/etc/network/interfaces

The manpage for this Debian configuration file is man 5 interfaces, but also ….

Examples

WiFi interfaces with WPA

See this two pages: wpa_supplicant in Debian 6.0 and How To Use wpasupplicant.

With this configuration the WiFi connection will be not managed by NetworkManager:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
        address 10.0.0.166
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        gateway 10.0.0.189
        dns-nameservers 62.48.51.6 151.99.125.2
        wpa-ssid MyESSID
        wpa-psk MyWPASecret