WICONTROL(8) BSD System Manager's Manual WICONTROL(8)
wicontrol - configure WaveLAN/IEEE devices
wicontrol [interface] [-olL] [-e 0|1] [-k key [-v 1|2|3|4]] [-x 0|1]
[-t tx rate] [-n network name] [-s station name] [-c 0|1]
[-q SSID] [-p port type] [-a access point density]
[-m MAC address] [-d max data length] [-r RTS threshold]
[-f frequency] [-A 1|2|3] [-D 0|1|2] [-E 0|1|2|3] [-F 0|1]
[-M 0|1] [-P 0|1] [-R 1|3] [-S max sleep duration] [-T 1|2|3|4]
The wicontrol command controls the operation of WaveLAN/IEEE wireless
networking devices via the wi(4) and awi(4) drivers. Most of the parame-
ters that can be changed relate to the IEEE 802.11 protocol which the
WaveLAN implements. This includes the station name, whether the station
is operating in ad-hoc (point to point) or BSS (service set) mode, and
the network name of a service set to join (IBSS) if BSS mode is enabled.
The wicontrol command can also be used to view the current settings of
these parameters and to dump out the values of the card's statistics
counters.
The interface argument given to wicontrol should be the logical interface
name associated with the WaveLAN/IEEE device (wi0, wi1, etc...). If none
is given, wi0 is assumed.
The wicontrol command given without any additional flags retrieves the
current card settings from the driver and prints them out.
The options are as follows:
-o Display the statistics counters for the specified WaveLAN/IEEE
interface. The statistics are updated about once a minute.
-l [Prism2 only] List associated stations if the card is in Host AP
mode.
-L List all available access points. Only the superuser may use this
option.
-e 0|1 Enable or disable WEP encryption. Permitted values are 0 (encryp-
tion disabled) or 1 (encryption enabled). Encryption is off by
default.
-k key [ -v 1|2|3|4 ]
Set WEP encryption keys. There are four default encryption keys
that can be programmed. A specific key can be set using the -v
flag. If the -v flag is not specified, the first key will be set.
Encryption keys can either be normal text (i.e., "hello") or a
series of hexadecimal digits (i.e., "0x1234512345"). For WaveLAN
Silver cards, the key is restricted to 40 bits, hence the key can
be either a 5-character text string or 10 hexadecimal digits. For
WaveLAN Gold cards, the key can be up to 104 bits, which means
the key can be specified as either a 13-character text string or
26 hexadecimal digits. Either way, the key will be concatenated
with a 24-bit IV to generate the seed for RC4. Note that
wicontrol has no way to determine whether or not a card is capa-
ble of using 104 bit WEP. Some cards accept a 104 bit key even
though they only support 40 bit keys, in which case WEP encryp-
tion will simply fail to work.
-T 1|2|3|4
Specify which of the four WEP encryption keys will be used to en-
crypt transmitted packets.
-x 0|1 [Prism2/Symbol only] Select between firmware-based (0) and
software-based (1) WEP. Firmware-based WEP is the default.
-t tx rate
Set the transmit rate of the specified interface. The legal
values for the transmit rate vary depending on the adapter type.
The standard WaveLAN/IEEE NICs support a maximum transmit rate of
2Mbps, and the 'Turbo' NICs support a maximum speed of 5.5Mbps.
The WaveLAN/IEEE 'Turbo 11Mb', Prism-II and Prism-2.5 NICs sup-
port a maximum speed of 11Mbps. The following table shows the le-
gal transmit rate settings and the corresponding transmit speeds:
TX rate NIC speed
1 Fixed Low (1Mbps)
2 Fixed Standard (2Mbps)
3 Auto Rate Select (High)
4 Fixed Medium (4Mbps)
5 Fixed High (5.5Mbps)
6 Auto Rate Select (Standard)
7 Auto Rate Select (Medium)
11 Fixed Turbo (11Mbps)
The standard NICs support only settings 1 through 3. Turbo NICs
support all the above listed speed settings. The default driver
setting is 3 (auto rate select).
-n network name
Set the name of the service set (BSS or IBSS) or ad-hoc network
that this station wishes to join. The network name can be any
text string up to 30 characters in length. The default name is
the empty string which should allow the station to connect to the
first available access point.
-s station name
Sets the station name for the specified interface. The station
name is used for diagnostic purposes. The Lucent WaveMANAGER
software can poll the names of remote hosts.
-c 0|1 Allow the station to create a service set (IBSS). Permitted
values are 0 (do not create IBSS) and 1 (enable creation of
IBSS). The default is 0.
Note: Symbol cards and older Lucent/Prism firmware revisions do
not support the creation of a service set.
-q SSID
Specify the name (SSID) of an IBSS to create on a given inter-
face. The SSID can be any text string up to 32 characters long.
If the card is in IBSS creation or hostap mode, the IBSS name is
automatically set to be the same as the network name.
-p port type
Set the port type for a specified interface. The legal values for
port type are 1 (BSS mode), 3 (ad-hoc mode), 4 (IBSS mode) and 6
(hostap mode). The symbolic values "bss", "adhoc", "ibss", and
"hostap" may also be used. The hostap mode is only available on
Prism-II and Prism-2.5-based NICs. See below for an explanation
of the various port types.
-a access_point_density
Specify the access point density for a given interface. Legal
values are 1 (low), 2 (medium) and 3 (high). This setting influ-
ences some of the radio modem threshold settings.
-m MAC address
Set the station address for the specified interface. The MAC
address is specified as a series of six hexadecimal values
separated by colons, e.g.: 00:60:1d:12:34:56. This programs the
new address into the card and updates the interface as well.
-d max_data_length
Set the maximum receive and transmit frame size for a specified
interface. The max data length can be any number from 350 to
2304. The default is 2304.
-r RTS threshold
Set the RTS/CTS threshold for a given interface. This controls
the number of bytes used for the RTS/CTS handshake boundary. The
RTS threshold can be any value between 0 and 2047. The default is
2047.
-f frequency
Set the radio frequency of a given interface. The frequency
should be specified as a channel ID as shown in the table below.
The list of available frequencies is dependent on radio regula-
tions specified by regional authorities. Recognized regulatory
authorities include the FCC (United States), ETSI (Europe),
France and Japan. Frequencies in the table are specified in MHz.
Channel FCC ETSI France Japan
1 2412 2412 - 2412
2 2417 2417 - 2417
3 2422* 2422* - 2422
4 2427 2427 - 2427
5 2432 2432 - 2432
6 2437 2437 - 2437
7 2442 2442 - 2442
8 2447 2447 - 2447
9 2452 2452 - 2452
10 2457* 2457 2457 2457
11 2462* 2462 2462* 2462
12 - 2467 2467 2467
13 - 2472 2472 2472
14 - - - 2484*
If an illegal channel is specified, the NIC will revert to its
default channel, normally one of those indicated above with a *.
Note that two stations must be set to the same channel in order
to communicate. Note also that the channels do overlap; the
bandwidth required for each channel is about 20MHz. When using
multiple channels in close proximity it is suggested that chan-
nels be separated by at least 25MHz. In the US, this means that
only channels 1, 6, and 11 may be used simultaneously without in-
terference.
-A 1|2|3
[Prism2/Symbol only] Sets the authentication type for a given in-
terface. Permitted values are 1 (Open System Authentication), 2
(Shared Key Authentication) and 3 (104-bit Shared Key Authentica-
tion). The 104-bit Shared Key Authentication mode is only avail-
able on Symbol cards.
When Open System Authentication is used, any station may associ-
ate with an access point. In effect, no authentication is done.
Note, however, that if WEP is enabled on the access point, sta-
tions will be able to associate with the access point but will be
unable to send and receive data packets unless they have the
correct WEP key.
With Shared Key Authentication, on the other hand, only stations
that have the same WEP key as the access point may associate with
it.
The default is 1 (Open System Authentication).
Note: It is not valid to enable Shared Key Authentication when no
valid WEP keys have been defined.
-D 0|1|2
[Symbol only] Select the antenna diversity. Symbol cards have
both a primary and auxiliary antenna. Either antenna may be used
or the card can choose the antenna with the best reception.
Value Diversity
0 Autoselect
1 Primary
2 Auxiliary
The default is 0 (Autoselect).
-E 0|1|2|3
[Prism only] Sets the enhanced security mode. A value of 0 dis-
ables enhanced security mode. A value of 1 hides the SSID name in
beacon frames (defeats passive AP scanning). A value of 2
prevents responses to probe packets with an unspecified SSID. A
value of 3 enables both enhanced security modes. This option is
only available on Prism cards with station firmware >= 1.6.3 and
is really only useful in HostAP mode. The default is 0.
-F 0|1 [Prism2 only] Enable or disable processing of 802.11b frames.
When enabled, the wi(4) driver will process entire frames instead
of stripping off the 802.11b header that is provided by the card.
Only the superuser may use this option.
-M 0|1 Enable or disable "microwave oven robustness" on a given inter-
face. When enabled, smaller packets are used to reduce the impact
of consumer microwave ovens that operate in the 2.4Ghz frequency
range. This option may also be useful when there are 2.4Ghz cord-
less telephones in the area. Only works in BSS mode and requires
access point support. Requires Lucent firmware version >= 7.28.
-P 0|1 Enable or disable power management on a given interface. Enabling
power management uses an alternating sleep/wake protocol to help
conserve power on mobile stations, at the cost of some increased
receive latency. Power management is off by default. Note that
power management requires the cooperation of an access point in
order to function; it is not functional in ad-hoc mode. Also,
power management is only implemented in Lucent WavePOINT firmware
version 2.03 or later, and in WaveLAN PCMCIA adapter firmware
2.00 or later. Older revisions will silently ignore the power
management setting. Legal values for this parameter are 0 (off)
and 1 (on).
-R 1|3 Enable or disable roaming function on a given interface. The le-
gal values are 1 (Roaming handled by firmware) and 3 (Roaming
Disabled). The default is 1. This option is not available on Sym-
bol cards.
-S max sleep interval
Specify the sleep interval to use when power management is en-
abled. The max sleep interval is specified in milliseconds. The
default is 100.
There are five modes the NIC can operate in:
BSS mode
Also known as infrastructure mode, this is used when asso-
ciating with an access point, through which all traffic
passes. If no service set is specified via the -n flag, the
NIC will associate with whichever access point has the
strongest signal. In general, it is a good idea to specify
a service set to prevent possible hijacking of the associa-
tion.
ad-hoc mode
More accurately known as "ad-hoc demo mode". This mode does
not require an access point; the NIC communicates with oth-
er ad-hoc stations within range on a peer-to-peer basis.
This mode is not specified by the IEEE 802.11 standard and
there may be problems interoperating with NICs manufactured
by different vendors.
IBSS mode
Also known as IEEE ad-hoc mode or peer-to-peer mode. This
is the standardized method of operating without an access
point. Stations associate with a service set created by an
IBSS master (see below). However, actual connections
between stations are peer-to-peer as in ad-hoc mode. Lucent
firmware version 6.06 or higher, Prism2 firmware 0.8.0 or
higher, or Symbol firmware version 2.0.0 or higher is re-
quired for IBSS mode.
IBSS master
Also know as Host IBSS mode. In this mode, the station
takes on part of the role of an access point, however
traffic does not pass through it to reach the other sta-
tions. When a group of stations are operating in IBSS mode,
one of them must be the master, specifying the network name
of the service set. Symbol cards do not support operating
as an IBSS master.
Host AP
In this mode, which is only available on Prism2 cards, the
NIC acts as an access point (base station). Some tasks,
such as beaconing and frame acknowledgement, are handled
automatically by the card firmware. Authentication and gen-
eral management of the associated stations, however, is
performed by the wi(4) driver itself. Note that there are
bugs in Host AP mode in Prism firmware revisions prior to
0.8.3.
an(4), awi(4), wi(4), hostname.if(5), ancontrol(8), ifconfig(8)
The wicontrol command first appeared in OpenBSD 2.6.
The wicontrol command was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu>.
MirBSD #10-current June 7, 2001 4