Subject: tinkering with wi interfaces (Prism 2.5)
To: None <current-users@netbsd.org>
From: Jeff Rizzo <riz@boogers.sf.ca.us>
List: current-users
Date: 01/20/2004 14:31:07
It may be that I'm just blind, so please strike gently with the clue-by-four:

I've got a couple of boxes connected by a wireless link (wi interfaces,
NetBSD-1.6ZG on both ends), and I've been playing with my various
options to try and get the best performance I can.

I've read over the wi(4), ifconfig(8), ifmedia(4), and wiconfig(8)
man pages, and I'm trying to find how to hardwire certain
things in the new world order where most settings are done in
ifconfig rather than wiconfig.  (To give you a hint on the last
time I played around seriously with this stuff, it was about
the time the "wavelan" page on the netbsd website was originally written, and
*it* references 1.4G).


I want to get these talking well in adhoc mode (because bridging doesn't
seem to work right with a wi interface in host mode), but I'd also
like to get better control.  ISTR that with 'wiconfig', I could force
an interface to transmit at a particular speed (1,2,5.5,11), but
when I use the 'media' option of ifconfig, it seems to set the
speed, but then ignore it and negotiate down to DS2 anyway.  (yes,
I know that it's probably because of interference.  Can't I force it
anyway?  Just to see how bad it really is?)

for example, here's the ifconfig output of one side:

wi0: flags=8b63<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,PROMISC,ALLMULTI,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        nwid BlahBlah
        powersave off
        bssid 02:02:00:a7:0d:23 chan 11
        address: 00:02:6f:03:fd:dc
        media: IEEE802.11 DS11 adhoc (DS2 adhoc)
        status: active
        inet6 fe80::202:6fff:fe03:fddc%wi0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4

... but wiconfig shows I still have the TX speed set to '0' (autoselect):

TX rate (selection):                    [ 0 ]
TX rate (actual speed):                 [ 2 ]



Also, how do I control how the IBSS is set up?  For example, I can't seem
to change what channel it uses unless I set *both* sides down, change
the channel on one, then bring it up first.  (this could be a problem when
my only access to the far end is via the interface I just shut down)


Sorry for blithering on like this... just hoping someone can help.

Thanks,
+j



-- 
Jeff Rizzo                                         http://boogers.sf.ca.us/~riz