wicd-cli is a scriptable command-line only "client" for wicd written by Ronuk Raval. Some usage examples for wicd-cli.py Scan for new wireless networks and display them: python wicd-cli.py --wireless --scan --list-networks or (same thing, short version) python wicd-cli.py -y -S -l Or, you can view the networks Wicd has in its cache: python wicd-cli.py --wireless --list-networks If you want to do anything with these networks, you''ll need to note the network ID listed on the left side of the above command. Get the channel number from network 0: python wicd-cli.py --wireless --network 0 --network-property channel Or get all available information for a certain network, do: python wicd-cli.py --wireless --network 0 --network-details Or do the same for the currently connected network, do: python wicd-cli.py --wireless --network-details View the available encryption templates Wicd can use: python wicd-cli.py --wireless --list-encryption-types Look under your chosen encryption scheme for a list of required properties (marked with "Req:"). These are additional properties that must be set before the encryption can be used. For example, the listing for WPA encryption looks as follows: 0 wpa WPA 1/2 (Passphrase) Req: key (Key) The list indicates that to use WPA encryption, the following properties must be set: 'enctype' => 'wpa' (from the name field) 'key' => YOUR_WPA_PASSKEY (from the required field) Use the WPA encryption scheme on network 0 by issuing the following two commands: python wicd-cli.py --wireless --network 0 \ --network-property enctype --set-to wpa python wicd-cli.py --wireless --network 0 \ --network-property key --set-to YOUR_WPA_PASSKEY Finally, we need to connect to the network: python wicd-cli.py --wireless --network 0 --connect