How can I get "networksetup -getairportnetwork en0" to report my wireless router's name on MacBook Pro M4 Tahoe 26.2?

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How can I get "networksetup -getairportnetwork en0" to report my wireless router's name on MacBook Pro M4 Tahoe 26.2?

I have an Apple Silicon M4 macBook Pro with macOS Tahoe 26.2.

When I open Terminal and type;

networksetup -listallnetworkports

then press enter, I get;

...
Hardware Port: Wi-Fi
Device: en0
Ethernet Address: 84:2f:57:86:3e:4a
...

so when I type this;

networksetup -getairportnetwork en0

and press enter, I get this;

You are not associated with an AirPort network.

Even though I have Wi-Fi enabled and turned on. I can even ping to the router and get replies.

I have even tried typing;

networksetup -getairportnetwork en1

and pressing enter. I then get;

en1 is not a Wi-Fi interface.

Can anyone help me to get this working so that I can use networksetup to detect Wi-Fi availablilty in a shell script?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro (M4 Pro, 2024)

Posted on Dec 15, 2025 11:36 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,230 points

Dec 15, 2025 2:17 PM in response to sjlearmonth

Try this:

iface=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi/ {getline;print $2}')
ipconfig getsummary $iface | egrep -io '(\bSSID) \: \w+'

SSID : Bifrost6

or…

iface=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi/ {getline;print $2}')
ipconfig getsummary $iface | egrep -io '(\bLinkStatusActive) \: \w+'

LinkStatusActive : TRUE

Tested: Tahoe 26.2

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Answer 2

Dec 15, 2025 2:37 PM in response to sjlearmonth

I’m getting the impression some folks were being sneaky-bad with their shell scripts, and this location data is accordingly now being better protected.

wdutil also gets the info, though requires sudo”

sudo wdutil info

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