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38 .Nd configure WaveLAN/IEEE devices
45 .Ar iface Fl t Ar tx_rate
48 .Ar iface Fl n Ar network_name
51 .Ar iface Fl s Ar station_name
54 .Ar iface Fl c Cm 0 | 1
57 .Ar iface Fl q Ar SSID
60 .Ar iface Fl p Ar port_type
63 .Ar iface Fl a Ar access_point_density
66 .Ar iface Fl m Ar mac_address
69 .Ar iface Fl d Ar max_data_length
72 .Ar iface Fl e Cm 0 | 1
76 .Op Fl v Cm 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
79 .Ar iface Fl T Cm 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
82 .Ar iface Fl r Ar RTS_threshold
85 .Ar iface Fl f Ar frequency
88 .Ar iface Fl P Cm 0 | 1
91 .Ar iface Fl S Ar max_sleep_duration
99 (display signal cache)
103 command controls the operation of WaveLAN/IEEE wireless networking
107 Most of the parameters that can be changed relate to the
108 IEEE 802.11 protocol which the WaveLAN implements.
110 the station name, whether the station is operating in ad-hoc (point
111 to point) or BSS (service set) mode, and the network name of a service
112 set to join (IBSS) if BSS mode is enabled.
115 command can also be used to view the current settings of these parameters
116 and to dump out the values of the card's statistics counters.
122 should be the logical interface name associated with the WaveLAN/IEEE
126 If none is specified then
130 The options are as follows:
131 .Bl -tag -width indent
132 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Op Fl o
133 Display the current settings of the specified WaveLAN/IEEE interface.
134 This retrieves the current card settings from the driver and prints them
140 to print out the statistics counters instead of the card settings.
141 Encryption keys are only displayed if
144 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl t Ar tx_rate
145 Set the transmit rate of the specified interface.
147 for the transmit rate vary depending on whether the interface is a
148 standard WaveLAN/IEEE or a WaveLAN/IEEE Turbo adapter.
150 NICs support a maximum transmit rate of 2Mbps while the turbo NICs
151 support a maximum speed of 6Mbps.
152 The following table shows the
153 legal transmit rate settings and the corresponding transmit speeds:
154 .Bl -column ".Em TX\ rate" ".Em NIC\ speed" -offset indent
155 .Em "TX rate NIC speed"
156 .It Cm 1 Ta "Fixed Low (1Mbps)"
157 .It Cm 2 Ta "Fixed Standard (2Mbps)"
158 .It Cm 3 Ta "Auto Rate Select (High)"
159 .It Cm 4 Ta "Fixed Medium (4Mbps)"
160 .It Cm 5 Ta "Fixed High (6Mbps)"
161 .It Cm 6 Ta "Auto Rate Select (Standard)"
162 .It Cm 7 Ta "Auto Rate Select (Medium)"
165 The standard NICs support only settings
169 Turbo NICs support all the above listed speed settings.
170 The default driver setting is
173 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl n Ar network_name
174 Set the name of the service set (IBSS) that this station wishes to
178 can be any text string up to 30 characters in length.
182 which should allow the station to connect to the first
183 available access point.
184 The interface should be set for BSS mode using
187 flag in order for this to work.
189 Note: the WaveLAN manual indicates that an empty string will allow the
190 host to connect to any access point, however I have also seen a reference
191 in another driver which indicates that the
193 string works as well.
194 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl s Ar station_name
197 for the specified interface.
200 is used for diagnostic purposes.
202 .Tn "Lucent WaveMANAGER"
204 poll the names of remote hosts.
205 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl c Cm 0 | 1
206 Allow the station to create a service set (IBSS).
209 (don't create IBSS) and
211 (enable creation of IBSS).
215 Note: this option is provided for experimental purposes only: enabling
216 the creation of an IBSS on a host system doesn't appear to actually work.
217 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl q Ar SSID
218 Specify the name of an IBSS (SSID) to create on a given interface.
221 can be any text string up to 30 characters long.
223 Note: this option is provided for experimental purposes only: enabling
224 the creation of an IBSS on a host system doesn't appear to actually work.
225 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl p Ar port_type
228 for a specified interface.
236 In ad-hoc mode, the station can
237 communicate directly with any other stations within direct radio range
238 (provided that they are also operating in ad-hoc mode).
240 hosts must associate with a service set controlled by an access point,
241 which relays traffic between end stations.
242 The default setting is
245 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl a Ar access_point_density
248 for a given interface.
256 This setting influences some of the radio modem threshold settings.
257 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl m Ar mac_address
258 Set the station address for the specified interface.
261 is specified as a series of six hexadecimal values separated by colons,
263 .Dq Li 00:60:1d:12:34:56 .
264 This programs the new address into the card
265 and updates the interface as well.
266 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl d Ar max_data_length
267 Set the maximum receive and transmit frame size for a specified interface.
270 can be any number from 350 to 2304.
272 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl e Cm 0 | 1
273 Enable or disable WEP encryption.
276 (encryption disabled) or
278 (encryption enabled).
279 Encryption is off by default.
281 Both 128-bit and 64-bit WEP have been broken.
285 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl k Ar key Op Fl v Cm 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
286 Set WEP encryption keys.
287 There are four default encryption keys
288 that can be programmed.
289 A specific key can be set using
295 flag is not specified, the first key will be set.
297 can either be normal text (i.e.\&
299 or a series of hexadecimal digits (i.e.\&
300 .Dq Li 0x1234512345 ) .
302 WaveLAN Turbo Silver cards, the key is restricted to 40 bits, hence
303 the key can be either a 5 character text string or 10 hex digits.
304 For WaveLAN Turbo Gold cards, the key can also be 104 bits,
305 which means the key can be specified as either a 13 character text
306 string or 26 hex digits in addition to the formats supported by the
309 Note: Both 128-bit and 64-bit WEP have been broken.
313 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl T Cm 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
314 Specify which of the four WEP encryption keys will be used to
315 encrypt transmitted packets.
317 Note: Both 128-bit and 64-bit WEP have been broken.
321 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl r Ar RTS_threshold
322 Set the RTS/CTS threshold for a given interface.
324 number of bytes used for the RTS/CTS handshake boundary.
327 can be any value between 0 and 2347.
329 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl f Ar frequency
330 Set the radio frequency of a given interface.
333 should be specified as a channel ID as shown in the table below.
335 list of available frequencies is dependent on radio regulations specified
336 by regional authorities.
337 Recognized regulatory authorities include
338 the FCC (United States), ETSI (Europe), France and Japan.
340 in the table are specified in Mhz.
341 .Bl -column ".Em Channel\ ID" ".Em FCC" ".Em ETSI" ".Em France" ".Em Japan" -offset indent
342 .Em "Channel ID FCC ETSI France Japan"
343 .It Cm 1 Ta "2412 2412 - 2412"
344 .It Cm 2 Ta "2417 2417 - 2417"
345 .It Cm 3 Ta "2422 2422 - 2422"
346 .It Cm 4 Ta "2427 2427 - 2427"
347 .It Cm 5 Ta "2432 2432 - 2432"
348 .It Cm 6 Ta "2437 2437 - 2437"
349 .It Cm 7 Ta "2442 2442 - 2442"
350 .It Cm 8 Ta "2447 2447 - 2447"
351 .It Cm 9 Ta "2452 2452 - 2452"
352 .It Cm 10 Ta "2457 2457 2457 2457"
353 .It Cm 11 Ta "2462 2462 2462 2462"
354 .It Cm 12 Ta "- 2467 2467 2467"
355 .It Cm 13 Ta "- 2472 2472 2472"
356 .It Cm 14 Ta "- - - 2484"
359 If an illegal channel is specified, the
360 NIC will revert to its default channel.
361 For NICs sold in the United States
362 and Europe, the default channel is
364 For NICs sold in France, the default channel is
366 For NICs sold in Japan, the default channel is
368 and it is the only available channel for pre-11Mbps NICs.
369 Note that two stations must be set to the same channel in order to
371 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl P Cm 0 | 1
372 Enable or disable power management on a given interface.
374 power management uses an alternating sleep/wake protocol to help
375 conserve power on mobile stations, at the cost of some increased
377 Power management is off by default.
379 management requires the cooperation of an access point in order to
380 function; it is not functional in ad-hoc mode.
381 Also, power management
382 is only implemented in Lucent WavePOINT firmware version 2.03 or
383 later, and in WaveLAN PCMCIA adapter firmware 2.00 or later.
385 revisions will silently ignore the power management setting.
387 values for this parameter are
392 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl S Ar max_sleep_interval
393 Specify the sleep interval to use when power management is enabled.
395 .Ar max_sleep_interval
396 is specified in milliseconds.
398 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl Z
399 Clear the signal strength cache maintained internally by the
402 .It Oo Fl i Oc Ar iface Fl C
403 Display the cached signal strength information maintained by the
406 The driver retains information about signal strength and
407 noise level for packets received from different hosts.
409 strength and noise level values are displayed in units of dBms.
410 The signal quality values is produced by subtracting the noise level
411 from the signal strength (i.e. less noise and better signal yields
412 better signal quality).
419 The WEP encryption method has been broken so that third parties
420 can recover the keys in use relatively quickly at distances that are
421 surprising to most people.
422 Do not rely on WEP for anything but the most basic, remedial security.
423 IPSEC will give you a higher level of security and should be used
425 Do not trust access points or wireless machines that connect through
426 them as they can provide no assurance that the traffic is legitimate.
427 MAC addresses can easily be forged and should therefore not be used as
428 the only access control.
430 The attack on WEP is a passive attack, requiring only the ability to
431 sniff packets on the network.
432 The passive attack can be launched at a distance larger, up to many
433 miles, than one might otherwise expect given a specialized antenna
434 used in point to point applications.
435 The attacker can recover the keys from a 128-bit WEP network with only
436 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 packets.
437 While this may sound like a large number of packets, emperical
438 evidence suggests that this amount of traffic is generated in a few
439 hours on a partially loaded network.
440 Once a key has been compromised, the only remedial action is to
441 discontinue it and use a new key.
444 .Pa http://www.cs.rice.edu/~astubble/wep/wep_attack.html
445 for details of the attack.
447 If you must use WEP, you are strongly encouraged to pick keys whose
448 bytes are random and not confined to ASCII characters.
452 command first appeared in
457 command was written by
458 .An Bill Paul Aq wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu .