1 .\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993
2 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
4 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
7 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12 .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
13 .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
14 .\" without specific prior written permission.
16 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
17 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
18 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
19 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
20 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
21 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
22 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
23 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
24 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
25 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
28 .\" From: @(#)ifconfig.8 8.3 (Berkeley) 1/5/94
36 .Nd configure network interface parameters
80 utility is used to assign an address
81 to a network interface and/or configure
82 network interface parameters.
85 utility must be used at boot time to define the network address
86 of each interface present on a machine; it may also be used at
87 a later time to redefine an interface's address
88 or other operating parameters.
90 The following options are available:
91 .Bl -tag -width indent
94 .Tn DARPA Ns -Internet
96 the address is either a host name present in the host name data
101 Internet address expressed in the Internet standard
104 It is also possible to use the CIDR notation (also known as the
105 slash notation) to include the netmask.
106 That is, one can specify an address like
111 family, it is also possible to specify the prefix length using the slash
116 parameter below for more information.
117 .\" For the Xerox Network Systems(tm) family,
119 .\" .Ar net:a.b.c.d.e.f ,
122 .\" is the assigned network number (in decimal),
123 .\" and each of the six bytes of the host number,
127 .\" are specified in hexadecimal.
128 .\" The host number may be omitted on IEEE 802 protocol
129 .\" (Ethernet, FDDI, and Token Ring) interfaces,
130 .\" which use the hardware physical address,
131 .\" and on interfaces other than the first.
134 .\" family, addresses are specified as a long hexadecimal string,
135 .\" as in the Xerox family.
136 .\" However, two consecutive dots imply a zero
137 .\" byte, and the dots are optional, if the user wishes to (carefully)
138 .\" count out long strings of digits in network byte order.
143 is specified as a series of colon-separated hex digits.
145 e.g.,\& set a new MAC address on an ethernet interface, though the
146 mechanism used is not ethernet-specific.
147 If the interface is already
148 up when this option is used, it will be briefly brought down and
149 then brought back up again in order to ensure that the receive
150 filter in the underlying ethernet hardware is properly reprogrammed.
151 .It Ar address_family
154 which affects interpretation of the remaining parameters.
155 Since an interface can receive transmissions in differing protocols
156 with different naming schemes, specifying the address family is recommended.
157 The address or protocol families currently
168 The default if available is
178 Specify the address of the correspondent on the other end
179 of a point to point link.
182 parameter is a string of the form
187 List the interfaces in the given group.
190 The following parameters may be set with
192 .Bl -tag -width indent
197 Introduced for compatibility
201 Establish an additional network address for this interface.
202 This is sometimes useful when changing network numbers, and
203 one wishes to accept packets addressed to the old interface.
204 If the address is on the same subnet as the first network address
205 for this interface, a non-conflicting netmask must be given.
210 Remove the network address specified.
211 This would be used if you incorrectly specified an alias, or it
212 was no longer needed.
213 If you have incorrectly set an NS address having the side effect
214 of specifying the host portion, removing all NS addresses will
215 allow you to respecify the host portion.
218 Specify that the address configured is an anycast address.
219 Based on the current specification,
220 only routers may configure anycast addresses.
221 Anycast address will not be used as source address of any of outgoing
224 Enable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol
227 between network level addresses and link level addresses (default).
228 This is currently implemented for mapping between
233 802 48-bit MAC addresses (Ethernet, FDDI, and Token Ring addresses).
235 Disable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol
238 If the Address Resolution Protocol is enabled,
239 the host will only reply to requests for its addresses,
240 and will never send any requests.
242 If the Address Resolution Protocol is enabled,
243 the host will perform normally,
244 sending out requests and listening for replies.
247 Specify the address to use to represent broadcasts to the
249 The default broadcast address is the address with a host part of all 1's.
251 Enable driver dependent debugging code; usually, this turns on
252 extra console error logging.
254 Disable driver dependent debugging code.
256 Put interface into permanently promiscuous mode.
258 Disable permanently promiscuous mode.
263 .It Cm description Ar value , Cm descr Ar value
264 Specify a description of the interface.
265 This can be used to label interfaces in situations where they may
266 otherwise be difficult to distinguish.
267 .It Cm -description , Cm -descr
268 Clear the interface description.
272 When an interface is marked
274 the system will not attempt to
275 transmit messages through that interface.
276 If possible, the interface will be reset to disable reception as well.
277 This action does not automatically disable routes using the interface.
278 .It Cm group Ar group-name
279 Assign the interface to a
281 Any interface can be in multiple groups.
283 Cloned interfaces are members of their interface family group by default.
284 For example, a PPP interface such as
286 is a member of the PPP interface family group,
288 .\" The interface(s) the default route(s) point to are members of the
291 .It Cm -group Ar group-name
292 Remove the interface from the given
297 (lowermost 64bit of an IPv6 address)
299 .It Cm fib Ar fib_number
300 Specify interface FIB.
303 is assigned to all frames or packets received on that interface.
304 The FIB is not inherited, e.g., vlans or other sub-interfaces will use
305 the default FIB (0) irrespective of the parent interface's FIB.
306 The kernel needs to be tuned to support more than the default FIB
309 kernel configuration option, or the
313 This is used to specify an Internet host who is willing to receive
314 IP packets encapsulating IPX packets bound for a remote network.
315 An apparent point to point link is constructed, and
316 the address specified will be taken as the IPX address and network
318 .It Cm maclabel Ar label
319 If Mandatory Access Control support is enabled in the kernel,
323 .\" .Xr maclabel 7 ) .
325 If the driver supports the media selection system, set the media type
328 Some interfaces support the mutually exclusive use of one of several
329 different physical media connectors.
330 For example, a 10Mbit/s Ethernet
331 interface might support the use of either
333 or twisted pair connectors.
334 Setting the media type to
336 would change the currently active connector to the AUI port.
339 would activate twisted pair.
340 Refer to the interfaces' driver
341 specific documentation or man page for a complete list of the
343 .It Cm mediaopt Ar opts
344 If the driver supports the media selection system, set the specified
345 media options on the interface.
349 is a comma delimited list of options to apply to the interface.
350 Refer to the interfaces' driver specific man page for a complete
351 list of available options.
352 .It Fl mediaopt Ar opts
353 If the driver supports the media selection system, disable the
354 specified media options on the interface.
356 If the driver supports the media selection system, set the specified
357 operating mode on the interface to
359 For IEEE 802.11 wireless interfaces that support multiple operating modes
360 this directive is used to select between 802.11a
367 .It Cm inst Ar minst , Cm instance Ar minst
368 Set the media instance to
370 This is useful for devices which have multiple physical layer interfaces
373 Set the interface name to
375 .It Cm rxcsum , txcsum , rxcsum6 , txcsum6
376 If the driver supports user-configurable checksum offloading,
377 enable receive (or transmit) checksum offloading on the interface.
378 The feature can be turned on selectively per protocol family.
380 .Cm rxcsum6 , txcsum6
386 Some drivers may not be able to enable these flags independently
387 of each other, so setting one may also set the other.
388 The driver will offload as much checksum work as it can reliably
389 support, the exact level of offloading varies between drivers.
390 .It Fl rxcsum , txcsum , rxcsum6 , txcsum6
391 If the driver supports user-configurable checksum offloading,
392 disable receive (or transmit) checksum offloading on the interface.
393 The feature can be turned off selectively per protocol family.
395 .Fl rxcsum6 , txcsum6
401 These settings may not always be independent of each other.
403 If the driver supports
405 segmentation offloading, enable TSO on the interface.
406 Some drivers may not be able to support TSO for
410 packets, so they may enable only one of them.
412 If the driver supports
414 segmentation offloading, disable TSO on the interface.
415 It will always disable TSO for
420 If the driver supports
422 segmentation offloading for
426 use one of these to selectively enabled it only for one protocol family.
428 If the driver supports
430 segmentation offloading for
434 use one of these to selectively disable it only for one protocol family.
436 If the driver supports
438 large receive offloading, enable LRO on the interface.
440 If the driver supports
442 large receive offloading, disable LRO on the interface.
443 .It Cm wol , wol_ucast , wol_mcast , wol_magic
444 Enable Wake On Lan (WOL) support, if available.
445 WOL is a facility whereby a machine in a low power state may be woken
446 in response to a received packet.
447 There are three types of packets that may wake a system:
448 ucast (directed solely to the machine's mac address),
449 mcast (directed to a broadcast or multicast address),
451 magic (unicast or multicast frames with a ``magic contents'').
452 Not all devices support WOL, those that do indicate the mechanisms
453 they support in their capabilities.
455 is a synonym for enabling all available WOL mechanisms.
458 .It Cm vlanmtu , vlanhwtag, vlanhwfilter, vlanhwcsum, vlanhwtso
459 If the driver offers user-configurable VLAN support, enable
460 reception of extended frames, tag processing in hardware,
461 frame filtering in hardware, checksum offloading, or TSO on VLAN,
463 Note that this must be issued on a physical interface associated with
468 .It Fl vlanmtu , vlanhwtag, vlanhwfilter, vlanhwtso
469 If the driver offers user-configurable VLAN support, disable
470 reception of extended frames, tag processing in hardware,
471 frame filtering in hardware, or TSO on VLAN,
474 Move the interface to the
476 specified by name or JID.
477 If the jail has a virtual network stack, the interface will disappear
478 from the current environment and become visible to the jail.
480 Reclaim the interface from the
482 specified by name or JID.
483 If the jail has a virtual network stack, the interface will disappear
484 from the jail, and become visible to the current network environment.
488 feature and disable interrupts on the interface, if driver supports
493 feature and enable interrupt mode on the interface.
495 Create the specified network pseudo-device.
496 If the interface is given without a unit number, try to create a new
497 device with an arbitrary unit number.
498 If creation of an arbitrary device is successful, the new device name is
499 printed to standard output unless the interface is renamed or destroyed
504 Destroy the specified network pseudo-device.
520 Set the routing metric of the interface to
523 The routing metric is used by the routing protocol
525 Higher metrics have the effect of making a route
526 less favorable; metrics are counted as additional hops
527 to the destination network or host.
529 Set the maximum transmission unit of the interface to
531 default is interface specific.
532 The MTU is used to limit the size of packets that are transmitted on an
534 Not all interfaces support setting the MTU, and some interfaces have
536 .It Cm netmask Ar mask
539 Specify how much of the address to reserve for subdividing
540 networks into sub-networks.
541 The mask includes the network part of the local address
542 and the subnet part, which is taken from the host field of the address.
543 The mask can be specified as a single hexadecimal number
546 with a dot-notation Internet address,
547 or with a pseudo-network name listed in the network table
549 The mask contains 1's for the bit positions in the 32-bit address
550 which are to be used for the network and subnet parts,
551 and 0's for the host part.
552 The mask should contain at least the standard network portion,
553 and the subnet field should be contiguous with the network
556 The netmask can also be specified in CIDR notation after the address.
559 option above for more information.
560 .It Cm prefixlen Ar len
564 bits are reserved for subdividing networks into sub-networks.
567 must be integer, and for syntactical reason it must be between 0 to 128.
568 It is almost always 64 under the current IPv6 assignment rule.
569 If the parameter is omitted, 64 is used.
571 The prefix can also be specified using the slash notation after the address.
574 option above for more information.
577 .\" .It Cm nsellength Ar n
580 .\" This specifies a trailing number of bytes for a received
582 .\" used for local identification, the remaining leading part of which is
585 .\" (Network Entity Title).
586 .\" The default value is 1, which is conformant to US
588 .\" When an ISO address is set in an ifconfig command,
591 .\" which is being specified.
594 .\" 20 hex digits should be
597 .\" to be assigned to the interface.
598 .\" There is some evidence that a number different from 1 may be useful
601 .\" 37 type addresses.
602 .It Cm range Ar netrange
603 Under appletalk, set the interface to respond to a
606 .Ar startnet Ns - Ns Ar endnet .
607 Appletalk uses this scheme instead of
610 implements it internally as a set of netmasks.
615 Introduced for compatibility
619 The argument following this specifies the version (phase) of the
620 Appletalk network attached to the interface.
621 Values of 1 or 2 are permitted.
623 .It Cm link Op Cm 0 No - Cm 2
625 Enable special processing of the link level of the interface.
626 These three options are interface specific in actual effect, however,
627 they are in general used to select special modes of operation.
629 of this is to enable SLIP compression, or to select the connector type
630 for some Ethernet cards.
631 Refer to the man page for the specific driver
632 for more information.
634 .It Fl link Op Cm 0 No - Cm 2
636 Disable special processing at the link level with the specified interface.
638 Put the interface in monitor mode.
639 No packets are transmitted, and received packets are discarded after
643 Take the interface out of monitor mode.
647 This may be used to enable an interface after an
649 It happens automatically when setting the first address on an interface.
650 If the interface was reset when previously marked down,
651 the hardware will be re-initialized.
654 The following parameters are for ICMPv6 Neighbor Discovery Protocol.
655 Note that the address family keyword
658 .Bl -tag -width indent
660 Set a flag to enable accepting ICMPv6 Router Advertisement messages.
664 .Va net.inet6.ip6.accept_rtadv
665 controls whether this flag is set by default or not.
670 Set a flag to control whether routers from which the system accepts
671 Router Advertisement messages will be added to the Default Router List
675 flag is disabled, this flag has no effect.
679 .Va net.inet6.ip6.no_radr
680 controls whether this flag is set by default or not.
684 .It Cm auto_linklocal
685 Set a flag to perform automatic link-local address configuration when
686 the interface becomes available.
690 .Va net.inet6.ip6.auto_linklocal
691 controls whether this flag is set by default or not.
692 .It Cm -auto_linklocal
696 Set the specified interface as the default route when there is no
702 Set a flag to disable all of IPv6 network communications on the
703 specified interface. Note that if there are already configured IPv6
704 addresses on that interface, all of them are marked as
706 and DAD will be performed when this flag is cleared.
710 When this flag is cleared and
712 flag is enabled, automatic configuration of a link-local address is
715 Set a flag to enable Neighbor Unreachability Detection.
719 .It Cm no_prefer_iface
720 Set a flag to not prefer address on the interface as candidates of the
721 source address for outgoing packets, even when the interface is
723 .It Cm -no_prefer_iface
725 .Cm no_prefer_iface .
728 The following parameters are specific for IPv6 addresses.
729 Note that the address family keyword
732 .Bl -tag -width indent
734 Set a flag to prefer address as a candidate of the source address for
736 .It Cm -prefer_source
741 The following parameters are specific to cloning
742 IEEE 802.11 wireless interfaces with the
745 .Bl -tag -width indent
746 .It Cm wlandev Ar device
749 as the parent for the cloned device.
750 .It Cm wlanmode Ar mode
751 Specify the operating mode for this cloned device.
769 The operating mode of a cloned interface cannot be changed.
772 mode is actually implemented as an
774 interface with special properties.
775 .It Cm wlanbssid Ar bssid
776 The 802.11 mac address to use for the bssid.
777 This must be specified at create time for a legacy
780 .It Cm wlanaddr Ar address
781 The local mac address.
782 If this is not specified then a mac address will automatically be assigned
783 to the cloned device.
784 Typically this address is the same as the address of the parent device
787 parameter is specified then the driver will craft a unique address for
788 the device (if supported).
792 device as operating in ``legacy mode''.
795 devices have a fixed peer relationship and do not, for example, roam
796 if their peer stops communicating.
797 For completeness a Dynamic WDS (DWDS) interface may marked as
800 Request a unique local mac address for the cloned device.
801 This is only possible if the device supports multiple mac addresses.
802 To force use of the parent's mac address use
805 Mark the cloned interface as depending on hardware support to
806 track received beacons.
807 To have beacons tracked in software use
813 can also be used to indicate no beacons should
814 be transmitted; this can be useful when creating a WDS configuration but
816 interfaces can only be created as companions to an access point.
819 The following parameters are specific to IEEE 802.11 wireless interfaces
823 .Bl -tag -width indent
825 Enable sending and receiving AMPDU frames when using 802.11n (default).
826 The 802.11n specification states a compliant station must be capable
827 of receiving AMPDU frames but transmission is optional.
830 to disable all use of AMPDU with 802.11n.
831 For testing and/or to work around interoperability problems one can use
835 to control use of AMPDU in one direction.
836 .It Cm ampdudensity Ar density
837 Set the AMPDU density parameter used when operating with 802.11n.
838 This parameter controls the inter-packet gap for AMPDU frames.
839 The sending device normally controls this setting but a receiving station
840 may request wider gaps.
843 are 0, .25, .5, 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 (microseconds).
846 is treated the same as 0.
847 .It Cm ampdulimit Ar limit
848 Set the limit on packet size for receiving AMPDU frames when operating
852 are 8192, 16384, 32768, and 65536 but one can also specify
853 just the unique prefix: 8, 16, 32, 64.
854 Note the sender may limit the size of AMPDU frames to be less
855 than the maximum specified by the receiving station.
857 Enable sending and receiving AMSDU frames when using 802.11n.
858 By default AMSDU is received but not transmitted.
861 to disable all use of AMSDU with 802.11n.
862 For testing and/or to work around interoperability problems one can use
866 to control use of AMSDU in one direction.
867 .It Cm amsdulimit Ar limit
868 Set the limit on packet size for sending and receiving AMSDU frames
869 when operating with 802.11n.
872 are 7935 and 3839 (bytes).
873 Note the sender may limit the size of AMSDU frames to be less
874 than the maximum specified by the receiving station.
875 Note also that devices are not required to support the 7935 limit,
876 only 3839 is required by the specification and the larger value
877 may require more memory to be dedicated to support functionality
880 When operating as an access point, pass packets between
881 wireless clients directly (default).
882 To instead let them pass up through the
883 system and be forwarded using some other mechanism, use
885 Disabling the internal bridging
886 is useful when traffic is to be processed with
888 .It Cm authmode Ar mode
889 Set the desired authentication mode in infrastructure mode.
890 Not all adapters support all modes.
893 .Cm none , open , shared
899 (IEEE WPA/WPA2/802.11i).
904 modes are only useful when using an authentication service
905 (a supplicant for client operation or an authenticator when
906 operating as an access point).
907 Modes are case insensitive.
909 Enable background scanning when operating as a station.
910 Background scanning is a technique whereby a station associated to
911 an access point will temporarily leave the channel to scan for
912 neighboring stations.
913 This allows a station to maintain a cache of nearby access points
914 so that roaming between access points can be done without
915 a lengthy scan operation.
916 Background scanning is done only when a station is not busy and
917 any outbound traffic will cancel a scan operation.
918 Background scanning should never cause packets to be lost though
919 there may be some small latency if outbound traffic interrupts a
921 By default background scanning is enabled if the device is capable.
922 To disable background scanning, use
924 Background scanning is controlled by the
929 Background scanning must be enabled for roaming; this is an artifact
930 of the current implementation and may not be required in the future.
931 .It Cm bgscanidle Ar idletime
932 Set the minimum time a station must be idle (not transmitting or
933 receiving frames) before a background scan is initiated.
936 parameter is specified in milliseconds.
937 By default a station must be idle at least 250 milliseconds before
938 a background scan is initiated.
939 The idle time may not be set to less than 100 milliseconds.
940 .It Cm bgscanintvl Ar interval
941 Set the interval at which background scanning is attempted.
944 parameter is specified in seconds.
945 By default a background scan is considered every 300 seconds (5 minutes).
948 may not be set to less than 15 seconds.
949 .It Cm bintval Ar interval
950 Set the interval at which beacon frames are sent when operating in
954 parameter is specified in TU's (1024 usecs).
955 By default beacon frames are transmitted every 100 TU's.
956 .It Cm bmissthreshold Ar count
957 Set the number of consecutive missed beacons at which the station
958 will attempt to roam (i.e., search for a new access point).
961 parameter must be in the range 1 to 255; though the
962 upper bound may be reduced according to device capabilities.
963 The default threshold is 7 consecutive missed beacons; but
964 this may be overridden by the device driver.
969 .It Cm bssid Ar address
970 Specify the MAC address of the access point to use when operating
971 as a station in a BSS network.
972 This overrides any automatic selection done by the system.
973 To disable a previously selected access point, supply
978 This option is useful when more than one access point uses the same SSID.
984 Enable packet bursting.
985 Packet bursting is a transmission technique whereby the wireless
986 medium is acquired once to send multiple frames and the interframe
988 This technique can significantly increase throughput by reducing
989 transmission overhead.
990 Packet bursting is supported by the 802.11e QoS specification
991 and some devices that do not support QoS may still be capable.
992 By default packet bursting is enabled if a device is capable
994 To disable packet bursting, use
996 .It Cm chanlist Ar channels
997 Set the desired channels to use when scanning for access
998 points, neighbors in an IBSS network, or looking for unoccupied
999 channels when operating as an access point.
1000 The set of channels is specified as a comma-separated list with
1001 each element in the list representing either a single channel number or a range
1004 Channel numbers must be in the range 1 to 255 and be permissible
1005 according to the operating characteristics of the device.
1006 .It Cm channel Ar number
1007 Set a single desired channel.
1008 Channels range from 1 to 255, but the exact selection available
1009 depends on the region your adaptor was manufactured for.
1015 will clear any desired channel and, if the device is marked up,
1016 force a scan for a channel to operate on.
1017 Alternatively the frequency, in megahertz, may be specified
1018 instead of the channel number.
1020 When there are several ways to use a channel the channel
1021 number/frequency may be appended with attributes to clarify.
1022 For example, if a device is capable of operating on channel 6
1023 with 802.11n and 802.11g then one can specify that g-only use
1024 should be used by specifying ``6:g''.
1025 Similarly the channel width can be specified by appending it
1026 with ``/''; e.g., ``6/40'' specifies a 40MHz wide channel,
1027 These attributes can be combined as in: ``6:ht/40''.
1028 The full set of flags specified following a ``:'' are:
1034 (Atheros Dynamic Turbo mode),
1042 (Atheros Static Turbo mode),
1045 (Atheros Dynamic Turbo mode, or appended to ``st'' and ``dt'').
1046 The full set of channel widths following a '/' are:
1048 (5MHz aka quarter-rate channel),
1050 (10MHz aka half-rate channel),
1052 (20MHz mostly for use in specifying ht20),
1055 (40MHz mostly for use in specifying ht40).
1057 a 40MHz HT channel specification may include the location
1058 of the extension channel by appending ``+'' or ``-'' for above and below,
1059 respectively; e.g., ``2437:ht/40+'' specifies 40MHz wide HT operation
1060 with the center channel at frequency 2437 and the extension channel above.
1061 .It Cm country Ar name
1062 Set the country code to use in calculating the regulatory constraints
1064 In particular the set of available channels, how the wireless device
1065 will operation on the channels, and the maximum transmit power that
1066 can be used on a channel are defined by this setting.
1067 Country/Region codes are specified as a 2-character abbreviation
1068 defined by ISO 3166 or using a longer, but possibly ambiguous, spelling;
1069 e.g., "ES" and "Spain".
1070 The set of country codes are taken from /etc/regdomain.xml and can also
1071 be viewed with the ``list countries'' request.
1072 Note that not all devices support changing the country code from a default
1073 setting; typically stored in EEPROM.
1081 Enable Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) as specified in 802.11h.
1082 DFS embodies several facilities including detection of overlapping
1083 radar signals, dynamic transmit power control, and channel selection
1084 according to a least-congested criteria.
1085 DFS support is mandatory for some 5GHz frequencies in certain
1086 locales (e.g., ETSI).
1087 By default DFS is enabled according to the regulatory definitions
1088 specified in /etc/regdomain.xml and the current country code, regdomain,
1090 Note the underlying device (and driver) must support radar detection
1091 for full DFS support to work.
1092 To be fully compliant with the local regulatory agency frequencies that
1093 require DFS should not be used unless it is fully supported.
1096 to disable this functionality for testing.
1098 Enable support for the 802.11d specification (default).
1099 When this support is enabled in station mode, beacon frames that advertise
1100 a country code different than the currently configured country code will
1101 cause an event to be dispatched to user applications.
1102 This event can be used by the station to adopt that country code and
1103 operate according to the associated regulatory constraints.
1104 When operating as an access point with 802.11d enabled the beacon and
1105 probe response frames transmitted will advertise the current regulatory
1107 To disable 802.11d use
1110 Enable 802.11h support including spectrum management.
1111 When 802.11h is enabled beacon and probe response frames will have
1112 the SpectrumMgt bit set in the capabilities field and
1113 country and power constraint information elements will be present.
1114 802.11h support also includes handling Channel Switch Announcements (CSA)
1115 which are a mechanism to coordinate channel changes by an access point.
1116 By default 802.11h is enabled if the device is capable.
1117 To disable 802.11h use
1119 .It Cm deftxkey Ar index
1120 Set the default key to use for transmission.
1121 Typically this is only set when using WEP encryption.
1122 Note that you must set a default transmit key
1123 for the system to know which key to use in encrypting outbound traffic.
1126 is an alias for this request; it is provided for backwards compatibility.
1127 .It Cm dtimperiod Ar period
1130 period for transmitting buffered multicast data frames when
1131 operating in ap mode.
1134 specifies the number of beacon intervals between DTIM
1135 and must be in the range 1 to 15.
1136 By default DTIM is 1 (i.e., DTIM occurs at each beacon).
1138 Enable the use of Atheros Dynamic Turbo mode when communicating with
1139 another Dynamic Turbo-capable station.
1140 Dynamic Turbo mode is an Atheros-specific mechanism by which
1141 stations switch between normal 802.11 operation and a ``boosted''
1142 mode in which a 40MHz wide channel is used for communication.
1143 Stations using Dynamic Turbo mode operate boosted only when the
1144 channel is free of non-dturbo stations; when a non-dturbo station
1145 is identified on the channel all stations will automatically drop
1146 back to normal operation.
1147 By default, Dynamic Turbo mode is not enabled, even if the device is capable.
1148 Note that turbo mode (dynamic or static) is only allowed on some
1149 channels depending on the regulatory constraints; use the
1151 command to identify the channels where turbo mode may be used.
1152 To disable Dynamic Turbo mode use
1155 Enable Dynamic WDS (DWDS) support.
1156 DWDS is a facility by which 4-address traffic can be carried between
1157 stations operating in infrastructure mode.
1158 A station first associates to an access point and authenticates using
1159 normal procedures (e.g., WPA).
1160 Then 4-address frames are passed to carry traffic for stations
1161 operating on either side of the wireless link.
1162 DWDS extends the normal WDS mechanism by leveraging existing security
1163 protocols and eliminating static binding.
1165 When DWDS is enabled on an access point 4-address frames received from
1166 an authorized station will generate a ``DWDS discovery'' event to user
1168 This event should be used to create a WDS interface that is bound
1169 to the remote station (and usually plumbed into a bridge).
1170 Once the WDS interface is up and running 4-address traffic then logically
1171 flows through that interface.
1173 When DWDS is enabled on a station, traffic with a destination address
1174 different from the peer station are encapsulated in a 4-address frame
1175 and transmitted to the peer.
1176 All 4-address traffic uses the security information of the stations
1177 (e.g., cryptographic keys).
1178 A station is associated using 802.11n facilities may transport
1179 4-address traffic using these same mechanisms; this depends on available
1180 resources and capabilities of the device.
1181 The DWDS implementation guards against layer 2 routing loops of
1184 Enable the use of Atheros Fast Frames when communicating with
1185 another Fast Frames-capable station.
1186 Fast Frames are an encapsulation technique by which two 802.3
1187 frames are transmitted in a single 802.11 frame.
1188 This can noticeably improve throughput but requires that the
1189 receiving station understand how to decapsulate the frame.
1190 Fast frame use is negotiated using the Atheros 802.11 vendor-specific
1191 protocol extension so enabling use is safe when communicating with
1192 non-Atheros devices.
1193 By default, use of fast frames is enabled if the device is capable.
1194 To explicitly disable fast frames, use
1196 .It Cm fragthreshold Ar length
1197 Set the threshold for which transmitted frames are broken into fragments.
1200 argument is the frame size in bytes and must be in the range 256 to 2346.
1208 disables transmit fragmentation.
1209 Not all adapters honor the fragmentation threshold.
1211 When operating as an access point, do not broadcast the SSID
1212 in beacon frames or respond to probe request frames unless
1213 they are directed to the ap (i.e., they include the ap's SSID).
1214 By default, the SSID is included in beacon frames and
1215 undirected probe request frames are answered.
1216 To re-enable the broadcast of the SSID etc., use
1219 Enable use of High Throughput (HT) when using 802.11n (default).
1220 The 802.11n specification includes mechanisms for operation
1221 on 20MHz and 40MHz wide channels using different signalling mechanisms
1222 than specified in 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a.
1223 Stations negotiate use of these facilities, termed HT20 and HT40,
1224 when they associate.
1225 To disable all use of 802.11n use
1227 To disable use of HT20 (e.g., to force only HT40 use) use
1229 To disable use of HT40 use
1232 HT configuration is used to ``auto promote'' operation
1233 when several choices are available.
1234 For example, if a station associates to an 11n-capable access point
1235 it controls whether the station uses legacy operation, HT20, or HT40.
1236 When an 11n-capable device is setup as an access point and
1237 Auto Channel Selection is used to locate a channel to operate on,
1238 HT configuration controls whether legacy, HT20, or HT40 operation is setup
1239 on the selected channel.
1240 If a fixed channel is specified for a station then HT configuration can
1241 be given as part of the channel specification; e.g., 6:ht/20 to setup
1242 HT20 operation on channel 6.
1244 Enable use of compatibility support for pre-802.11n devices (default).
1245 The 802.11n protocol specification went through several incompatible iterations.
1246 Some vendors implemented 11n support to older specifications that
1247 will not interoperate with a purely 11n-compliant station.
1248 In particular the information elements included in management frames
1249 for old devices are different.
1250 When compatibility support is enabled both standard and compatible data
1252 Stations that associate using the compatibility mechanisms are flagged
1254 To disable compatibility support use
1256 .It Cm htprotmode Ar technique
1257 For interfaces operating in 802.11n, use the specified
1259 for protecting HT frames in a mixed legacy/HT network.
1260 The set of valid techniques is
1265 Technique names are case insensitive.
1267 Enable inactivity processing for stations associated to an
1268 access point (default).
1269 When operating as an access point the 802.11 layer monitors
1270 the activity of each associated station.
1271 When a station is inactive for 5 minutes it will send several
1272 ``probe frames'' to see if the station is still present.
1273 If no response is received then the station is deauthenticated.
1274 Applications that prefer to handle this work can disable this
1278 Set the location to use in calculating regulatory constraints.
1279 The location is also advertised in beacon and probe response frames
1280 when 802.11d is enabled with
1289 Display the list of channels available for use taking into account
1290 any restrictions set with the
1293 See the description of
1295 for more information.
1297 Display the adaptor's capabilities, including the operating
1300 Display the list of channels available for use.
1301 Channels are shown with their IEEE channel number, equivalent
1302 frequency, and usage modes.
1303 Channels identified as
1308 Channels identified as
1310 may be used only for Atheros' Static Turbo mode
1312 . Cm mediaopt turbo ) .
1313 Channels marked with a
1315 have a regulatory constraint that they be passively scanned.
1316 This means a station is not permitted to transmit on the channel until
1317 it identifies the channel is being used for 802.11 communication;
1318 typically by hearing a beacon frame from an access point operating
1321 is another way of requesting this information.
1322 By default a compacted list of channels is displayed; if the
1324 option is specified then all channels are shown.
1325 .It Cm list countries
1326 Display the set of country codes and regulatory domains that can be
1327 used in regulatory configuration.
1329 Display the current MAC Access Control List state.
1330 Each address is prefixed with a character that indicates the
1331 current policy applied to it:
1333 indicates the address is allowed access,
1335 indicates the address is denied access,
1337 indicates the address is present but the current policy open
1338 (so the ACL is not consulted).
1340 Displays the mesh routing table, used for forwarding packets on a mesh
1342 .It Cm list regdomain
1343 Display the current regulatory settings including the available channels
1344 and transmit power caps.
1346 Display the parameters that govern roaming operation.
1348 Display the parameters that govern transmit operation.
1350 Display the transmit power caps for each channel.
1352 Display the access points and/or ad-hoc neighbors
1353 located in the vicinity.
1354 This information may be updated automatically by the adapter
1357 request or through background scanning.
1358 Depending on the capabilities of the stations the following
1359 flags can be included in the output:
1363 Indicates that the station is permitted to send/receive data frames.
1365 Extended Rate Phy (ERP).
1366 Indicates that the station is operating in an 802.11g network
1367 using extended transmit rates.
1369 High Throughput (HT).
1370 Indicates that the station is using HT transmit rates.
1371 If a `+' follows immediately after then the station associated
1372 using deprecated mechanisms supported only when
1377 Indicates that the station is operating in power save mode.
1379 Quality of Service (QoS).
1380 Indicates that the station is using QoS encapsulation for
1382 QoS encapsulation is enabled only when WME mode is enabled.
1385 Indicates that the station is doing short preamble to optionally
1386 improve throughput performance with 802.11g and 802.11b.
1388 Transitional Security Network (TSN).
1389 Indicates that the station associated using TSN; see also
1393 Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS).
1394 Indicates that the station associated using WPS.
1397 By default interesting information elements captured from the neighboring
1398 stations are displayed at the end of each row.
1399 Possible elements include:
1401 (station supports WME),
1403 (station supports WPA),
1405 (station supports WPS),
1407 (station supports 802.11i/RSN),
1409 (station supports 802.11n/HT communication),
1411 (station supports Atheros protocol extensions),
1413 (station supports unknown vendor-specific extensions).
1416 flag is used all the information elements and their
1417 contents will be shown.
1420 flag also enables display of long SSIDs.
1423 command is another way of requesting this information.
1425 When operating as an access point display the stations that are
1426 currently associated.
1427 When operating in ad-hoc mode display stations identified as
1428 neighbors in the IBSS.
1429 When operating in mesh mode display stations identified as
1430 neighbors in the MBSS.
1431 When operating in station mode display the access point.
1432 Capabilities advertised by the stations are described under
1436 Depending on the capabilities of the stations the following
1437 flags can be included in the output:
1441 Indicates that the station is permitted to send/receive data frames.
1443 Extended Rate Phy (ERP).
1444 Indicates that the station is operating in an 802.11g network
1445 using extended transmit rates.
1447 High Throughput (HT).
1448 Indicates that the station is using HT transmit rates.
1449 If a `+' follows immediately after then the station associated
1450 using deprecated mechanisms supported only when
1455 Indicates that the station is operating in power save mode.
1457 Quality of Service (QoS).
1458 Indicates that the station is using QoS encapsulation for
1460 QoS encapsulation is enabled only when WME mode is enabled.
1463 Indicates that the station is doing short preamble to optionally
1464 improve throughput performance with 802.11g and 802.11b.
1466 Transitional Security Network (TSN).
1467 Indicates that the station associated using TSN; see also
1471 Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS).
1472 Indicates that the station associated using WPS.
1475 By default information elements received from associated stations
1476 are displayed in a short form; the
1478 flag causes this information to be displayed symbolically.
1480 Display the current channel parameters to use when operating in WME mode.
1483 option is specified then both channel and BSS parameters are displayed
1484 for each AC (first channel, then BSS).
1485 When WME mode is enabled for an adaptor this information will be
1486 displayed with the regular status; this command is mostly useful
1487 for examining parameters when WME mode is disabled.
1488 See the description of the
1490 directive for information on the various parameters.
1491 .It Cm maxretry Ar count
1492 Set the maximum number of tries to use in sending unicast frames.
1493 The default setting is 6 but drivers may override this with a value
1495 .It Cm mcastrate Ar rate
1496 Set the rate for transmitting multicast/broadcast frames.
1497 Rates are specified as megabits/second in decimal; e.g.,\& 5.5 for 5.5 Mb/s.
1498 This rate should be valid for the current operating conditions;
1499 if an invalid rate is specified drivers are free to chose an
1501 .It Cm mgtrate Ar rate
1502 Set the rate for transmitting management and/or control frames.
1503 Rates are specified as megabits/second in decimal; e.g.,\& 5.5 for 5.5 Mb/s.
1505 Set the location to use in calculating regulatory constraints.
1506 The location is also advertised in beacon and probe response frames
1507 when 802.11d is enabled with
1516 Enable powersave operation.
1517 When operating as a client, the station will conserve power by
1518 periodically turning off the radio and listening for
1519 messages from the access point telling it there are packets waiting.
1520 The station must then retrieve the packets.
1521 Not all devices support power save operation as a client.
1522 The 802.11 specification requires that all access points support
1523 power save but some drivers do not.
1526 to disable powersave operation when operating as a client.
1527 .It Cm powersavesleep Ar sleep
1528 Set the desired max powersave sleep time in TU's (1024 usecs).
1529 By default the max powersave sleep time is 100 TU's.
1530 .It Cm protmode Ar technique
1531 For interfaces operating in 802.11g, use the specified
1533 for protecting OFDM frames in a mixed 11b/11g network.
1534 The set of valid techniques is
1540 Technique names are case insensitive.
1541 Not all devices support
1543 as a protection technique.
1545 When operating as an access point in 802.11g mode allow only
1546 11g-capable stations to associate (11b-only stations are not
1547 permitted to associate).
1548 To allow both 11g and 11b-only stations to associate, use
1551 When operating as an access point in 802.11n mode allow only
1552 HT-capable stations to associate (legacy stations are not
1553 permitted to associate).
1554 To allow both HT and legacy stations to associate, use
1556 .It Cm regdomain Ar sku
1557 Set the regulatory domain to use in calculating the regulatory constraints
1559 In particular the set of available channels, how the wireless device
1560 will operation on the channels, and the maximum transmit power that
1561 can be used on a channel are defined by this setting.
1562 Regdomain codes (SKU's) are taken from /etc/regdomain.xml and can also
1563 be viewed with the ``list countries'' request.
1564 Note that not all devices support changing the regdomain from a default
1565 setting; typically stored in EEPROM.
1573 Enable use of Reduced InterFrame Spacing (RIFS) when operating in 802.11n
1575 Note that RIFS must be supported by both the station and access point
1579 .It Cm roam:rate Ar rate
1580 Set the threshold for controlling roaming when operating in a BSS.
1583 parameter specifies the transmit rate in megabits
1584 at which roaming should be considered.
1585 If the current transmit rate drops below this setting and background scanning
1586 is enabled, then the system will check if a more desirable access point is
1587 available and switch over to it.
1588 The current scan cache contents are used if they are considered
1589 valid according to the
1591 parameter; otherwise a background scan operation is triggered before
1592 any selection occurs.
1593 Each channel type has a separate rate threshold; the default values are:
1594 12 Mb/s (11a), 2 Mb/s (11b), 2 Mb/s (11g), MCS 1 (11na, 11ng).
1595 .It Cm roam:rssi Ar rssi
1596 Set the threshold for controlling roaming when operating in a BSS.
1599 parameter specifies the receive signal strength in dBm units
1600 at which roaming should be considered.
1601 If the current rssi drops below this setting and background scanning
1602 is enabled, then the system will check if a more desirable access point is
1603 available and switch over to it.
1604 The current scan cache contents are used if they are considered
1605 valid according to the
1607 parameter; otherwise a background scan operation is triggered before
1608 any selection occurs.
1609 Each channel type has a separate rssi threshold; the default values are
1611 .It Cm roaming Ar mode
1612 When operating as a station, control how the system will
1613 behave when communication with the current access point
1617 argument may be one of
1619 (leave it to the hardware device to decide),
1621 (handle either in the device or the operating system\[em]as appropriate),
1623 (do nothing until explicitly instructed).
1624 By default, the device is left to handle this if it is
1625 capable; otherwise, the operating system will automatically
1626 attempt to reestablish communication.
1627 Manual mode is used by applications such as
1628 .Xr wpa_supplicant 8
1629 that want to control the selection of an access point.
1630 .It Cm rtsthreshold Ar length
1631 Set the threshold for which
1632 transmitted frames are preceded by transmission of an
1638 is the frame size in bytes and must be in the range 1 to 2346.
1646 disables transmission of RTS frames.
1647 Not all adapters support setting the RTS threshold.
1649 Initiate a scan of neighboring stations, wait for it to complete, and
1650 display all stations found.
1651 Only the super-user can initiate a scan.
1654 for information on the display.
1655 By default a background scan is done; otherwise a foreground
1656 scan is done and the station may roam to a different access point.
1659 request can be used to show recent scan results without
1660 initiating a new scan.
1661 .It Cm scanvalid Ar threshold
1662 Set the maximum time the scan cache contents are considered valid;
1663 i.e., will be used without first triggering a scan operation to
1667 parameter is specified in seconds and defaults to 60 seconds.
1668 The minimum setting for
1671 One should take care setting this threshold; if it is set too low
1672 then attempts to roam to another access point may trigger unnecessary
1673 background scan operations.
1675 Enable use of Short Guard Interval when operating in 802.11n
1677 NB: this currently enables Short GI on both HT40 and HT20 channels.
1678 To disable Short GI use
1681 Enable use of Static Spatial Multiplexing Power Save (SMPS)
1682 when operating in 802.11n.
1683 A station operating with Static SMPS maintains only a single
1684 receive chain active (this can significantly reduce power consumption).
1688 Enable use of Dynamic Spatial Multiplexing Power Save (SMPS)
1689 when operating in 802.11n.
1690 A station operating with Dynamic SMPS maintains only a single
1691 receive chain active but switches to multiple receive chains when it
1692 receives an RTS frame (this can significantly reduce power consumption).
1693 Note that stations cannot distinguish between RTS/CTS intended to
1694 enable multiple receive chains and those used for other purposes.
1698 Set the desired Service Set Identifier (aka network name).
1699 The SSID is a string up to 32 characters
1700 in length and may be specified as either a normal string or in
1701 hexadecimal when preceded by
1703 Additionally, the SSID may be cleared by setting it to
1705 .It Cm tdmaslot Ar slot
1706 When operating with TDMA, use the specified
1711 is a number between 0 and the maximum number of slots in the BSS.
1712 Note that a station configured as slot 0 is a master and
1713 will broadcast beacon frames advertising the BSS;
1714 stations configured to use other slots will always
1715 scan to locate a master before they ever transmit.
1719 .It Cm tdmaslotcnt Ar cnt
1720 When operating with TDMA, setup a BSS with
1723 The slot count may be at most 8.
1724 The current implementation is only tested with two stations
1725 (i.e., point to point applications).
1726 This setting is only meaningful when a station is configured as slot 0;
1727 other stations adopt this setting from the BSS they join.
1731 .It Cm tdmaslotlen Ar len
1732 When operating with TDMA, setup a BSS such that each station has a slot
1735 The slot length must be at least 150 microseconds (1/8 TU)
1736 and no more than 65 milliseconds.
1737 Note that setting too small a slot length may result in poor channel
1738 bandwidth utilization due to factors such as timer granularity and
1740 This setting is only meaningful when a station is configured as slot 0;
1741 other stations adopt this setting from the BSS they join.
1744 is set to 10 milliseconds.
1745 .It Cm tdmabintval Ar intval
1746 When operating with TDMA, setup a BSS such that beacons are transmitted every
1748 superframes to synchronize the TDMA slot timing.
1749 A superframe is defined as the number of slots times the slot length; e.g.,
1750 a BSS with two slots of 10 milliseconds has a 20 millisecond superframe.
1751 The beacon interval may not be zero.
1754 causes the timers to be resynchronized more often; this can be help if
1755 significant timer drift is observed.
1760 When operating as an access point with WPA/802.11i allow legacy
1761 stations to associate using static key WEP and open authentication.
1762 To disallow legacy station use of WEP, use
1764 .It Cm txpower Ar power
1765 Set the power used to transmit frames.
1768 argument is specified in .5 dBm units.
1769 Out of range values are truncated.
1770 Typically only a few discreet power settings are available and
1771 the driver will use the setting closest to the specified value.
1772 Not all adapters support changing the transmit power.
1773 .It Cm ucastrate Ar rate
1774 Set a fixed rate for transmitting unicast frames.
1775 Rates are specified as megabits/second in decimal; e.g.,\& 5.5 for 5.5 Mb/s.
1776 This rate should be valid for the current operating conditions;
1777 if an invalid rate is specified drivers are free to chose an
1779 .It Cm wepmode Ar mode
1780 Set the desired WEP mode.
1781 Not all adapters support all modes.
1782 The set of valid modes is
1788 mode explicitly tells the adaptor to allow association with access
1789 points which allow both encrypted and unencrypted traffic.
1792 means that the access point must only allow encrypted connections.
1795 is generally another name for
1797 Modes are case insensitive.
1798 .It Cm weptxkey Ar index
1799 Set the WEP key to be used for transmission.
1800 This is the same as setting the default transmission key with
1802 .It Cm wepkey Ar key Ns | Ns Ar index : Ns Ar key
1803 Set the selected WEP key.
1806 is not given, key 1 is set.
1807 A WEP key will be either 5 or 13
1808 characters (40 or 104 bits) depending on the local network and the
1809 capabilities of the adaptor.
1810 It may be specified either as a plain
1811 string or as a string of hexadecimal digits preceded by
1813 For maximum portability, hex keys are recommended;
1814 the mapping of text keys to WEP encryption is usually driver-specific.
1817 drivers do this mapping differently to
1819 A key may be cleared by setting it to
1821 If WEP is supported then there are at least four keys.
1822 Some adapters support more than four keys.
1823 If that is the case, then the first four keys
1824 (1-4) will be the standard temporary keys and any others will be adaptor
1825 specific keys such as permanent keys stored in NVRAM.
1827 Note that you must set a default transmit key with
1829 for the system to know which key to use in encrypting outbound traffic.
1831 Enable Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME) support, if available,
1832 for the specified interface.
1833 WME is a subset of the IEEE 802.11e standard to support the
1834 efficient communication of realtime and multimedia data.
1835 To disable WME support, use
1837 Another name for this parameter is
1840 The following parameters are meaningful only when WME support is in use.
1841 Parameters are specified per-AC (Access Category) and
1842 split into those that are used by a station when acting
1843 as an access point and those for client stations in the BSS.
1844 The latter are received from the access point and may not be changed
1846 The following Access Categories are recognized:
1848 .Bl -tag -width ".Cm AC_BK" -compact
1852 best effort delivery,
1867 AC parameters are case-insensitive.
1868 Traffic classification is done in the operating system using the
1869 vlan priority associated with data frames or the
1870 ToS (Type of Service) indication in IP-encapsulated frames.
1871 If neither information is present, traffic is assigned to the
1872 Best Effort (BE) category.
1873 .Bl -tag -width indent
1875 Set the ACK policy for QoS transmissions by the local station;
1876 this controls whether or not data frames transmitted by a station
1877 require an ACK response from the receiving station.
1878 To disable waiting for an ACK use
1880 This parameter is applied only to the local station.
1882 Enable the Admission Control Mandatory (ACM) mechanism
1883 for transmissions by the local station.
1884 To disable the ACM use
1886 On stations in a BSS this parameter is read-only and indicates
1887 the setting received from the access point.
1888 NB: ACM is not supported right now.
1889 .It Cm aifs Ar ac Ar count
1890 Set the Arbitration Inter Frame Spacing (AIFS)
1891 channel access parameter to use for transmissions
1892 by the local station.
1893 On stations in a BSS this parameter is read-only and indicates
1894 the setting received from the access point.
1895 .It Cm cwmin Ar ac Ar count
1896 Set the CWmin channel access parameter to use for transmissions
1897 by the local station.
1898 On stations in a BSS this parameter is read-only and indicates
1899 the setting received from the access point.
1900 .It Cm cwmax Ar ac Ar count
1901 Set the CWmax channel access parameter to use for transmissions
1902 by the local station.
1903 On stations in a BSS this parameter is read-only and indicates
1904 the setting received from the access point.
1905 .It Cm txoplimit Ar ac Ar limit
1906 Set the Transmission Opportunity Limit channel access parameter
1907 to use for transmissions by the local station.
1908 This parameter defines an interval of time when a WME station
1909 has the right to initiate transmissions onto the wireless medium.
1910 On stations in a BSS this parameter is read-only and indicates
1911 the setting received from the access point.
1912 .It Cm bss:aifs Ar ac Ar count
1913 Set the AIFS channel access parameter to send to stations in a BSS.
1914 This parameter is meaningful only when operating in ap mode.
1915 .It Cm bss:cwmin Ar ac Ar count
1916 Set the CWmin channel access parameter to send to stations in a BSS.
1917 This parameter is meaningful only when operating in ap mode.
1918 .It Cm bss:cwmax Ar ac Ar count
1919 Set the CWmax channel access parameter to send to stations in a BSS.
1920 This parameter is meaningful only when operating in ap mode.
1921 .It Cm bss:txoplimit Ar ac Ar limit
1922 Set the TxOpLimit channel access parameter to send to stations in a BSS.
1923 This parameter is meaningful only when operating in ap mode.
1926 Enable Wireless Privacy Subscriber support.
1927 Note that WPS support requires a WPS-capable supplicant.
1928 To disable this function use
1932 The following parameters support an optional access control list
1933 feature available with some adapters when operating in ap mode; see
1935 This facility allows an access point to accept/deny association
1936 requests based on the MAC address of the station.
1937 Note that this feature does not significantly enhance security
1938 as MAC address spoofing is easy to do.
1939 .Bl -tag -width indent
1940 .It Cm mac:add Ar address
1941 Add the specified MAC address to the database.
1942 Depending on the policy setting association requests from the
1943 specified station will be allowed or denied.
1945 Set the ACL policy to permit association only by
1946 stations registered in the database.
1947 .It Cm mac:del Ar address
1948 Delete the specified MAC address from the database.
1950 Set the ACL policy to deny association only by
1951 stations registered in the database.
1952 .It Cm mac:kick Ar address
1953 Force the specified station to be deauthenticated.
1954 This typically is done to block a station after updating the
1957 Set the ACL policy to allow all stations to associate.
1959 Delete all entries in the database.
1961 Set the ACL policy to permit association only by
1962 stations approved by a RADIUS server.
1963 Note that this feature requires the
1965 program be configured to do the right thing
1966 as it handles the RADIUS processing
1967 (and marks stations as authorized).
1970 The following parameters are related to a wireless interface operating in mesh
1972 .Bl -tag -width indent
1973 .It Cm meshid Ar meshid
1974 Set the desired Mesh Identifier.
1975 The Mesh ID is a string up to 32 characters in length.
1976 A mesh interface must have a Mesh Identifier specified
1977 to reach an operational state.
1978 .It Cm meshttl Ar ttl
1979 Set the desired ``time to live'' for mesh forwarded packets;
1980 this is the number of hops a packet may be forwarded before
1982 The default setting for
1986 Enable or disable peering with neighbor mesh stations.
1987 Stations must peer before any data packets can be exchanged.
1992 Enable or disable forwarding packets by a mesh interface.
1996 .It Cm meshmetric Ar protocol
1999 as the link metric protocol used on a mesh network.
2000 The default protocol is called
2002 The mesh interface will restart after changing this setting.
2003 .It Cm meshpath Ar protocol
2006 as the path selection protocol used on a mesh network.
2007 The only available protocol at the moment is called
2009 (Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol).
2010 The mesh interface will restart after changing this setting.
2011 .It Cm hwmprootmode Ar mode
2012 Stations on a mesh network can operate as ``root nodes.''
2013 Root nodes try to find paths to all mesh nodes and advertise themselves
2015 When there is a root mesh node on a network, other mesh nodes can setup
2016 paths between themselves faster because they can use the root node
2017 to find the destination.
2018 This path may not be the best, but on-demand
2019 routing will eventually find the best path.
2020 The following modes are recognized:
2022 .Bl -tag -width ".Cm PROACTIVE" -compact
2026 Send broadcast path requests every two seconds.
2027 Nodes on the mesh without a path to this root mesh station with try to
2028 discover a path to us.
2030 Send broadcast path requests every two seconds and every node must reply with
2031 with a path reply even if it already has a path to this root mesh station.
2033 Send broadcast root announcement (RANN) frames.
2034 Nodes on the mesh without a path to this root mesh station with try to
2035 discover a path to us.
2041 .It Cm hwmpmaxhops Ar cnt
2042 Set the maximum number of hops allowed in an HMWP path to
2044 The default setting for
2049 The following parameters are for compatibility with other systems:
2050 .Bl -tag -width indent
2052 Another name for the
2058 .It Cm stationname Ar name
2059 Set the name of this station.
2060 The station name is not part of the IEEE 802.11
2061 protocol though some interfaces support it.
2063 seems to be meaningful to identical or virtually identical equipment.
2064 Setting the station name is identical in syntax to setting the SSID.
2071 Another way of saying
2077 Another way of saying
2083 Another way of saying:
2084 .Dq Li "wepmode on weptxkey 1 wepkey 1:key wepkey 2:- wepkey 3:- wepkey 4:-" .
2090 .Ar n : k1 , k2 , k3 , k4
2093 Another way of saying
2094 .Dq Li "wepmode on weptxkey n wepkey 1:k1 wepkey 2:k2 wepkey 3:k3 wepkey 4:k4" .
2099 Another way of saying
2106 The following parameters are specific to bridge interfaces:
2107 .Bl -tag -width indent
2108 .It Cm addm Ar interface
2109 Add the interface named by
2111 as a member of the bridge.
2112 The interface is put into promiscuous mode
2113 so that it can receive every packet sent on the network.
2114 .It Cm deletem Ar interface
2115 Remove the interface named by
2118 Promiscuous mode is disabled on the interface when
2119 it is removed from the bridge.
2120 .It Cm maxaddr Ar size
2121 Set the size of the bridge address cache to
2123 The default is 2000 entries.
2124 .It Cm timeout Ar seconds
2125 Set the timeout of address cache entries to
2130 is zero, then address cache entries will not be expired.
2131 The default is 1200 seconds.
2133 Display the addresses that have been learned by the bridge.
2134 .It Cm static Ar interface-name Ar address
2135 Add a static entry into the address cache pointing to
2136 .Ar interface-name .
2137 Static entries are never aged out of the cache or re-placed, even if the
2138 address is seen on a different interface.
2139 .It Cm deladdr Ar address
2142 from the address cache.
2144 Delete all dynamically-learned addresses from the address cache.
2146 Delete all addresses, including static addresses, from the address cache.
2147 .It Cm discover Ar interface
2148 Mark an interface as a
2151 When the bridge has no address cache entry
2152 (either dynamic or static)
2153 for the destination address of a packet,
2154 the bridge will forward the packet to all
2155 member interfaces marked as
2157 This is the default for all interfaces added to a bridge.
2158 .It Cm -discover Ar interface
2161 attribute on a member interface.
2162 For packets without the
2164 attribute, the only packets forwarded on the interface are broadcast
2165 or multicast packets and packets for which the destination address
2166 is known to be on the interface's segment.
2167 .It Cm learn Ar interface
2168 Mark an interface as a
2171 When a packet arrives on such an interface, the source
2172 address of the packet is entered into the address cache as being a
2173 destination address on the interface's segment.
2174 This is the default for all interfaces added to a bridge.
2175 .It Cm -learn Ar interface
2178 attribute on a member interface.
2179 .It Cm sticky Ar interface
2180 Mark an interface as a
2183 Dynamically learned address entries are treated at static once entered into
2185 Sticky entries are never aged out of the cache or replaced, even if the
2186 address is seen on a different interface.
2187 .It Cm -sticky Ar interface
2190 attribute on a member interface.
2191 .It Cm private Ar interface
2192 Mark an interface as a
2195 A private interface does not forward any traffic to any other port that is also
2196 a private interface.
2197 .It Cm -private Ar interface
2200 attribute on a member interface.
2201 .It Cm span Ar interface
2202 Add the interface named by
2204 as a span port on the bridge.
2205 Span ports transmit a copy of every frame received by the bridge.
2206 This is most useful for snooping a bridged network passively on
2207 another host connected to one of the span ports of the bridge.
2208 .It Cm -span Ar interface
2209 Delete the interface named by
2211 from the list of span ports of the bridge.
2212 .It Cm stp Ar interface
2213 Enable Spanning Tree protocol on
2217 driver has support for the IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree protocol (STP).
2218 Spanning Tree is used to detect and remove loops in a network topology.
2219 .It Cm -stp Ar interface
2220 Disable Spanning Tree protocol on
2222 This is the default for all interfaces added to a bridge.
2223 .It Cm edge Ar interface
2227 An edge port connects directly to end stations cannot create bridging
2228 loops in the network, this allows it to transition straight to forwarding.
2229 .It Cm -edge Ar interface
2230 Disable edge status on
2232 .It Cm autoedge Ar interface
2235 to automatically detect edge status.
2236 This is the default for all interfaces added to a bridge.
2237 .It Cm -autoedge Ar interface
2238 Disable automatic edge status on
2240 .It Cm ptp Ar interface
2243 as a point to point link.
2244 This is required for straight transitions to forwarding and
2245 should be enabled on a direct link to another RSTP capable switch.
2246 .It Cm -ptp Ar interface
2247 Disable point to point link status on
2249 This should be disabled for a half duplex link and for an interface
2250 connected to a shared network segment,
2251 like a hub or a wireless network.
2252 .It Cm autoptp Ar interface
2253 Automatically detect the point to point status on
2255 by checking the full duplex link status.
2256 This is the default for interfaces added to the bridge.
2257 .It Cm -autoptp Ar interface
2258 Disable automatic point to point link detection on
2260 .It Cm maxage Ar seconds
2261 Set the time that a Spanning Tree protocol configuration is valid.
2262 The default is 20 seconds.
2263 The minimum is 6 seconds and the maximum is 40 seconds.
2264 .It Cm fwddelay Ar seconds
2265 Set the time that must pass before an interface begins forwarding
2266 packets when Spanning Tree is enabled.
2267 The default is 15 seconds.
2268 The minimum is 4 seconds and the maximum is 30 seconds.
2269 .It Cm hellotime Ar seconds
2270 Set the time between broadcasting of Spanning Tree protocol
2271 configuration messages.
2272 The hello time may only be changed when operating in legacy stp mode.
2273 The default is 2 seconds.
2274 The minimum is 1 second and the maximum is 2 seconds.
2275 .It Cm priority Ar value
2276 Set the bridge priority for Spanning Tree.
2277 The default is 32768.
2278 The minimum is 0 and the maximum is 61440.
2279 .It Cm proto Ar value
2280 Set the Spanning Tree protocol.
2281 The default is rstp.
2282 The available options are stp and rstp.
2283 .It Cm holdcnt Ar value
2284 Set the transmit hold count for Spanning Tree.
2285 This is the number of packets transmitted before being rate limited.
2287 The minimum is 1 and the maximum is 10.
2288 .It Cm ifpriority Ar interface Ar value
2289 Set the Spanning Tree priority of
2294 The minimum is 0 and the maximum is 240.
2295 .It Cm ifpathcost Ar interface Ar value
2296 Set the Spanning Tree path cost of
2300 The default is calculated from the link speed.
2301 To change a previously selected path cost back to automatic, set the
2303 The minimum is 1 and the maximum is 200000000.
2304 .It Cm ifmaxaddr Ar interface Ar size
2305 Set the maximum number of hosts allowed from an interface, packets with unknown
2306 source addresses are dropped until an existing host cache entry expires or is
2308 Set to 0 to disable.
2311 The following parameters are specific to lagg interfaces:
2312 .Bl -tag -width indent
2313 .It Cm laggport Ar interface
2314 Add the interface named by
2316 as a port of the aggregation interface.
2317 .It Cm -laggport Ar interface
2318 Remove the interface named by
2320 from the aggregation interface.
2321 .It Cm laggproto Ar proto
2322 Set the aggregation protocol.
2323 The default is failover.
2324 The available options are failover, fec, lacp, loadbalance, roundrobin and
2326 .It Cm lagghash Ar option Ns Oo , Ns Ar option Oc
2327 Set the packet layers to hash for aggregation protocols which load balance.
2330 The options can be combined using commas.
2332 .Bl -tag -width ".Cm l2" -compact
2334 src/dst mac address and optional vlan number.
2336 src/dst address for IPv4 or IPv6.
2338 src/dst port for TCP/UDP/SCTP.
2343 The following parameters are specific to IP tunnel interfaces,
2345 .Bl -tag -width indent
2346 .It Cm tunnel Ar src_addr dest_addr
2347 Configure the physical source and destination address for IP tunnel
2353 are interpreted as the outer source/destination for the encapsulating
2356 Unconfigure the physical source and destination address for IP tunnel
2357 interfaces previously configured with
2360 Another name for the
2363 .It Cm accept_rev_ethip_ver
2364 Set a flag to accept both correct EtherIP packets and ones
2365 with reversed version field. Enabled by default.
2366 This is for backward compatibility with
2368 6.2, 6.3, 7.0, and 7.1.
2369 .It Cm -accept_rev_ethip_ver
2371 .Cm accept_rev_ethip_ver .
2372 .It Cm send_rev_ethip_ver
2373 Set a flag to send EtherIP packets with reversed version
2374 field intentionally. Disabled by default.
2375 This is for backward compatibility with
2377 6.2, 6.3, 7.0, and 7.1.
2378 .It Cm -send_rev_ethip_ver
2380 .Cm send_rev_ethip_ver .
2383 The following parameters are specific to GRE tunnel interfaces,
2385 .Bl -tag -width indent
2386 .It Cm grekey Ar key
2387 Configure the GRE key to be used for outgoing packets.
2389 .Xr gre 4 will always accept GRE packets with invalid or absent keys.
2390 This command will result in a four byte MTU reduction on the interface.
2393 The following parameters are specific to
2396 .Bl -tag -width indent
2398 Set the maximum number of updates for a single state which
2399 can be collapsed into one.
2400 This is an 8-bit number; the default value is 128.
2403 The following parameters are specific to
2406 .Bl -tag -width indent
2407 .It Cm vlan Ar vlan_tag
2408 Set the VLAN tag value to
2410 This value is a 16-bit number which is used to create an 802.1Q
2411 VLAN header for packets sent from the
2418 must both be set at the same time.
2419 .It Cm vlandev Ar iface
2420 Associate the physical interface
2425 Packets transmitted through the
2428 diverted to the specified physical interface
2430 with 802.1Q VLAN encapsulation.
2431 Packets with 802.1Q encapsulation received
2432 by the parent interface with the correct VLAN tag will be diverted to
2438 interface is assigned a
2439 copy of the parent interface's flags and the parent's ethernet address.
2444 must both be set at the same time.
2447 interface already has
2448 a physical interface associated with it, this command will fail.
2450 change the association to another physical interface, the existing
2451 association must be cleared first.
2453 Note: if the hardware tagging capability
2454 is set on the parent interface, the
2457 interface's behavior changes:
2460 interface recognizes that the
2461 parent interface supports insertion and extraction of VLAN tags on its
2462 own (usually in firmware) and that it should pass packets to and from
2463 the parent unaltered.
2464 .It Fl vlandev Op Ar iface
2467 pseudo device, disassociate the parent interface from it.
2468 This breaks the link between the
2470 interface and its parent,
2471 clears its VLAN tag, flags and its link address and shuts the interface down.
2474 argument is useless and hence deprecated.
2477 The following parameters are specific to
2480 .Bl -tag -width indent
2481 .It Cm advbase Ar seconds
2482 Specifies the base of the advertisement interval in seconds.
2483 The acceptable values are 1 to 255.
2484 The default value is 1.
2485 .\" The default value is
2486 .\" .Dv CARP_DFLTINTV .
2487 .It Cm advskew Ar interval
2488 Specifies the skew to add to the base advertisement interval to
2489 make one host advertise slower than another host.
2490 It is specified in 1/256 of seconds.
2491 The acceptable values are 1 to 254.
2492 The default value is 0.
2493 .It Cm pass Ar phrase
2494 Set the authentication key to
2497 Set the virtual host ID.
2498 This is a required setting.
2499 Acceptable values are 1 to 255.
2500 .It Cm state Ar state
2501 Force the interface into state
2503 Valid states are INIT, BACKUP, and MASTER. Note that manually setting the state
2504 to INIT is ignored by
2506 This state is set automatically when the underlying interface is down.
2511 utility displays the current configuration for a network interface
2512 when no optional parameters are supplied.
2513 If a protocol family is specified,
2515 will report only the details specific to that protocol family.
2519 flag is passed before an interface name,
2521 will display the capability list and all
2522 of the supported media for the specified interface.
2525 flag is supplied, address lifetime is displayed for IPv6 addresses,
2526 as time offset string.
2530 flag may be used instead of an interface name.
2533 to display information about all interfaces in the system.
2536 flag limits this to interfaces that are down, and
2538 limits this to interfaces that are up.
2539 When no arguments are given,
2545 flag may be used to list all available interfaces on the system, with
2546 no other additional information.
2547 Use of this flag is mutually exclusive
2548 with all other flags and commands, except for
2550 (only list interfaces that are down)
2553 (only list interfaces that are up).
2557 flag may be used to get more verbose status for an interface.
2561 flag may be used to list all of the interface cloners available on
2562 the system, with no additional information.
2563 Use of this flag is mutually exclusive with all other flags and commands.
2567 flag causes keying information for the interface, if available, to be
2569 For example, the values of 802.11 WEP keys will be printed, if accessible to
2571 This information is not printed by default, as it may be considered
2574 If the network interface driver is not present in the kernel then
2576 will attempt to load it.
2579 flag disables this behavior.
2581 Only the super-user may modify the configuration of a network interface.
2583 Assign the IPv4 address
2585 with a network mask of
2589 .Dl # ifconfig fxp0 inet 192.0.2.10 netmask 255.255.255.0
2591 Add the IPv4 address
2593 with the CIDR network prefix
2599 as a synonym for the canonical form of the option
2601 .Dl # ifconfig ed0 inet 192.0.2.45/28 add
2603 Remove the IPv4 address
2607 .Dl # ifconfig ed0 inet 192.0.2.45 -alias
2609 Enable IPv6 functionality of the interface:
2610 .Dl # ifconfig em0 inet6 -ifdisabled
2612 Add the IPv6 address
2613 .Li 2001:DB8:DBDB::123/48
2616 .Dl # ifconfig em0 inet6 2001:db8:bdbd::123 prefixlen 48 alias
2617 Note that lower case hexadecimal IPv6 addresses are acceptable.
2619 Remove the IPv6 address added in the above example,
2622 character as shorthand for the network prefix,
2625 as a synonym for the canonical form of the option
2627 .Dl # ifconfig em0 inet6 2001:db8:bdbd::123/48 delete
2629 Configure the interface
2631 to use 100baseTX, full duplex Ethernet media options:
2632 .Dl # ifconfig xl0 media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex
2634 Label the em0 interface as an uplink:
2635 .Dl # ifconfig em0 description \&"Uplink to Gigabit Switch 2\&"
2637 Create the software network interface
2639 .Dl # ifconfig gif1 create
2641 Destroy the software network interface
2643 .Dl # ifconfig gif1 destroy
2645 Display available wireless networks using
2647 .Dl # ifconfig wlan0 list scan
2649 Messages indicating the specified interface does not exist, the
2650 requested address is unknown, or the user is not privileged and
2651 tried to alter an interface's configuration.
2673 Basic IPv6 node operation requires a link-local address on each
2674 interface configured for IPv6.
2675 Normally, such an address is automatically configured by the
2676 kernel on each interface added to the system or enabled; this behavior may
2677 be disabled by setting per-interface flag
2678 .Cm -auto_linklocal .
2679 The default value of this flag is 1 and can be disabled by using the sysctl
2681 .Va net.inet6.ip6.auto_linklocal .
2683 Do not configure IPv6 addresses with no link-local address by using
2685 It can result in unexpected behaviors of the kernel.