80)[0][-1]
s = socket.socket()
s.connect(addr)
s.send(b'GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: micropython.org\r\n\r\n')
data = s.recv(1000)
s.close()

Common network adapter interface

This section describes an (implied) abstract base class for all network interface classes implemented by MicroPython ports for different hardware. This means that MicroPython does not actually provide AbstractNIC class, but any actual NIC class, as described in the following sections, implements methods as described here.

class network.AbstractNIC(id=None, ...)

Instantiate a network interface object. Parameters are network interface dependent. If there are more than one interface of the same type, the first parameter should be id.

network.active([is_active])

Activate (“up”) or deactivate (“down”) the network interface, if a boolean argument is passed. Otherwise, query current state if no argument is provided. Most other methods require an active interface (behavior of calling them on inactive interface is undefined).

network.connect([service_id, key=None, *, ...])

Connect the interface to a network. This method is optional, and available only for interfaces which are not “always connected”. If no parameters are given, connect to the default (or the only) service. If a single parameter is given, it is the primary identifier of a service to connect to. It may be accompanied by a key (password) required to access said service. There can be further arbitrary keyword-only parameters, depending on the networking medium type and/or particular device. Parameters can be used to: a) specify alternative service identifer types; b) provide additional connection parameters. For various medium types, there are different sets of predefined/recommended parameters, among them:

  • WiFi: bssid keyword to connect to a specific BSSID (MAC address)
network.disconnect()

Disconnect from network.

network.isconnected()

Returns True if connected to network, otherwise returns False.

network.scan(*, ...)

Scan for the available network services/connections. Returns a list of tuples with discovered service parameters. For various network media, there are different variants of predefined/ recommended tuple formats, among them:

  • WiFi: (ssid, bssid, channel, RSSI, authmode, hidden). There may be further fields, specific to a particular device.

The function may accept additional keyword arguments to filter scan results (e.g. scan for a particular service, on a particular channel, for services of a particular set, etc.), and to affect scan duration and other parameters. Where possible, parameter names should match those in connect().

network.status([param])

Query dynamic status information of the interface. When called with no argument the return value describes the network link status. Otherwise param should be a string naming the particular status parameter to retrieve.

The return types and values are dependent on the network medium/technology. Some of the parameters that may be supported are:

  • WiFi STA: use 'rssi' to retrieve the RSSI of the AP signal
  • WiFi AP: use 'stations' to retrieve a list of all the STAs connected to the AP. The list contains tuples of the form (MAC, RSSI).
network.ifconfig([(ip, subnet, gateway, dns)])

Get/set IP-level network interface parameters: IP address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS server. When called with no arguments, this method returns a 4-tuple with the above information. To set the above values, pass a 4-tuple with the required information. For example:

nic.ifconfig(('192.168.0.4', '255.255.255.0', '192.168.0.1', '8.8.8.8'))
network.config('param')
network.config(param=value, ...)

Get or set general network interface parameters. These methods allow to work with additional parameters beyond standard IP configuration (as dealt with by ifconfig()). These include network-specific and hardware-specific parameters. For setting parameters, the keyword argument syntax should be used, and multiple parameters can be set at once. For querying, a parameter name should be quoted as a string, and only one parameter can be queried at a time:

# Set WiFi access point name (formally known as ESSID) and WiFi channel
ap.config(essid='My AP', channel=11)
# Query params one by one
print(ap.config('essid'))
print(ap.config('channel'))

Functions

network.phy_mode([mode])

Get or set the PHY mode.

If the mode parameter is provided, sets the mode to its value. If the function is called without parameters, returns the current mode.

The possible modes are defined as constants:
  • MODE_11B – IEEE 802.11b,
  • MODE_11G – IEEE 802.11g,
  • MODE_11N – IEEE 802.11n.

class WLAN

This class provides a driver for WiFi network processor in the ESP8266. Example usage:

import network
# enable station interface and connect to WiFi access point
nic = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)
nic.active(True)
nic.connect('your-ssid', 'your-password')
# now use sockets as usual

Constructors

class network.WLAN(interface_id)

Create a WLAN network interface object. Supported interfaces are network.STA_IF (station aka client, connects to upstream WiFi access points) and network.AP_IF (access point, allows other WiFi clients to connect). Availability of the methods below depends on interface type. For example, only STA interface may connect() to an access point.

Methods

wlan.active([is_active])

Activate (“up”) or deactivate (“down”) network interface, if boolean argument is passed. Otherwise, query current state if no argument is provided. Most other methods require active interface.

wlan.connect(ssid=None, password=None, *, bssid=None)

Connect to the specified wireless network, using the specified password. If bssid is given then the connection will be restricted to the access-point with that MAC address (the ssid must also be specified in this case).

wlan.disconnect()

Disconnect from the currently connected wireless network.

wlan.scan()

Scan for the available wireless networks.

Scanning is only possible on STA interface. Returns list of tuples with the information about WiFi access points:

(ssid, bssid, channel, RSSI, authmode, hidden)

bssid is hardware address of an access point, in binary form, returned as bytes object. You can use ubinascii.hexlify() to convert it to ASCII form.

There are five values for authmode:

  • 0 – open
  • 1 – WEP
  • 2 – WPA-PSK
  • 3 – WPA2-PSK
  • 4 – WPA/WPA2-PSK

and two for hidden:

  • 0 – visible
  • 1 – hidden
wlan.status([param])

Return the current status of the wireless connection.

When called with no argument the return value describes the network link status. The possible statuses are defined as constants:

  • STAT_IDLE – no connection and no activity,
  • STAT_CONNECTING – connecting in progress,
  • STAT_WRONG_PASSWORD – failed due to incorrect password,
  • STAT_NO_AP_FOUND – failed because no access point replied,
  • STAT_CONNECT_FAIL – failed due to other problems,
  • STAT_GOT_IP – connection successful.

When called with one argument param should be a string naming the status parameter to retrieve. Supported parameters in WiFI STA mode are: 'rssi'.

wlan.isconnected()

In case of STA mode, returns True if connected to a WiFi access point and has a valid IP address. In AP mode returns True when a station is connected. Returns False otherwise.

wlan.ifconfig([(ip, subnet, gateway, dns)])

Get/set IP-level network interface parameters: IP address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS server. When called with no arguments, this method returns a 4-tuple with the above information. To set the above values, pass a 4-tuple with the required information. For example:

nic.ifconfig(('192.168.0.4', '255.255.255.0', '192.168.0.1', '8.8.8.8'))
wlan.config('param')
wlan.config(param=value, ...)

Get or set general network interface parameters. These methods allow to work with additional parameters beyond standard IP configuration (as dealt with by wlan.ifconfig()). These include network-specific and hardware-specific parameters. For setting parameters, keyword argument syntax should be used, multiple parameters can be set at once. For querying, parameters name should be quoted as a string, and only one parameter can be queries at time:

# Set WiFi access point name (formally known as ESSID) and WiFi channel
ap.config(essid='My AP', channel=11)
# Query params one by one
print(ap.config('essid'))
print(ap.config('channel'))

Following are commonly supported parameters (availability of a specific parameter depends on network technology type, driver, and MicroPython port).

Parameter Description
mac MAC address (bytes)
essid WiFi access point name (string)
channel WiFi channel (integer)
hidden Whether ESSID is hidden (boolean)
authmode Authentication mode supported (enumeration, see module constants)
password Access password (string)
dhcp_hostname The DHCP hostname to use