Subject: Re: tinkering with wi interfaces (Prism 2.5)
To: John R. Shannon <john@johnrshannon.com>
From: Jeff Rizzo <riz@boogers.sf.ca.us>
List: current-users
Date: 01/20/2004 14:50:55
Thanks for the reply, but a lot of this stuff is not only different
between netbsd and openbsd, but between older and newer versions of
netbsd.  :)

(for example, there's no "ibss-master" option in netbsd)

I think I'm really looking for some specifics on recent netbsd changes
(because it _has_ changed relatively recently... wiconfig no longer
supports some of the options it used to)

Thanks for the reply, tho...

+j

On Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 03:46:50PM -0700, John R. Shannon wrote:
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> I hope the information I provide will be of use. I use OpenBSD on Soekris 
> boxes for a wireless link supporting a NetBSD workstation. I believe the 
> stuff is pretty much the same.
> 
> I set the link up with a combination of ifconfig and wicontrol. "ifconfig -m 
> wi0" will show the media option on wi0 you can set.
> 
> I use IBSS since mine is a point-to-point link. One station must be set up as 
> an IBSS master:
> 
> ifconfig wi0 192.168.1.25 netmask 255.255.255.252 nwid WecgesLi media 
> autoselect mediaopt ibss-master
> 
> and the other:
> 
> ifconfig wi0 inet 192.168.1.26 netmask 255.255.255.252 nwid WecgesLi media 
> autoselect mediaopt ibss
> 
> wicontrol is used to set the frequency and access point density:
> 
> wicontrol -f 6 -a 1
> 
> On Tuesday 20 January 2004 03:31 pm, you wrote:
> > 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,MULTICA
> >ST> 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
> 
> - -- 
> 
> John R. Shannon
> john@johnrshannon.com
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-- 
Jeff Rizzo                                         http://boogers.sf.ca.us/~riz