networksetup: Change Wi-Fi and DNS From Terminal

Everything in the Network pane of System Settings has a command-line twin: networksetup. It can join a Wi-Fi network, change DNS servers, and switch interfaces on and off — which means it can also do those things inside a script, over SSH, or across ten Macs at once. Here are the subcommands that cover real work.

First: learn your service and device names

networksetup addresses networks two ways — by service name ("Wi-Fi", "Thunderbolt Ethernet") or by device name (en0, en5). Get both lists before anything else:

# service names, in the order macOS tries them
networksetup -listallnetworkservices

# services mapped to device names like en0
networksetup -listallhardwareports

# current address, router, and DNS for one service
networksetup -getinfo "Wi-Fi"

On most Mac laptops Wi-Fi is en0, but never assume — docks and adapters shuffle device names, and the hardware ports list is the truth.

Set and clear DNS servers

The most common real-world use: pointing a service at specific DNS resolvers.

# use Cloudflare DNS for Wi-Fi
sudo networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1

# check what's set
networksetup -getdnsservers Wi-Fi

# undo: clear manual DNS, back to the router's default
sudo networksetup -setdnsservers Wi-Fi empty

The literal word empty is the documented way to remove manual servers — after it, -getdnsservers reports there aren't any DNS servers set, meaning DHCP supplies them again. Changes apply immediately, no restart needed. The same pattern works for search domains with -setsearchdomains.

Join Wi-Fi and toggle the radio

# turn Wi-Fi off, then on (en0 = the Wi-Fi device here)
networksetup -setairportpower en0 off
networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

# join a network by name
networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 "HomeNetwork" "wifi-password"

The power toggle is the classic "have you tried turning Wi-Fi off and on" — scriptable, and handy over SSH when the menu bar is out of reach. -setairportnetwork joins immediately and remembers the network like the GUI would. One caution: the password is typed in plain text and lands in your shell history. For a sensitive network, join once from the Wi-Fi menu instead, and save the command form for automation where the credentials are disposable.

Getting and setting more

• networksetup -getcomputersleep / -getcurrentlocation — read misc settings; most -get… subcommands have a matching -set….
• sudo networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled "Wi-Fi" off — disable a whole service (undo with on).
• networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 — every remembered network, in priority order.

Setter subcommands need administrator rights — run them with sudo or macOS will prompt for authorization. Getters run as any user, so exploration is safe.

Network locations: profiles for all of it

If you regularly change DNS or service settings when moving between networks, stop re-typing and use locations — named snapshots of every network setting:

# see the locations that exist, and which is active
networksetup -listlocations
networksetup -getcurrentlocation

# create one, then switch between them
sudo networksetup -createlocation "Office" populate
sudo networksetup -switchtolocation "Office"

# undo: switch back to the default location
sudo networksetup -switchtolocation "Automatic"

populate copies the default services into the new location so you're editing a working setup rather than starting empty. Every DNS and interface change you make while a location is active belongs to that location — switch back to Automatic and the office DNS servers stay behind, waiting for next time. Delete an experiment with sudo networksetup -deletelocation "Office" once you've switched away from it — locations are cheap to make and cheap to discard.

Verify the result

After a DNS change, confirm your Mac is actually using the new resolvers and clear any cached lookups — our guide to flushing the DNS cache covers the follow-through.