hotspot_login

A network utility script to manage network interfaces and log into wi-fi hotspot if not connected, without opening your browser. You can enable, disable, reset and test network adapters, check if connected or logged in, show available hotspots and add/remove SSIDs to/from a blocklist. Blocked SSIDs aren't displayed when all are listed (helpful in areas with a lot of access points.)

# python hotspot_login.py -h
usage: hotspot_login.py [-h] [-q] [-f] [-v] [-t [hotspot]] [-s [interface]] [-c [interface]]
                        [-e [interface]] [-d [interface]] [-r [interface]]
                        [-n [SSID]] [-b [SSID]] [-u [SSID]] [-bl]
                        ...

Hotspot Login Utility

positional arguments:
  [hotspot [interface]]
                        label for hotspot to connect to

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -q, --silent          supress all output
  -f, --force           force addition to block list
  -v, --debug           turn on debugging messages
  -t [hotspot], --test [hotspot]
                        test if a hotspot is logged into
  -s [interface], --show [interface]
                        show available wifi networks
  -c [interface], --check [interface]
                        check if an interface is connected to a network
  -e [interface], --enable [interface]
                        enable a network interface
  -d [interface], --disable [interface]
                        disable a network interface
  -r [interface], --reset [interface]
                        reset a network interface
  -n [SSID], --connected [SSID]
                        check if connected to a hotspot
  -b [SSID], --block [SSID]
                        block a wifi network by SSID
  -u [SSID], --unblock [SSID]
                        unblock a wifi network by SSID
  -bl, --blocklist      show list of blocked SSIDs

Error Code	Cause
0	success
1	general error
2	usage error
3	execute error, traceback results printed
4	invalid network interace (adapter)
5	hotspot login failed

Notes:

1. Warning: the unit tests for enableIF(), disableIF() and resetIF(), which change the state of the network interface, can cause some laptop adapters to lock up, such as the Qualcomm Atheros series, if cycled too quickly when testing. They're turned off by default and can be run by setting ADAPTER_TESTS to True.
2. The 'runas' command to use Administrator account doesn't work for either accounts w/Admin privs or the Administrator account (if you have it enabled.) As such the tests:
   1. Require Administrator privs to run (PowerShell -> Run as Administrator) or use of the Microsoft Elevated PowerToy.
   2. Are disabled by default unless a flag is set to run them.

History:

A friend asked if I could write a script to connect his RaspPi to hotspot(s) automatically. Decided to start with a Windows version which I could use to connect to hotspots w/o using a browser (although Windows will sometimes automagically open a browser/tab and redirect to a login page anyway.)

Started as just a small "POST login info" script but after looking at a lot of half-finished Python projects and modules, and finding few decent examples, it expanded into a more general CLI utility to handle clicking through lots of Windows menus to enable interfaces, etc. As it developed I found other helpful features to add, such as the SSID blocklist, which will prevent unwanted/unused access points from being listed as available. Very helpful in areas with a ton of APs.

Was going to use my own standard 'getopt' module to handle the command line, which I may still add. Decided to go more 'Pythonic' and use the 'argparse' module. Unfortunately the documentation is poor, good usage examples are few, and it's in many ways overkill for handling some simple flags with optional arguments. The built-in 'help' functionality is nice but getting it to look right was far more trouble than it's worth, IMHO. Going to add some links to helpful "argparse Cookbooks" on Github as well as my own examples. I probably spent 2/3rds of the time developing this just on 'argparse', so ho0pefully my examples will help.

Ran into a couple Windows-specific rough patches: after deciding to standardize on the 'netsh' CLI util, I found it often didn't return non-zero exit codes on failure, and enabling/disabling an interface (something I need to do sometimes if I haven't rebooted my laptop in a few months) requires elevated status to Administrator. Tried using a 'runas' wrapper to run as my account w/admin perms, but this didn't work, nor did doing same with the Administrator account which I'd enabled. Only running in a cmd/Powershell window started with 'Run as Adminstrator' privs, or using the Microsoft Elevate PowerToy add-on, works.