path: root/share/man/man4/wi.4

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.\"	Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>. All rights reserved.
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.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"	$OpenBSD: wi.4tbl,v 1.9 2002/04/11 20:34:06 millert Exp $
.\"
.Dd March 29, 2002
.Dt WI 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm wi
.Nd WaveLAN/IEEE, PRISM-II and Spectrum24 802.11DS wireless network driver
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "device wi"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver provides support for wireless network adapters based around
the Lucent Hermes, Intersil PRISM-II, Intersil PRISM-2.5, and Symbol
Spectrum24 chipsets.
All four chipsets provide a similar interface to the driver.
.Pp
All host/device interaction is via programmed I/O.
Supported features include 802.11 and 802.3 frames, power management, BSS,
IBSS, WDS and ad-hoc operation modes.
Cards based on the Intersil PRISM-II and PRISM-2.5 chips also support a
host-based access point mode which allows a card to act as a normal access
point (with some assistance from the
.Nm
driver).
The Lucent Hermes and Symbol Spectrum24 chipsets do not contain this
functionality.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver encapsulates all IP and ARP traffic as 802.11 frames, however
it can receive either 802.11 or 802.3 frames.
Transmit speed is selectable between 1Mbps fixed, 2Mbps fixed, 2Mbps
with auto fallback, 5.5Mbps, 8Mbps, or 11Mbps depending on your hardware.
The Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Silver and Gold cards as well as the Intersil
and Symbol cards have support for WEP encryption.
The WaveLAN Gold as well as newer Intersil and Symbol cards support
104bit keys, the others only accept 40bit keys.
The Lucent WaveLAN/IEEE Bronze cards do not support WEP at all.
To enable encryption, use the
.Xr wicontrol 8
utility to set your keys.
.Pp
By default, the
.Nm
driver configures the card for BSS operation (aka infrastructure
mode).
This mode requires the use of an access point (base station).
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver also supports an ad-hoc (point-to-point) mode where
the nwid is ignored and stations can communicate amongst
themselves without the aid of an access point.
Note that there are two possible ad-hoc modes.
One mode, referred to as
.Dq ad-hoc demo mode ,
predates the IEEE 802.11 specification and so may not interoperate
with cards from other vendors.
The standardized ad-hoc mode, also know as IBSS mode, is not
supported by cards with very old firmware revisions.
.Pp
Cards based on the Intersil PRISM-II and PRISM-2.5 chips also
have a host-based access point mode which allows the card to
act as an access point (base station).
.Pp
For more information on configuring this device, see
.Xr ifconfig 8 .
.Pp
Cards supported by the
.Nm
driver come in a variety of packages, though the most common
are of the PCMCIA type.
In many cases, the PCI version of a wireless card is simply
a PCMCIA card bundled with a PCI adapter.
The PCI adapters come in two flavors: true PCMCIA bridges and
dumb PCMCIA bridges.
A true PCMCIA bridge (such as those sold by Lucent) will attach
as a real PCMCIA controller.
The wireless card will then attach to the PCMCIA bus.
Wireless cards in PCMCIA slots may be inserted and ejected on the fly.
.br
A dumb bridge, on the other hand, does not show up as a true PCMCIA bus.
The wireless card will simply appear to the host as a normal PCI
device and will not require any PCMCIA support.
Cards in this type of adapter should only be removed when the
machine is powered down.
.Pp
The following cards are among those supported to by
.Nm
driver:
.Pp
.in +\n(dIu
.TS
tab (:) ;
l l l
_ _ _
l l l .
Card:Chip:Bus
3Com AirConnect 3CRWE737A:Spectrum24:PCMCIA
3Com AirConnect 3CRWE777A:Prism-II:PCI
ACTIONTEC HWC01170:Prism-2.5:PCMCIA
Addtron AWP-100:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Agere Orinoco:Hermes:PCMCIA
Apple Airport:Hermes:macobio
Buffalo AirStation:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Buffalo AirStation:Prism-II:CF
Cabletron RoamAbout:Hermes:PCMCIA
Compaq Agency NC5004:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Contec FLEXLAN/FX-DS110-PCC:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Corega PCC-11:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Corega PCCA-11:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Corega PCCB-11:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Corega CGWLPCIA11:Prism-II:PCI
ELSA XI300:Prism-II:PCMCIA
ELSA XI800:Prism-II:CF
EMTAC A2424i:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Ericsson Wireless LAN CARD C11:Spectrum24:PCMCIA
Gemtek WL-311:Prism-2.5:PCMCIA
Hawking Technology WE110P:Prism-2.5:PCMCIA
I-O DATA WN-B11/PCM:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Intel PRO/Wireless 2011:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Intersil Prism II:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Intersil Mini-PCI:Prism-2.5:PCI
Linksys Instant Wireless WPC11:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Linksys Instant Wireless WPC11 2.5:Prism-2.5:PCMCIA
Lucent WaveLAN:Hermes:PCMCIA
NANOSPEED ROOT-RZ2000:Prism-II:PCMCIA
NDC/Sohoware NCP130:Prism-II:PCI
NEC CMZ-RT-WP:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Netgear MA401:Prism-II:PCMCIA
NTT-ME 11Mbps Wireless LAN:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Proxim RangeLAN-DS:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Samsung MagicLAN SWL-2000N:Prism-II:PCMCIA
Symbol Spectrum24:Spectrum24:PCMCIA
SMC 2632 EZ Connect:Prism-II:PCMCIA
TDK LAK-CD011WL:Prism-II:PCMCIA
.TE
.in -\n(dIu
.Pp
Several vendors sell PCI adapters built around the PLX Technology 9050
or 9052 chip.
The following such adapters are supported or expected to work:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width -compact
.It 3Com AirConnect 3CRWE777A (3.3V)
.It Belkin F5D6000 (a rebadged WL11000P)
.It Eumitcom WL11000P
.It Global Sun Technology GL24110P (untested)
.It Global Sun Technology GL24110P02
.It LinkSys WDT11 (a rebadged GL24110P02)
.It Netgear MA301
.It US Robotics 2415 (rebadged WL11000P)
.El
.Pp
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following examples utilize
.Xr ifconfig 8
for simplicity, however,
.Xr wicontrol 8
can also be used to set wireless parameters.
.Pp
Join an existing BSS network (ie: connect to an access point):
.Dl # ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00
.Pp
Join a specific BSS network with network name
.Dq my_net .
.Dl # ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net
.br
.Pp
Join a specific BSS network with WEP encryption:
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
# ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
	wepkey 0x8736639624
.Ed
.Pp
Join an ad-hoc network with network name
.Dq my_net .
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
# ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
	mediaopt adhoc
.Ed
.Pp
Create an IBBS network with network name
.Dq my_net .
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
# ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.20 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
	mediaopt create-ibss
.Ed
.Pp
Join an IBBS network with network name
.Dq my_net .
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
# ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.22 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_net \e
	mediaopt ibss
.Ed
.Pp
Create a host-based access point (Prism only):
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
# ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
	mediaopt hostap
.Ed
.Pp
Create a host-based access point with WEP enabled (Prism only):
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
# ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.0.10 netmask 0xffffff00 ssid my_ap \e
	wepkey 0x1234567890 mediaopt hostap
.Ed
.Pp
Create a host-based wireless bridge to fxp0 (Prism only):
.Bd -literal -compact -offset indent
Add BRIDGE to the kernel config.
# ifconfig wi0 inet up ssid my_ap mediaopt hostap
# sysctl net.link.ether.bridge=1
# sysctl net.link.ether.bridge_cfg="wi0 fxp0"
# sysctl net.inet.ip.forwarding=1
.Ed
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Bl -diag
.It "wi%d: init failed"
The WaveLAN card failed to come ready after an initialization command
was issued.
.It "wi%d: failed to allocate %d bytes on NIC"
The driver was unable to allocate memory for transmit frames in the
NIC's on-board RAM.
.It "wi%d: device timeout"
The WaveLAN failed to generate an interrupt to acknowledge a transmit
command.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr an 4 ,
.Xr arp 4 ,
.Xr netintro 4 ,
.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
.Xr wicontrol 8
.Rs
.%T HCF Light programming specification
.%O http://www.wavelan.com
.Re
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
device driver first appeared in
.Fx 3.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
driver was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.
This man page comes from
.Ox .
.Sh CAVEATS
The original Lucent WaveLAN cards usually default to channel 3;
newer cards use channel 10 by default.
Non-Lucent cards vary, for instance the Addtron cards use channel
11 by default.
See
.Xr wicontrol 8
for information on how to change the channel.
.Pp
IBSS creation does not currently work with Symbol cards.
.Pp
Prism2 host-based access point mode has bugs for firmware versions
prior to 0.8.3.