Wifi "PIN" - what's this?

[Frans Ketelaars]

On Thu, 01 Jul 2010 23:27:04 +1000, Karl Auer wrote:

> I was trying to connect to the wifi router at a friend's house today.
> With other access points, the access point appears in the drop-down list
> shown by NetworkManager, and I just pick it. If it needs a
> password/passkey it will aks, and that's all I need.
> 
> This time was strange. The access point appears in the list OK, but if
> selected there would just be a looooong delay before Networkmanager
> prompted for a passkey. It had detected the security as being WAP-PSK
> personal. After the passkey was entered, there was another loooong
> delay, then Network Manager gave up and tried the next access point it
> could detect.
> 
> My partner, who has a Vista laptop, tried connecting to this access
> point. She selected the network from the list of networks Vista found,
> and here is when it went strange - she was prompted for a "PIN! This was
> a number printed on the bottom of the access point. She put that in and
> was then prompted for a WPA passkey, and after *that* she was connected.
> 
> What's this "PIN"?!?!? I've never heard of a PIN being needed before.
> 
> Is there some way to tell Ubuntu what the PIN is so it can supply it
> when needed?
> 
> Regards, K.

Well, it is used to "simplify the process of configuring security on 
wireless networks" :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Setup

At least linuxwireless.org is aware of PIN :

http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Brainstorming/WPS-AP

Another link about PIN: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/39

    -Frans (who would also like to know how this is supposed to work)