Replacing iwconfig with iw

Connecting to an open network

iwconfig wlan0 essid foo

is replaced by

iw wlan0 connect foo

If you want to set the channel:

iwconfig wlan0 essid foo freq 2432M
-or-
iwconfig wlan0 freq 2432M
iwconfig wlan0 essid foo

you instead simply use

iw wlan0 connect foo 2432

Connecting to a protected network

For WPA/WPA2 encryption, you have to use wpa_supplicant.

For WEP protection, you can use

iw wlan0 connect foo keys 0:abcde d:1:0011223344

instead of

iwconfig wlan0 key s:abcde
iwconfig wlan0 key '[2]0011223344'
iwconfig wlan0 key '[2]'
iwconfig wlan0 essid foo

Note that iwconfig uses 1-based key numbers and iw uses 0-based key numbers like the 802.11 standard.

Join an IBSS (ad-hoc network)

iwconfig wlan0 mode ad-hoc
iwconfig wlan0 essid foo-adhoc

in iw:

iw wlan0 set type ibss
iw wlan0 ibss join foo-adhoc

Leave an IBSS (ad-hoc network)

iwconfig wlan0 essid off

might work, but doesn't always work properly.

in iw, it will always work:

iw wlan0 ibss leave