ANCONTROL(8)            OpenBSD System Manager's Manual           ANCONTROL(8)

NAME
     ancontrol - configure Aironet 4500/4800 devices

SYNOPSIS
     ancontrol [interface] [-A] [-N] [-S] [-I] [-T] [-C] [-t 0|1|2|3|4] [-s
               0|1|2|3] [-a AP] [-v 1|2|3|4] [-b beacon period] [-d 0|1|2|3]
               [-v 0|1] [-j netjoin timeout] [-l station name] [-m macaddress]
               [-n SSID] [-v 1|2|3] [-o 0|1] [-p tx power] [-c channel number]
               [-f fragmentation threshold] [-r RTS threshold]

DESCRIPTION
     The ancontrol command controls the operation of Aironet wireless network-
     ing devices via the an(4) driver.  Most of the parameters that can be
     changed relate to the IEEE 802.11 protocol which the Aironet cards imple-
     ment.  This includes the station name, whether the station is operating
     in ad-hoc (point to point) or infrastructure mode, and the network name
     of a service set to join.  ancontrol can also be used to view the current
     NIC status, configuration and to dump out the values of the card's
     statistics counters.

     The iface argument given to ancontrol should be the logical interface
     name associated with the Aironet device (e.g., an0, an1, etc...).

     The options are as follows:

     -A          Display the preferred access point list.  The AP list can be
                 used by stations to specify the MAC address of access points
                 with which it wishes to associate.  If no AP list is speci-
                 fied (the default) then the station will associate with the
                 first access point that it finds which serves the SSID(s)
                 specified in the SSID list.  The AP list can be modified with
                 the -a option.

     -N          Display the SSID list.  This is a list of service set IDs
                 (i.e., network names) with which the station wishes to asso-
                 ciate.  There may be up to three SSIDs in the list: the sta-
                 tion will go through the list in ascending order and associ-
                 ate with the first matching SSID that it finds.

     -S          Display NIC status information.  This includes the current
                 operating status, current BSSID, SSID, channel, beacon peri-
                 od, and currently associated access point.  The operating
                 mode indicates the state of the NIC, MAC status and receiver
                 status.  When the ``synced'' keyword appears, it means the
                 NIC has successfully associated with an access point, associ-
                 ated with an ad-hoc ``master'' station, or become a
                 ``master'' itself.  The beacon period can be anything between
                 20 and 976 milliseconds.  The default is 100.

     -I          Display NIC capability information.  This shows the device
                 type, frequency, speed, and power level capablities and
                 firmware revision levels.

     -T          Display the NIC's internal statistics counters.

     -C          Display current NIC configuration.  This shows the current
                 operation mode, receive mode, MAC address, power save set-
                 tings, various timing settings, channel selection, diversity,
                 transmit power, and transmit speed.

     -t 0|1|2|3|4
                 Select transmit speed.  The available settings are as fol-
                 lows:


                       TX rate     NIC speed
                       0           Auto -- NIC selects optimal speed
                       1           1Mbps fixed
                       2           2Mbps fixed
                       3           5.5Mbps fixed
                       4           11Mbps fixed

                 Note that the 5.5 and 11Mbps settings are only supported on
                 the 4800 series adapters: the 4500 series adapters have a
                 maximum speed of 2Mbps.

     -s 0|1|2|3  Set power save mode.  Valid selections are as follows:


                       Selection     Power save mode
                       0             None - power save disabled
                       1             Constantly awake mode (CAM)
                       2             Power Save Polling (PSP)
                       3             Fast Power Save Polling (PSP-CAM)

                 Note that for IBSS (ad-hoc) mode, only PSP mode is supported,
                 and only if the ATIM window is non-zero.

     -a AP -v 1|2|3|4
                 Set preferred access point.  The AP is specified as a MAC ad-
                 dress consisting of 6 hexadecimal values separated by colons.
                 By default, the -a option only sets the first entry in the AP
                 list.  The -v modifier can be used to specify exactly which
                 AP list entry is to be modified.  If the -v flag is not used,
                 the first AP list entry will be changed.

     -b beacon period
                 Set the ad-hoc mode beacon period.  The becon period is spec-
                 ified in milliseconds.  The default is 100ms.

     -d 0|1|2|3 -v 0|1
                 Select the antenna diversity.  Aironet devices can be config-
                 ured with up to two antennas, and transmit and receive diver-
                 sity can be configured accordingly.  Valid selections are as
                 follows:


                       Selection     Diversity
                       0             Select factory default diversity
                       1             Antenna 1 only
                       2             Antenna 2 only
                       3             Antenna 1 and 2

                 The receive and transmit diversity can be set independently.
                 The user must specify which diversity setting is to be modi-
                 fied by using the -v option: selection 0 sets the receive di-
                 versity and 1 sets the transmit diversity.

     -j netjoin timeout
                 Set the ad-hoc network join timeout.  When a station is first
                 activated in ad-hoc mode, it will search out a 'master' sta-
                 tion with the desired SSID and associate with it.  If the
                 station is unable to locate another station with the same
                 SSID after a suitable timeout, it sets itself up as the 'mas-
                 ter' so that other stations may associate with it.  This
                 timeout defaults to 10000 milliseconds (10 seconds) but may
                 be changed with this option.  The timeout should be specified
                 in milliseconds.  -l station name Set the station name used
                 internally by the NIC.  The station name can be any text
                 string up to 16 characters in length.  The default name is
                 set by the driver to "OpenBSD".

     -m macaddress
                 Set the station address for the specified interface.  The
                 macaddress is specified as a series of six hexadecimal values
                 separated by colons, e.g.: 00:60:1d:12:34:56.  This programs
                 the new address into the card and updates the interface as
                 well.

     -n SSID [-v 1|2|3]
                 Set the desired SSID (network name).  There are three SSIDs
                 which allows the NIC to work with access points at several
                 locations without needing to be reconfigured.  The NIC checks
                 each SSID in sequence when searching for a match.  The SSID
                 to be changed can be specified with the -v modifier option.
                 If the -v flag isn't used, the first SSID in the list is set.

     -o 0|1      Set the operating mode of the Aironet interface.  Valid se-
                 lections are 0 for ad-hoc mode and 1 for infrastructure mode.
                 The default driver setting is for ad-hoc mode.

     -p tx power
                 Set the transmit power level in milliwatts.  Valid power set-
                 tings vary depending on the actual NIC and can be viewed by
                 dumping the device capabilities with the -I flag.  Typical
                 values are 1, 5, 20, 50, and 100mW.  Selecting 0 sets the
                 factory default.

     -c channel  Set the radio frequency of a given interface.  The frequency
                 should be specified as a channel ID as shown in the table be-
                 low.  The list of available frequencies is dependent on radio
                 regulations specified by regional authorities.  Recognized
                 regulatory authorities include the FCC (United States), ETSI
                 (Europe), France, and Japan.  Frequencies in the table are
                 specified in Mhz.


                       Channel ID    FCC    ETSI    France    Japan
                       1             2412   2412    -         -
                       2             2417   2417    -         -
                       3             2422   2422    -         -
                       4             2427   2427    -         -
                       5             2432   2432    -         -
                       6             2437   2437    -         -
                       7             2442   2442    -         -
                       8             2447   2447    -         -
                       9             2452   2452    -         -
                       10            2457   2457    2457      -
                       11            2462   2462    2462      -
                       12            -      2467    2467      -
                       13            -      2472    2472      -
                       14            -      -       -         2484

                 If an illegal channel is specified, the NIC will revert to
                 its default channel.  For NICs sold in the United States and
                 Europe, the default channel is 3.  For NICs sold in France,
                 the default channel is 11.  For NICs sold in Japan, the only
                 available channel is 14.  Note that two stations must be set
                 to the same channel in order to communicate.

     -f fragmentation threshold
                 Set the fragmentation threshold in bytes.  This threshold
                 controls the point at which outgoing packets will be split
                 into multiple fragments.  If a single fragment is not sent
                 successfully, only that fragment will need to be retransmit-
                 ted instead of the whole packet.  The fragmentation threshold
                 can be anything from 64 to 2312 bytes.  The default is 2312.

     -r RTS threshold
                 Set the RTS/CTS threshold for a given interface.  This con-
                 trols the number of bytes used for the RTS/CTS handhake
                 boundary.  The RTS threshold can be any value between 0 and
                 2312.  The default is 2312.

     -h          Prints a list of available options and sample usage.

SEE ALSO
     an(4), wi(4), wicontrol(4), hostname.if(8), ifconfig(8)

AUTHORS
     The ancontrol command was written by Bill Paul <wpaul@ee.columbia.edu>
     and ported to OpenBSD by Michael Shalayeff <mickey@openbsd.org> .

HISTORY
     The ancontrol command first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0 and OpenBSD 2.7.

BUGS
     The statistics counters do not seem to show the amount of transmit and
     received frames as increasing.  This is likely due to the fact that the
     an(4) driver uses unmodified packet mode instead of letting the NIC per-
     form 802.11/Ethernet encapsulation itself.

     Setting the channel does not seem to have any effect.

OpenBSD 2.8                   September 10, 1999                             4
